Harley seems not to mind staying at Dad's. She LOVES rolling around and lying in the grass. Better get your fill now, little girl, there's not a lot of grass in El Paso!So what am I doing with myself while I'm waiting to move West? I'm relaxing! Of course, my idea of relaxing may not be what most folks consider relaxing. I spent the first two days cleaning and organizing, which is not only relaxing but also satisfying! But I like projects I can really sink my teeth into (think laying new bathroom flooring). So I decided that now was the perfect time to finally re-do Mom's old rocking chair.
I have no idea exactly how old this rocking chair is, but I know for sure that the fabric is at least as old as I am, and probably a few years more. Mom told me once that when she got this chair it had several layers of poorly applied paint. It took her a lot of elbow grease to get the paint off and varnish it. In some of the corners and hard to reach spots, you can still see hints of green, red and black paint. I remember tracing the patterns on the fabric as a small child, and hours on end sitting in Mom's lap as she rocked me. I'll admit, a small part of me wanted to just fix the loose fabric on the seat and keep the memory intact. But I decided that a fabric facelift was in order.
As usual, the first step to any renovation is destruction. I had to painstakingly pull out hundreds of staples and unravel yards of webbing to get down to the skeleton of the chair.
Then came re-weaving the webbing. I had a small amount of webbing from another project and was afraid I might not have enough. Luckily I was able to re-use the old webbing, which was a nice surprise.
Have you ever looked at your furniture and wondered "How do they get those straight, stitchless seams?" No? I guess it's just me. I have wondered this before, usually when considering a re-upholstery job.
Well, now I know the answer. You use ply grip (also called curve ease)!
Though it looks a little scary, and can leave quite a mark on your fingers if you're not careful, this stuff is totally cool! You tack the bottom down with staples and tuck the edge of the fabric into the teeth. When you fold it together, the fabric is stretched tight and secured, providing a really sharp finished edge. Now that I know about this little gem, I may be inspired to tackle additional decorating jobs...
Lastly, I needed to be sure that there were no loose ends for Roscoe to chew. Using some cambric (or dustcover) I finished up the bottom nice and tidy.
And tah-dah! It's like a whole new chair! I'm pretty excited with how it came out and can't wait to sit in it tonight while I'm knitting and watching NCIS with Dad. I think Mom would approve.P.S. This would not have turned out so well if it weren't for the awesome website www.diyupholsterysupply.com or the assistance of the Sofa Doctor here in Kingsland.
