WIP Wednesday – New Lawn Chair Cushions

Another of the major projects that I wanted to get done this year was recovering the cushions for our lawn chairs.  We bought the set of 5 chairs in the fall of the year 2000 when we first moved to Maui to give us something to sit on (both out on the lanai and inside the house) while we waited for our furniture to arrive from Alberta, Canada.  They’ve been through two moves since, all sorts of weather conditions and were looking much the worse for wear.

This past weekend, I carefully unpicked the seams on one of the cushions so that I could use the pieces to make a pattern.  Once I had that done, it was time to start cutting and sewing.

So far, I’ve got one completed except for replacing the buttons on the back of the cushion and two more seats and backs waiting to be sewn together.

I’m reusing the batting (after giving it a wash) from all but one of the cushions as that one was in the worst condition of the lot.  Each cushion had four buttons, front and back so I’ll also be covering all those with new matching fabric before reinstalling them.

This is the first major project for which I’ve been using my Singer 15-91.  Which means, that yes, Dave has completed refinishing the Art Deco cabinet and you can look for a photo laden post later this week.

I couldn’t be more pleased with the way the 15-91 sews.   While my modern Singer would have been able to handle sewing the cushions covers, there’s no way I would have even attempted to then sew those cushions together using it.   However, the 15-91 handled the four layers of upholstery fabric without any hesitation.  Due to the bulk of the cushions it was awkward getting them in position to sew and that did become a two person job.   Dave held the cushions in position while I guided the ends through the sewing machine.

I’m hoping to have this project finished by the end of this week.  Now that I’ve seen how beautifully the 15-91 handles this kind of project, I can’t wait to try her out on the other projects I’ve got on my 2011 list.

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