Foam Chair Re-cover

Everyone remember this chair?

I didn't have plans to re-cover it until Catie was much older so it sat in our kitchen but Catie loved it and often went over to play with it.  I decided it was time to tackle this project.

I've now re-covered a bunch of items so I wasn't concerned at all when I started this project, besides, they look so simple right?  Not right.  Foam chairs are difficult.

I started as I usually do by unpicking.  I hadn't unpicked much before I noticed just how many seams there were and how they fit together a bit like a puzzle.  I knew I'd never get them back right if I wasn't really careful so I took a Sharpie and marked each corner where the seams met.  So if there were two seams I would put a star by each of them, then on the next one I'd put a circle using different shapes as I went.

It also didn't take much unpicking before I was real sick of it, they'd used a plastic thread that was really hard to pick through so instead I just cut the thing apart on the seam and then added a seam allowance where necessary.  Definitely the right move.

Here are all my pieces cut apart, you can see my markings on all the corners (I couldn't be bothered to move the pink shoe or the block).

I layed the cut pieces on my fabric and cut them out leaving the old pieces pinned to the new so I wouldn't forget where the markings went.

I had planned to use my serger to sew this back together so I pulled it out, took 20 minutes to thread itproperly, broke 3 hard to find needles and put it away.  I also put the cut pieces away and left them stuffed in a bag.

At least a week later I took out the pieces and could not have been more grateful that I'd left them pinned and marked the corners so well.  There is no way I would have got the chair back together without the markings.

Using my markings I sewed it back together and ended up with this.

Not good (it looks much worse in person).  Not really remembering where the seams went I had started in a random place and ended up with some puckering and I used too much of a seam allowance in some parts so the cover is a little small in places.  These photos don't have the elastic on the bottom to help pull the fabric tight but even without it you can see how poorly this chair turned out.

I'll definitely be unpicking some of these seams but since I have no intention of doing it soon I thought I'd at least post about my failure of a chair.

I guess it's a start and my second attempt should be much better.  Hopefully my third attempt for Michelle will be better still.