I spent some time working on the upholstery today and yesterday.
I showed above that I was using a white upholstery fabric. Turned out to be a bad idea. I think upholstering something in white is Ok if you have a clean, dedicated studio but when the only place you have to work is a grubby garage then it's impossible to keep it clean.
So I changed to a red fabric. That will mean the woodwork will need to be repainted as well.
This is progress so far
Attachment 420586
I don't really like this fabric either. The colour is OK but the style is dated. Shame. Too late to change now.
Doing the base was pretty straightforward. Just 'cut and staple', pushing the edges under the sharktrim.
The backrest was done, again, by fixing 25mm foam and 200gsm wadding to thin plywood, and then folding the fabric over and gluing down. Just like lining a jewellery box.
The armrest was also just cut and staple, no sewing required. Getting the pleats right and all held in place by the sharktrim was amazingly frustrating. Or perhaps there is a better way to do it that I don't know about - maybe sewing the pleats first somehow before fitting the fabric. I just can't visualise in 3D strongly enough to know how that would work.
Ultimately the pleats rather loose their shape anyway being over soft foam and wadding.
The successful strategy was to put permanent staples in the concealed portion of the pleat, fold the fabric over and then hold in place with temporary staples. Try to get them all balanced and held down securely, then remove temp staples. On the bottom side of the scroll there is no timber to staple the sharktrim to, so it's held in place by hot-melt glue.
Anyway, the job is sound even if not as pretty as I had hoped.
Doing the bed part will take some time.
Cheers
Arron
Ps, this is how you fix sloppy woodworking in upholstery - just chop up some cardboard and staple it on. No sophistication needed.
Attachment 420587