Stripping and Recovering...

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Here are a few more "projects in the works" shots... the first three photos are from earlier in the week... I tea dyed one of the three free books that I got...  I think it'll need a few more dippings and perhaps some paint...

Steeping a tea bag in a plate of water...

Then I dipped all of the edges... then the front and back... then the edges again...

Yesterday while recovering the second wingback I began the process of stripping the chair I picked up for $5... yes $5... last weekend...

Here it is with the the stripper painted onto it...

I let it sit... then out came the scraper... scrape... scrape... scrape...  Then I broke out the sander...  I need to pick up a sander that has the small triangle sanding head on it so I can get in corners and tight spots...  

I can't wait to finish sanding this beauty!.. and I can't wait to get it all painted up and stained!..

And as you can see I've gotten the second chair all refoamed and rebatted... Going to work on the fabric now after the next post about last night...  Cleo of course was helping mostly sleeping on the pile of batting on the floor...

Cushion One... Lacey Zero...

So perhaps the title is a little over dramatic... it looks good in the picture above... I thought that the cushion cover was a top and bottom piece with a side piece all the way around with two pieces of piping around it... well when I took the cushion cover apart the piping was BUILT IN to the side piece that goes all around the cushion... so I tried it that way... I'm about half way around one piece and it is TEDIOUS to say the least... but now that I'm thinking about it... its not really that bad... I'll give it a round two this evening or tomorrow evening... I'm just going to have to sew around it a second time to get in really close to the piping so that the cushion is nice and tidy...  Oh... I need to pick up some zippers before I can make two bolster pillows for the Swedish couch... and I was just at fabricland... oh well... another trip is in order!

Here is a cute shot of one of my furbabies... Cleo made a nest in the batting that I had downstairs while I was working on the chairs last weekend... she had a couple layers below her and a layer above... It was so cute!

Back to the Wingbacks...

I got back to the chairs yesterday evening... I can't wait for this coming long weekend... I don't care how nice it is outside... I'm staying in until these puppies are done, and the front room is back together... then all that'll be left in there is to make a few pillows, some things for the walls and to pick up a fern, to put into the little cage thing that I picked up...  All of the pieces are cut out for the chairs... the only sewing left are three of the wing pieces... I cut them all out yesterday and assembled one... I'm not liking the piping on that one piece so I might try to sew it over once more closer to the piping, or I'll take it apart and resew the piece together... I knew the wings would be the trickiest... but someone did it originally for the chair so I should be able to redo it!

I've just tacked the fabric onto the chair here with a couple staples so that I wouldn't have to hold the pieces on while trying to take a couple pictures... The foam is going to be replaced... along with that black piece of light fabric that is covering the back springs... it'll be that nice cream that you see on the seat part where the seat cushion is going to go... I know it'll be inside but it'll be nice and consistent all the way through... I plan on putting a layer of batting over all of the foam as well to make the chairs a little more plush and full looking...

I think they're going to be pretty sharp once they're complete!  

Sigh... but a good one this time...

This baby runs smooth... its just a basic brother machine but it came with a pile of bonus feet... walking foot, free motion foot... ZIPPER FOOT... and like 5 others... and it has this nice table attachment...  I was so excited to be working on my chairs again that I ended up getting ahead of myself and sewing a couple pieces together only to have to rip them apart because they weren't exactly right... 

Here is an iphone snap of the front, and arm piece... I'm just holding them on to get an idea of how the chair is going to look... I still have to replace the foam that is underneath and then fatten it up with some batting... but I'm waiting until I have all the fabric pieces ready to go before replacing the foam...

I'm so jazzed that this is a lot easier than I thought it was going to be and the piped pieces are turning out so well!  Keep in mind in the above photos that the pieces are just temporarily in place... thats why they're loose looking...  I have to start thinking of pillows now that will go with both the couch and chairs... Cream maybe?  I don't want to overdo it on the cream though... but black cushions on the purply grey couch just won't look right I think... what do you think?  I know I want to make some roll pillows and they'll be sharp and have piping... I'm just unsure what fabric to bring in to tie them together without being too matchy matchy... so let me know what you think!

One last piping shot... hahaha, its funny before I had to rip and re-sew this piped piece the guy there with his arm out towards the piping looked like he was holding up a head because the pattern on the piping  had a guy's head right on the outside, and it lined up exactly with the end of the guy's arm...  more sewing when I get home this evening, and cutting out the last pieces of the chairs...

Cut knuckles and a half stripped chair....

I strongly suggest some nice leather gloves while stripping furniture of its fabric... ripped my knuckle over a staple... but oh no, once wasn't enough... shortly after I smashed said knuckle into the wooden frame of the chair... another note... if the chair is musty and old and stinky either wear a respirator or tear it down outside... I'm pretty sure my last job wrecked my lungs... the dust from inside of this chair has me wheezing like an 80 year old who's smoked for the past 70 years...

Here is the chair as it is right now... really there are just not enough hours in the day... and even my four day weekend wasn't enough time to work on everything that I wanted to work on!  You can't really see all the work done on the chair because I have all the fabric and foam that I removed piled up there on the seat... There is going to be a bit of tricky sewing on just a couple spots for the chair... everything else is stapled or uses this long staple strips...  I'm so stoked to get it done... I'm going to try to remove the rest of the fabric tonight... and possibly replace the foam... then tomorrow start cutting the fabric and work on some of the sewing... I have to make a pile of piping too... I'ma go google making piping now...

Kickin it old school...

Again with the iPhone camera... I PROMISE TO BRING MY DSLR WITH ME WHEREVER I GO... I wasn't expecting to go to a 50's diner for some burgers, fries and home made soda when Dani (a friend/neighbor) went down south to Aladdin's Cave antique place in Black Diamond - I know I couldn't make up names this good!  We didn't find much at Aladdin's Cave, but I did come across an ornate oval frame... when I bellied up to buy the frame the lady told me to just have it for free!  The mirror had broken and was taken out... So that'll get a nice coat of cream paint this weekend, and some linen covered cork board - to be added to the sewing room wall... and on the same train of thought I'm planning on recovering two wingback chairs to go with the Swedish couch in the front room... I'm just searching online now for some nice gray patterned toile... and I'm thinking gray piping... and gray roll pillows... perhaps with the toile as the piping on the pillows... Oooo so excited!  I even found an awesome tutorial online for reupholstering wing back chairs specifically... if you're interested in seeing it just drop me a note and I'll post the link...

The photo up above is from the Diner in Black Diamond... the soda I had is called Dragon's Blood... strawberry coconut flavor!  and the little jukebox... sent our selections to the big juke box... we played a pile of super oldies... starting with a song from Grease... I just about jumped up out of the pink and black booth and started dancing in the shop!  It was so sweet!

My search for gray toile continues... I found two wingbacks on Kijiji for a great deal - they're a rather ugg green velvet at the moment - not the neat lime green from the 70's but the forrest green from the late 80's...  with dark wooden legs, that I plan on painting cream...  Ooo I wish it was the weekend now... there are so many projects that I want to work on... blog design included!

Ta for now!