Beginner's guide to reupholstering a sectional sofa: STEP THREE - REUPHOLSTERING
This is going to more of a general tutorial because every couch is different and you kind of have to just figure out what works for you. As you can see below, I didn't always do everything perfectly but it still turned out great.
After I did that one side of the fabric, I stapled the batting on. I started with the same side I had stapled the fabric and then pulled it over the seat cushion and down the front. Once I had it where I wanted I spray glued it in place. This batting went directly over the foam. Once the batting was spray glued in place I could pull the fabric over the seat cushion, showed in the video below.
Here's where it got tricky. AFTER I had stapled the back edge of the fabric down AND stapled and spray glued the batting on, I decided that in order to make the curve around the arm cushion look good I was going to have to sew a small seam just around the cushion. This is what happens when you figure it out as you go. It turned out well in the end but IF I DID IT AGAIN I WOUL DEFINATELY SEW ANY SEAMS BEFORE I STARTED STAPLING.
After I managed to sew that one seam it looked great. As a rule of thumb, any inside corners will need a seam to fit well and outside corners can either have a seam or just be folded and stapled in place (what I chose to do because it was easier).
See how I left extra fabric both along the front and sides? That way I had plenty to use once I started stapling and folding the sides in place. It's so much easier to have a little extra to drape and make it just right.
Next I did the arm (above). I was lucky with this sofa because the arm was square and I didn't have to do any big curves. I started by stapling the side under the cushion and then draped it over, pulled it tight over the fake leather and stapled it to the bottom.
At first I would unpick the bottom and staple the fabric down and then staple the bottom back over the top so it looked nice and professional (above) but by the end I realized you can't tell anyway and ended up stapling a folded edge right over the top of the bottom layer because it was a lot faster and easier.
Then I spray glued the fabric on the seat cushion in place onto the batting, pulled it tight and down along the front and stapled into place. I folded along the corners of both the front seat cushion and the side and stapled everything where I wanted it to sit, making sure the staples were out of sight, either in between cushions or below where I was going to piece the other fabric (shown below).
I stapled the fabric over the fake leather in the back.
You can see in the movie that I folded along the back edge. I could have sewn it into place using an upholstery needle but I decided that no one was going to see that edge along the back anyway. If I was putting it in a high-traffic area with nothing along the back I would have sewn that fold into place by hand or used a tack strip.
After I had done the seat, arm rest, back and both sides it looked like this...
The last part was that front bottom part. I don't know how I didn't get any pictures of this part but basically I took the salvage edge of the fabric and placed it along the top line of where I wanted the bottom piece to be. I placed it upside down - right side against the couch. So the fabric was draped up and over the seat and back and only about an inch of fabric was hanging down along where I wanted the piece to be. Then I stapled this cardboard strip along where I wanted the seam.
Once that edge was stapled, I folded the fabric down over the cardboard I had stapled and stapled in place along the bottom (shown above). That's what creates that seam along the front - since I couldn't pry the couch apart and actually get in there.
I followed all these steps for both couches and I was done with the couch part! It's not perfect, but it's good enough and I get compliments all the time. Totally worth the $250 or so I spent on supplies and fabric and hours I put into it instead of buying a new couch, but then again I'm pretty cheap. If you have the money I guess it may not be worth your time.
Go HERE to learn how to make those cushions.
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