Reupholstering an Arm Chair Tutorial Part 2: How to Cut the Fabric

If you recall, a couple of weeks ago I started a 3 part tutorial on how to reupholster a chair. While I intended to share part 2 last Monday, that didn't happen. Life and tools got in the way. Does that ever happen to you?? I have a new pneumatic staple gun, so I'm back in business. If you missed the original post where I removed all the old upholstery and shared the tools I used, you can find it back on February 17th, click here. In that post, I share the importance of keeping the old upholstery in tact rather than just taking an X-Acto Knife to the fabric and ripping it all away. While that would certainly be faster, you wouldn't have a pattern with which to cut your fabric.

I started with the back of the chair as it is one of the largest pieces and I wanted a floral scene to be centered on it.

For the back , forward facing piece of fabric, I used the actual cushion as a pattern. Because this piece was tufted, I could not use the old fabric as a pattern. In next week's post I will show how to wrap this cushion so that it is smooth and untufted!! I did cut it 2 inches larger all the way around.

After I cut out the fabric for the back of the chair, I then cut out the top and bottom of the seat cushion. One thing I find helpful, is to mark your pieces of fabric so that if you have to walk away from a project for a while, then you are not thoroughly confused when you return to it. Here I marked TC for top of the cushion, yes it is with a sharpie, but it is in the seam allowance and I'm not a big fan of fabric markers because I have never found one that works!!!

After cutting the four main parts of the chair, I used scraps of fabric to cut 3" strips, which I will then sew together for the cording that with go around the seat cushion.

There are four main pieces to this project, two for the back cushion, 2 for the bottom and then the strips of fabric that will be used for the piping. Once I get the chair frame painted, I will be ready to start the reupholstering!!! So please stay tuned!!

Important Note: I used 21/2 yards of 54" wide fabric. The fabric is Waverly and came from JoAnn's. The cutting board, rotary cutter and scissors also came from JoAnn's.