Desperately Needed Repotting

It would be an understatement to say that I don’t have much of a green thumb.  I bought this ficus several months ago, thinking it would be nice to have a plant in my apartment.  But I couldn’t manage to keep it healthy and it kept dropping leaves everywhere, so I kicked it outside.  Then I proceeded to neglect it entirely, giving it its current sad appearance.

This weekend I finally got the time and supplies to repot it. It still had a few signs of life, so I figured it was at least worth a try!

It doesn’t really look any better yet, so its not much of an after picture, but hopefully it will look much better in a few weeks or so.

Posted at:

How Not To Make A Pillow Cover

Step 1: Don’t measure the actual pillow.  Instead, measure the pillow cover that’s already on it.

Step 2: Decide that the cover on it has too much overlap and subtract a few inches from the length of the back pieces.

Step 3: This is the crucial step.  Do not think even once about seam allowances.  Then cut your fabric.

This would be what I did this weekend.  (Can you tell I’m a very amateur sewer?)  I hemmed the pieces that overlap, pinned all my pieces together and realized they barely touched.  So I repinned it so that they overlapped about half an inch, but that took away from the length of the pillow.  I thought it was a total failure, but figured I’d sew it up and try it anyway.  Miraculously, it fit!  It made for a very firm, plump pillow .

It peeks out a bit in the back, but who sees the back anyway?

This was my other accomplishment.  Much less stressful

Posted at:

How To Replace A Chair Seat

When I started this project, I couldn’t find much on how to redo this type of chair, so I had to figure it out as I went.  Now that I’ve muddled my way through it, I thought I’d share what I’ve learned and hopefully make it easier for somebody else!

As a reminder, here’s what I started with.  The frame was in great shape, but the seat was sagging and pretty gross.

The first step was to completely remove the old seat and the webbing underneath it.

Then I wove chair webbing to create a new seat.  I did all of the pieces going one way first, pulling them as tight as I could and hammering in upholstery tacks, then wove the other pieces across.

I left extra webbing hanging over the sides and stapled it down to the frame after I finished attaching all the pieces.  I don’t think this is actually necessary, you could probably just trim the webbing around the frame, but the webbing I took off the chair was stapled back over the nails, so I just did the same.

The next step was to cut the foam for the seat to size.  I made a paper template and traced it onto the foam, then just sawed away with my scissors (a serrated blade would have been better, but I didn’t have one).

It fit right onto the chair.

Now for the tricky part – covering the seat with fabric.  I took the foam off the chair and cut the fabric a few inches larger than the foam all around.  After one false start, I used spray adhesive to hold the fabric to the foam (but I later pulled it away, so this was more of a temporary aid).  My chair had four spots where arms/the back attached to the frame, so the hardest part was working around those.  I didn’t really have any technique to this, I just cut and patched and tried to pull it tight around the corners without the foam showing.

Once all of the cutout spots looked okay, I fit the foam back onto the chair and it was time to attach it all together.  I worked my way around the chair slowly, pulling the fabric tight, folding it under a few times, and stapling it to the frame.

Once all that was done, I just hotglued some pretty ribbon along the edge to hide all the staples.

All finished!

Posted at:

Thrifty Thursday at Tales from Bloggeritaville

Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage

Thrifty Decor Chick’s Before and After Party

Chair Transformation

What a lovely long weekend . I replaced the seat of this chair with new webbing and recovered it in a beautiful fabric.  Here’s the before.

And now!

Here’s a cost breakdown for anyone’s who’s interested.

• Chair: $30 (probably could have gotten it for less, but was too excited to wait or bargain!)
• Chair webbing (6 yds): $5.34
• Upholstery tacks: $0.97
• Foam (2 ft): $9.66 (50% off!)
• Fabric (1 yd): $4.89 (also on sale)
• Ribbon: $2.09 (40% off coupon)
• Total: $52.95

So just over twenty dollars for a beautiful new seat on a beautiful chair.  See how I did it here!

On another note, my mom just mailed me some pieces of slate that she thought I could use for something.  They’re old roof tiles I think, and about 12″ by 7″ with two holes drilled in them.  Any ideas?

Posted at:

Last-minute Valentine’s Decor

Yes, I procrastinate.  I did one Valentine’s Day project about three weeks ago, but never got around to doing anything else with all of my fun Valentine’s supplies.  So last night I finally made a Valentine’s card to send my parents (which I of course forgot to mail, so they’ll get it around the 18th or so) and this Valentine’s garland.

I took a bunch of little wooden hearts, painted them, and then embellished them with anything I could find.  I hotglued loops of ribbon to the back of each and then glued each loop to the longer ribbon so that they would stay where I wanted them.  It was a really fun project and it will probably stay up way past Valentine’s Day .

Posted at: