bet weennapso nt hepo rch.nethttp://betweennapsontheporch.net/101-things-you-can-do-with-o ld-jeans-no-4-upho lster-a-chair/

Susan (BNOTP)

101 Things You Can Do With Old Jeans, No.4: Upholster a Chair!

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Welcome to the 233rd Metamorphosis Monday!

I love blogging! I’ve met so many wonderf ul dearhearts while blogging and each one has been a blessing in mylif e. Recently af ter posting about some craf ty things I made f rom old jeans here, here and here, I received adelightf ul e-mail f rom Carol. Carol wrote:

Susan, I follow all of your blogs and we have talked before, you make my inbox a joy to open everyday! I do notblog and do not know how to make a post or even attach one, but when I saw the post of what to do with olddenim I wanted to share with you what I did with my 3 sons and husbands old jeans I have been saving up foryears. Some of them–the knees are worn out of, the bottoms frayed, that makes them all the better. Rememberwhen the JNCO jeans were in with the little characters on them, we had those too. Lots of great memories here. I covered a chair with them all. I had to piece it like a crazy quilt and then cut out the pattern. My mother and myhusband helped me and then we all signed the back of the chair before we reattached the backing. We coveredthe back and seat with solid fabric so it would be more smooth and comfortable to set in. The only problem is, Ihave one chair and 3 boys…guess they can fight over it when I am gone! Ha, give them something to do!

Just wanted to share, for the book I hear you are going to write! (Smile) no pressure or anything, you know we allknow YOU CAN do it! Thanks,Carol

Carol enclosed a photo of the chair she covered along with the assistance of her hubby and mom and it isamazing! What a wonderf ul way to preserve so many wonderf ul memories, especially those of your children.

I get so sentimental over stuf f like this, I’d probably get misty-eyed every time my eyes settled on this chair.

At my request, Carol sent some f abulous detailed pictures, along with inf ormation/instructions about how shecovered the chair. (Carol’s comments are in quotation marks below.)

Carol said, “To reupholster the chair we had to remove and label all the f abric on the chair. It was a green f abricoriginally. You have to go into the seams and remove all the staples and tacks if you have decorative tacks onit holding the chair together. The pieces will just start coming of f and as you take the pieces of f , you labelthem lef t arm, f ront bottom, back, etc. because the right and the lef t will not necessarily be the same exactpattern.”

“Next I got out all of my old jeans and laid them out. I would take a pattern piece and see how big the f inishedpiece needed to be and, this is the hard part, start cutting all your precious memory jeans. I knew I wanted touse the unusual pieces of the jeans like pockets, labels even holes and stains.”

“I would lay my pieces right sides together and just sew them randomly. Somewhat like a crazy quilt, but my ownversion, I wanted it to look piecey but also I placed a piece where I wanted to see it. I would press it open af tersewing, lay it on the chair, arm, side, f ront, etc and then make sure I cut the pattern out so what I REALLY

sewing, lay it on the chair, arm, side, f ront, etc and then make sure I cut the pattern out so what I REALLYwanted to see would be f ront and center.”

“Chair is stripped down and we have started covering. You do not have to do anything but take the f abric of f toreupholster, it is really not that hard once you start. This was my f irst upholstery project and my mother taughtme how to do it. My husband helped with the pulling of the staples and putting them back, because he couldreally push and get them into the wood. If you want to add more batting to make it f luf f ier now would be thetime.”

“Here I am taking a picture of my mother and husband putting some of the staples in. My mother lives in Texasand only comes a couple times a year, I am in South Carolina. When she comes I always have some project todo so I can pick her brain and learn how to do it myself , there is nothing that she can’t do or won’t tackle. Thatis my goal one day! When I ask her, do you think we could cover that old green chair with the guys old jeans, itwouldn’t cost much if we did it ourselves, she said, “Sure we can!!!” I f orgot to tell her we would only have 2days to do it in, we also had an out-of - town trip planned f or her.”

“A lot of pieces come with a liner- like f abric attached to them to use as a stuf f er. To help you get your outsidef abric pulled and tucked into place, you need to remove that of f the original pieces and sew to your new f abric,when you stuf f it. As you can see here in the seat of the chair, you pull it taunt and staple it to the underside.Very easy how it all comes together.”

“Turned on its side we have added an arm and the back of the seat. We piped around the arms with the soliddenim. We used the solid denim f or the cushions seat and back and the back inside that would be covered upanyway by the cushions. We thought that would make it more comf ortable to sit in.”

I asked Carol to include lots of close-up pics and I loved all the inf ormation she included explaining why sheused certain pieces in the upholstering process.

Carol said, “My older son wore JNCO jeans and here is the litt le Wolf gang character on a pair of his.”

“Every time my boys got a new pair of jeans they had to get a running start and f all down on there knees andslide all the way down the isle, hallway, hill, or wherever, so they always had holes in their knees. I wanted tomake sure I used that on the chair. The lizard is f rom a bug jean jacket I bought f or my baby son when he wasjust two.”

“I wanted to use some part of it so I just cut out the lizard and sewed it on top and made a trail like he wasclimbing out of the hole.”

I especially love all the worn spots, proof of a lif e well- lived!

Carol said, “My husbands Wranglers (picture below) where he wore a hole in the seat, guess that’s why theywere in the discard pile. The stripes are f rom middle son’s baby overalls and baby son’s gap jeans are at theback. I f igured the remote could be stored in the pocket so you won’t loose it when it is not in someone’s hand. As you can see it is not in the pocket now, or hardly ever.”

“I could have pieced this more but I wanted the whole leg of that jean.”

“I liked it and also the stains on it. They were my husband’s and he was a Cowboy Bull Rider, so I wanted thestains and all f or the memories.”

“I liked that you could see where my husband’s billf old f it in his pocket.”

Carol’s sons are 28, 24 and 16 now. The time passes way too quickly, doesn’t it?

Carol said, ”There was a piece of cardboard on the back of the chair and I had everyone that had a hand indoing the chair sign it, and we wrote who all the jeans belonged to.”

Written on the cardboard: Made from Hunter, Houston, Hudson, Daddy (Duane’s) jeans, made with the hands of Me (Carol Johnson), husband (Duane Johnson ), and my mother (Patsy Svane)

Carol, thanks so much f or sharing this very special chair. It ’s a wonderf ul t ime capsule, capturing so many greatmemories f rom the lif e of your beautif ul f amily. I know this chair will inspire some young Moms to start holdingonto those old denim jeans. I wish I still had all the jeans my son wore over the years.

You’ll f ind three more DIY craf ts/projects made f rom old jeans under the DIY/Crafts category at the top ofBNOTP or click HERE.

Additional posts f or DIY projects on and f or f urniture can be f ound HERE.

Looking f orward to the Bef ore and Af ters posted f or this Metamorphosis Monday!

Metamorphosis Monday:

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Only link up Bef ore and Af ter posts that are home, gardening, craf ting, painting, sewing, cooking, DIY related.

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Looking f orward to your Bef ore and Af ter!

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