Wow, this nursing chair has taken a while to complete. I was given it in late 2012, and spent much time the week before I gave birth in February 2013 on my friend’s sewing machine, reupholstering it with grey fabric – you can follow its progress here, and see it with the matching footstool here. Continue reading
Tag: nursing chair
More cushions
I’ve just finished the back cushion for the nursing chair. I sewed it much the same as the seat cushion, except it was much thinner, so I managed to sew the fourth side closed, rather than having to use velcro like I did with the seat.
I tried to judge where the tabs were to attach it to the chair by eye, just looking at the old cushion cover. This went drastically wrong, and the velcro was hanging on by the skin of its metaphorical teeth because the tabs were in the wrong place.
When Barry then yanked the cushion off the seat (WHY?) on the day I finished it, I then burst into tears and had a bit of a paddy. Mostly baby-related, I’m sure. I’ve now taken the tabs off and reattached them, using the chair as a guide this time instead of, erm, nothing.
The arms have also now been completed. These were made from scratch with some foam I bought from eBay. The previous arm cushions had three press studs on the underside of each arm to hold them in place, so I also bought some silver coloured heavy duty studs from eBay that I hoped would fit the same studs (they did, phew!).
I sewed a pocket into the cushions (as the previous ones had them, although I’m not sure I’ll use them), and used the sewing machine to close all four sides. When the heavy duty studs arrived, it turns out they weren’t long enough to go through several layers of heavy duty upholstery fabric, so Barry tested them and it turned out they can go through two layers. I had to unpick one side of the sewing I’d done, Barry got to work in a manly fashion to hammer the studs into place, and then I resewed (is that a word?) that side closed.
It’s not amazing craftsmanship, so you can’t look too closely, but I am very proud of this chair! I’m hoping when the weather brightens up a bit, Barry will take up the painting mantle and paint it white.
Just waiting now for some staples to arrive and we can do the last part – the stool.
Preparing the chair
OK, so I’m delaying things until I get paid, but in the meantime I’ve got one book from the library about reupholstering to look at (which I haven’t yet actually opened), I’ve ordered the foam to replace in the arm bits and I’ve been for advice from (ie, facebooked) my friend Michelle about what to do with the actual frame of the chair and stool because she’s amazing and does this kind of thing all the time. In the meantime, Charlie’s sewing machine is sneaking me little looks and making me feel guilty, but I get paid at the end of this week and I’ll order the fabric and press studs then.
Michelle’s response to my DIY SOS was that she would sand the existing varnish off, prime it if I can be bothered (I think I can) and buy a spray paint made for wood. Then seal it with a matt varnish. I’m pretty sure I’ll have to do all of this outside as well, which doesn’t help as we’ve just had a load of snow come down.
In the meantime, I’m a man with a plan – I’m in town on Friday and Monday meeting people, so thought I’d nip into Wilkos for some primer. I daren’t start sanding until I actually have the primer, so I’m basically delaying everything for another few days.
What I don’t want to do is get all the bits and then have the baby early, because, let’s face it, that fabric will be thrown over that chair in the blink of an eye and the poor chair will never see a sewing machine or a paint brush.