How To Re-Cover a Folding Chair

I have a confession- I'm a trash-picker. It must be something genetic I got from my father because he is the master of finding tarnished treasures. It helps that he has a variety of tools and experience to make even really damaged items like new again. I don't, so I only retrieve things that can be fixed with hand tools and elbow grease.

In this case, I found a folding chair sitting next to the dumpster. It was a perfectly fine chair except the fabric on the backing was ripped. It's such an easy thing to fix! Of course, you could always just decide you'd like to spice up some regular folding chairs, too.

Doesn't look like much now.

 There are screws that hold the back rest and the seat in place. Just unscrew them and the two cushions will come right off.

Gross.

The chair itself was pretty dirty, so I cleaned it up before I put the newly covered cushions back on.

Here are the back of both cushions, where you can see how the original fabric was stapled in. Rather than unstapling the current fabric and padding, I decided to simply cover the new fabric over the old. It's a lot quicker and easier this way.

I had a fun upholstery fabric laying around leftover from another project I decided to use. I set the cushions over top of it and cut out a piece big enough to fold over the back.

Ironing Board Revamp

My ironing board is tired. I bought it on clearance to use at college about 6 years ago. It's a mini one, that stands only about 10 inches high and is about 36" long. It has been perfect for use in my sewing room, because it folds up easily and has a hook so I can store it in the closet.

Just the perfect size for pressing blocks.

But I noticed the original fabric is looking rough- yellowed and covered with little bits of old fusible interfacing residue. I didn't want to chuck it, because the frame is still perfectly fine, so I decided I'd make a new cover for it. It was a quick afternoon project and now I have a lovely looking ironing board again.

The batting underneath didn't look good, so I replaced it, too.

 This is what is looked like when I slipped the cover off. It had a string that held it tight, so I pulled that out to reuse. Then I ripped out the seam that had held the string and flattened it out a bit.

I seem to have an affinity for bright colors, don't I?

 I went to iron it flat when it dawned on me that I had just taken my ironing board apart. Duh. I tossed a towel on top of the frame and it worked out fine. Good thing I thought this project through before I started, huh?