Progress

I've started putting the chair that I'm reupholstering back together. I am trying to use what I have for it, and not buy anything.

It is remarkable how much materials and labor go into a piece of upholstered furniture.

For a layer of seat padding, I decided to take strips of fabric and crochet them, just like a rug. I used several old skirts that I had retired; there's a lot of fabric of them, but it is too worn to use for just anything. Crocheted, they become dense and a bit lumpy, so there will need to be another layer of padding above that. I am going to use the pillow that my grandma made for the chair seat.

Underneath the crocheted layer, there is supposed to be a layer of burlap. I have a piece that's large enough-- which I have sometimes used as a Christmas tree skirt--and it is older stuff, about twice as substantial as the burlap being sold in the craft stores now, so it will work well.

I have plenty of the outer fabric, given to me at Christmas, and I have fabric paint for making some sort of a pattern on it. I am thinking of doing block printing with carved potatoes, and I have a couple of potatoes set aside for that, but they are getting shriveled and old. I may have to switch to some other vegetable.

I salvaged some of the tacks when I stripped the old upholstery off the chair, and I also have some tacks left over from an earlier project. I am going to use a staple gun for some parts, because one of the pieces of the frame is starting to split. It is still strong and doesn't need repair yet, but I don't want to be driving tacks into it.

I still need a couple of things:  some kind of stiffener for the back of the chair, originally this was a large piece of paperboard; and some paperboard tacking strips. For the padding on the back, I will either crochet up some more of my scrap fabric, or use foam from a couple of spare cushions.