Tuesday, May 4, 2021

From Curtains to Cushion Covers

The Find

Some lovely people left a set of paisley curtains and linen sheer curtains out on the curb, with an even lovelier note that the curtains had been dry cleaned and were free for the taking.  Thank YOU considerate givers!

Curtains wrapped in plastic bags
Ready to go!









Detail of the paisley fabric with brown, gold, and blue colors
Paisley close-up













The Re-Use

I wasn't quite sure what project would use up ALL the fabric, but it was clear that making new seat covers for some thrift store chairs would be a good use for some of the fabric.  We had purchased a set of 4 wooden chairs from the thrift store with lovely lines but less-than-comfortable seats.


Wooden chair with white seat
Thrift store chair


The first step was the remove the seats from the frame, and then remove as many staples from the chair bottom as possible.  I discarded the old foam and batting.

Wooden seat removed from chair, sitting on old fabric
Wooden seat disassembly








All the seats got new foam for cushioning, definitely NOT free, but worth it for a comfortable place to sit.

Green high-density foam, new in package
Foam in package


Due to the size of the chair seats, we needed 4 separate pieces of foam.  I laid the wooden seat onto each piece of foam in order to draw the outline.


Wooden seat sitting on foam to trace the outline
Ready to trace the outline


After cutting and shaping the top of the foam with a slight curve I cut out the required amount of fabric for each seat cover. No photos from these steps, but there are lots of tutorials online. I used a medium-duty staple gun to staple the fabric to the bottom of the wooden seat, carefully checking for fabric wrinkles and pulling the fabric taut as I stapled along each side.

Conclusion

The chairs turned out great, much more comfortable with the new foam!  There was plenty of leftover fabric, so I had some special help in making a table runner out of the same fabric.  Now that's coordination!

Wooden chair with new fabric next to blue table with matching fabric runner
Newly recovered chair seat



Happy freestyling! May the freestyling force be with you wherever the galaxy takes you.