Take a (Quilted) Seat
Like many creatives, I find my social media feeds filled with all kinds of crafts, projects and patterns. Most of them I scroll past, some I save, and few spark immediate desire to replicate. This reupholstered quilt chair posted by Connecting Thread on instagram was one of those things!
After saving this post I was on the hunt for the perfect chair. Marketplace, thrift stores, and buy nothing. After a month I finally found the perfect one for only $40. I gave it a quick once over with our upholstery cleaner and deconstructed it.
I also had the perfect antique quilt top given to me by a dear friend. After inspecting the quilt top it needed a little TLC. I started by spraying the spots with Oxi-clean and soaking it in the bathtub in warm water for a few hours. It was realllllll gross–but oh so satisfying.
Once I rinsed it and let it dry, I noticed that some of the stubborn spots were still just not coming out. I marked all the spots with a safety pin and since this quilt top was white, I spot cleaned it with a Q tip and bleach. I did this process about 3 times.
In between waiting for the spots of bleach to do their thing, I made a practice cover for the back of the seat– I wanted to do a practice because the quilt top was so beautiful I didn’t want it to be cut up and wasted with my inevitable trial and error method of working. I used some fabric I had and created a makeshift pattern!
Once I was satisfied with the spots I washed it again in the bathtub and dried it on “delicate” in the dryer. Now it was time to cut the quilt—this was the absolute scariest part! Because the edges of this quilt are hexagonal, I used painters tape to make a straight edge so the pattern was straight and I could measure accurately. Once the piece was cut, I sewed up the sides and stapled the edges under. Next I cut a piece to cover the seat part.
Once it was all covered, I re-assembled the chair and… Ta Da!
But no, I’m not done. I need a matching footstool, so back to ‘marketplace’ I go. I found the perfect vintage footstool for $25. I deconstructed the stool and removed the fabric that the previous owner used to reupholster it and discovered the original material was leather. But not only leather, painted leather! So wild!
I felt the cushion was a bit firm and stiff so I added some extra batting scraps I had laying around to give it some extra fluff! I covered it with the quilt top and reassembled the chair. However I didn’t add the legs just yet because I thought they didn’t match quite right so I stained them a bit darker.
And now… the complete set! I am so pleased with how this turned out and can’t wait to stare at it, sit in it and (of course) sew in it!
Thank you and Stay Scrappy, The Thredhead (Chelsea Sanford)
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