Recovering the kitchen chairs

Starting out with a photo of the finished product makes for a more interesting picture in the various RSS formats I use, so I'll cheat a little.  Every three years or so, I get the bug to change up the covers on the kitchen chairs.  I was shopping for fabric for another house project and saw this wonderful (and irresistible) poppy fabric.  The old covers were getting a little sad, so I added this project to the list.

Now to go back and show the tasks in order:  first, I use my trusty cordless drill to remove the screws on the bottom of the chair that secure the cushion in place. ( Jim always jokes that I get more excited about getting tools for presents than jewelry.)

Next, using my staple remover, I take off the old covers and cording.

I reuse the cording and employ the first old cushion cover as a pattern to cut the new ones--good reverse engineering tricks to insure that you cut the fabric big enough to stretch over the seat and make the bias cord covers long enough.

Measuring the length of one of the cord covers, I use the wonderful Quilter's Strip ticket to make enough continuous bias binding for all four chairs.  (As I've said before, the best "less-than-six-dollars" you will ever spend.)

Switching out the quarter-inch foot for the zipper foot, I stitch the cording inside the bias binding.

Next, the new covers are stapled on the seat (wooden base covered by thin layer of foam).

Once the seat cover is in place, the cording covered with the binding is ready to go around the edges.

The cording is stapled down and then the seat is ready to be reinstalled on the chair. This is an easy job if you have the right tools.