Wingchair begins

ready to be taken apart

Last year I took an upholstery class and re-covered one of Mimi's bee chairs. The class was fun and the chair came out looking pretty professional, so I kept my eye out for a wing chair. I found one at the Goodwill for the princely sum of $25 and it first sat in the living room (to make sure we liked the shape of it) then the dining room (to get it out of the way) and finally the basement where it lurked waiting to be reborn. All of the late winter classes were full, so it languished for months and months. I brought home several fabric samples for Charlie and he picked out a taupe velvet and I bought a big roll during a sale at Joann's.

Henry supervises

some of the 4,000 reasons why I have blisters on my hand now

One thing I learned from the first class was the first day you do nothing but rip your chair apart. It takes hours and hours. Since that's something I can do at home I decided to do a little pre-homework and come to class with a stripped down chair and already made welting. That way while the rest of the class was prying out their first 23498273048 staples I could monopolize the teacher's time and get my chair underway. I spent most of the day Wendesday down in the basement prying and ripping and pulling and sneezing at all of the stuffing dust.

naked chair!

giving the legs a few rubs of danish wood oil

To make the welting I finally used a technique that I'd read about many times. Starting with a square, you cut and sew, then draft the lines for your strips, then sew one more time. You've got a bit of a moebius strip then and can continuously cut out your length. The seams are already done for you, which is very nice. Then I sewed and sewed and sewed and ended up with my 20 yards of welting.

the big lump of fabric

which, under Henry's careful supervision,

becomes strips

and then welting

As I was looping it into a bundle, the fabric store called and my class has been cancelled for lack of participation. I've been moved to mid-February. Ah well. I'm not entirely happy, but at least all of the pre-work is done. Now it will just sit in the basement a little longer.

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Eggs laid in the coop today: 2
Eggs laid this year: 59