I have waited for this day, Part 1

Since Mr. Wonderful and I moved our home from a one bedroom apartment, I've been regularly on the look out for stylish yet affordable furniture. This in turn has led to a very effective love affair with Craigslist, and in consequently a very releaxing and useful new hobby: upholstery.
It all started with this beauty:

(Please pardon the ironing board and flip flops at the bottom there. We're having a par-tay on Saturday and things are a bit torn up. Also, please disregard the Super Kitty Butt.)

This was my first craigslist purchase for $100.00. If you forget the ugly velour fabric and the weird stain, isn't it pretty? I just love it. I love the lines, the good bones, and the possibilities. Tufting, anyone? Oh, I'm weak in the knees.
My brilliant plan was to call in an upholsterer, see how much it would cost to get it recovered in something of a royal blue, and wonder at my good fortune at getting such a beautiful item at such a bargain price once it was alllllllll over.
Yeah. 
Not so much.
The final estimate came in at exactly fourteen hundred (1400!) dollars, followed by at least three references to "people in [my] situation" after I politely mentioned that $1400.00 was just a tad out of my budget. Poor guy couldn't get out of there fast enough. The whole time I was thinking....I could learn to do this! And so the craigslist scouring continued with three more pieces, two identical chairs and one very large looks-like-it-lived-in-a-hotel piece.
I couldn't wait to get started, but there were a few snags. I now understood why the upholsterer seemed so snooty. Upholstery fabric is pretty expensive. The good quality stuff can cost anywhere from $50 per yard and up. Luckily, a wonderful little thing that I like to call the Founders Day Sale at Jo-Ann's Fabrics took pity on me and gave me 60% off the lovely gray velvet fabic that I was drooling over. Yum.
Finally. FINALLY after weeks and weeks of book reading, blog surfing, tool collecting, waiting-for-fabric-to-go-on-sale-ing, and waiting-for-said-fabric-to-arrive-ing, I was ready to begin with my first go it:
Chair #1 Before.

I spent most of last Friday night removing staples and seeing how everything worked. Look out! I'm a wild one! Of course, I took pictures the entire time as recommended by the wonderful book that's been guiding me, Complete Step by Step Upholstery by David Sowle and Ruth Dye.
I can't tell you how good it feels to feel a stubborn staple give. Oh yeah, I was born for this.

Next up was to remove the cushion apparatus as well as the cushion itself to free the frame.
FREE THE FRAME!
I'm telling you, I'm enjoying this way too much.

Again, please forgive the busy backdrop. I've yet to figure out a good workspace.



I set the frame aside to be painted in the morning, and got to work on dismantling the cushion to figure out what made it tick aka to make a pattern. I traced the outside using hash marks with a colored sharpie (making sure it didn't bleed through to the side), and then used the folds of the seams to determine where my seams should go. I went ahead and made two patterns since there are two chairs and therefore two cushions. I used a different colored sharpie for the other one just to keep things less confusing.

After the pattern was cut out, I started pinning and sewing using the still intact cushion for reference.

By the way, this is Margaret. She'll be our sewing machine throughout this adventure and hopefully for many, many more.

I followed along the edges and boom! Cushion number one was DONE! 

Um............hang on a sec....

That's better.

DONE I SAY!!!

Done with part 1! The journey continues...