Great news!

You can now book online for the Tatton Park Upholstery Workshops - we have made it easier for you to register for the workshops held at the beautiful national trust property in Knutsford.

Take a look at the new booking page at www.plushreupholstery.com. 

Hope to see you there …..

click on the link to see more http://plushupholstery.wordpress.com

Sue has taken this tired 1950's bedroom chair and carefully restored it, being true to its design and construction throughout.

The sprung seat was re-enforced and encased in a hair and wadding wrap, with a stitched edge and second stuffing of best hair and fibre. 

The original fabric was retained as a pattern, allowing to Sue to authentically reproduce the fluted seat back, and piped edging to the seat. The outside back of the chair was hand sewn in place.

This is the picture diary of the restoration of a modern wingback armchair, to its finished look above. The client's choice of contrasting piping works subtly but adds a definition to the chair.

The pictures show:

1.  the chair stripped back ready to reupholster
2.  the re-enforcement of the seat platform with new jute webbing - this was also covered in a  calico platform cloth.
3.  the sewing and fitting of the seat front
4. the re-enforcement and refreshing of stuffing on the arms
5.  the hand sewing of the wings
6.  the sewing of the single piping in contrasting piping, showing the sewing of bias piping
7.  machining the single piping
8.  making the pattern for the arm fronts
9.  pinning and sewing arm pieces for fitting on the seat arms
10.  re-enforcement of the seat back
11.  chair completed, with hand stitched back, ready for cushion
12. finished chair with new foam/feather cushion, with zip opening and piped edge.

These last few weeks have seen …

Vic take a broken footstool with a tapestry cover and up-cycle it with 'annie sloan' paints to the legs -in red, orange (her favourite colour!) and blue. She rebuilt the stool with a webbing, hessian and coir stuffing, before cover the stool in calico and then hessian ready for a coffee sack top covering - picture of the final piece to follow!

New student Denise, has recovered 2 bedroom chairs in her first term! A new record for speed upholstering, although I like to stress that upholstery should equally be about 'the journey' as 'the destination'! That aside, Denise has almost recovered both the chairs in matching chenille with piping edge. 

Sara's last project is another favour for a friend - she has kindly recovered a deep buttoned footstool in new and beautifully clean (for now) cream cotton. She has transformed the shabby valour footstool into a thing of beauty :)

Jayne powers on with her restoration of a traditional Edwardian armchair - she has rebuilt the arms, seat back and seat base. A quick layer of polyester wadding before the top fabric goes in - Jayne is putting a patch-work effect on and I will post pictures of the finished chair - nice choice of tweeds so it will look quite amazing.

Kate is battling with the buttoning on her majestically 'alpha' chair, in black velvet snake-skin effect fabric with red velvet buttoning - don't mess with this chair!  The back stapled in place, Kate is fitting the seat top fabric.  Thinking about trims - vinyl with black upholstery nails, or red velvet trim?

Pat, new student, brought a soft furnished bedroom chair as her first project. It required a lot of sewing and planning and buttoning but the end result is a far more pleasing chair than the original chair. Pat could not be persuaded to try different coloured buttons  .. this time!

Janice is recovering a Parker Knoll wingback armchair for her daughter in a fabulous pale grey wool herringbone. Recovering the arms was similar to solving the rubic's cube - lots of thinking, planning and working through and then to the execution. Looks simplier than it is.

Lisa is at the stitched edge stage of her chaise. Lots of regulating and checking of the roll size and height throughout, with the odd retry when needed. Second stuffing next and the seat will almost be finished. Traditional upholstery is so satisfying. 

Finally Hilary has almost completed her child's bedroom chair. With care and a few bloodied fingers, she is near to finishing the stitching of the chair edging and back. Hilary's methodical approach and care has proved worth the time and effort. Well, I think so.

More next month ...