Louis Style French Chair Make Over

I'm done the chair! There were a couple minor hiccups but it's completed. I'm a perfectionist, and the little mistakes I do see drive me nuts, but, it's my first one, it was a learning experience, and now I know what I can do differently if I come across another one.

So without further ado...

First off, I removed all the old fabric and trim and old staples.

I did a rough sand job with 180 grit sand paper.

I decided to do a dry painting technique to give the wood an aged look. (3 coats of this.) 

Once it was completely dry I went over some spots with 320 grit sandpaper to create some worn areas.

I used the old fabric to trace out my new material to fit the cushions, giving myself some extra room to pull the fabric while I stapled it to the chair. Once it was stapled in place, I trimmed the extra material off.

Next I used a stitch ripper to undo the old trim.

I kept the cord to make new double piping to trim the chair. I looked for instructions online to get a general idea of how to sew double piping. I found a tutorial explaining to sew the fabric around the first cord then folding the fabric around the second cord and sewing down the length again. I did this for the first few pieces of my double piping, but didn't like how my stitches weren't over lapping perfectly.

See? I'm a beginner sewer, so I'm sure someone with more experience would do a better job, but I decided to change my technique for the rest of the double piping.

I folded the fabric over the first cord, then layed the second cord over top of the fabric overhang, and wrapped the other side of the fabric over top of the second cord. I pinned it in place, then sewed down the length of the double piping only once, sewing both layers at one time. 

Here's a picture to show what I'm describing.

This left me with one clean stitch line.

Much better!

To finish off the chair, I used a hot glue gun to attach the double piping to cover all the staples.

And voila!

Finished!

Too bad it's the end of garage sale season. It will probably be awhile before I come across another one of these chairs.  I will have to keep my eye open for similar projects. Maybe an ottoman or something similar!

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!