A foray into upholstery

This is a bit of a diversion from my normal subject area. But I’m posting about it because upholstery is a subject I knew very little about, and it’s not until I tried it that I became aware just how much work is involved (a bit like basketry!).

We have a set of six ladderback dining chairs passed on by my in-laws. Although the frames are OK, the seats were in dreadful condition. They were actually concave, because the webbing supporting the stuffing had gone. So for years we’ve been using them with cushions on top so that they are not too uncomfortable.

One of the perks of teaching at Morley College is that I can apply for up to 110 hours’ free tuition a year. So I finally decided to enrol on a traditional upholstery course to replace these seats. Restoring a drop-in seat is supposed to be a great beginner’s project, but it turned out to be more involved than I realised.

Preparation

The hardest part was actually preparing the wooden frame of the seat. The fabric was reasonably easy to tear off, but there were lots of tacks (and also some staples) that held on the fabric, hessian, and webbing that had to be removed. At least, they were supposed to be tacks, but whoever had last restored the seats had used nails in many cases, and these were a lot harder to get out, because they were longer. I spent the first two classes (six hours!) just removing all the nails from two seat frames.

To remove the tacks I used a chisel and a wooden mallet to knock them out sideways. My top tip if you ever have to do it: make sure the chisel is as horizontal as possible. Some of the nails were so rusty that the heads just sheared off, so I had to hammer the remainder into the wood. Finally, when the frames were clear, I fillled the holes with a mixture of PVA and sawdust and left them to dry.

Then I used a webbing stretcher to attach new webbing. It’s easy to get this the wrong way round, and I had a couple of false starts!

Webbing in place, I tacked a piece of hessian on top. Then I stiched five lines of bridle stitch (like a long, loose back stitch) across the hessian to hold the stuffing.

Stuffing and top covering

For the stuffing I used coir. Horsehair is still available but rare and more expensive. I put a handful of stuffing under each bridle stitch and then”felted” it all together with my hands to ensure even coverage and no gaps.

I covered the horsehair with a piece of calico, using temporary tacking to ensure that everything was smooth and tight before hammering everything home.

Finally it was time for the top covering. I like the cognitive dissonance caused by the thought of sitting on a cactus!

So that’s two down – only four more to go. It took me six weeks to do two seat pads, but hopefully the next four will be quicker!