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A friend recently bought a lovely chair and foot stool. Nothing fancy, just a swivel chair and matching stool.
She's been quoted circa £500, to have it changed to a plain fabric, of her choice
As a complete beginner,could I buy a used machine, take the chair apart, unpick the current cover, use it as a pattern and make a new cover from it?
For less than 500?
I see it as a wee project!
Or am I "aff ma nut" ?
Cheers,
Paul
Like any skilled craft, upholstery can be attempted by most, but to get a really good job and understand what you're dealing with takes experience and skill.
Swivel chair? You mean fully upholstered all over?
Not easy.
Foot stool, easier, but does it have traditional construction or a modern foam?
There's a lot to it potentially.
Could you do it for under £500? Depends. How much are you paying yourself?
£500 sounds pretty reasonable to me for a chair and stool.
@kayak23 - appreciate your input pal. Just what I was looking for! I have lots of drive but 0 ability!
I'll pass on your thoughts!
Thanks again.
Yeah it really depends.
You could remove the top cover and use it as a template.
If the cushioning and support is good and it literally just needs a new cover then it's a lot easier.
I've done drop in seats in a traditional way, modern foam stools and a whole armchair in traditional upholstery.
It's something that takes attention to detail if you want it to look crisp and good.
Re-covering a simple foot stool can be fairly simple though.
Asa a beginner to sewing? Its likely to be really complex shapes so very much not easy. My other half who is a good enough seamstress to have made womens suits took a long time to do some upholstery and it was not as good as a pro job
You could redo it for way less than £500 but then realise it still looked shite.
If you think you will be recovering stools for a while than use this as a practise and it will probably cost about £250 in materials to get right havng re-done it a few times.
Fun project but not a sound business proposition. I would say Go For It
Cheers guys, appreciate the input. No Intention of money changing hands, ever! Just looking at it as a project!
As a project, again I would say go for it. You will learn, they will get something and everyone can always go back to the start.
Do it!
I am a professional soft furnisher, but the only upholstery I've attempted is a foot stool or two.
It's a whole different type of skill. Also if you are having a go, then you need a decent machine that will sew upholstery weight fabrics. The easiest thing is to make a loose cover for it, or practise first on something cheap (old chair) with lining fabric.
As an upholsterer, I'd say yes, it is possible to make a fairly decent job as a beginner, but it's not as simple as it looks, also, similar to DIY, some people just have the knack for practical things, some don't.
Depending on the chair, it may just be easier to make a loose cover for it, or the separate parts, rather than removing the old cover. Things tend to get messy & fall apart quickly when the old covers are removed.
A household machine will be fine for light weight material, it's when you need to turn or stitch several layers together that it gets tricky, needles and/or thread tend to break.
My advice would be to look at a dress-making pattern & use the same method, ie lay your fabric on the panel you want to copy, put pins around the finished line of the panel where you want to stitch, remove from chair & add an allowance for sewing, plus a little. Make it too snug & you will create more problems than leaving ever so slightly generous.
notch or mark with a pencil where you want the pieces to join up & go for it.
Good luck!