Upholstered drop-in seat

Underneath this outer fabric, the seat will be covered with wadding and possibly calico - protective layers to cover the seat's stuffing and stop it from rubbing against the outer fabric. Remove both.

If the seat is in generally good order, you'll only need to plump out the existing stuffing before you re-cover it - this is likely to be the case with any reasonably modern chair, and it saves you a heck of a lot of work. To check, look underneath the seat. If the webbing (the heavy, often black and white, braid criss-crossing the bottom of the seat frame) isn't sagging or starting to disintegrate, you're in luck, so go on to the next step, headed 'If you just need to plump out the seat'. If the webbing is looking saggy, however, this is a job well worth doing properly, so go to the step headed 'If the webbing looks bad and you need to replace it'.

If you just need to plump out the seat
The stuffing will be in a couple of layers. Carefully lift the top layer and add two new handfuls of the same sort of padding into the centre. (2) It's vital that you use similar fillings, as different fillings (such as horse hair and polyester wadding) will clump together like dreadlocks, leaving you with a lumpy seat. Go to the section titled 'Attaching wadding and the outer fabric' on page 75.

If the webbing looks bad and you need to replace it
Make a note of how many existing strands of webbing there are crossing the bottom of your chair seat - most chairs have two strands each way, but wider seat frames, such as early Victorian styles, will have three (see above, right). You need to buy enough webbing to replace whatever is already here; take a good look at where it is positioned, as you'll need to replace it in the same way.

Remove the existing webbing by levering out the tacks with a tack lifter or the flat end of your screwdriver. You need to replace webbing evenly, always working from the back to the front, then from side to side. If you have an uneven number of strands, start in the middle (as I have here).

Without cutting your length of webbing, fold the end under just more than 1cm, and place it fold down on the back edge of the chair frame. Tack three 13mm tacks in a straight line along the fold and two more a little further in, so your tacks look like a dot-to-dot 'W' shape.

Insert the webbing into the strainer (see above, left) so the recessed lip is facing upwards and stretch it tightly to the front of the frame. Place the strainer so that the lip hooks onto the underside of the front of the seat frame. Hold tightly and lever down to create tension in the webbing (see above, centre).

Once taut, secure the webbing to the frame by hammering in three tacks in a straight line, as before, approximately 5mm apart. Cut the webbing with 2cm to spare and fold this excess over (hiding the line of three tacks) and hammer in two more tacks. Your five tacks will be in the same configuration as on the other side of the frame, only three of these tacks will be under the webbing. Repeat for the rest of the webbing.