:: WEBBING AND TOOLS- Stretched Beyond my Limits? ::

Sustainability means a lot of things; it means keeping the existing and perfectly usable (but ugly) items and making them over to be more pleasing and it also means doing this makeover on a budget.

~Apartment Therapy

You may have seen the quote above on my sidebar ... I copied it pasted it there a while back... because it pretty much sums up 

ALL THAT IS 

Corn in My Coffee-pot. 

First, In the practical sense; and then of course,  the truth is my coffee-pot doth run over. I'm very blessed. I feel it is exactly how God is with me. He takes the perfectly usable (but ugly...parts of my life and personality) and he makes them over to be more pleasing. Period. 

Anyway... enough about that... this is about having the right tools to do the job.

I thought I better put up a post. 

Man! do you know how difficult it is to Re-Upholster ...while blogging about it? 

Now, I truly know why so many of you...

work, work, work away 

in the back ground and then come along 

and 

BAM! 

Put up a beautiful post with beautiful photos 

...and a beautifully finished project. 

No warning or anything.

I DON'T BLOG LIKE THAT. :) 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

This is picture heavy. So I'm going to try and keep all the chit-chat for the comments. 

To Stretch Webbing 

You need a webbing stretcher.  This varies in both style and price...Joann's had them for about $27. 

 

source

source

The one shown below, I only found online and is actually called a webbing strainer...and most of the ones like this I found were in the U.K.- MORE AFFORDABLE but, they'd have to be shipped. Not sure how long ...blah, blah, blah. 

Remember... It's already taken us 3 1/2 years to do this project and we're doing this project on a budget. $27 bucks for a wooden tool... a bit much. So we just made one! 

I wanted to make the one with nails sticking out of it. But... he wanted to make the 'strainer' style. That was T.H.'s department and he got right on it. 

When I say..."MY" webbing strainer... I mean...He made it and I mainly used it. But, T.H. doesn't use a camera...so for demonstration...he is using it and I'm taking pictures. :)

And here is how we used it.

Once the webbing was fastened to one side ...we'd weave it through or pull it to the other side make a loop in the webbing and feed it through the slot. 

The straight edge had a notch in it for wedging it against the furniture piece and of course, I scavenged a piece of dowel off an old bar-stool for tightening up the webbing. (see below) 

After the loop is fed through the slot (see below)

1. You run the dowel through it
2. Gauge the length- begin to tighten
3. Wedge the strainer against the frame (Pressing down on the strainer pulls the webbing nice and tight.)
4. Tack it in place! 

Does this project seem like it's taking a long time?
Like an eternity?
It does to me....
I just keep telling myself "Pretty soon, I'll get to sit on my nice pretty couch."
"Pretty soon, I'll get to fluff it with pillows."  ...and "Pretty soon, I'll get to play around in the living room with my furniture and re-arrange all sorts of things."
And then I remember... "Pretty soon, I'll get to do all this again ...with the matching chair!"

Thanks for sticking with it... "Pretty soon, you'll get to see the finished project."