The Dining Room Chairs

I know, I know, I should have cleaned up the house a bit before taking the photograph... but that would have delayed this post another week and I couldn't wait to share it with you.  I recovered the seats of our dining room chairs with the cloth I wove at Penland.  I did end up using the reverse as well, so I have two red chairs and two lavender chairs.

These chairs were used in the waiting room of my parent's photography studio for 20 years.  They were cheap then and are certainly worth less now... so I just threw this together with a staple gun and didn't fret too much about this project because any small improvement was welcome.  The wicker seats were 14.5"x14.5".  I bought foam padding 1"x14"x14" and stapled it to the seat to add a little body and comfort to the chairs. 

I took my woven textile, zig-zag stitched and divided them into four separate seats.  I had set up the warp on this woven piece to be 18" wide at Penland.  Unfortunately I wasn't experienced enough yet to know to account for a draw-in on the sides.  When I took the piece off the loom it measured about 15" wide.  Almost enough to cover the whole seat... so I had to add strips of fabric on each of the short sides to allow room to staple and attach to the chairs.  

 

I bruised the palm of my hand from the staple gun!  I readily sacrifice my body for my art.  They came out pretty well I thought - the panels I had to add on either side are just barely visible.  I'm a little worried about how they will take daily where-and-tare, but again, any small improvement is welcome.