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Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Up-cycling an old office chair

New sewing chair
Second hand store, office chair
I found this office chair at my local thrift store for $5.00.
 Pretty ugly wouldn't you say?
But I could see it's potential, a little spray paint, some new fabric
and I would have a great sewing chair.

I took the seat and backrest off, then spray-painted the frame  a gloss black.

Off came the old seat cover.
The foam cushion was still good so all I needed to do make a new cover.
Since the seat frame was metal I couldn't staple a new cover on
 so I opted to sew one.
I cut a rectangle of fabric, hemmed the edges to form a casing, 
 inserted some elastic, 
pulled the elastic tight to form the fabric around the seat and then tied it off.
Kind of like a shower cap.

The backrest was in two parts, front and back, held together with screws.
The leather cover was in good shape so I just covered over it.
I cut a rectangle of fabric for each piece.
Using some embroidery floss, I did a gathering stitch around the edges
of the rectangles, then gathered them up around each piece.
 I also stitched from top to bottom and side to side, 
(kind of like tying up a corset) to get it good and tight. 
After cutting off the extra fabric in the corners,
I screwed the two pieces back together and re-assembled the chair.

I like the vintage vibe of the old steel frame mixed with the modern fabric.
Vintage office chair
What do you think?

Till next time,
Bonjour