Wow...you did a fabulous job! Are you self-taught? Makes me want to give it a go! How long did it take to do the wing chair? I'm not sure, but I think the style of chair in your last picture is called Bergere.

Love the new fabric, you did a fantastic job :D

Thanks Joaniepoanie & CLBlakey : )

Yes, self-taught and learned a lot from other GW members, books, online videos...especially videos posted by Kim's Upholstery. She's located in Massachusetts. I've emailed her with many questions and she is so helpful.

This chair took me about 6 weeks (mostly weekends only).

Thanks for the possible name of my grandmother's chair style.
I'll look up "Bergere".

Unbelievable! WOW WOW WOW!!!! What an amazing talent you have. Thanks for sharing. It is absolutely beautiful.

Amazing! Im new here and saw your sofa and blew me away but this wingchair is FAB as well!!! You have some talent there!!!

Nicole

Impressive! Great job and a lovely new chair.

Absolutely wonderful, just like you did on the sofa! You're really spiffing up your furniture with a whole new look!

Spiffing up is right ! You have a wonderful eye for detail and obviously a lot of talent and patience. Your LR is looking wonderful. c

You did a wonderful job. Looks completely professional.

Fantastic!

You've inspired me to get serious about my club chair I just need to find the fabric!

aktillery, fivethree, boopadaboo, my3dogs, trailrunner, debrak2008, & alex9179 -
Thanks to all of you for your kind responses!

alex - do you have a post on this forum about your club chair?
Are you going to reupholster it yourself? Finding fabric takes me a long time...more time than the actual upholstery work!

Laurie,

I am so impressed, both with the fabric choice AND your expertise!! My parents used to reupholster our furniture when I was a child, but I've never attempted it. You are very talented!!

Very impressive job as all have said, Laurie. You must be very proud. Nice choice in fabric also.

I'm wondering how large the sewing needles are, and how you protect your fingers from sticks at pivotal times sewing the new fabric on?

I'm thinking of tackling a small settee cushion (used to sew so a little knowledge). But upholstery job means truly straight corners and lengths.

lizzie_grow & SparklingWater - thank you!

Here is a picture showing how large the sewing needles are.
For the machine, I used a size 18 needle.
For hand sewing, I bought a pack that came with four different sizes.
I only have used the smallest size, so far. You can see a little bit of upholstery thread on the smaller curved needle.

My fingers only got pricked once in a while when I used regular sewing pins to hold pieces together when I was machine sewing.
Had to put on a bandaid right away!

Post a picture of your settee. I would love to see it!

I can only imagine how much research you did and good old fashioned home work. It sure has paid off, you can help others and continue to do this many times over. I'm impressed with your perseverance over the years. The result is they look FABULOUS!!!

OMG I'm so impressed, your work and transformation is amazing!!!!!!!!!

As far as the last chair, it's a low-back goose-neck arm chair with a modified queen Anne/cabriole leg.

Thanks Laurie for posting that picture. Amazing needles.

Alas, the settee is in my head only only at this point. Next week I may post a photo here on what others would do in our small eat in space-a settee or built in banquet. Got to get a donated refrigerator out the door first.

Again, very lovely and impressive work! Enjoy.

Your work is so beautiful. Love, love, love the self-covered buttons on the first chair. That alone says "professional grade" to me. When you ladies* show your work, it encourages me to put my piggies in the water. Great job.

*I know I say "ladies" even though I know there are a few guys out there. It seems as if they are only a few so I am not really sure how to address the members of our wonderful group. Any suggestions?

You are awesome!!! I spent years wanting to redo 2 wing chairs I had, but never had the courage. Then I was going to investigate painting the fabric. That never happened either. Then life intervened and I sold the chairs :)

Your chair looks just great :)

Just beautiful! I have a similar wing chair that is in great condition-just needs updated badly. When will you be posting your tutorial ??? ;)

Great job! I love your choice of fabric and the detail on the chair is wonderful.

Laurie, I've never posted my chair. The fabric is in terrible shape from it's previous life (I bought it for $13 at a thrift store) and my youngest found Vaseline DH had left out and smeared it on some spots. At least he picked the chair I was going to completely redo! Oh, and it's an unfortunate shade of pink.

It's so comfortable and has a good shape. Yes! I'm going to do it myself and fabric is a problem. I find something then decide against it...over and over.

I've only tackled easy wood frame furniture so far, but I'm ready to get this chair looking good and the canvas drop cloth off of it :)

Wow! Nice work! I don't think I'd ever have the courage to attempt such a project.

You really did a beautiful job on that, and I know how much work that must have been! Thanks for showing us that! It'll be fun to see the others you do as well.

Bravo! Beautiful work, and beautiful fabric!

You did a wonderful job! I was just gifted a wing chair that looks very similar to yours and was wondering how much fabric it would require to have it updated..is there a special weight of fabric to look for when doing a chair? I have seen a type of fabric that has narrow stripes but one is shiny and the next is dull..does anyone know what this is called?
I'm in awe of your talent.

yayagal, peegee, SparklingWater, lynn_r_ct, rafor, juleecat, marti8a, alex9179, wifisker, sujafr, melsouth, & kathie738p -

You are all so nice and thank you for responding!

My hope is to inspire someone else to give upholstery a try. I spent years thinking about doing this and getting the courage to start. Many of you may be in the thinking and gathering info stage right now...which is important and a necessary step.
It sounds like alex9179 is very close to jumping in...my fingers are crossed : )
Possibly rafor will follow, next? Then julee & lynn & SparklingWater...and so on...

kathie - it's tricky (for me) to estimate the amount of fabric needed.
I looked at a couple yardage estimate charts and that gave me a guideline. What I noticed from my other projects is that I was not using quite as much fabric as the charts were showing. I think it's because I take apart each piece and lay it on the new fabric and cut. I did not have a lot of wasted fabric. My other projects did not have a pattern to match which helps with less waste, too. This wing chair fabric had a floral paisley print which made for a little more waste. I could have done a better job with pattern line up and matching but I did not want to stress out about it, either.

I bought 7 yards of fabric. The yardage estimate guide (see link below) suggests 5 yards. I am hoping there is enough left over to do the smaller navy chair. The welting is already cut & sewn for the smaller chair. I will keep you posted as I work on it. If I need to order more fabric, I can use it on the back of the chair in case the dye lot is different.

My other projects had left over fabric which I'm saving...in case I need to replace a cushion cover in the future... small kids that find the Vaseline, etc.

When looking for fabric I searched for fabric made for upholstery and ordered samples. I also asked about the "double rubs"/durability factor.
You mentioned stripe fabric (one shiny the next dull). I'm not sure what that's called. Maybe it fits into the category of "tone on tone" fabric?

peegee - Thank you for helping to identify my smaller chair -
"low-back goose-neck arm chair with a modified queen Anne/cabriole leg". This adds valuable information for me to research. I'm looking forward to taking off it's old navy fabric and seeing what's underneath and how it's constructed.

Here is a link that might be useful: Yardage Estimate Guide

Laurie, since you got me thinking about it again, I've been looking for fabrics or ideas and I think I found my inspiration! This combo will work with all of my stuff. I just need to find comparable fabrics (cheap) and figure out a layout I like for a fully upholstered chair. Thanks for the kick!

[Traditional Chairs[(https://www.houzz.com/products/traditional-chairs-prbr1-br~t_526~s_2107) by Other Metro Furniture and Accessories Horchow

Oooooh Alex, that is a beautiful inspiration! I would melt if I saw that in person. Heck, I am melting now.

Nice inspiration photo! You know who is super good at finding fabrics and at great prices.....my3dogs. Hopefully, m3d will check back on this post and can chime in. If not, then start a new post of your own (with the words "chair" & "fabric" included in the title) and then you will get lots of help.

I have no leads for you on that beautiful floral print. On my monitor, it looks to be a turquoise blue background, green vines & leaves, flowers that have gold, rust, & red. I will keep an eye out for something similar.

The seat cushion looks like some type of velvet. I recently purchased some velvet for pillows that I like a lot. The velvet I used feels very sturdy and seems like it would work well for upholstery. It doesn't have a deep/plush "nap" to it . It's soft yet has a shorter/denser nap than other velvets that I have felt on velvet apparel pieces.

The velvet I used was made by Duralee and is 100% cotton. They have several types of velvet but only one type is 100% cotton. They call it "Logan Solid Velvet". I ordered a swatch, loved it, bought it. I have not ordered their other swatches to compare but they may be nice, as well. Their other velvets are all polyester or a poly/cotton blend.

I bought my Duralee Logan velvet online from Fabric Carolina. I only needed 1 yard and they sent me 10" more than a yard which really helped me a lot when making my pillows. It was $39/yard plus $10 shipping.

I'm think Duralee (see link below) will have that golden/caramel color.
There are other fabric options. Velvet just popped into my mind when I saw that chair!

Here is a link that might be useful: Duralee Velvets

I would love to use velvet and have found a few leads for the stripe and solid. I've also found a little of this, it's cotton. It would be gorgeous for pillows on my orange couch if I find the right fabric in velvet or a chenille for my old chair.

Velvet really trips my trigger, though!

It looks great. That is a skill I envy. You should be proud of what you've learned.

(and I still think of that beautiful chair my3dogs did with the poches and the plaid back)

ThreeBeez - Thanks! I've been inspired by my3dogs and love seeing all of the skilled & artful use of patterns and color!
Always impresses me to see each creation : )

Alex - That cotton fabric you found is great! It looks like it's in the same family as your inspiration pic....vivid colors, large floral with vines. I wonder about it's weight/ durability. Maybe others will be able to explain fabric weight in ounces. Where did you find this fabric and do you know who manufactures it? Is it labeled as "Home Decor Fabric" or "Upholstery Fabric"?
Are you thinking of using floral on the chair and also the same floral for your pillows for the orange couch?

Woo-hoo-hoo!
Love it! Love the fabric pattern and color choice, too.
(You're gonna make an ottoman, too, so I can put my feet up while reading, right?)

It's medium weight upholstery fabric, so light use, and it's a discontinued color that I found on ebay. I think it would be fine for the seat back, just not sure about combining it with the velvets or going with all cotton. Part of the allure IS the look and feel of velvet! I think that's one of the reasons the inspiration chair made me swoon :)

pammyfay - Thanks!
Yes, I plan to have an ottoman someday. I'm going to need lots of GW help in deciding what size, shape, fabric or leather?

Alex - Medium weight upholstery fabric...sounds good : )
I think combining it with velvet would work.

Laurie, the chair is stunning, totally professional and the fabric is drop dead gorgeous. So happy for your success!

Thanks Holly-kay!
It was fun to see my old chair put on some "new clothes" after all these navy blue years : )
I still like blue, just needed a change.

Laurie, that is truly impressing. Long ago I signed up for an upholstery class eagerly, transmission went out, couldn't afford even the fabric. Now, sadly, the eagerness is done (I'd seriously rather go prune every tree on our four wooded acres than wield those needles), but the cost of having it done professionally is very high.

I was wondering what your opinion of typical upholstery shop prices might be now that you have this experience. Inflated/unnecessarily high like so many prices associated with interior decor, often too low/barely making it considering what goes into it, or where in between?

Rosie - Thanks!

Purchase and upkeep of cars can drain the bank pretty fast.

Four acres of wooded trees!...now that sounds wonderful! I would love to have a place with that much land & trees.

I don't know what upholstery shops charge these days. I know that I could not ever do upholstery as a profession. I work way too slow. Also, I'm able to forgive myself if some part of my work is not perfect. If I did it for someone else, I'd stress about every little imperfection.

The fabric cost alone is all that I'm willing to invest in my old furniture. None of my furniture is high end. The only piece that is really well made is my grandma's chair (the goose neck arm chair) which I will begin working on in about a week.

I once kept track of how many total hours I spent on one of my sofas...68 hours (over a 2 month span).

Knowing all the work I've put in to these pieces, I would not
complain about the high prices the pros charge.