The stuffover dining chair is the natural step up from the drop-in. Same chair, structurally; same techniques, broadly — but the upholstery wraps over and around the seat rails rather than sitting in a removable pad. That brings three new moves: a small stitched edge formed in place, the V-cut that fits the cover around the back stiles, and a gimp finish where the cover meets the wood. None is hard; all are new.
Drop-in or stuffover?
The stuffover is what most Victorian and Edwardian dining chairs are. The simple test is to lift the seat and look: a removable wooden pad-frame means a drop-in; upholstery permanently attached to the rails means a stuffover. About 60% of the dining chairs we see are drop-ins, 40% stuffovers, and the few modern foam-and-staple chairs are really Chapter 24 territory.
The two methods produce similar-looking chairs but solve different problems. A drop-in keeps the upholstery on a removable pad that protects it from the frame’s wear — easier to replace, and kinder to the chair over a century. A stuffover is visually more substantial, has no pad-rebate gap, and feels slightly more comfortable because the upholstery runs right to the seat’s edges. The cross-section shows why they’re built so differently.
Allow about double a drop-in for a stuffover — 7–8 hours rather than 4. The stitched edge alone adds 90 minutes and the cover work another 60. We charge customers about 75% more for stuffovers than drop-ins.
What you need
Materials, per chair
Everything from the drop-in, plus:
- 1.0 m of show fabric instead of 0.7 m — a stuffover wraps further, so it needs about 40% more cover
- 50 g of mattress twine for the small stitched edge (£2)
- 3 m of gimp braid in the matched colour (£6–15)
- A small jar of fabric glue for the gimp (£4, lasts many chairs)
Total: £55–160, the main extra being the fabric. Work out the yardage with the fabric calculator.
Tools: all the drop-in tools, plus a long curved needle for the stitched edge, a regulator for shaping the front edge, and sharp scissors for the V-cut.
Stage 1 Strip the chair
Strip on the bench, working from the outside in (see stripping the old work): cover first — one panel, tacked to the underside of the rails — then wadding, calico, the small stitched edge if there is one, the stuffing, the hessian, and finally the webbing. Keep the original cover as your cutting template.
Then inspect the frame hard. Stuffover construction is tougher on the rails than drop-in, because of repeated tacking through the same rail face; a heavily re-covered stuffover often needs a tacking-rail repair before you go again. Check the rails’ top edges for “Swiss-cheese” tack damage and quote accordingly.
The original gimp braid, if it’s intact, is worth keeping as a colour reference for ordering new. Put it in the job bag with the fabric samples and take it to the supplier.
Stage 2 Webbing & first stuffing
Webbing is the same 3 × 3 layout as the drop-in, but tacked to the underside of the seat rails, not the top face — five-tack pattern, 12–15% stretch, about 30 minutes. Hessian over the webbing, tacked to the rails’ top edges, then the first stuffing: about 200 g of horsehair (or a 50 mm foam slab for modern work). Build it to sit slightly proud of the front rail’s top edge — that proud edge becomes the stitched edge in the next stage.
The proud edge along the seat front is what gives a stuffover its profile — the gentle curve of the front. Build about 15 mm of rise: less and it looks under-stuffed; more and the front edge goes bulbous.
Stage 3 The small stitched edge
Cover the stuffing with scrim and tack it to the rails on all four sides, pulling firmly enough to compress the stuffing into shape. The proud front is now a defined ridge of scrim-covered stuffing. Stitch it using the technique from stuffing & stitched edges — one row of blind stitches to draw the stuffing forward, one row of top stitches to lock the rim. A stuffover edge is far smaller than a wing-back’s, so one row of each is enough: 60–90 minutes on a first attempt, 30–45 once you have it.
The result is a seat with a defined, slightly raised front edge that pushes back against the sitter and doesn’t deform over the years. The stitched edge is the mark of traditional stuffover work; modern imitations skip it and feel softer for it.
Never stitched an edge before? Do it on the first chair of a six-chair set as practice, and redo it if needed — the customer never sees the practice version. By chair three you have the rhythm; by chair six, production speed.
Stage 4 Second stuffing, calico & wadding
Once the stitched edge has set the front, add a thin second stuffing (about 30 mm of wool or lighter horsehair) over the whole seat for comfort, then cotton felt or Dacron to smooth, then calico over the lot, fitted carefully and tacked underneath. The calico is your dress rehearsal: once it fits well, the show fabric cut from the original cover will fit the same way. Don’t skip it.
On a set, fit the calico once to the first chair, mark all the seam lines, and use that calico as the pattern for the show-fabric panels of all six. Chairs in a set are dimensionally identical, or close enough that one pattern works.
Stage 5 Top cover & the V-cut
The show fabric goes on much like the calico, with one critical extra: the V-cut around the back stiles. The stiles rise from the seat at the rear corners, and the cover has to fit around them rather than stop at the rear edge. You cut a V-shaped notch in the cover at each stile so the fabric folds neatly around it and tucks down to the rear rail.
Mark the V before cutting and cut just inside the marked line to allow for the fold-back — the V is a slit, not a wedge. Done right, it’s invisible from the front: the cover meets the stile cleanly, the cut edges tucking down behind and tacking off inside the back rail.
The V-cut ruins more stuffover covers than anything else. Always cut it on a calico fit first, transfer the exact dimensions to the show fabric, and double-check before the scissors go in. A wrong V is a new piece of fabric.
Stage 6 Gimp & bottoming
Where the show fabric meets the show-wood at the seat line, the join needs covering. Gimp braid (see trimming & finishing) is the conventional finish on Victorian and Edwardian stuffovers. Glue it along the joint, working slowly and pressing it firmly over the tack heads, and mitre it at the corners with a 45° cut on each meeting end — done well, the corner looks like a single continuous line. Then a bottoming cloth underneath, signed and dated. Job done.
Match the gimp to the fabric, not the show-wood. Order it at the same time as the fabric, from the same supplier where you can, so the colour match is exact.
From the workshop
The set of eight that took us through Christmas
A customer in Heptonstall brought us eight Victorian dining chairs in November 2018, wanting the set re-covered in time for her family Christmas dinner. The original upholstery was 1880s; the chairs hadn’t been touched since. Eight stuffover seats, 56 hours of bench work, six weeks of evenings.
We finished on 23 December and delivered them on the morning of the 24th. The customer’s daughter sent a photo from Christmas dinner: eight grandchildren round the table, all on the new chairs — the oldest design and the newest fabric on each at once. We charged £900 for the set excluding fabric; the fabric was £350; the customer was delighted. We expect it back for fresh covers around 2030.
Did you know
Why Victorian stuffovers used three rows of stitches
Most heavily-built Victorian dining stuffovers from the 1860s on have three rows of stitching along the front edge, rather than the single row we use on a modern reproduction. The three rows produce a deeper, more pronounced front lip — sometimes 25 mm of proud edge rather than 15. It’s structurally stronger and gives that characteristic outward-curving Victorian profile, and it’s about three times the work. We replicate it on heritage restorations where the customer wants the period look, and use a single row on modern reproduction work where cost matters more than period accuracy.
Common mistakes
Stuffover errors that catch beginners out
- The wrong V-cut — too long, too wide, or in the wrong place, and the panel’s ruined. Calico mock-up first, every time.
- Skipping the stitched edge — without the proud front the seat looks soft and amateur. Spend the extra hour.
- Tacking through show-wood — tacks go into the seat rails, never visible legs or arm rails. Tack heads in show-wood are permanent damage.
- The wrong gimp colour — match it to the fabric, not the wood.
- Too little fabric — stuffovers need about 40% more than drop-ins. Quote for it.
Stuffover seats covered, gimped and signed. The next project is smaller in scale but full of design choices — stools and pouffes, in all their variants: deep-buttoned or plain, fixed legs or castors, drum or square, and which suits which room.