Biting off more than I can chew - part 3

Ta Daaaaah! 

Okay, it's not quite finished. I still need to put the "gimp" around the edges to hide the ugly staples. I need to sew miles and miles of welting so that I can make pillow cases, then I have to sew the pillow cases - and then I have to finish the back. Then... I have to sit on it.

 

I haven't had a chance yet. I am pretty nervous that the fabric (at the edges) is not strong enough to support people weight. Even though I used hundreds of staples.  

I have loads of iPad video - all stuck on the iPad. I still can't figure out how to get it off of there. I need to do this soon though because it is clogging all of the memory. The full extent of work will be shown there. 

I do have stills of some of the in-progress work such as stabilizing the left arm of the couch. It was seriously wobbly. So I followed instructions from the fabulous upholstery book and glued it all back together again. Clamped it overnight. Voilá! All good. 

 

Other than that the couch felt pretty good. The springs were still pretty tight. So I decided against re-stringing them. With Pedro's help we just applied another layer of webbing. I hope I did this right. Unfortunately it is a little bit visible in the front. After putting on the gimp - I'll see what I can do about that.

 

 Over the webbing I put this black stuff - it's feels like a synthetic of some kind, either a soft tyvek, or a pellon or something. Anyway, it's very smooth and I decided I should cover up that nice heavy burlap the cats love to claw so much. I hope it protects it. 

 

Then it was time to flip it back over and start the covering process.  

I had a lot of help:

Jacques made sure the old scraps didn't run off:

I think his favorite duty was testing the new cotton for softness:

Definitely approved.

 Sometimes the Supervisor/Inspector naps on the job.  

It's almost like they think it's their throne. Jacques didn't waste a minute settling down to enjoy the new fabric.   

 

 Swee'pea has also become acquainted with the new couch.

  

 

Swee'pea and I checked that the size of the old pillows is okay. They still fit so I am going to just take one of these apart and use it as a pattern for new covers. 

  All in all, I think the new couch meets with everyone's approval - so far. As I mentioned at the beginning, I have not sat on it yet. We do know it holds kitties, but I am a little anxious that it might not hold humans. We'll see...