Just 3 left!

 3 classes that is! After this week we’re in the home stretch. We were working away this week and finally get to start trying to work out every little wrinkle or bunched fabric or spot with too much cotton. We finished tacking the inside back piece on and then went over it again and stapled it. 4 pieces of fabric complete (seat, inside back, both inside arms) and just 3 left (outside back, both outside arms).

We got started on the outside arms but ran out of time. To start, we measured out muslin in the same size as each fabric piece and then attached a strip of cardboard at the top.

(So you can see here that we have our fabric, face-down, a layer of muslin, and then just sewed the cardboard strip right at the top)

Once you fold over the fabric you don’t see the stitches and you create a nice straight line. We attached the top cardboard piece underneath the arm (carefully covering the staples attaching the inside arm fabric) and then pulled down the muslin and stapled that down right away.

When we start class next week we’ll pick up on the arms: add a layer of cotton over the muslin and then we can tack down the fabric and figure out how to get those outside arms as smooth and beautiful as their insides. It’ll be tricky.

While we’re finishing up with the ol’ slipper chair, I decided to get started on Pauline. Turns out she probably won’t be heading to Cincinnati after all (she’s a little larger than we hoped) so I decided to just go for it. I sat in the basement and carefully took off each piece of fabric – which turned out to be fairly easy on this chair.

Then, as she sat mostly naked, I decided that the caning on the sides just wasn’t cutting it for me.

So I took it off. Then regretted it.

I thought it would come off pretty easily and that I could either leave the arms plain or simply upholster the arms like the back – but boy, that caning did not come off easily. And it’s sharp! And then I realized that it would have saved me a lot of time to just leave it.

Oh, well. Damage done.

I’m hoping to finish removing all the staples and remaining caning over the next week or so and then figure out how to move forward. I need to invest in a good pair of pliers to get the rest of the caning off. 

Right now I think I’ll leave the arms plain and paint all of the wood and see what that looks like. Then, if they need a little pick-me-up, I’ll give them some fabric.

Kate