Toweling-Covered Armchair

Cozy to sit on and hardwearing too, toweling is also a fantastic fabric for the novice upholsterer ‑- it's stretchy, easy to handle and the pile effectively hides any less-than-perfect beginner's mistakes.

Getting Started

Time taken: 5 hours

You will need:

* Suitable armchair (choose one that is low and simply shaped ‑- old-fashioned nursing chairs are ideal)
* Enough toweling to cover the chair easily ‑- this project used 2 3/4 yards of toweling 60 inches wide
* Upholstery tacks
* 6 medium-sized buttons (to cover with fabric, or decorative)
* Strong carpet or button thread
* Sewing thread to match toweling

Tools:

* Fabric scissors
* Staple gun and staples
* Hammer
* Pins
* Medium-gauge needle

Step One

When buying a piece of furniture for a facelift, I always give it a detailed check for woodworm, damp or horrible smells indicating rotting upholstery. If I had to re-upholster this chair from scratch it would take a long time, so I gave it a beating with an old-fashioned carpet beater and then cleaned it with upholstery cleaning mousse.

Step Two

Cut a piece of toweling to approximately the same shape as the seat of the chair, adding an extra 3 inches of fabric all round for turning in when you attach it to the chair.



Step Three

Lay the fabric onto the seat and, tilting the chair from side to side as you go, fix a few staples through the fabric, attaching it to the underneath of the chair to keep the rest of the fabric in place while you fine tune. Work your way around and around the seat, reducing the gaps between staples with new ones as you go. Run another row around the chair for good measure, ensuring that any excess fabric doesn't flop down and become visible below the seat.

Step Four

Toweling is quite thick, so it is a good idea to make sure that it is held really securely with an upholstery tack every 3 inches. Hammer in the tacks firmly, but watch out for any woodwork that could be damaged easily while hammering ‑- cover delicate areas with a fabric scrap to protect them. You can now cover other areas of the chair in the same way, leaving the back of the chair as the last area to be covered.

Step Five

A button back adds interest to a chair with a tall back. You could choose to cover the buttons with the same toweling fabric, or use decorative ones such as mother-of-pearl discs. Decide where to position the buttons and mark with a pin. Using strong button thread, run it through the back of the seat, through the button loop and back again several times, ending with the needle and thread at the back of the chair. Remove the marker pins.

Step Six

Hammer in some tacks around the back of the chair frame, placing them where they won't show through the final fabric covering. Leave the tacks slightly proud of the surface and sew them to secure the button threads tightly, pulling them as taut as possible and winding around the tack several times.

Step Seven

Finish off everything neatly by stitching down the last piece of fabric, on the back of the chair back, to cover any staples and tacks that have been used to attach the other fabric sections. Because of the pile in the toweling and the loose weave underneath, your stitching does not have to be minute: As long as the thread is exactly the same shade as the toweling, you can use fairly large stitches, secured firmly, and still achieve an excellent finish.

Article from: iVillage