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hey guys Jamie Ray with Jamie Ray
vintage today's DIY is how to upholster
a vintage couch these are my favorite
couches to upholster because they have
wooden frames which makes it easy to
staple into and they don't have any
rolled arms so it's a fairly
straightforward process I'm going to
give you a few tips and hints on how to
do it and you'll notice that there are
no cushions on my C couch we're not
going to be talking about sewing
cushions I don't like to sew I have a
seamstress and I drop my fabric off and
pay her to do it so you can either sew
them yourself or find somebody else
who's great with a sewing machine so the
first step you got to do is to get this
old fabric somebody tried to paint this
so you can see that it's blue or
whatever but I'm just going to rip it
all off and use my
pliers first you have to get off the
piping and then you get underneath to
the fabric
underneath sometimes it's kind of hard
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I'm going to try to leave the batting in
place so that way I can reuse it if it's
not reusable then I'll buy a new batting
at the store and usually when I get
about this far it's when I have Zeb come
and he rips the whole thing apart for me
once you take the fabric off you want to
remove any loose Staples
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so we're going to go ahead and get to
adding the fabric once we pulled all the
fabric off of this we noticed that the
back was just powder the foam had
disintegrated completely so Zeb has some
footage you can see him cutting the the
foam we put on here foam we just got it
at Home Depot we cut it to fit and then
we're wrapping it with batting that I
bought at the craft store you can also
buy foam at the craft store but the foam
at Home Depot is significantly less
expensive and it works pretty well so
once we wrap this with batting then
we're ready to add our
fabric so now we're going to be adding
our fabric we had to move inside because
it started raining which was raining on
our parade here so we're going to get
started right in the middle and I'm
going to use my air compressed staple
gun if you don't have an air compressed
staple gun go ahead and use your
handheld and I'm going to staple just a
along the wood line where it was
originally stapled the first time and
I'm just going to come across here and
pull nice and
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taut so the next step we're just going
to be pushing this fabric underneath and
pulling it to the other side
so I pulled my fabric through the bottom
and I'm going to go ahead and pull this
as taut as I
can and then St about every inch is how
far you want your Staples to
be now that the top and bottom are done
we're just going to shove these sides
through this is where if you haven't
gotten all the Staples out you will
definitely feel it right down here
there's a bar that connects the couch so
what you have to do is you have to make
a snip so you can get around that bar so
I pull the fabric out and the bar is
right about there I'm going to cut to
about 2 in from the
bar okay then I'm going to push the
fabric through and we'll come around to
the other side
here's the part where I've snipped I'm
going to gently pull and make sure it's
as close as
possible kind of tearing a little as I
go but just go ever so slowly so you
don't over tear once you know youve got
it all the way then you're going to go
ahead and staple the sides so it's
usually good if you've got somebody with
you to have them go around the front and
make sure that you don't have any
puckers and you might also need to right
here where the corner is make a little
snip that way your fabric will come the
way that you want it
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to so I'm just checking the front making
sure we don't have any wrinkles and I'm
going to go ahead and
staple I'm gonna go ahead and do the
exact same process on this other side
and then we'll get started on the bottom
of our couch the next step is we're
going to be doing the
bottom the bottom is much like the top
we're going to lay it out we're going to
find our Corners so there's a corner
here and I'm going to snip in this
corner that way it could go around the
bar and then I'm going to push it
underneath and I'm going to do the same
thing on the other side
that way it can get around the bar and
I'm going to push this
underne now I'm going to snip it at this
corner to
get around this bar
now I'm going to pull my fabric around
all the corners and get it nice and
tight now that my fabric is all smooth
I'm going to go ahead and staple on the
front I always like to start in the
middle and work my way across
I'm just feeling where the line is for
the wood trim you want to come right up
next to
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that I'm going to come almost all the
way to the end and then I'm going to
stop I'll get the corners once I get to
that
part add a few Staples that didn't go in
so I'll staple right next to them and
I'll come back and pull this
out once you get to the corner you're
going to pull this Edge piece back
around to the side and staple it
taut then you're going to come back
around on this side and go all the way
over to the
corner then you're going to take this
leftover piece here and you're going to
fold it flat and add two
plates one over
here and pull it around and do one over
here then come across and
staple you're going to do the same thing
on the other side once you're finished
with that then you'll go around to the
back of the couch and do the back okay
so once you come around to the back
you're going to take your Fabric and
Pull It taut and staple I start in the
middle and then I work my way across
and I didn't show it but I did make a
slit here where this wood piece is and a
slit over here where this wood piece is
that way my fabric could get around
these braces I'm going to go ahead and
staple this all the way across and then
we'll get over to our other sides over
and do each side on the bottom you're
going to pull it super
taut and staple
across so on the arms we've added extra
batting because the batting we had to
remove remove and then I've put a cut a
piece of fabric just a little bit bigger
than my arm here and then I made two
Snips one snip here and one snip down at
the bottom and pulled my fabric through
like I've done in all the other places
and now I'm ready to staple so I'm going
to go ahead and start at the top and I'm
going to work my Ray around this way and
then we'll do the stapling on the
back you could do this in two separate
pieces here do a piece here and then a
piece AC cross this way but I chose to
do it in one and you'll see why in a
minute and then I'm also going to have
to cut this excess fabric so we can wrap
the
arm so I'm going to cut this excess
fabric off
here come
down this
far then I'm going to take oops I'm
going to cut a little bit further I'll
have to trim this up a little bit more
later but I'm coming all the way down to
this here
and then I'm going to take my
Fabric and I'm going to come around the
arm like
this I'm going to tuck this part in you
how many raw edges and then I'm going to
come and I'm actually just going to
staple along here because when we put
this piece on the other piece will come
up here and cover that so I'm going to
staple around this part of the arm
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now I'm going to come around this part
of the chair and staple around here
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so I'm going to snip the fabric right
here and Tuck that
under and then I'll come around this
side and
see so now I'm going to take the
Fabric and staple
down I'm going to do the same thing on
the other side and then we'll be ready
to put on our
arms all right time for the tufting I
left this old fabric that held the
springs in place and kept them padded we
left that in there and it's got the
marks where the old Tufts were so I
don't have to remark it out so what I'm
going to do I just have this uh Dow here
it's kind of pointed and I'm going to
run it into these holes and I'll show
you what it looks like on the front too
I pushed it through the foam and then
now I can feel where my Brad goes where
my for my tuft and I'll show you on the
front here this is where I push through
my foam right here I'm just going to
take the Brad it's pointed put it right
on the tip of that Dow
and follow it back through the
foam and open it up okay so here's what
it looks like on the back end now that
I've pushed it through the foam you push
pretty hard on the front with your hand
on the front of that Brad and you open
this up
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all right we're getting the sides put on
here I am doing um coffee sacks on the
side of these but I have to put the drop
cloth underneath it so that way you
don't see the cotton but if you weren't
going to do the coffee sack you would
just do the drop cloth and then be done
so I'm just stapling this on the top
here along the
edge and then I'll come down and staple
this corner
here and then I'm going to cut off this
fabric so that way I can get a nice
straight line across here and make it a
little
easier so I don't have so much excess
then I'm just going to follow this
around and staple along the bottom and
then along this way and pull it around
the
back so we've got our drop cloth
underneath to line it and we're going to
start with our coffee sack I think I
paid like 50 cents for these and they've
been hanging around my garage for maybe
a year so I'm excited to use them um the
couple things about coffee sacks they're
kind of scratchy so if you use them for
upholstery you're going to want to use
them on a part of the couch where people
aren't rubbing up against or sitting
against because it's not super
comfortable um the second thing is
sometimes they smell like whatever's
been in them Beans Coffee cocoa beans
whatever has been in there so I took
this and I threw it in the dryer with
some fabric softer and it smells so much
better and it's actually even a little
softer so this a little tip for you if
you use these sacks so I'm going to go
ahead and just staple along here
just the way that I put this other piece
on and then when I get to the section
where this piece meets up with this
other piece that I had up front I'm just
going to fold this under neatly so that
way you don't see the seam and I will
show you a closeup of it when I'm
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done once you get the top done then
you're going to go ahead and come across
the bottom and then need
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do so right here I took the coffee sack
and I folded it under and stapled it
here and here so that way I've got a
nice clean seam and you won't see any
rough edges we're getting really close
to finish here we're going to put this
back on I'm going to start in the middle
and I'm going to use my staple gun and
then put a staple about every inch and
I'm going to go over the top and down on
the sides and then I'll show you how we
finish underneath
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he
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so we stapled across the top and I said
I was going to go down the sides but I
actually didn't I just stapled across
the top now I'm going to do the bottom
I'm going to pull it as taut as possible
and then do the sides to get the rest of
the wrinkles so you're going to want to
whatever fabric you use you want to pull
it so that way there's no creases in
there you're going to start in the
middle and work your way across the side
Okay so we've got our top done our
bottom done and now we're going to work
on our sides when I'm all finished this
will have trim down the Sid so it'll
cover my Staples so I'm just going to
pull this tot and just staple it down
the
side I'm going to do the same thing on
the other side and I'll trim off all
this excess Fabric and we'll be ready to
get our trim on so the final step is
going to be to hot glue our trim on
you're going to want to use a high temp
hot glue you need it to stick really
well and you're going to put a good
amount of glue on there cuz you don't
want this to come off after I get it on
sometimes I add a little bit more if
it's not enough and you're going to go
everywhere that you have a raw Edge or
Staples you're going to cover it up with
trim so I'm going to go ahead and glue
this onto this entire couch and we'll
show you the finished project when we're
all done
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all right guys we've got our finished
couch here it was a little bit of work
but not too hard I think if I had to sew
the cushions it would have been even
worse but we've got our trim on here and
it's ready to go to its new home be sure
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Jamie Ray vintage also check out the
link below for my other noo upholstery
tutorials
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