I thought I would have part 2 of the desk chair reupholstery project ready to post, however, there were setbacks. Plural.
The first issue arose with threading wire through the channel I created at the edge of the new cover.
My chair does not have the fabric stapled to the underside. There are metal tabs it hooks into and threading the channel is important to keeping the cover in place.
The old cover had wire threaded through its channel. I didn't have any wire, so I thought I'd use the old wire. If I gathered up the extra material, it should work fine even with the new cover being larger to accommodate the additional cushion.
Nope, that didn't work.
The wire was difficult to thread through the channel, and once I ran out of slack, the thing wouldn't budge. I decided that I could substitute twine instead of wire, but the wire was now stuck because the end had frayed and was sticking through the fabric.
Seam ripper time--except the thread was black and the fabric is nearly black with flecks and dashes, making the thread close to invisible. I heard they make seam rippers with lights and magnifiers so I ordered one of them. As it turned out, I didn't need the magnification at all, what I needed was the LED lighting. I got the seam open, fixed the wire, and then tugged it free.
After the ordeal of threading the wire, I feared the worst with the twine, but it went in relatively easily. Time to put it on the chair!
Here is where bitter disappointment struck.
I used the old cover as a template and then I made the new cover six inches larger, thinking that would be more than enough to cover the new foam I'd added.
I was wrong.
While I managed to have enough in front, the rear and the sides toward the back didn't come close to reaching the metal tabs. Not even squishing the foam and pulling with my other hand got the fabric to the tabs.
I had a second problem. I assumed I'd be able to pull the string, gather up the fabric, and fasten it below. The string wouldn't pull enough fabric in. I was only able to gather it near where it entered/exited the channel I'd sewn.
The only thing I can think to do is cut a strip of fabric and sew it to the piece I already made. I'll also have to add multiple twine egress so that I can gather the fabric in sections.
I'm disheartened and temporarily putting this project on hold.
