Huge Mistakes. Mistakes that were huge.

Yesterday was a long day. So when I got home from work I was determined to make some progress on my orange / soon-to-be pink chairs. Before I knew it, 3 hours had gone by and my basement upholstery session turned into a major disaster after I made some pretty huge mistakes.

I cried. And not just "drop a few tears out of frustration" cry (although that's how it started) - I full-on cried.

Overreaction? Arguably. But here's how it went down:

Perfectly cut fabric, perfectly labeled, ready to go.
I start with the seat of chair #1. Slightly frustrating to get the fabric cut just perfectly around the arms/legs and be sure it was straight and didn't bunch - but it was tacked down and I was generally pleased.
Onto the back  - and this is where things get ugly.

In order to get around those arm slots the fabric needs to be cut just so: just the right angles and just the right depth. Having never worked with this type of chair before, I did lots of research (and I love research - so I mean I looked up every tutorial, read everything in all 3 of my upholstery books, watched youtube videos - the whole deal) and I was feeling confident.

And then, after a good hour of perfect cutting and measuring I was ready to tack this down (or so I thought) . . . and then I realized it was crooked. Not "I'll be the only one to ever notice because it's not that bad" crooked - but REALLY crooked. To make it worse: the pattern didn't line up perfectly with the pattern on the seat. Would've been easy enough if I could just straighten it out - but with all my cuts on both sides it was impossible. Fabric = garbage.

Few tears of frustration start but I moved on to the back of the other chair - determined to get this right. And, long story short, I work really hard on this one too and end up making a few cuts WAY too deep, completely ruining the fabric. Classic rookie mistake.

Cue the waterworks.

See that bunching around the arms? I was trying to smooth that out and just cut in too deep

And so, all that was accomplished last night was the seat of one chair. 3 hours. One seat. And some ruined fabric.

You can't see it in this photo but I promise you that fabric on top is a mess around those arms

I contemplated taking these to the dumpster this evening, but Michael did too much work on them already (and I tend not to be a quitter). Instead, my lunch hour today will consist of a trip back to the fabric store (I'm not even letting myself think about what happens if they don't have the fabric anymore . . . ) so I can start fresh tonight.

I am also thinking creatively about how I can use the ruined fabric . . . new coin purse, anyone?