A different kind of stitchin' !

So, my daughter has this chair that she loves.
I'd looked for another one like it but hadn't been able to find one.  I also couldn't find a replacement seat cover, it needed to have a waterproof fabric.   So me and my 'I can do it myself' attitude decided that I could take it apart, make a pattern and make a new one.  Easy.

But then I worried what if I took it apart and couldn't get it back together right?  It's not like I haven't done other upholstery work.  I'd covered an entire couch and made seat covers for a car and the benches and chairs for my kitchen dining set.

I work best when I give myself deadlines, so I decided this past weekend was my deadline to finish this chair. Plus Stefani wasn't having much success with her other chairs.  For those of you who don't know me personally, my daughter Stefani has both physical and mental delays so having a chair that she won't slide out of or fall off of is VERY important.

So I put aside my knitting needles, crochet hooks and sat at my sewing machine.  Last month I made new curtains for two bedrooms so it's not like I hadn't sewed recently.  As proof to my family that I was actually finishing the chair (I'd bought the fabric at least a year ago) I took pictures of the process to send to them as I worked, so I decided to also post the pictures here.  It shows that my stitching skills aren't limited to working with yarn!  And yes, I sat in the chair first to test the strength of it :)

A very well loved, well worn chair

The chair was well put together!  I had to take each stitch apart individually.

The frame was still in very good shape

Getting ready to make the patterns

  

 

Making sure the pattern pieces fit together

You can tell I'd had this vinyl fabric for a while, look at the creases.  When I bought it, the store was in the process of moving and didn't have many color choices.

Pattern made, time to cut the fabric

These are the web-nylon strap like pieces that were used to attach the seat cover to the seat frame. Red was the original, black was what I bought to use but I was able to reuse some of the red.

This is the back of the chair.  And yes I scotch guarded it

Ta-da!  Better than new.  I'm keeping the pattern just in case I need to recover the chair in a few years.                            Now on to my next project!