Little chairs – part 5

Much has happened with the chairs, which is a little surprising considering all that’s been happening here. This is the penultimate post on the chairs – could have been the last one if I hadn’t been drinking with a lobster in Frankfurt last weekend. If this is your first visit to the blog, yes, it is always this surreal. It’s also true.

It’s upholstery time!

I used a jute bag for the upholstery. Not the best choice as it turned out. It looks good but the edges fray at a speed that would shame Usain Bolt. So it’s a case of cut oversize, then cut to size and stick down quick.

The best course of action seemed to be to glue the fabric in place first and fit pins later. Well, it did work. There was only one mishap which we’ll get to in due course. First of all I wrapped the fabric around the head of the chairs to make a thick headrest, glued and clamped and let it set…

I went through the next stages with the first chair without photographing in case I had to take it all apart and do it again. These photos are the second chair.

Here, the fabric is pushed into place and tacked in the rear corners of the seat with black thread.

In retrospect it would have been easier to do the back and seat separately but ‘retrospect’ is a word I use a lot so this is normal. Anyway. When I did the first chair I didn’t have these…

From Poundland. Ideal little model clamps at one shilling each. The big clamps don’t fit between the arm of the chair and the seat so I had to hold the fabric while it set. Unfortunately the glue came through the fabric and stuck my fingers to the chair. It took around half an hour to get it off undamaged. I’d have taken a photo but I had glue on the other hand too and considered that having a camera stuck to that hand would not improve the situation.

Before the glue though, the sewing. I chose jute string to stitch the seat and back to the base of the chair. In retrospect… well you get the idea. Anyway, I set to it and stitched away.

Those curved needles are nasty. You’re never sure where it’s going to come out. Fortunately they only make tiny holes which soon heal.

With the back/seat join secured, the front can be trimmed, glued, rolled around and clamped while the glue set.

Then the sides. This is where the new small clamps saved me from coming a cropper like last time.

And then the sides of the back of the chair.

These are so small you can really only do one part at a time and have to have the patience to wait for the glue to set. So I set up one before work and another after work because then I am not tempted to meddle with them.

The jute stitching didn’t turn out so great but there’ll be a rat’s woolly arse on it so nobody will ever notice.

The last part for this post was to trim, glue and fold in those top corners. The ragged bits where the fabric meets the legs etc are trimmed off and tidied up with ship-rigging thread. Here’s the first chair just before that happened to it. Second chair is at this stage now..

That’s it for this time. Next, the seat pads and final trim. Nearly there!