This project is finally in the home stretch! It’s been a long time coming.

Please believe me when I say, if I can do upholstery so can you. I make mistakes and have to re-do my stitches, and sometimes start from the beginning.

During my last post about this chair, I had just started tufting the buttons on the back. It took me three times of doing and re-doing the entire back piece with the tufting before I felt it was adequate. I’m sharing this so you know that I am no expert.  It’s more about persistence. So, I feel that truly anyone can tackle these projects.

This chair was particularly challenging because 1. the tufted buttons on the back 2. numerous panels that needed to be married and 3. there were some oddly shaped portions of the chair.

Here are some photos of the tufting process. The biggest challenge was getting the center seam to remain relatively straight and in the center of the chair.  With the tufting and tucking of upholstery, it kept getting pulled to one side or the other.

Finally, I learned that I had to insert all the buttons in place first and tuft them all at the same time.  (Rather than insert button, tuft it by pulling the thread taught and then move on to another button and tuft it. )

Here’s how all the buttons looked, in place, prior to tufting on my third attempt.

Once I figured out the front of the chair, I turned my attention to the back and sides.  Luckily, I came across a great vintage oat sack for horses.  Upon seeing it, I thought it would be perfect for covering the backside of the chair.  I loved that there was a graphic depicting a jockey on a horse.

The backside of the chair was the last piece to be put into place.  So, before tackling the final back piece, I had to finish the  outside panels on the left and right of the chair.

Once the outer sides were completed, I could move onto using the oat sack for the outside back of the chair. Of course, the oat sack wasn’t wide enough to fit the fan shaped back of the chair. So, I had to use some of the remaining portions of the hemp fabric, which was used for upholstery, and stitch it to the sides of the sack.  A side note, this is a vintage sack and it was thoroughly washed before I used it.  However, with most vintage items there are signs of wear and imperfection. I’m okay with these signs of use and age but not everyone is.

So, this is how the chair looks now!  It’s almost complete.  There are still some finishing stitches, the dust cover on the bottom, and trim details that need to be completed.

If you want to read about the journey of reupholstering this chair here are the blog posts

– The first post

– The second post

–The third post

–The fourth post 

I will do one more final post showing the completed chair – dust cover, final stitches and trim details- included- and I will summarize what I learned throughout this process.  Hopefully, this summarized information will make future upholstery projects that you tackle, easier.

Thanks for following me along on this journey.  Remember – it’s all about persistence.