upholstery

November 20, 2009


I spent the past couple evening working on upholstery. Its pretty straightforward with these Plycraft chairs. The outer fabric/leather is simply stapled to the internal shell. As for the patterns you use the old fabric you removed from the chair you are restoring. Place this over the hide of fabric you are using and it will give you a basic pattern in which can be added to the internal shell. As for the buttons, there are two types of attachments on these chairs. The ottoman and bottom cushion both have buttons that themselves are clasped. I took the old ones and broke the head off, then removed the metal grommets which I reattached through the button holes of my new buttons. Quick effective and very easy to reinstall. The other button type is nylon string treaded through the cushion and stapled to the back of the internal shell.

Button placement with these chairs is super easy. After cutting out your patterns find the exact center. There is a long side and short side to each pattern. Buttons are always centered in the middle of the long sides. Button placement was always 10” on center. Made my life easy. After you mark you button location use an awl or leather punch to make a hole large enough to accept the back button loop. Then install the buttons and slide either the nylon or clasp through the foam. Make sure you zig zag the nylon a couple times on the back of the internal frame and staple the hell out of it. If you leave it loose you will be sorry down the road, but to fix popped button is pretty straight forward.

Working from the ottoman first I worked up each new cushion with my leather hide, using a staple gun to tack around as I went. Tack each of the 4 sides with one staple in each, then work your way around to the corners. It takes some practice and be sure to use staples that are strong and long enough. After I put the outer leather skin on the internal frame (careful not to make the fabric/leather too taught), I cut any high ridges on the curves off with my scissors. You will have ridges on the back especially on the curves, you must cut these down or the cushion will not sit nice and flat in the ply shell. After you tack the skin to the internal shell you just need to neatly staple the welting in place. The welting I bought on Ebay was a bit miserable to use, its tag end was a little small and hard to get the correct staple placement. Once I learned how to position the staple gun it was quick work.

I will post detailed picks of this whole process shortly. I got carried away and basically finished the first chair, less the arm rests. You will need to go to an upholstery shop if you use leather. If you attempt to do them by hand I am sure you wont be happy with the results. I took my 4 arm rests to a local guy in town and he hit me up for $80 to do the whole job. Probably a fair rate considering overhead and that the guy was going to make custom welting for the armrest because he did not like how small the welting was I got on ebay either.