Crazy 'Ol Bird

this latest project was by far my most challenging. An arm chair with back and seat cushions sewn! after examining the pictures i was proposed with, i decided that i was up for the challenge. Here's the before:




the fabric that she chose was a print called 'crazy 'ol bird'. she also wanted contrasting cording to go with it. she brought over a bolt of 7 yards, but i had to go and fetch the rust color to make the cording still. i was excited to do a different and more colorful piece. however, i knew that this was going to be a lot of work...custom cording, sewing, learning, upholstering. so i began to shed the old fabric






once that was done, i started on cutting out the fabric



i took a break from the upholstery part, and decided to take on the part that i was fearing...the cushions. i also happened to have gotten this job the same week that i started a new job, and had to dog sit at a different location than where i was keeping the chair. at the time, it felt like this was never going to get done. but with a little determination, i pressed on. after watching some detailed how to videos, i learned the process to make zippered couch cushions. i went to steve's mom once again to use her amazing bernina sewing machine to zip through this.






VOILA!!!!!!!!!! mission accomplished. one of my biggest upholstery fears has been conquered:


check out that fancy hidden zipper


in the mean time, i decided that the waterfall skirt on the chair looked outdated, and i also realized that there wouldn't be enough fabric for one. luckily, i emailed her to see if she really wanted that skirt, and she said new feet instead would be more exciting. YES!!! now i get to go shopping...my favorite part. i took a picture of about 8 different feet for her, and we decided on this one:



OKAY...now it's back to upholstering. this was probably a record for how fast i got this chair done...a few hours one evening, and a few hours the next afternoon. i started with the arm


then onto the back


once i finished the arms and back i moved on to the backside of the chair


then i finished up the underside of the arms and the cording




once i finished the cording, i finished off the arms, flipped it over, and THE BEST PART:

put the black cover on the bottom...the tell tale sign of BEING FINISHED. i was pretty excited about attaching the legs...here it goes...





they look awesome....and so does the chair! the back cushion was a triumph as it took about 1/4 of the time that the bottom cushion took. here is the end result: