Lots of double welting, and chair progress (part 2)

Lots of double welting, and chair progress (part 2)

• 7.22.2013

You may remember I'm currently in the middle of a Louis XV chair re-upholstery project. Yikes!! I have several big projects going on right now (sitting around the house halfway done... a little stressful!) but this chair is coming along the fastest. Had to share a few updates since I last posted about it, and get some advice!!

So, first I restored the base seat with the foam from the original, which was in great shape. I opted to put a layer of muslin over the top of it, since my new fabric isn't as thick as the old one.

Then I very carefully stretched the back piece on, and then added the original webbing reinforcement (not shown).

Then I put the original orange foam back in, and stapled the top layer over that.

Then I got tired and put the chair in the living room for a while (and Instagrammed it), where I decided it looked very good. Now I don't want to move it upstairs when it's done! I'll have to decide that later. For a while I just draped the excess fabric over the old seat cushion to make it a little more presentable (left). Still covered in staples and needed a new cushion cover... hard parts coming up!

So this weekend I knuckled down and recovered the cushion. I used the old one's fabric for a pattern and bought some thick cording to make the piping. (See the original here.) I haven't made covered buttons yet and am not sure if I will... again, I reused the foam and padding from the original, which had some covered button tufting. I probably should make some grey ones for the new upholstery... but at least it's usable now.

So, now I only have one major step left... attaching the double welt cording! (Step 4 in the tutorial I'm using, though I did it out of order.) Because yes, I just made 10 YARDS OF DOUBLE WELTING. It took a looooooong time. I definitely watched both Wedding Crashers and The Proposal yesterday. And some old SNL's on Hulu. Had some time finally and made all this cording!

I hadn't cut my bias tape quite wide enough so the first pass was super slow-going and tricky. The second row of piping was much easier, actually, and then I had just a little wedge to trim off. (See pics of how to do it here.)

Phew! OMG, that's a lot of piping.

So my question now is, do I need to go buy Magna-Tac, or can I use glue I already have here? Or, what's the best glue for this kind of upholstery use? I can't imagine glue being strong enough to hold it on, since the original had teeny tiny staples going through the middle of the welting.

Has anyone done this, and have any suggestions?