Captain of Industry…  This weekend I finally plucked up the courage to take on a project that I’ve been wanting to achieve for probably a good year – even before I took up sewing – Toddler-proofing our cream dining chairs. It’s a long story how we came about having cream chairs – but I’m sure you can imagine that it’s not the most practical colour when you have littlies running around!! HA you think
So recently I finally decided to give it a go. Then came the challenge of finding materials suitably pretty that were also wipeable (aka ticked the functionality box) and also most importantly affordable. I failed dismally in this area. The pretty that I really liked was going to cost too much by the time I imported it, and the local vinyl or moleskin I could find was all naff. Finally I came across this. It’s very plain – but pretty much recreates what we already had on the chairs, which gives me total flexibility about what I accessorize with.

So yesterday my dear hubby and I set about making a pattern and covering them. Neil was my brilliant assistant and did all the cutting out (boring part zzzzzzzzzzzzz) once I had finalised the final pattern. 6 dining chairs in 24 hours – not bad!! I couldn’t have done it without him!! They’re not the best sewing I’ve ever done, but they look ok and are very functional. They should definitely withstand most anything a 2 year old can drop, wipe and smear all over them, which is what is important here. One thing that I learnt is that Vinyl is so easy to sew in many respects but so jolly impossible in many others. It is such a pig to sew around corners!!

Here they are:

Funny looking handbag and softies aye 😉 I will get around to those eventually too.

Go and check out what everyone has made this week at Sew & Tell Friday