It’s not unusual for a friend to ask me to clean up, or finish an upholstery attempt gone bad. Such was the case with a vintage rocking chair my friend tried to reupholster by gluing the fabric to the chair. (Whaaaaaa??)

The bigger issue was that she only had the fabric that was half-attached and some strips she had cut to make single welt cord.

*Note: cut 2 1/2″ wide bias strips to make standard double welt cord

I gingerly pulled off the glued fabric, securely stapled the skimpy piece in place and then made some double welt cord to hide the staples. You may ask “What the heck is double welt cord?” It’s double cording stitched, cut and glued on a piece of furniture where the fabric meets the wood and some other places. Many of my students opt for “gimp” which is available at the fabric store by the foot. Personally, I think you can take a piece from amateur to professional using double welt cord rather than gimp (as pictured).

If you start noticing details on professional upholstery, you’ll notice that double welt cord is used on high end, traditional pieces. I used to wrestle with this stuff until I got the procedure down pat.

Here’s an example of where you’d need a trim to cover the staples that are right next to the wood. This is where you could use gimp or, more professionally, double welt cord.



Photo Credit

It’s a good idea to see if you can buy a double welt cord foot for your sewing machine. It makes the job a cinch.

Now you just trim off the excess and use a staple or two and hot glue to finish up your chair. I’ll do another post on applying double welt cord.