Hallelujah!

 

 

Cue the hallelujah chorus, my friends.  The sofa is done!

   

It's hard to photograph a looooonnnnggg sofa.... I swear it looks more spectacular in real life.  Or maybe that's just because I can lay on these fluffy down cushions and my feet don't touch the end.  Eight exquisite feet, people.  The stuff dreams are made of.  This is the place to take a nap.

 

  

Originally,  J and I had picked out a large print.  But we ended up going with this wavy dotted blue-green fabric.  A much smaller print.   And I'm glad.  Not too many pattern matching issues came up.  And the lines followed a geometric pattern, which made cutting easy.  I decided on the natural canvas cording despite my misgivings about the previous white upholstery job.   Fingers crossed that it will stay clean.

 

And here's the back.  Oh, the beautiful back!  If we did anything perfectly, it was this.  Stretched smoothly, stapled seamlessly, double welted impeccably...  and no one will ever see it.  I told J that we need to turn it around and have it face the window for a while.  Then the back would be the first thing you see when you walk in the room.

And here's some hot close-up double and single welt action for all you amateur upholsterers out there.

  

Check out that nifty little pocket where the zipper pull stays hidden.

 

By far, the most time consuming part of this project was sewing the box cushions.  Design*sponge just recently posted a fabulous boxed cushion tutorial if you are interested.  I reckon I spent about two hours per cushion.  That included making the cording, which was incredibly time consuming as well.  I made miles of it.  Miles.  

 

The actual covering of the couch was pretty quick.   I'm guesstimating it took us about eight hours all together.  Including double welt.   J spent quite a few hours patching and repairing the wood frame.  He thinks about six hours.  Granted all of this was spread out over, um..... ten months?

 

Ok, really we did most of it the last month.

Here's the timeline:

May- Bought sofa from Salvation Army for $27.  Husband and I decide to upholster it ourselves.

Early June- Strip down sofa to burlap, springs and wood.  Learn so much in the process.  Take muchos photos.

June through December- In paralytic shock over how much upholstery fabric costs.   The $27 couch becomes much more costly.  Sofa sits in smelly heap in living room for 7 months.

New's Years Eve- Spend Christmas money on fabric.

January- Upholster sofa through trial and error.  Also, have many arguments over whose modus operandi is better.  I fly by the seat of my pants.  J, well, is a researcher.  I think we needed a little of both.

 

Here's my unsolicited advice to anyone who is interested in trying something like this--

You can do it.

Seriously, you can.  There are only two things you need to survive the process:

Perseverance and lots of Dacron. (That's that fluffy business up there in case you are wondering.)

Yes, Dacron is your friend.  It smoothed out all the lumps and bumps and made the fabric stretching process so much easier.  I was super pleased with the finish.  We actually used more Dacron than the previous upholsterers (they actually used a batting) and I think our upholstery job is nicer.  We'll see how it all holds up.

Also, I think it helps to have two people to pull and staple.  Especially on a piece this large.

 

I swore I wasn't going to post any more kitty photos.   When I scrolled back through all my posts on the sofa, she's in every one.  Every. Single. One.   I'm sure there are people reading and rolling their eyes.  

Another cat photo? Sheesh.  Crazy cat folks...    

But she's just so darn cute.  And the couch is directly in front of the bird watching window.

 

Your perch is ready, my dear.

(Note to my mother:  It's not really her perch.  I swear I'm trying to keep her off of it.)

*****

Would you like to know more about this project?

Here are links to all my posts.

I highly recommend the stop motion video ;)

Introduction

Stripped Down

First Fabric Choice

A Letter to my Sofa

Repairing the Wood Frame

Jack White was an Upholsterer

Sofa Stop Motion

Cheers!

Your Furniture's Not Dead

   I said, "How come we don't write notes to each other? Upholsterers. We're the only ones who see the insides of this furniture. We should have so many inside jokes and things we could write." You know, "This guy was a jerk. He wouldn't pay for this." 

-Jack White                                         

                                                                     

 

J read an article a while back about Jack White and his first band, The Upholsterers.  He and his band mate were actually upholsterers.    I found a similar interview on the NPR blog and another from The Believer.  They are entertaining if you are interested.  You can read about how he started writing poetry on furniture he upholstered and then later hid records inside.  Can you imagine finding a record inside your furniture? Crazy.

Anyway, J and I are both fans.  Leave it to me to take a really cool and artistic suggestion from Jack White and turn it in to something totally geeky (see my note above).   We decided not to leave our names in case whoever finds it comes after us for the amount of staples we used.  Seriously.  This sofa is stapled everywhere.  I scribbled a quick note elementary school style and tucked it inside before we closed up the back.  I wish we had found a little note like this when we stripped it down.  I would have loved to know a little bit about the people who owned the sofa before us.  Think anyone will find it down the road?

Dear Sofa...

 

Dear Sofa,

Oh, hello there!  Long time, no see, my friend.

Even though I walk by you everyday on the way out the door.

I haven't forgot about you.   No really,  I haven't.  You've been shoved in the corner and seemingly forgotten.  But I'm here to tell you it isn't so.  In fact, I went to the fabric store the other day to check on your would-be new, snazzy attire aaaannndd...

Bad news.  It's gone.

Gone.  No more.  Defunct.  Won't be ordered without a forty yard purchase (crazy!).

I've searched high and low online and alas, it's no where to be found.

There's one more fabric store to check.  But at the same time, it may be fun just to pick out something new.  You know?

We won't be going to the fabric store again until we have the money to purchase fabric.

Pick out and purchase in the same day.  That's the way to do it.

You're going to be an expensive one, by the way.

So don't fret.  I haven't forgotten about you.  

We'll fix you up one day soon.

 

Even though this little monster doesn't seem to mind you in your current musty, shabby shape.

(She has deemed it her daytime nap spot.  And by 'daytime nap'  I mean sleeping all day long)

Put your mind (stuffing?) at ease, sofa.  We'll make Milton and Geraldine proud. 

Cheers,

Liza Jane

(and J, too, because he has to help)

Amateur Upholstery Hour: Small Progress

 

Wondering about this old sofa?  Yeah.  Progress is stalled. 

We've had some unexpected expenses this summer.  My car finally went to the great big Volvo junkyard in the sky.  "Fabric buying budget" is now replaced by "car payment."  No fun.  Anyway, we did pick out the fabric we are going to use, but it is much more expensive than I originally imagined we'd spend.  So we are currently saving up for the big purchase.  I bought one yard to test it out.   It's beautiful.  All those medallions are woven (embroidered?) and the fabric is very heavy duty.  It's super nice upholstery fabric.  It's much more contemporary than I envisioned at the start, but I think we'll be happy with it for a long time.  Those star bursts are reminiscent of mid-century design, don't you think?

In the meantime, I have taken apart the the cushions and made paper patterns from the pieces.  I am going to sew up some inner cushion covers from muslin.  The feather cushions don't have an inner cover and all the raw edges are on the outside and fraying.  I figure an inner cover will help with longevity.  And it will give me an exact number for yardage to buy.  Up until this point we've been estimating.

Before

Now for a pattern matching question.  How concerned should I be about matching the medallions around the edges of the cushions?  I'm going to use a solid cream color fabric for the cording.  I'm concerned that seeing little bits of medallions on the cording will look strange.  I know that I can match up the front edges of the cushions to the top no problem, but matching up the sides and bottom will be difficult.  Is it a big deal to make sure everything matches up?  Is is even possible to match all sides of a box cushion?  Does it matter if the medallions are matched up if there is a solid piece of cording breaking up the pattern anyway?   Just curious what you think.

 

So I know the initial date of completion was the end of this summer.  I think now I'm going to claim it will be done by Christmas ;)

I think we can handle that.  

Amateur Upholstery Hour: Stripped Down

 

Some headway is being made on the sofa.  J and I have removed not one, but two layers of old upholstery and batting.  Apparently the white brocade was a re-upholstery job done right over the top of the old upholstery.  Strange, no?  It's really not that difficult to remove it.  Now putting it back on may be another story...

Here's a before shot.

 

This little monster on the end of the sofa will show up in many of these pictures.  She literally cannot stand it when something new is going on in the house and has to be involved.  It's hilarious and also really annoying.  You know what they say about curiosity and cats.

 

I'm not too concerned about sewing the cushions other than dealing with pattern matching issues.  They're just simple box cushions.  It's the frame of the couch that I'm most worried about.  We spent a lot of time measuring and documenting how it was put together as we took it apart.   And took lots of photos as we took everything off.

 

Double welt at the bottom.  Do I piece the bottom panel like this?  Or just use one length of fabric?  I guess piecing would save some yardage.  Upholstery fabric is expensive.

 

She's an expert at being cute.  Especially when also being bad.

 

We walked away for a moment and returned only to find her inside of the sofa when we took off the back panel.

 

Check out the old upholstery.  An orange and yellow jacquard of some sort.   My best guess for year is 1962.

The frame seems to be solid pine.  Solid and heavy.  J is going to repair the wood and glaze it to match the original dark brown stain.  We haven't bought the fabric yet, but we are 99% percent sure we've picked it out-- at twenty-two dollars a yard.   Suddenly, the twenty-seven dollar sofa becomes much more costly.  

But it's worth it.

 

  As we were peeling back the layers, a story was forming in my head about who used to own this sofa.  This was Milton and Geraldine's sofa.  They bought it brand new in 1962.  It was super chic and fancy then.  Fit right in to their mid-century modern home.  I can see the brass star burst clock hanging on the wall covered in lattice wallpaper.  Years later, Milton and Geraldine decided to reupholster their sofa in a nice white brocade when they retired to Florida.  Hehe...

 

There's something that I find immensely gratifying about this project.

This piece of furniture was not made to be disposable after a few years of use, like some things are nowadays.  It was made to last.  It was made to be re-upholstered from time to time.  There's something satisfying about that. 

 

Milton and Geraldine, we're glad to have your sofa.

*******************************************************************

There was no tag anywhere in the sofa when we took it apart.  I was hoping there would be, just so I would know a little more about.  These numbers and letters are written across the top of the back.  Any clue what they mean? Of course 96" is the length.  This could have been written whenever it was reupholstered, too.   I'm pretty sure that all the springs in the seat back were replaced at that point.  They look newer than the seat springs and the burlap from the back of the seat back was missing (I can tell it was there at some point because of the staples).

 

Amateur Upholstery Hour: Introduction

 

Can someone please stop me from buying fabric?

Please.  My husband begs you.

  I have been completely incapable of finishing anything this past week and a half, even though I have several projects in progress.  This weekend I set out to sew early in the day Saturday and Sunday and was thwarted each time. 

Sidetracked, really. 

What did I do instead?  I organized my fabric.  I know I should be ashamed at how much I've accumulated, but it secretly makes me happy when I walk by.  I cleaned out my closet and did a major cull.  I feel good about that.  Oh yeah, and I bought this couch from the Salvation Army.

 

With the grand intention to reupholster it.....  ack!

Sorry I trailed off there. I'm a little embarrassed that I'm even proposing this.

Now I know you are probably thinking about my last two and half month adventure with upholstery that involved tears, but let me explain: 

 

J and I stopped by the Salvation Army after lunch on Saturday.  We fell in love with this couch but had no real desire to purchase it.  Luckily, J and I have similar taste in furniture and home decor.  We both like antiques and artsy, quirky things.  While we were looking at it, an employee glanced over and said we could have her for half price.  Half price made it a whopping twenty seven dollars.

We couldn't not buy it, right?

 

We think it's from the late 50's/early 60's.  We're calling it mid-century Asian modern, though I'm not sure that label exists.  It's definitely mid-century and it has an Asian flair.  The old fabric is a brocade of some sort.  It weighs about three tons.  I wasn't expecting that when I helped carry it out of the store. But I'm glad because that means it's solidly constructed (solid piece of wood, too).   It's also eight feet long.   The only reason it was so cheap is because it's in pretty rough shape.  There's some damage to the wooden frame.  The white cushion covers look pretty good in these photos, but trust me when I tell you they are not in real life. (Why would anyone want a white couch anyway?)

J used to work doing faux finishes in homes and on furniture.  He can paint just about anything impeccably.  He's excited about repairing the damage to the frame.

As for the upholstery... 

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

I should also mention that school's out for summer after this week.  Hands down the best thing about being a teacher ;)  So, this becomes a major summer project.

Destruction of the old upholstery begins this coming weekend.

The only reason I'm even writing about this now is because blogging will keep me honest about it, whether I succeed or fail.

My weekend in a nutshell.  Instead of finishing that simple cotton a-line skirt I've started, I hatched a plan to upholster a couch.  

How was your weekend?

*********************************************************************

 All the photos in this post were taken with my brand spankin' new iPhone.  I've had it for a week and I'm not sure how I ever lived without it.  This one below is just for fun.  Instagram.

 

Hope everyone has a great week!