Ruffled Mini-Skirt Chair

Can you believe this chair was made out of this?.......

When I saw this chair I definetely looked past the blue furriness and saw some great lines on a fun chair. I spent the whole $6 to buy this furry loveliness and took the blue bunny home(too bad it wasn't the ice cream kind). 

I undressed her and had a pile of blue fur to show for it. I used these peices as a crude pattern.  

The chair all naked. I knew I had to start with the back first because it was the hardest part and once I had it done, the rest would be easy. 

The chair had great bones....just needed a cosmetic lift. 

The baby went to bed early one evening(which yes, meant she was up earlier in the night than usual) and I started my upholstering project. 

This fabric I had used once before on one of my first benches(the green bench shown on side bar) and I was so excited to see it again at Hancock Fabric. I bought just enough to do this chair(with a coupon, of course). 

I had never upholstered this type of chair before so I thought I would hand sew the pockets on the back. I got two pockets sewn and they just didn't look right so I quit for the night and the next day changed my plan. 

It just wasn't as tight as the original so I changed my plan. 

I sewed the pockets with my sewing machine the next day BEFORE upholstering them to the chair. 

SO MUCH TIGHTER!! 

Then I upholstered it to the back of the chair making the back rest of the chair. 

SO Awesome!!! So, I learned something new...don't be afraid to try new upholstery projects....just make sure that you watch as you pull it apart....that will give you the best idea of how to put it back together. 

Yeah....second try a hit!! 

I brought the fabric around the edge and tacked it to the frame. 

I upholstered the seat and then decided to put a fun twist on the chair. I added a second fabric. I added this new fabric to the back. I also am planning on doing a skirt(not as long and heavy as the first one but, short and ruffled) 

The back is looking finished....just need to put on the skirt and stain the legs(originally I wasn't going to re-do them because they weren't going to be shown if I made a skirt like the original chair) 

Once I decided to add the second fabric I knew I wanted to do something different...a cute chair with a twist. A mini-skirt....which meant I had to refinish the legs.  

These are the legs that need to be refinished and the skirt needs to be added.

I sewed cording and then ruffled the blue stripe fabric with a long straight stitch. I sewed the ruffle to the cording and then attatched it using the left over strip of brown cardboard with furniture upholstery tacks. 

Turn the ruffle back over and you get this...wahlah!! A Mini-Skirt! 

The legs of the chair needed some touch-ups. I used polyshades...a stain and sealer in one by minwax. It can be applied over top of an existing stain and can be used for touch-ups....you just have to be willing to do A LOT of layers to get the desired darkness you want. The darker the stain the more layers.

The ruffle is made out of the coordinating fabric I used on the back of the chair. So cute! 

I love the mini-skirt in-place of the heavy long skirt. 

It's a perfect accent chair. 

I am so glad I could find this fabric again. I love it!! The brown stain of the legs helps tie in the brown flower in the chair. 

The colors in the fabric are beautiful and tie in a lot of colors in my house. 

My favorite flower in the fabric is the white delicate one, so I made sure it was visible on the back and the seat. 

This chair is so FUN and FLIRTY....the skirt gives it an unexpected look and I think it turned out beautiful! 

UPDATE

I finally found my SD card that had these photos on it. Apparently I switched cards and well...then I couldn't find where I put it. So, here is what the legs looked like before they were finished. 

They looked a little beat up and the polyshades was the perfect product to fix them because it has the stain and shine(polyurethane) in it together. 

Here's the cording that is above the ruffle. I used nail tacks to attatch it to the chair. 

These are the strips of nail tacks(upholstery ones) that I used to attatch the ruffle and to put a bottom on the chair. I used the coordinating fabric to finish it off. 

I used a combination of antique walnut and cherry wood poly shades in order to match the chair perfectly. I was really impressed how well it matched.  

See...what a difference...this is after I put the antique walnut polyshade on and then I added the cherry overtop to get it even darker to match the rest of the stain on the leg perfectly.

So, here's to trying something new.....upholstering a chair and ruffling a mini-skirt! Something FUN to try!!