Redo, Renew, Reuse: Diamond Tufting: Attempt #1

Oops. So I drafted this post last week sometime and then accidently saved it rather than posted it! Just realized that today. So, a little late, but here she is anyway. Gives you some of the inside scoop to ol' Pauline anyway.

So, Pauline needed some work done last weekend and I didn't waste much time. I finished removing the caning and sanding everything down on Friday and then she got her first coat of blue spray paint right before the rain rolled in.

I did another coat on Saturday morning and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. A little brighter than I was anticipating but I think it's good. Cheerful, even.

Next up: Button covering.

Full disclaimer: I have never done any sort of button covering, much less diamond tufting, and I read every possibly warning and tutorial on the internet and in all my upholstery books. Underlying theme throughout: it's not for beginners.

I did it anyway. The whole "not for beginners" thing hasn't ever really stopped me before, right?

So I started with the buttons. The beautiful yellow velvet buttons with a nice clasp back.

Turns out covering buttons isn't so difficult. I measured out the fabric, cut little circles, and used a running stitch along the edge of the fabric. I left the original yellow fabric on, put the button in the middle and just pulled the string (like a drawstring bag), tie it up, and voila! Button covered.

14 buttons later, this is what we've got:

Now, what to do with them.

Unfortunately, I got a little excited and for got to document any of my next steps. I woke up early Sunday morning and immediately got to work on figuring out this back piece. Basically, it's a piece of 1" foam and a layer of cotton with the diamond pattern cut out. I then did some work to carefully get the pattern on my fabric (which isn't nearly as easy as it sounds).

And within an hour or two I had this:

Is it perfect? No. But it's a good first try. I did some work to even out some of those wrinkles and little whiskers but it's still not as perfect as I'd like.

Then I simply tacked it into the edge of the chair and applied some piping all the way around. Unfortunately, as I did that, some dreaded wrinkles came back. I think I can do some work to get them out but I'll have to play with it a bit.