The Chair Makeover

This chair was built by my husband while he was at trade school ~ more than twenty years ago!!
It is in my youngest daughter's room and is in desperate need of a make over. 
I made this pillow many years ago when I had just started out sewing so that is what I'm tackling first ~ a new fabulous pillow!

I am going to share this with you over the next week as it has a few processes that I will explain in detail so you may pick up a tip or two.

I've decided to do a selvedge top fabric as I've done this before and loved the finished result.
It will have a candy pink gingham base with matching piping & an invisible zip plus gorgeous thick ties at the side to hold it onto the chair.

So today, I'm starting with the selvedge fabric.  This technique has been covered by almost everyone, so there are lots of examples out there for you check out in blogland. Start with the very lovely Jodie from Vintage Ric Rac - she is undoubtedly the Queen of Selvedge sewing!
  1. Start with cutting all your strips, this is the most tedious of jobs. You will need a lot more than you think you do.  Leave a margin of about 1cm on top of the selvedge strips. 
  2. Cut a base fabric piece larger than your pillow size to sew the strips onto.  Try to keep it cotton without any stretch. 
  3. Start at the bottom & use the base fabrics selvedge too if it has one. I love this part, it's exciting to see your fabric piece grow row by row!
  4. Sew your strips on one by one. Pressing as you go. Make the over all size of the sewn fabric piece larger than you need so you can cut your template from it.
Next time I will show you how to measure & cut up your cushion pieces and how to make the piping.

2 comments:

trudi@maudeandme said...

I'm intrigued - I've never heard of this method. But my husband reckons I've spent some of my life in the cupboard!

Unknown said...

Ever since I saw selvedge sewing on Vintage Ric Rac, I've loved the look. Unfortunately, I am flat out patch working and prefer to work with whole pieces of fabric. Thus my selvedge collection soon stopped after the novelty of the idea wore off. It'll be great to see a cushion done like this - I think if I had one I'd find myself sitting on the seat with the cushion in hand, reading all the fascinating fabric labels and collection names.