Working with light weight fabrics is your best bet, it is easier to fold and glue. But to be a thrifty person, one must use up what one already has. This blue material that I purchased for the train seat was a great material to glue, but is too thick to work with well. Using my silhouette cameo, the original pattern for the armchair was adapted. Here is one of my attempts.
Now, on to the armchair for the common room. My template has changed quite a bit, but this time it should work. The only thing is the burgundy fabric is thick and slippery. It is the right colour, though. The first picture shows my template and the seat and back cut and glued with foam board.
Gluing on the arms and doweling on the top. Very happy with the angle of the chair back.
Gluing on doweling for the arms.
Using an old oven mitt, adding on quilt batting to the doweling. Also glued on is card stock fronts for the arms, which will make a smoother looking chair.
The taping of fabric around the chair. Making the seat cushion and glueing the centre down to make it look well used.
The chair will be finished once I get my chair legs in the mail from Aliexpress. Next is making matching pillows with yarn as piping. The rug was bought on Aliexpress.
The second armchair to work on is a lovely one with some embroidery on the side. The pattern is two simple rectangles, cut from foam board. Two for the seats, and one for the back. Once the two seat pieces are glued together, a bit is cut off along the back edge to make an angle. the seat back is glued with weldbond (great on styrofoam). Pictured here is a piece of dowelling with padding glued to the top of the seat back.
Gluing strips of foam board to make the arms. The foam is cut and angled to make it conform to the chair I'm trying to make. Dowelling is glued to make the arms. Cardstock is glued to the front to make applying the fabric smoother.
Here you can see the angle a bit better. Cutting the padding for the arms. I used to use a rectangle shape, but this shape seems to look more functional.
Taping the embroidered sides to the chair. Here is the embroidered circle before putting it on.
The chair is done as much as possible. Still waiting for chair legs, and a little dollhouse rug runner to arrive.
The dollhouse rug runner has arrived, but is more beige and blue than orange and rust colour. Will enlist my mother to maybe tea stain it.
Stay tuned for more pics.
The couch is fairly simple, and in retrospect, should have started with that. The template was cut with the silhouette cameo and foam board was stacked and glued.
covering the arms with a little cushion and then taping the fabric onto the couch.
Taping material on the back and arms. The fabric is folded and taped to make a crisp line with no fraying.
Making the back cushion and seat cushion with foam board and quilted material from the old oven mitt. The seat back is covered with a thick layer on half and a thinner layer on top. Sometimes it works better to have a thin part and a thick part, it just depends on what kind of look you're going for. The seat has 3 layers. Covering the cushions was challenging but thankfully the side seams are hidden inside the couch.
Here is the finished couch. I put a fabric panel underneath, and strips of fabric around the bottom, i guess you call it a skirt. In the picture below, you can see the first couch I made is blue and needs some legs. There is a gryffindor scarf on the couch, which looks great!
This next chair is the one beside the couch, by the fireplace. It has wings and will be quite a challenge. Here is the basic support, with foam board for the seat and sides, and mat board for the back which has been bent to make an arch in the chair. Small doweling is used for this chair.
Here is the complicated part - trying to cover the chair. But the good news is the little scraps are being used up!
Starting to get good at taping the edges of fabric to make a nice fray free fabric piece. Using this L shape to cover the sides of the chair.
Making the seat cushion. I have found that I make the cushion after the chair is made, and just custom size it. Again waiting for chair legs. This chair will have a fringe but my mom has to dye it first.
The finished chair looks good, not as elegant as I would have liked, but still very recognizable.
On to the leather chair. My local Fabricland has some nice leather look fabric that may work to make the leather chair in the common room of Gryffindor. Wish me luck, this chair is a skinny chair and will be harder than covering the squashy chairs. My template is pretty simple. The white pieces are foam board, which is glued together.
Gluing leather fabric onto the foam board. Sequin pins are used along the arms.
This leather fabric is quite nice, thin enough to work with, but lots of texture to look like leather.
Using a marker, the edges will be coloured as close to the brown leather as possible. This chair shows it is lined with pillows. Hopefully I can make them to fit inside the chair.
The last 2 chairs are identical. they will be my biggest challenge and it might well break me from making furniture! In addition to upholstering, it is to have wooden pieces which I will try to make with oven bake clay. Here is the template and the beginnings of the foam board and doweling chair.
With such an interesting and challenging project, I forgot to take pictures, and some steps have been lost.
Oh, well, its just as well. I really dont like this chair and im only half done!
