Reversible Chair In Arrow

I am very excited to tell you all about my friend Jessica Jones' new fabric collection: Arrow!

You all know Jessica, right? She is the very talented and funny author of the very chic and popular blog How About Orange. She designs beautiful stuff, including, but not limited to, fabric. Of which she has several collections. Which are all gorgeous and inspiring to work with. 

And with which I have made all kinds of things.

(click on each caption to go to the archived post):

Market basket in Outside Oslo: Dusk Tulip

Lunch Bucket in Outside Oslo: Dawn Tulip

Morphing Wallet-Totes 

Swatch strap in Modern Flora: Herb

Book strap in Outside Oslo: Dawn Tulip

Wallet and Pouch in Calliope Spa

Wallet and Pouch in Calliope Dirt

I am, to say the least, a forever fan. 

But back to Arrow. When Jessica's new line was ready to be shared with the world, I wanted to make stuff with it right away. Even while I was still in Singapore, mind you. So I emailed her and she sent fabric and, once I was sufficiently recovered from jet lag, I made that chair. 

This is Arrow, currently available in navy/orchid, orchid/white and navy/white. My camera settings are a bit odd in the photo below and made the orchid look pinker than it really is, incidentally. 

And this is the chair, 

which is reversible.

Because almost everything can be made reversible if you are sufficiently scheming.

I didn't make the frame, though. That I got on craigslist.

Here's how I made the reversible Seat and Back. 

The Seat first:

I cut out the two layers of fabric, plus interfacing/stabilizer.

Now, the Arrow fabric is canvas, which is quite sturdy by itself. However, since it was going to become a chair that would bear an adult's weight, I reinforced it with two layers of plain natural canvas, which acted as a sew-in stabilizer for each Arrow fabric layer.

I sewed up the side seams,

(here you can see one of the side seams where the two fabrics meet)

flattened it all out, tucked in the SA along the top and bottom edges, and sewed both fabrics together, leaving a channel at the side seams into which to inserting things (explanation later).

Did the same thing for the Back.

Not all director's chairs work this way but for this one, both the Seat and Back are removable i.e. they aren't permanently attached to the frame. This allows them to be flipped over and, thus, be reversible. The Seat utilizes two flat sticks

that are slotted into the side channels

and wedged into a cutaway groove under the armrests.

When the armrests are flipped up, they hold the Seat in place. 

The Back is then slid over the back posts, to make a complete chair.

Both the Seat and Back can then be removed for a face change.

One frame, two looks!

Another Arrow furniture project is up next.

In the meantime, go visit Jessica on How About Orange to see what other people have made in Arrow. Arrow, along with Jessica's other fabric collections, is available at The Needle Shop here.