Office Chair Makeover

I've seen a couple of these projects and specifically this one that awed me.  You'd think with all the re-covering I do I would have thought of an office chair makeover but I didn't, not until I was inspired.

Here's an after and then we'll talk details.

And the before.

It's one of the very few things that Brad brought with him when we got married, now that I think about it I'm pretty sure it was the only piece of furniture that came with him.  The chair was in rough shape, in fact he picked it up off the curb as his neighbors were throwing it out so we hadn't ever seen it in it's prime.  The chair functions fine enough but to help the sad foam he added this very stylish cushion on top.  The cushion actually does very little to improve the comfort.

Luckily we inherited a much nicer office chair so this one is just back-up, not really necessary.  I figured since it was free and is spare I could play around with it.

Here's the sad part of my story...

I decided to paint the chair so I headed off to buy some paint.  I've done a few spray paint projects now and the one thing to keep in mind is your colour is going to be limited, there are only going to be so many colours available.  I know this so I was careful to not have any preconceived ideas about colour and I just planned to  find something I loved when I got there.  I settled on Bahaus Gold by Krylon and it's an awesome colour.  I then went and found some fabric I love that co-ordinates and couldn't wait to come home and start.  It was only as I was half way home that I realized my problem, I hadn't picked a paint that works specifically on plastic.

Before I started the project I did a little research and every site said to make sure you use a paint designed for plastic.  I went back to see my options and was so disappointed, I could have black, red, bright yellow, grey or hunter green.  The worst part of this story is I actually would have been very happy with bright red if I had found fabric that matched it.  I wasn't willing to spend more money on fabric when I didn't have a plan for the original stuff I bought so I stuck with it and here's what I did instead (I wouldn't recommend it).

I polled many people I know and came up with the same response, you think about this... the reason you can't use just any paint on plastic is because the paint won't bond, it will flake off.  So why not put on a coat of plastic paint and then once that's dry cover it up with whatever you want, like primer.  The plastic paint will bond to the plastic and the next coat will bond to the plastic paint.  Makes sense right?  Everyone I talked to agreed so that's what I did.  I used a Fusion paint by Krylon in Almond and gave all the plastic parts a good coat.  Once it was dry I sprayed the entire chair with my original Bahaus Gold.  I also sprayed two coats of clear coat (3 on the bottom legs) on the entire chair to seal it.

It looks awesome, I'm happy with the colour but there are plastic parts where the paint is already starting to flake off.  I'm pretty sure this chair will not look great for very long.  So learn from me, just use the cherry red plastic paint.  I'm still happy I re-covered the chair and I learned something so it wasn't a waste.

For the cushions.
I wrapped the backrest in a layer of batting and then stapled my fabric over top.  For the seat I bought a thick square of foam from Walmart and added a layer of batting over that so I didn't have pointy corners.  The fabric on the seat is actually pulled much tighter than I would prefer because I really should have bought a little extra fabric.  I made it work though and the chair is actually comfortable now.

Here are a couple more angles of the new chair (I can admit that I should have painted that little purple plug on the back but I'm not going to)

and one more before and after.

Monogram Quilling Tutorial

I finished Sara's Quilled monogram (she was the winner of the giveaway) and I dropped it in the mail on Saturday so here's a preview for her and a tutorial for all of you.  I hope Sara loves it as much as I do.  I feel like this picture doesn't really do it justice, it looks so great in person.

Before we get started I have one small disclaimer... the paper I used as the backing for the letter was pretty light in colour and I do all my quilling in the evening after Catie goes to bed.  This means all my photos are taken at night so I  need a flash but the flash bounces off the paper so most of them look pretty terrible.  I did my best but some of them are really awful, I apologize.  I took more photos of the steps than these but some of them just aren't usable.

To start here is a photo of your needed supplies

1. You need a picture frame that is really deep, the letter is going to end up being at least a 1/4 of an inch tall so there needs to be room for that or you can leave the glass out.  I personally prefer the look of glass.  I found my frame at Winners for $7.99.  For my W I found this square frame at Liquidation World for $8.99.  You can get these deep frames at Michael's too but they're about $20 and that's after a 40% coupon.
2. I use Mod Podge as my glue. It dries clear and is really easy to work with.
3. You need some sort of paper cutter so you can cut your strips.  Apparently you can buy already cut paper specifically for Quilling but I'm not willing to pay for that.
4. You need some paper to work with.  The light colour on top will be the background for the L.  The brown will outline the letter, the green and the blues will make the coils to fill in the letter and the patterned piece on the bottom is for the matte.  After I started I decided I needed one lighter colour too so I added a light browny paper.
5. These are the tools I use, there is a needle (it's a big one), toothpicks, Q-tips and a chopstick.  You can also buy a quilling too, it's basically a needle with the top chopped off.
6. These are tools you'll use throught the process, a ruler, a paintbrush (mine is actually a makeup brush but it works), a pencil, and an exacto knife.
7. You'll use a glue runner at the end to assemble the matte.
8. I forgot to show in this picture some tweezers.  They are super helpful and I use them a lot.

To start you need to print off your letter so you have something to follow.  I use Microsoft Word, type my letter and then scroll though the fonts until I find one I like, although I've always ended up using Lucida Fax.  Make sure you change the style to outline.  Using my frame size I decide how big I want the letter and size it accordingly.  Then I change the colour to be really light grey so you can barely see it once it's printed out, you want it to almost disappear on the page.  This picture shows just how light it is, you can hardly see the L.

Next you're going to cut out your strips of paper.  Measure 1/4 inch strips and cut them, you want to be really precise here making sure they're all straight and exactly 1/4 inch.  I cut all my colours at once but I only cut this many before I was sick of measuring, I thought I would need way more but in the end I didn't need any extras, I did use all of these though.

To outline your letter take one brown strip lay it on top of your print out.  You're going to measure from one corner to another and make a pencil mark.   Using the pencil mark carefully bend your paper so you have a nice clean, straight bend (I bend the paper on my ruler).

Once you've made your first bend carry on measuring, marking and bending until you've used up an entire strip of paper.  One strip of paper obviously isn't going to go around the entire letter, where you're two strips of paper meet make sure it's at a corner, it's much easier to hide.
Here's my first strip bent but not glued down.

next you're going to put a blog of Mod Podge on some sort of surface (I used an empty cracker box but paper plates work well).  I dip a Q-tip in the glue and then pick up the strip of paper and apply the glue to the bottom edge.  Your strip is pretty long though and if you put glue on the entire edge it's difficult to get it all down before it dries so I work in small sections.  On this one I put glue on the top of the L but not extending down the length of it (I hope this is making some sort of sense).  Once it's glued you carefully line up your cut paper with your printed template, you want to be really precise here too.  Press the glue down and hold for a second, it doesn't take long to dry.  Once the first part is down I switch to a toothpick, dip in glue and carefully move your unglued paper out of the way.  Apply glue to the template down the line and then attach your paper.  Do this until you're strip is all glued down.

See the little dobs of glue?  Don't worry, they disappear when dry.

Then you can go ahead and measure, bend and glue your next piece until you've gone all the way around.  I needed two and a little bit.  Make sure to glue the edges where your two strips will meet so they are attached to each other.

Now it's time to fill in that letter.
I don't really plan ahead here.  I suppose you could sketch out what you wanted to do but I don't.  I did know before I started that I wanted some big curls coming off the top of the L and I wanted 3 curls coming down.  I also wanted one corner full of tiny curls.  I did those ones first and then filled in the rest as I liked.  I like lots of curls but not enough to be overwhelming.

Take a strip of paper in the colour of your choice (not brown though, we're done with that) and you're going to wind it around an item.  Here's where you need the toothpick, needle and pen.  I use the toothpick 90% of the time because it's easier but the needle gives a tighter curl in the centre so sometimes's it's useful, especially if you're working on a small curl.  I read once that you're suppose to slightly wet the end of your paper to help turn, I hope it doesn't gross you out to learn that I actually just use my tongue on the end a little.  Press the end around the toothpick to give it a little bend and then wind around a couple times.  The amount of times you wind depends on the size of the curl.  Once you take the toothpick out you have a curl that stops pretty suddenly, the tail that you didn't wind has no curl at all, like in the diagram below.

You want the tail to have more of an arc so I use the pencil here to help give it some shape, just slightly bend it around the pencil.  Before you cut your tails off hold your paper up to your letter to make sure it fits and then mark with your pencil and cut.  Glue like you did before and hold until it's dry (the tweezers really help you fit everything in).  If there is going to be a cluster of curls together I like to line them all up before I glue any of them.

Here's a couple of views of mine in progress.

And here's the finished L

Once you've glued all of your paper down take your paint brush and lightly brush glue over the entire letter to secure it.  You want to be careful here because if you get little blogs of glue you can see them a little at the end, they look extra shiny.  Try not to get blogs stuck in the corners.

Now it's time to frame.  I use the back of the frame as a template for my patterned paper and cut out a rectangle.  Then you need to cut out the centre.  To decide the size I roughly measure my letter (curls and all), this one was about 4"x6".  My Frame was 7"x9" so I decided I'd make a 1/2" patterned border with a 1/4" trim.  I measured down that amount on all sides of my rectangle and connected the lines to make a rectangle inside my original.  Then I use a straight edge and exaco knife to carefully cut out the centre rectangle.  You're left with this (minus the blue trim, sorry).

For the trim I cut out 4 strips 3/4" thick.  I cut them to length and then used a 45 degree ruler to give them that mitered look.  I only cut 1 end of each diagonally because the straight edge will tuck under.  I cut them 3/4" thick because I can then line them up with the edge of the frame to make sure they're straight.  The paper left sticking out is 1/4" like I wanted.  Here are two of my pieces cut, and two of them glued already.  This is where you use your glue runner.

I like to cut my letter to size last and I just eyball it.  I place it underneath my frame, line it up and then cut it to size.  Glue it to the frame, re-assemble and it's finished.

I keep wanting to declare this one as my favorite yet but they're all so pretty that I'm not sure there can be a favourite.

You should all check out this link, it's where I saw the original idea.  She also gives a tutorial and her H is beautiful.


Yay, I've been featured!

Halloween Scrooge

I openly admit it, I'm a Halloween Scrooge, specifically when it comes to decorating.  I decorate minimally for Christmas and that's the only season I decorate for.  I suppose part of that comes from always living in rental units with limited storage but it's not something I plan on changing any time soon.

The problem though is this, I read a whole lot of blogs and I can't even begin to estimate how many Halloween projects I've seen.  They're very cute but I have no use for them and I'll be so happy when this holiday is over so I don't have to look at another craft project involving ghosts, spiders, skeletons or pumpkins for another year.  Also I feel I have no place calling myself a crafty blogger since I don't have a fireplace mantel to decorate, that seems to be required.

(I am quite concerned that once Halloween is over the Christmas projects will start and I'll be just as sick of them)

Please forgive my Halloween rant.

Saucer Chair Re-Cover

Tonight I got to work on a saucer chair re-cover again.  This is the third chair I've re-covered, you can see the first here and the second here.  This is a project I really enjoy so when my friend asked for help with one for her daughter I happily said yes.  In just a couple of hours we created this beautiful, unique chair.

It started out looking like this.  I'm sure High School Musical is lovely but not something she needs to advertise in her home.  I think the dots are a great improvement.

Teddy did all the work, I just instructed and she did an awesome job with all of the sewing, it's definitely a project she can be proud of.  Hopefully Taeya thinks it's a fun present. 

What Catie Wore Wednesday #10

Another round to prove just how cute she is.

Wednesday

An outfit you've seen already but it's still cute.
White T - H&M
Grey Pants - H&M
Pink sparkly runners - Zellers


Thursday

She didn't actually wear this all day but when she wasn't wearing this Carter's onesie she was wearing an outfit you've already seen.  This picture was much more fun.  Her hair looks so awesome because I gave her a bath and then put her down for a nap right after.

Friday

Pink T - Superstore
Brown Pants - Old navy
Shoes - Zellers
Mr. Brown - Toys R Us

(You can check out the car seat re-cover I did here)

Saturday

We went to the zoo today and Catie rode the carousel for the first time and she loved it.  She looks a little nervous but she warmed up to it pretty quick.

Striped dress shirt - Superstore
Cardigan - H&M
Skinny leg jeans - Children's Place
Shoes - Zellers

Sunday

It's a shame she didn't see Grandma West at all today because this will be her favorite dress that Catie has ever worn.  It's as close to a lamp shade dress as she's ever worn and it has tulle underneath to help it be big and adorable.

This dress is on loan so I'm not sure where it's from.
Headband - made by me
White Onesie - Carter's
White Jelly Shoes - Anabanana

Monday

Again she didn't wear this all day but she did wear it long enough to earn a picture.  Her real clothes were ones you've seen before.

Sleeper - Sears

Tuesday

White long sleeve onesie - Carters
Navy T - Superstore (it has cute embroidery on the front)
Jeans - Old Navy
Shoes - Zellers

There you have it, hope you think she's as cute as I do.

Linking up to

Car Seat Re-cover 2

Remember when I re-covered Catie's car seat and it was awesome?  It was less than awesome to discover that there was no tether strap meaning it couldn't be turned forward facing.  My parents had given me two carseats though, one was on loan to my sister-in-law.  We got that one back temporarily while we called the car seat manufacturer and arranged for a new tether strap.  While we waited I decided to re-cover the temporary car seat and then I loved the fabric so much that this is now the permanent car seat, the other will go back to my sister-in-law, tether strap attached.

Here she is, transformed.

She started out as this (we'd already taken the headrest off, sorry), not too offending but nothing special.  The worst part being how dirty it was.

Here's a gross story.  I gave Catie a drink of water while she was in the car and the water spilled a little onto the neck strap cover.  When we took her out of the car she had a huge, gross brown spot on her shirt.  Filthy stuff had leaked out of the strap when it was wet... super gross, I know.

I took the seat apart and stripped it down to this.

The last seat made me a little smarter, I discovered on that one, unexpectedly that the fabric was glued directly to the foam meaning if you want to re-use the foam (which I did) then you have to cover up the old fabric instead of removing it.  I expected the same on this seat so before I started I threw the seat, the neck straps and the seatbelt into the washing machine.  I used the gentle cycle and cold water and I didn't put it in the dryer, this time I had a nice clean seat to start with and wasn't just covering up that filth.  One other tip that comes out of this, since you're covering up the original fabric your new fabric should probably be something dark so the old doesn't show through the new.  The fabric on the last car seat had quite a bit of white and I felt like it ended up looking not as crisp because the dark fabric showed though slightly.

Once my seat was clean I started unpicking.  I could tell pretty quickly that this seat was a little more complicated than the last so I started by unpicking one side only.  I left the other in tact so I could use it as a reference (this photo shows the one side unpicked as well as a piecve on the bottom).

A brief pause to talk about my fabric.  As I drove to Fabric Addict I remember thinking that I really need to make sure I don't choose something that's directional, it would be really difficult to work with.  That thought disappeared when I grabbed the stripes to go with that awesome gold-y brown.  I love the combination and I had visions of carefully cutting my fabric so the stripes were all going exactly the same way.  I spent nearly an hour trying to make this happen before I decided that the shape of my pieces made that impossible.  I was right that the stripes were hard to work with but I'm not unhappy with my choice.

After finally giving up on lining up the strpes this project went much quicker, I  doubled my fabric so the two sides would at least be the same and then I used my foam as a pattern.

Occasionally when I'm working on a project I'll do something that adds time but really improves the quality and when I do it I often wonder if other people would think I'm crazy, I'm going to share one of those moments.  Since I've done a lot of re-covering I've decided that when working with foam or batting, no matter how carefully you cut out your pieces it's really difficult to make sure your fabric lines up just right once it's all sewn together.  I was always trimming away a little bit of foam or batting making the new piece slightly smaller than the original so once it was re-covered it would fit a little snug.  To fix that I've started cutting out my piece a little too big, like this.

I then sew the fabric to the foam, really close to the edge (of the foam) using a large stitch (I use a large stitch because I tend to make mistakes and a big stitch is much easier to unpick than a little stitch).  There are going to be other seams to re-enforce so this step is just to secure the fabric temporarily.  I sew really close to the edge to make sure this seam is covered up by your following seams so it's never seen. Once my fabric is on I trim it to be exactly the right size.  This means I cut things twice but I get a really good fit.

I also decided on this piece to not remove any of the elastic.  It has elastic to hold the seat snugly on the frame and it was attached to the back of the foam and I knew I'd need to re-attach it anyway so I just left it on, it made a couple pieces tricky to work with but I liked not having to unpick.

Once my new fabric was all sewn on and trimmed I re-assembled my side pieces, using the still intact side as a guide.  I tried it on the frame and it looked like this, pretty good start hey?

I unpicked the second side, used my already cut out fabric to end up with this

Originally I had thought I would put fabric on both the front and the back of the foam but the back had a nice black coating and looked fine as is so on all the pieces except one I only covered the front.  The piece I changed was the one in the very middle because there was no way I was going to unpick those 8 button holes.

Now we'll talk about the odd design of this car seat...I have no idea what the purpose of it is but the middle piece flaps forward (circled in white), the top of it isn't attached to the piece above it (so hard to explain).  That meant that there were 4 seams that were hidden (the 4 red arrows). 

Since I don't understand the usefulness of this design I wasn't willing to change it, what if one day I figured out what it was for but I'd made it not work anymore?  (I've since discovered that the cut out allows for the headrest to be secured, it's a good thing I didn't change the design.).

To re-create this piece I used the original as a pattern to get my size and I cut out 2 rectangles, making sure to leave seam allowance where the seams were hidden.  Then, putting right sides together I sewed up those 4 sides where the arrows were.  I trimmed the top two corners to make them turn better (in hindsight I sort of wish I hadn't, I think rounded corners would have looked better).  You can see the two sides that I left open.

I turned it right side out and stuffed the foam in through the openings on the side. 

Before I stuffed in the foam I measured my button holes to know just how big they were, this helped later.

To make the button holes I used my finger to feel where they started and marked it with a pin.  Since the foam is cut you can feel the original, I used that as a guide and drew a line with a sharpie, using my ruler to mark how long they should be.  I only marked two at a time knowing that my fabric would shift a bit as I worked on them.

Sewing 8 really long button holes takes a surprisingly long time and I wish I'd used a thread that coordinated with the fabric better, I just didn't think of it at the time and I'd used black everywhere else.  Also, you should probably only put in a couple pins in at a time, I put a pin at the start of all 8 button holes and ended up gouging myself so good I needed a band aid.

For the bottom piece I was able to unpick the black covering (not the button holes though), tuck it up out of the way, sew on my new fabric and then untuck and re-sew, all so I didn't have to unpick those 3 button holes.  I didn't measure these holes first, I just used my finger to feel how big they were.  I did make the centre one (the one the buckle comes out of) bigger because I had a heck of a time getting the buckle through it when I took the cover off.

For the remainder of the pieces I just used a basting stitch to secure the new fabric then I re-attached everything and added some black bias tape (possibly the worst part of the entire project, it was so awkward).  I then re-assembled everything.  So now it looked like this.

At this point I put the seat in the car and we used it for two weeks while I waited to come to Calgary to pick up the headrest (we first started using it when we were in Calgary and she seemed too little for the headrest and we forgot to take it home).  I then took my time re-covering those two pieces (they were not fun to do) and finally attached them back on.  She looks far more comfortable with the headrest and I love the way it looks.

Here are a couple more before and afters (most of the afters are without the headrest because those photos were much better).

I did the neck strap covers different on this seat, they're not removable, just little rectangles with rounded corners with bias tape that got folded in half and sewed up one side.  The seat belt slips through them before the seat was re-assembled.  I like the look of them better and I'll always do them this way from now on.

This one shows the fabric combination close up.

Yay, I was featured!