Sunday, February 10, 2008

iSew

My cousin gave me this chair four years ago. He was going to throw it away. I said that I could take it and recover it. Since that time, it has languished in my kitchen. It was the unfortunate victim of an explosion of a blenderful of Mexican hot chocolate, and it has been the beloved scratching post of my cat, Greta. This chair became very dirty and unkempt, yet I continued to display it in my kitchen. I realized the low to which I had sunk when the darling daughter of a friend was cooking macaroni and cheese with me in my kitchen. I placed this chair in front of the stove for her, so she could watch the bubbling noodles. She asked me if this was the chair the dog sat in because it was very dirty, and dirt and hair and things were sticking to the bottom of her bare feet. She asked if she could have another chair to stand on.

Raul and I talked about buying some new chairs (our other chair is one that my great aunt and I found by the side of the road, and she recovered if for me several years ago, and it is still is good shape.) But we are poor, and I decided that I could recover this chair. We purchased fabric, and today I made this in two hours:

(My humble kitchen, please ignore painters tape in windows, that is for next weekend's todo list.)




So, it was really easy. Some new batting was placed on the seat. I pinned the fabric to the chair, trimmed it, pinned it, wiggled it off and then sewed it. I did not get the stripes to line up exactly, but it's good enough. Raul tacked down the bottom with his nail gun, and I glued on the braid trim to cover the nails. I thought this would take forever - that's why I put off this project for four years. Kind of embarrassing.

BTW - it's still cold here. The high was zero degrees today. And our entire street is covered in ice. We've had the opportunity to get to know several of our neighbors as we have all had to help each other out with a push when our cars invariably get stuck on the ice or in the snow banks. Good times.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

nice chair! you rock!

Anonymous said...

nice chair! you rock!

Lorrel said...

I really like the way the chair turned out Shannon. You did a great job! What a good learning experience. What I love about you is the fact that you will try most anything and it seems you always have successes. Way to go, keep it up.

J.Po said...

Very lovely, Cheeks! I'm hoping to do this sort of thing to save lots of money if/when Jigs and I find our own place. I'll give you a call for advice when the time comes.

Unknown said...

Great job Sweetie. Also the floor looks really good, thanks to you and Raul.

Anonymous said...

Wow, that's really nice. What kind of fabric did you use? Is it thicker-type fabric? It looks really pretty in the photos

Anonymous said...

I tagged you!

Shannon said...

HiK - I did use some thicker twill - it was labeled as 'home decorator fabric'. Fancy. Thanks for the tag!

JPo - I think your sewing skills far surpass mine. I should be calling you for advice! Making stuff for your home is super fun. I can't wait for you to buy a house!

 
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