Journey down the bumpy road of upholstering

That title sums up my next steps to this upholstery journey.  I left you with a fabric free settee.  I know your thinking just staple on the front and back fabric and call it a day but it just wasn't that easy.  You see this settee is curved.  The front back and back pieces of fabric were pieced together with 3 pieces sewn together.  I thought no problem.  I used the old fabric as a template and away I went.

First, when dealing with velvet remember to always consider the nap (which I forgot to check before sewing).  Mistake number one.  Lesson learned.  I resewed, stapled.  I was determined to not get any wrinkling around the seat back bottom of the settee around the curve.  I worked, cut, worked, stapled...  Took a break, then stapled on the back fabric piece for the settee.  I thought for sure I was in the final stretch of this race.  That is when my racing horse jumped off the track and headed me right for a tree!

I was utterly disgusted when I stood back to admire my work giving myself a premature pat on the back when I noticed how off the seams were on the seat back.  I tried to live with it for next two days but I knew I would not be happy.  I mean the seams were just staring at me sticking out their tongues.  Can you believe it?!   I was too mad to take a picture but here is where the seams were approximately.

Needless to say, I was not happy about removing the staples from the bottom back piece in order to remove all the staples holding on the seat back piece with the way off seams.  Let me just say that a pneumatic stapler gets the staples in pretty darn good.  After peeling away my first try with the seat back, I had learned that maybe I better make my own version instead of using the same template.  I folded the bigger portion of fabric in half and cut the edges in order to obtain the same edge on both sides.  Next, I pinned on the side portions with extra fabric to spare.  You can always cut it off not the other way around. 

After sewing the sections together, I checked, double checked, and triple checked.  Then, let the stapling begin (again).  I am pretty happy with the placement of the seams now.  I knew that I wasn't going to be recovering this again any time soon.  So, I just needed to get it right now instead of not enjoying it. 

The soap opera does not end here.  As with any good soap, I'm leaving you with a cliff hanger.  Will the settee be finished, will it be thrown off a cliff?  Tune in next time for As the Settee turns....