recovering those old seat cushions

This fabric was actually pretty once.

Tomorrow night is our first annual "Ugly Sweater Party", so I'm getting the house ready.  You'd think this close to Christmas, everything would be in order, but I always have more projects on the horizon.  I'd also love to touch up the trim paint around a couple of doors, but we'll see if I get to that.  The seats didn't get re-covered in time for the Christmas meals, but they will get done for the ugly sweaters.  (I'll put up a copy of the invite in case anyone wants to adapt the idea.) 

We have three old chairs which I bought at a Thrift store at least 20 years ago.  I still like them, and they remain the most used chairs around the dining room table.  Every five years or so, though, I need to recover them as the covers become threadbare.

Before I made it to the store to look for an inexpensive fabric to replace the old, my friend Robin lent me some that I think I am going to love on them.  It was left over from a project of hers. . .  It's always a plus to have friends with good taste.

I'll put up some pictures to show how they come out.  I'll just take unscrew the seats from the chairs and take off the old fabric.  If you've never done this, just turn the chair over and get a long screw driver.  Unscrew the four screws that hold the seat to the chair.  Next, cut a square--or the shape of your seat--from the new fabric.  I usually leave a couple of inches extra on all sides to wrap around and staple.  

 staple it in place, and then re-screw the seat covers to the chairs.  When they are done, they look so much better and it's less work than others would think. . .that is unless you get the seats off and discover that the staples you purchased and have won't fit the inexpensive new stapler you purchased to replace the old good one that broke. . .and the staples that you send your husband to get don't fit either. . .

Oh, so much better!