Upholstery girls


 

A few weeks back my friend and I organised a gaggle of girls to come out to the shed in Waikuku and bring an old dunga of a chair with them (or in Alice's case, a 2 seater sofa, girl got skills) we had a lovely upholstery man called Nigel come along and teach us how to turn these chairs from smelly-yuck to spiffy-wicked in two days.

Not all of us finished the chairs/sofa in the weekend but we all got pretty close, even Fliss whose chair had lived a hard life and was covered in bullet holes, had broken springs and a feared possibility that something furry and alive could have been living in it.

Unfortunately our 'after' photo was taken by Nigel and featured more of his finger than the chairs.... I'll hopefully get some photos from the girls over the next few weeks and show you their before and afters, until then it's just going to be my little fella.

 

 
Here he goes, my little chair's extreme makeover (upholstery edition)
For those with a keen eye, you are right, I have not quite finished..... I just need to staple the underneath cloth down and cover with some calico.......soon.
 

 

 
Fabric from Femme de Brocante ....the girls there were super helpful and friendly which was a real bonus on top of the fabric find!
 
If I can offer any advice for a weekend like this...
  • Keep your class small
  • Try and pull all of the old fabric and staples out before you go, the first half of our first day was filled with chiseling, ripping, pulling and cussing
  • Keep it simple splashy, I was so pleased I didn't choose anything with arms to sew.... In fact my makeover required zero sewing, only a few hand stitches. Although in saying that, it meant I didn't get to learn any of those skills. Pros and cons
 
 
 
Oh yea, this is my sandwich. Haha. The reason I'm sharing is because feeding 8 girls over two days ended up being really easy, this is how I went about it
  • Fresh ciabatta rolls
  • Baked free range chicken breasts coated in spelt flour, chilli powder, turmeric and salt+pepper, then shredded
  • Salad greens
  • Beetroot salad (this recipe from the ripe cookbook) without sultanas and with chia seeds and sliced almonds and maple syrup instead of the molasses
  • Parsley dressing (my mother in laws recipe)
  • Feta
We all just made our own sandwiches and then we ate cookies.
 
It was such a fun weekend and we're all keen to keep catching up over crafty workshops. I'm thinking the next one could be macramé.....

 

3 comments:

  1. I love this Katrina!

    Do you think you can post a step by step tutorial?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Candy,

      I have a twin brother to this chair that I need to cover...maybe I could do it then, with some pics attached?!

      Delete
    2. That would be absolutely amazing Katrina! Thank you!
      I'm planning to do this with 2 of my girlfriends and that would be a big help!

      Delete

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