No sew day

Today has been a “no sew” day! Board meeting with the quilt guild took up the morning hours. When I arrived home, I had a nice package delivered with a new cover for my standard ironing board. Thanks to Oliso and their Facebook page, I was one of 5 people to win. I will install it tomorrow and share a picture.

The better part of our afternoon and late into the evening was taken up with “de-construction” of one of our antique sofas. Last summer we noticed the springs were pushing through burlap webbing on the bottom of one sofa. I ordered the webbing (also last summer), and today was the day we decided to tackle the project.

Well, the situation was much worse than we imagined, once we had the couch upside down in the middle of the living room, on saw horses. The burlap webbing was rotting.. crumbling… decaying at the slightest touch.

100 years of old webbing

 

So, time to start removing the staples and get ready to fix it right. Turns out, when dear hubby and the former Mrs. had re-upholstered these couches in the early 1990’s…they left the old webbing on, and “added another layer” So; you know what that was like…kind of like taking off 3 or 4 layers of wall-paper….NO fun. Decades of yuck.

Ancient couch springs

 

And, as I absolutely HATE the fabric on these sofa’s…it is time to start the hunt for a fabric we both can tolerate. In the process, I have great intentions of fixing the cushions, so at least they are cushy. Oh; those staples…each piece of webbing must have had 75-100 staples….seriously. Two of us working from early afternoon until after 10 pm; we managed to get the ends un-done and start down the sides. I took the back side (BIG MISTAKE….) and hubby took the front. I got about 12″ from the corner done between 7 pm and 10 pm.

Saw horses at work in the living room

Taking it all apart. 75 -100 staples per strip of webbing…2 layers thick!!!

 

 
So, the living room will be in chaos for a while. I have a quilt bee here on the 18th, so I must put it back in order before that. Can I really reupholster a sofa in a little over a week??? Who knows, I have NEVER done this before, but I certainly can do at least as good of a job as the last go round. Heck, hubby may go hunting for a new Mrs. if I screw it up too badly. We are taking a shopping trip tomorrow afternoon for fabric. Time to charge up the calculator and figure out how much fabric to buy…….