Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Lulu & Charles

Brigham and I refinished our first items of furniture.
We bought these cute, little green chairs at an antique shop:
And turned them into this fun pair:
Named Lulu and Charles after our two girls.
It was a lot of work due to layers of paint and stain and all the round pieces. There was a point where it didn't seem worth it. But then it all came together and it feels so good to know that we have two chairs that no one else has and we recreated them ourselves. Work always makes things more worthwhile.
I also made the seat cushions. The fabric is from Henry Glass designed by Barbara Jones. It's her Bubblegum Basics line and it is very cute! I actually ordered it from her. She lives in Bountiful, Utah.

To make an easy seat cushions:

Trace the seat of your chair onto a piece of paper. Calculate seam allowance and thickness of your foam pad. I used a 1 inch pad and a 1/2 inch seam allowance so I drew my pattern 1 inch wider all around the original seat shape. Also, make where you want the ribbon to come out to tie onto the chair back. Cut out the pattern. Lay out and pin onto your fabric (which should be folded wrong sides together). Mark fabric where ties should be. Cut out. Baste ties/ribbon onto marking. Pin right sides together making sure the ribbon is on the inside. Begin sewing on a normal stitch. Leave an opening at the back to put foam. Clip curves for a better shape. Turn right side out. Push out curves and corners as best as you can. Cut out a piece of foam with the original sized seat cover pattern. Put foam inside seat cover. Slip stich opening closed.

I still need to finish that tablecloth and then we're done!

4 comments:

Maren said...

How cute. You are so creative, Kristen. I love the colors you picked. You went to a ton of work for the party, I'm glad you got a lot of pictures.

Parkinson Family said...

Absolutely darling Kristen! Such a cute idea! I saw a pink and brown table with 2 fabric chairs at Bellisi (or whatever it's called)...the cute baby furniture store near Barnes and Noble in Pikesville...and looked at the price tag for like a zillion dollars...and you went ahead and made a super cute set! I am in love with the fabric play tea set! You'll have to tell me where you got it!

The Kartchners said...

Those are so cute! You did a great job Kristen!

grandma said...

Fantastic job Kristen. The table and chairs are wonderful and the party is really cute. You are amazing.