Plaids (Day 15 of 31)

....continuing with the challenge, this is day 15 of 31.....for all 31, go here

If you are still in the planning stages of your first upholstery project, then maybe this will help you in selecting fabric. Plaids and stripe can be very difficult. I have had my share of frustration when trying to keep lines straight. Here are a few things to consider when chosing a plaid.....

This is a one-way (uneven) plaid. What does that mean? If you look at the green vertical stripes, you will notice that they are on the right side of the white line.

When you rotate the fabric, you will notice how the green line is now on the left side of the white line

What does that mean to you? You will need to cut all of your pieces out with this in mind. If you chose to have the green line on the right, for example, every cut must be made with that in mind.

The next up is the two-way (even)  plaid.

I didn't rotate this one, because you can see that rowtating the fabric won't change the stripe formation. An even plaid is a better choice of the two. However, It is still tricky to work with.

As I told you earlier, here are some of my plaid challenges. 

On the headboard, things went fine, all the curves helped....there wasn't  a lot to match up or keep straight

However, on the footboard, you will notice on the upper left how I struggled to keep those lines straight. I had a friend helping me, and even then, it was quite the challenge. In fact, the instructor of the class pointed this example out to everyone to show how difficult plaids can be. 

On the tufted back portion of this chair, working alone this time, I stapled, removed the staples, and restapled this many times. You can see how the lines with the buttons are not quite symetrical. I found the back so challenging, that I selected a coordinating fabric for the seat. I had enough of that.

Now you can appreciate this Ralph Lauren chair, via Elle Decor. Notice how the inside arm wraps over to meet the outside arm perfectly. All black lines match up.

Equally as impressive, look at the black line that is so uniformly distributed around the bottom edge of the chair. The lines are kept perfectly horizontal and vertical.


...and again, with this Anthropology chair, look at how the bottom panel of fabric is specifically set to highlight the darker stripe.

Again, I am impressed with the inside arm wrapping around to meet the inset fabric, and all of the small yellow lines match!


Do you think you are up for the challenge of a plaid?