Reupholstering Things - Ugly Blue Chair

My staple-pulling tools


I work part-time with my mother at her upholstery shop. She's been in business since 1988, when I was six. I basically grew up in her shop. I've always pulled staples, ripped stitches, cut patterns, and helped reassemble things like couches, chairs, automobile seats, headliners, and other fabric-related things. Everything but run her industrial sewing machine. That thing would probably sew all my fingers together!


So like I said, I work with my mom. She also employs one of her sisters, my Aunt Jeannie. I focus more on taking things apart and getting the patterns marked. Aunt Jeannie cuts the patterns and sews the fabric pieces together. My mother attaches the fabric back to its piece and does all the finishing work. We have a good little system going.


Here is kind of the process for reupholstering an ugly blue chair. It was dirty and it smelled. This is by no means a tutorial; Just an idea of what we do and how we do it.



Here is the chair after I took the legs off, the underpinning off (we call it "underwear"), and the tacks off the front of the arms.



This chair had many buttons. Too many, in my opinion.



A few staples



Underpinning/underwear gone.



I mark each piece with bold letters so my mom knows where each pieces goes, including if it is a left or a right and if it goes up or goes down.



Now I've taken the back off and began removing the arm and wing covers.



I wear thick, black, latex work gloves for this very reason. That's the crust in the crack between the bottom of the chair and the arm. Please vacuum your crack today.



Now I've gotten an arm and a wing off, taking off the other arm.



These are the staples I took out on the first day of working on this chair.


So the next day I finished taking the cover off the chair.



My mom always tells me to, "Make it naked." when it's time for me to remove the upholstery completely on something. This chair is almost "naked."



The crust between the bottom and the other arm. Gross.



Staples from my second and last day of taking this chair apart.


Now it's Aunt Jeannie's turn!



Here is the upholstery fabric that the chair will be covered with. It should be easy to work with and easy to keep clean for the customer.



Aunt Jeannie sewing welt.


Welt is the ribbing that's probably around the edges of your cushions and the edges of your couches and chairs. It's made of narrow strips of fabric, folded in half around a plastic, or paper "rope" and sewn. Cutting welt is tedious. I hate cutting welt.



Pattern pieces that have been cut out and the edges sewn using a surging machine to prevent fraying.



This piece wasn't "left out" of anything. It's the outside of the left arm. Mom and Aunt Jeannie sometimes have to question my instructions. It helps to photograph complicated or questionable pieces.



Here is the chair partially put together. Mom does fast work.



Decorative tacks on the fronts of the arms.





After one and a half days of disassembly, a day for cutting and sewing, and a day of reassembly, the chair is back together! What do you think?



The buttons on the back of the chair.



This customer brought in matching tassels for the bottom of this chair.





So that's kind of the transformation of a semi-ugly chair into a semi-not-so-ugly chair. I would have shown more of the putting it back together, but I don't work every day and by the time I came in on that day Mom already had most of it done.
Thanks for looking! Stay tuned for more random, but interesting things. Have a good one!



Seated: Aunt Jeannie, Standing: My mother (Hellen) and another of my aunts, Wanda