fajrdrako | Chairs...

This weekend I worked on a project I should have started earlier: covering my dining table chairs.

Now, they aren't wonderful chairs - I think they originally came from Ikea, though there's nothing like them in their catalogue now. They came to me second-hand from a friend about 12 years ago. They needed recovering then, and I recovered them - they have a metal frame with padded back and seat covered in fabric. They're very comfortable, and as long as the seat covering isn't worn to rags, they look good. I use these chairs at my computer and at my desk. They are good all-purpose chairs.

After twelve years, give or take a few, the fabric had started rather suddenly to wear out. Yesterday I went to Rockland Textiles and spent quite a while browsing the fabric. Am I fussy? It took ages to find the right thing. Nothing in their regular fabric section seemed to be what I wanted, so I went through all their remnants - for both upholstery fabric and heavy-weight cottons. I kept finding fabrics that had good colours, but were covered with depictions of elephants. I really didn't want elephants on my chairs. I would have liked an Egyptian motif... no such luck. I finally found a fabric in gold and green that looks Florentine to me, and I love it; and they only had 2 yards of it, so I got a matching green for the seats.

Then I got to work. What a job. Exhausting. But I was determined to have all the chairs recovered by 4 p.m. today, when Beulah and Lyn were coming over for supper, and I did. Tired but happy. They admired my chairs and then Lyn sat down for supper and the padded back fell out of the metal frame.

Oops.

Okay, so I'm better at sewing the fabric than I am at weilding the screws that hold the chair together. I fixed it. With any luck it will stay together when the next person sits down.