Tenth (and last) Class

I can't believe that 10 weeks have passed.  I do have a sense of accomplishment even though I still haven't finished!  Below are photos of the back tacked then stapled, and views of the chair with all fabric trimmed and ready for the welting.  I didn't take a photo of the welting but it is the cord that trims out cushions and chairs.  Double welt is two cords instead of one.  They are sewn together by folding the fabric over one then enveloping the second and sewing down the middle.  This is where an industrial machine with a double welt foot makes it easy.  The welting cord is hot glued in place, but there was only one glue gun and unavailable when I was ready to glue.  I thought about finishing with my own glue gun at home, but thought I would benefit from his advice while I am working on it.  The next class, which starts a week from Wednesday, is where I will finish it.  I can't wait to sit in it!  I don't think I will do a blog for the next class, but I will post one more time here to show you the chair after it is finished.  I will be documenting my projects in the next class for my own use as I will be working on boat canvas and cushion projects I have from my first three customers (clients?).  Eventually I will have a website where you will be able to see my work.  I hope to specialize in the marine work but may revert to furniture during the winter months to keep busy.  I will miss this class, the students were friendly and interesting to talk to.  I will miss them, but I look forward to meeting more in my next class!

As for my business, I just registered with the IRS and state of MA last week and the official name is KarMa Canvas & Upholstery.  I am very excited for the future and look forward to the challenges that lay ahead.  Thank you for following my blog, it is nice to see your comments and have your support.  Bye for now!

Back tacked.

Back stapled.



Back of chair with all fabric trimmed.





Front of chair with all fabric trimmed.



Ninth Class

I hope to finish tonight!  I feel I should have finished last week or earlier, but I have to remind myself that I've never done this before.  Tonight I finished tacking all the fabric on and stapled everything but the back.  See photos below!  I did not finish tonight...next week!


Stapled corner with one pleat.  I did this one and it looked just like the one he did on the other side!




Stapled back.



Stapled side



Stapled back seat.




Stapled front




Tacked back.  We were checking that the pattern lines up from the set up the back.  Seems it was twisted; noone will notice?



Eighth Class

Welcome to #8.  I marked the chair seat and back centers and lined up the center of the fabric with the marks and tacked the edges.  Can you believe it?  It took just as long to tack and staple the fabric as it did the muslin.  Ha.  I keep justifying it because it's my first chair.  Toward the end of class, Paul said, "you need to get this stapled" and he took the staple gun and did one whole side.  It took him about 10 seconds.  You have to make sure the fabric is even from side to side.  In my case, it was somewhat easy because it has flowers on it, and though the flowers aren't symmetrical, they are close enough to allow easy matching side to side.  Below is one lonely photo of my progress.  Next week, I *should* finish stapling the fabric and the welting cord!  I can't wait.

Fabric almost completely stapled along the front, and tacked on the seat back.

Seventh Class

Hello.  My progress seems so slow, you must ask yourself, "does it really take that long to staple that little bit of fabric down?"  Honestly, I don't know why it takes me so long, but I think Paul was hinting I am too slow.  He'll tell me what to do next then move over to the next student and then I have questions!  It's my first chair!  Therefore there are only 2 photos for this class; one shows the completely stapled muslin and the other shows the cut fabric.
Side note:  I had signed up for a Mass. Small Business Development Center seminar "How to Write a Great Blog" for last Tuesday morning.  I thought it would be a nice quiet morning in this seminar, but when I showed up, it was chaos.  There had to have been 100 people in the room and the check-in desk was telling people they had to have a pass in their car windows so they wouldn't be towed.  ??  I parked in one of the spots labeled "Small Business Development Center" and thought I was safe.  I didn't feel like making a trip out to the car (lazy?) as I had arrived just in time for the seminar to begin.  So I decided to leave.  I walked to the door but decided to find the SBDC office where they have materials and counseling available, all free, to MA residents.  I ran into the first counselor to arrive that morning and we chatted for a few minutes about my goals and we set up an appointment for tomorrow.  Things are starting to happen!  See you next post!  Unfortunately, though, my blog won't significantly improve since I missed the seminar...I will try again!

Stapled muslin.

Cut fabric.

Sixth Class

Time flies.  I cannot believe it has already been six weeks, but here we are.  Last week I didn't feel like I did much in class, and in this class, even more so.  I attached muslin to the seat and tacked it to the back, I didn't have time to staple it.  First it is tacked every couple of inches on all 4 sides, only tapping the tacks halfway in.  Then you staple the front starting in the middle and working one way for a couple of inches, then from the middle toward the other side, the staples have to be end-to-end to ensure the most secure attachment.  Then you staple the back, same method.  The muslin is pulled hand tight and its purpose is to smooth out the foam (particularly on the edges).  The sides are stapled starting at the front of the chair and go toward the back.  Since the chair is wider in the front, this is particularly important as you are tightening the muslin as you go and eliminating wrinkles.  I did this wrong; I stapled in the middle and continued to the front then the back as I had done on the front and back faces of the chair.  He explained that the fabric's threads aren't parallel to the staple line due to the fact that the seat isn't square.  Thus if you staple toward the back of the chair where the seat is narrower, and you are trying to tighten and smooth out the muslin toward the front, you're stapling above the thread line of what you already stapled and it doesn't help.  If you start at the front, you're always stapling on or below the thread line and can eliminate the wrinkles.  It is hard to explain but if you see it up close, it makes sense.  The good thing was that I didn't have to pull out the staples.  The front of the muslin at the corners has to have a pleat in order to finish it, there is no way around it.  You won't feel it in the muslin, but the same thing happens with the finish fabric but every chair is similar (I will be inspecting other chairs to verify this!).  Pictures below, and hopefully next week you'll see some fabric!



Muslin stapled to 2" from the corners, still tacked at the corners.





Muslin stapled at the sides.




Muslin tacked to the back.



Fifth Class

Hi!  Sorry I haven't posted like I said I would...I will work on that.  In this class, it doesn't seem like I did much at all!  I added cotton to the back of the chair over the burlap then stapled the foam over it.  I worked on scuffing up the frame and filling gouges with wood putty so I could stain and polyurethane it before fabric is attached.  I brought the chair home to do the staining had poly as I am running out of classes.  Pics below!

Cotton and foam cut for the back.

Final foam.

Fourth Class

In the fourth class I made burlap flaps for all 4 edges of the seat in which cotton was rolled to make an edge at the same height as the wood blocks at the back corners.  Then cotton is placed in the wedge area inside the rolls, and more pieces of cotton are placed in holes in the surface of the seat until it feels even all over.  Then, 2 full layers of cotton are placed over the top and trimmed even with the seat edges.  Finally, a layer of 1" foam is placed on top and stapled down along the edge as shown in the last picture.  It is looking like a chair again!

Rolls with cotton inside.



Close-up of roll with cotton (before trimming).



Cotton fill.




Cotton fill complete.



Final foam layer (forgot the picture of full cotton layers).

Third Class

Hi!  Sorry for the late posting.  This class was all about springs.  It turns out the spring heights are generally the same, it is the diameter of the wire that varies, creating more or less compression.  The following photos show the stages of string tying; it is quite complicated.  After initial tying is complete, I stuffed some cotton below the last round of each spring so that when you sit on the seat, the springs don't hit the webbing which sounds like a drum each time.  Then, they are covered with burlap.


Initial ties and cotton.



Tying is complete.



Ties viewed from above.



Burlap covering springs.

Second Class

Hello!  Now the fun part - attaching new materials to the chair.  Tonight's class was all about webbing and springs, but the springs he gave me to use were for couches and he decided they were too tall so we removed them and he is bringing me springs for a chair that are shorter.  You still have to tie them down and tighten them to compress the springs, but we couldn't compress the tall springs enough.

The webbing is attached in one direction, and depending on the item, spaced apart to fit full widths of webbing.  You can't cut them lengthwise, the strength is lost as the edges are sewn to tie in the crosswise stitching in the webbing material.  Then the webbing is woven between in the other direction, see pictures below.  When I had downtime, I roughed up the wood with steel wool to prepare for finishing over the course of the next few weeks.  The idea is to finish the wood before final fabric is applied.  Check back next week!


Bottom webbing.



Back webbing.



The expert teacher - Paul Sr.



Completed webbing.



Back burlap - to contain the cotton.



These springs would be good for an ejection seat!

First Class

What a neat school this is!  Old, uneven wooden floors and old bench stations that have supported countless projects.  They teach, amongst many other subjects, woodworking classes from children to adults and their unfinished projects are all around the room on shelves and tucked into corners.

The first step is to strip the chair of its old fabric, underlayers and staples and tacks.  He said the decorative tacks on my chair, which were brass, were very old and appeared original.  The flat tacks beneath the fabric were sometimes difficult to remove and there had to be a hundred tacks altogether.  I only bled a couple of times but I no longer have any fingernails.

Once everything is removed, we checked to see what joints were loose and needed to be glued.  This was not a neat process - it is easy to ding the wood trying to pry the joints apart.  I commented that I was making a mess with the glue but he said that I wasn't messy enough.  In the end there was glue dripping form every joint and I broke one corner (well, split it good) while tightening the clamps.  Teacher to the rescue (he's kind of a bull in a china closet, but he is, as one former student commented online, a "hilarious and ridiculously talented" teacher.  He poured glue in the crevices created by the damage and put a few c-clamps on it and that was it.  Below are pictures at different stages during the class.  Can't wait for the next one!



Tacks, tacks, tacks!



 

Back fabric used as muslin.



Cotton on the back.



    

  

Very hard back "cushion."



Old muslin and back webbing.



The former seat, will be replaced with webbing (ahhh...better on tush).







 



 



The damage.  I'm not that strong!

 

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As I left her.  Is furniture female like cars and boats?



First Project

Hello and Happy New Year!  Welcome to my blog on upholstering.  I am new at blogging, and at upholstering.  Tonight is my first class at The Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts in Jamaica Plain, MA.  I have been looking forward to this and finally it is here.  I hope you follow and enjoy my blog.  I will improve it as time goes on, such that you will be able to make comments (if it isn't set up that way already).  Below are photos of my first project (do you think it needs TLC?).  Enjoy!