I’ve been doing some “sensible sewing” for the past few weeks, by which I mean, not fun, but practical. Sewing jobs that needed to be done. First up it was mending. Mending a few holes/rips in a couple of pairs of the husband’s trousers. Also hemmed a pair of jeans I bought myself last year and that were about an inch too long (despite me being tall with a 31″ inside leg).
After that, I decided that the cushions on our kitchen chair seats really needed some attention.
Way back, in 2015, I bought some square seat pads to protect the wicker seats of our chairs from cat claws. They weren’t terribly pretty, but they did the job. They had 2 ties on each, to be attached to chairs to stop them falling off but . . . with our cat, Ducky, who loves to chew things, half the ties had been shortened, not to say gone missing, and cushions were forever falling on the floor. In June 2018 I made new covers.
Made from light-weight cotton, sewing ties on all 4 corners, and fastening under the seat. It took Ducky a while to eat his way through these, and they did stay on a bit longer lol. But I was fed up with them slipping about once a few ties were missing and therefore came up with a new solution. Chairs now look like this (oops chair bars needs a clean!)
!
I removed the purple cotton ones (will be recycling fabric for patchwork) and made new covers in a sturdier fabric which I originally bought to make new sofa covers (but chickened out when faced with complex shapes of sofas and sheer volume of sewing required). Fabric is a lovely sage green and looks almost denim but it isn’t. In fact, I can’t remember what it’s made of but boy, it frays like rotten!
Anyway . . . cushion pads are 17″ so I cut top squares 18″, and the underside is made in two parts, with a velcro fastening.
In order to keep cushions securely on chair seats, with nothing dangling for Ducky to chew on, I added triangular flaps. I made those by cutting 12″ squares, cutting into 4 triangles on the diagonal, and sewing those in pairs. Having to overlock at each stage because of the fraying fabric. I made 10 cushion covers, which meant 40 triangles.
So a big pile of triangles to overlock, then turned right sides out and top stitched. Once all the prep work was done it was simply a question of sewing cushion covers together (and overlocking). Front & back right sides together with 4 triangles inside. Seamed, overlocked, and turned right sides out. To end up with this.
And then attach velcro bands to the points of the triangles.
Looks a bit wierd, but once on the chair, it stays firmly in place, and underside of chair is nice & neat. Nothing dangling!
On a side note, I also found an easy solution for our sofas (on @m@zon). They were a dark slate grey but looking a right mess because of Le Bleu who had totally destroyed several areas with his claws.
This is the colour, with Ducky, the chewer at full stretch. Anyway, thanks to on-line shopping, I bought a couple of pretty sofa covers. They’re “made in China” (but then what isn’t these days?) and I don’t know how long they will withstand any claw attacks, but for the time-being, I’m admiring what could be mistaken for two new sofas.
Each cover came with a matching cushion cover but I’d only put one on for this photo.
