Miniature Chair Tutorial

Materials:

Fabric
Ribbon
Fabric glue (I use fabritac)
Film Canister
Scissors
Sharpie Marker
Cardstock Paper

Step One:

Mark your film canister at 1 1/2" and very carefully cut the excess off.

Step Two:

Measure on your cardstock paper for the back of the chair 1 1/2" by 3". Seat of the chair 1 1/2" by 1 1/4". Fold on one side of the measurement and cut it out so you have a folding measurement.

Step Three:

Glue the two pieces together as shown in the photo and let dry.

Step Four:

Using scotch tape or packaging tape, tape the back of chair to the film canister.

Step Five:

Turn the chair over, lay, fold, and glue fabric to the lip of the edge of the cardstock. This holds the back of the chair together and makes a nice seam in the back. Fold the cardstock and glue the two back pieces together.

Step Six:

After the back of the chair cardstock is folded over and glued, flip your chair over and measure to the back edge of your chair seat. This will give you the measurement you need to trim your fabric at the edge of the seat. Pin to mark where you will cut. Don't cut yet!

Step Seven:

My measurement was at 2 3/4", so I measured it out, and marked the fabric at that measurement. It is important that you get this measurement as exact as possible or it will mess the chair up. Also Measure from the bottom of the chair to the seat, mark this measurement too. This photo shows the bottom cut, but don't cut the fabric yet!

Step Eight:

Once you've marked where your cuts will be, make another mark at each side of the top of the chair as shown in the picture. This measurement is about 1/2" or 3/8" from the sides, as long as each side has the same width marked (do not cut this measurement out). You'll have a total of 4 cuts, 2 at the seat of the chair, and 2 where you've placed your pins and marked. Make the cuts now.

Step Nine:

Now you can fold the two bottom pieces over the film canister and glue. This part of the chair wont show when you're finished.

Step Ten:

Now glue each edge of the sides of the back of the chair and fold and press your fabric to it, let this dry. You have a slight little lip of fabric at the point you measured for the seat of the chair, don't cut this off!

Step Eleven:

Once your fabric is glued and dry, at that lip, glue again so that the fabric is like a fold of an accordian. Hopefully this makes sense too. In toward the chair, then back the opposite direction, directly on top of what you just glued. Once your glue is almost dry, fold your fabric over the front of the backrest and glue. Don't glue the seat yet.

Step Twelve:

Measure where your fabric will meet the base of the front of your chair, mark as a straight line, and trim. If you'd like to use a no fray liquid, or fold and glue the front seam of your chair for a nicer look, mark and do that now. I didn't do either since this was an experiment. Now glue the fabric to the seat of the chair, and the front of your film canister and let dry. Make sure the front of your chair seam lays how you'd like it before your glue dries. Note in the photo below that I didn't do step 11 yet, which means your chair will look just slightly different than this photo. I learned as I did this project it would be easier to do step 11 glueing before trimming the base (step 12)

Step Thirteen:

Fold over and glue the back edge of the material to the back seams of your chair. This leaves quite a bit of fabric for you to choose how you'd like it to lay on the sides. You can make several tucks with this, or simply fold all of the excess over for a clean line. Once you decide how you'd like the sides of your chair to look, glue the front edges of the fabric in the same fashion as the back. For this chair I added a little bridal netting in the front corner folds, you could also use a coordinating colored fabric for any of the folds

Step Fourteen:

For the ribbon I used 3mm ofray. Add your ribbon, and you're done!

If you have any questions about this tutorial please contact Cathy at the link below: