Upholstering Dining Chairs Part 4 – When Shit Hits the Fan

I did not do my best work this weekend. I bit the bullet and decided that the foam for the seats really did need to be trimmed down to 1 ½”. Using the electric knife, I hacked away at the foam until....the knife died. I think the motor just gave out from running too long or overheating. Only 5 were done at this point. Oh well.

 From there I decided to work on upholstering the backs on a few more chairs. So I did the layer of foam, the layer of batting and started stapling the fabric. With the bottom in place, I pulled the fabric tight and got about half way done with stapling the top....when I realized that I had not allowed for enough fabric to pull around on the right side and cover the top corner of the frame. So I took out the staples which of course, with this fabric, created a ton of little tears. When I started to re-stretch the fabric, all the little tears turned into one big rip. Needless to say, that piece of fabric is ruined and the worst part is now I do not have enough fabric to complete all the chairs. 

After quite a bit of swearing, I found the fabric available online and ordered another 10 yards. Of course it was not available to ship to Canada so it is heading to the in-laws in Florida. Now I just have to cross my fingers and hope it arrives before they leave to come home. The only good thing is with the extra fabric I can have the back be one solid piece instead of having seams. The bad; having to wait for the fabric, the additional $75 and the frustration with myself.

I put down the staple gun for the rest of the weekend and focused again on the seat cushions. For those sewn; 5 are now trimmed with pinking shear, turned right way out and stuffed with the foam. Another needs to have a seam fixed and the remaining 2 still need to be sewn. 

And now we know: can’t say it enough, buy more fabric than needed. Next time I upholster something, I am going to double the yardage.