First Project...

[Half-Fast]

OK, lets see if picture posting/linking works...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stewart_upholstery_and_restorations/5370342678/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stewart_upholstery_and_restorations/5370342438/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stewart_upholstery_and_restorations/5370343752/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stewart_upholstery_and_restorations/5370343108/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stewart_upholstery_and_restorations/5369735815/

Jeff

[bobbin]

Wow! what fun to see your pictures.  I particularly like that paisley fabric (I'm a sucker for paisley and flame stitches).  And I like the 2 dogs all cuddled up in their "cozy".  All the "vibes" are good.  :)

[fragged8]

hehe i was thinking how did he make 2 dogs from 1 armchair heheh

Nice piece of work, it should last you years.

Rich

[sofadoc]

Hey, with THAT pattern, you could make yourself some matching PJ's and sit in the chair all day long, and the missus would never find you!
It boggles my mind that so many "First projects" featured on this forum look better than MY "101st project" did.
My dog loves to chew on old cotton, and sleep in a big pile of dacron.
When customers come in, they immediately start picking up old tacks, and razor blades off the floor because they're afraid that my dog might cut himself (in 10 years, he has NEVER injured himself, not even once).

[Half-Fast]

Wow! what fun to see your pictures.  I particularly like that paisley fabric (I'm a sucker for paisley and flame stitches).  And I like the 2 dogs all cuddled up in their "cozy".  All the "vibes" are good.

Thanks Bobbin!  That fabric was what my dad used to recover a couple of early 1900's pieces that my mom inherited from an aunt....after they had sat in a barn for 40 years.  There was about 6 yards left over, and with a 14x14 repeat, I managed to use almost every bit of it.  Max and Millie have the routine down pretty well.  Since my shop is in the back of mom's garage, they know that "Let's go to grandma's" is their cue to head for the front door and sit down and wait for me to hook on their leashes.  Once at grandma's and after a quick visit, I'll say "Let's go to the shop" and they'll lead me out the door and trot towards the garage.

Nice piece of work, it should last you years.

Thanks Rich!  That chair has already lasted for years!  My folks bought it in 1961, back when furniture was made of real wood  ;D

Hey, with THAT pattern, you could make yourself some matching PJ's and sit in the chair all day long, and the missus would never find you!  It boggles my mind that so many "First projects" featured on this forum look better than MY "101st project" did.

Thanks doc!  The "missus" already has a hard time finding me as she and the kids (and their 5 cats) live 80 miles away  :P  Thank you for your encouraging words on my first project.  My aunt has already booked me to recover an old arm chair...now for a PAYING job ! !

[Mojo]

Fantastic work. You should be very proud of it.

I give you big props for using that fabric for your first project. Wow.

Great job. I am very impressed. :)

Chris

[bobbin]

Half Fast, I was thinking about this thread while working away on my slipcover today.  I was thinking about patterns and how important it is to match things and place the main motifs carefully on a piece.  It's even more important when you are working with limited fabric, lol!  the print on my fabric is really small, but I'm making the skirt now and it's important to have main body of the slipcover line up with the skirt. 

It really is the detail that counts and I think I will begin telling people that they're actually paying me to pay attention to all the details!

I hope you will please post a picture of it in your "man cave".  I can't remember, what Juki machine do you have? 

[Half-Fast]

Thanks Chris!  The material was readily available.  I knew the repeat was large and I would have to a lot of advance planning which probably took as long as actually putting them on the chair.

Bobbin.... the "pattern matching" and limited amount of material on hand was probably the biggest thing that I had to wrap my mind around.  I purposely made the project a little more complicated than it had to be so I could put into practice some of those techniques that I've read about on this board.  The machine is a 1541 S that I got from Gregg.


I learned quite a bit from this project.  I approached it with the attitude that the chair came from a paying customer and it HAD to be right.  There were a few times that I pulled something off to redo it, and I've got a lot of notes on how I would do things differently the next time.  Of course at this point, my "learning curve" is pretty much vertical  :P

Jeff