Sewing Chair

Last July, at the Michigan TOGA, I purchased a sewing chair.  I knew I wanted to recover it, but, I just haven't had the time to quilt the material.  Someone had recovered the cushioned parts in the past.  You can see the original vinyl around the bottom of the chair, under the cushion.

sewing chair, before re-covering

sewing chair, before re-covering

The vinyl that they used to recover the cushioned parts was starting to get sticky in places.  Vinyl does that sometimes, as it ages.

I knew when I bought this chair, that I wanted to use it for vintage machine demo's.  Well, I'm having a booth at my large quilt guilds quilt show this weekend.  I've been working on machines for days now, getting ready.  So far, I have 13 machines (including one treadle) ready to display, and several of my toy machines, too.  I still need to figure out the last machine to take (decisions, decisions).

Since I had most of my machines and projects ready, I decided to quilt the fabric for this chair.  I was going to quilt it at the show, if I had enough time.  Glad I didn't wait, since my treadle has been giving me fits with the tension.  I spent half of Wednesday, cleaning and adjusting the machine, trying to get the tension working nicely.  I finally gave up and just started quilting the material.  I wasn't worried about how it looked on the back, since I was covering a chair, not making a quilt to be seen on both sides.  All I did was quilt along the 'stitching' lines shown on the selvage fabric.  I love this faux selvage fabric!  Sew easy, none of the hard work of collecting and stitching the selvages together.

This is the treadle I quilted it on.

Post WWII Japanese treadle 'Victor'

I had already measured, and cut the pieces for the bottom/base of the chair and the back of the back rest.  Those pieces were only 2 layers, no batting.  I had also figured out how much fabric I needed for the 2 cushioned parts (seat and back rest).  That part had the batting in it.

fabric for the cushioned parts of the chair

I'd found this great fabric last year, and knew I wanted to use it on this chair.  I'd already purchased some, to make me a purse (still not made).  I purchased more of this fabric, for the chair.  It's Timeless Treasures.

As I quilted each piece, I started to attach it to the chair.  Not very easy, but, with my son's help, I got it covered, bit by bit.

base of chair

stapling it on

center part replaced

base recovered

I moved on to the seat back, next.

original vinyl covering

re-covered and braces attached

this part will be covered with the back cushion

Last fall, I purchased new foam for the cushioned parts of the chair.  I waited till Joann's had a sale.

new foam for cushioned parts

This is why someone had recovered the chair before.

what was underneath the vinyl covering

After cutting the cushion to fit the seat (not easy to cut thru 2" of foam), I lined up the quilted fabric (here is where you can see that the tension was off on the treadle).

underside of quilted fabric

it was hard to fold the corners with as little bulk as possible, using quilted fabric

finished seat cushion

The back cushion was last.

this part will be hidden

back cushion

Hubby had to help me re-assemble the chair.  It's hard to find the correct screw holes thru quilted fabric.  It's also hard to hold all the pieces by yourself.

Here is the finished sewing chair.

sewing chair, re-covered

I worked hard to get all the selvage stripes going the same direction

back of chair

This sewing chair will sit by my blue treadle, Victor, at the quilt show.  I think they will look nice together.