A Little Oilcloth Fabric Project

Breathe new life into boring toddler chairs or, in my case, bring your toddler chairs back to life...

Funny, we don't have a dog even though this looks like it was attacked by one...nope just two boys.

With a Halloween birthday party approaching, I thought these little chairs could use a facelift.  Also because I have an abundance of fabulous oilcloth fabric.  I bought it dirt cheap on www.fabric.com.  Just put "oilcloth" in the search box.

This little chair project was quick and easy.  All you need is the oilcloth fabric, phillips head screwdriver, scissors and a staple gun.

Unscrew and remove the top padding from the chair.

 Cut out fabric needed.

 You don't need much of an edge.

 Pull it tight and staple all around.

 Sean wanted to "help"

 Silly Seaney!

Now for the seat.  Flip the chair over and unscrew the seat cushion.

Flip the cushion over, lay it on the fabric and just eyeball how much you will need and cut.

Again you don't need much of an edge, maybe like a an inch.  Pull tight and staple all around.

 Pull the corners in a trianguler fashion and staple.

 And there you have it...just like new!

 Aren't they cute?  Sort of a mini-version of my dining room chairs.  My dining room chairs were done with a laminated fabric.  For these little chairs I used a true oilcloth - thick and sturdy.  But I think you could use  either for this project.  

Search is over...for oilcloth fabric that is!

As I mentioned in my last oilcloth story, I had ordered a few yards of fabric for my dining room chairs from fabric.com.  Here it is! 

I found http://www.fabric.com/ to be reasonably priced, tons to choose from, and free shipping!! (orders over $35)

This is not actually oilcloth, it's laminated cotton.  My plan was to use the green and white, since it goes nicely with my curtains.

Now I will reveal my disgusting chairs before.  My old house was smaller and my boys used the dining room for everything!

Here take a close look...so gross!  LOL 

 OK, first, pour yourself a big glass of wine because your going to need it.

Then we removed the old nasty covers by prying the staples off with a screw driver and some pliers.

This is definitely a two woman job.  I enlisted my favorite jack of all trades, my mother!

We used the old cover as our pattern.

My mother held it tight while I stapled with the staple gun.  It is not as easy as it looks, my mother was at my house helping me until midnight God love her.

I didn't order enough of the green and white.  2 yards was not enough!!  I had also ordered a yard and a 1/2 of black and white.  Here is what I decided to do...

 

I LOVE the results!

 Sean likes them too!

Better than the Royal Wedding!

I saw the mail lady dropping off our mail and she said

"I have a few packages for you I will get them out of my truck after I finish delivering on your street."  OMG!  Really?  It's got to be my oilcloth fabric samples I ordered from jolly old England! 

As I wait for the mail lady to come back I was practically hyperventilating in anticipation.  I keep going to the door looking to see if she came back yet......what the heck was taking her so long (mind you it had only been about 15-20 minutes).  I was like my 5 year old when he is expecting something in the mail.

Nope not there yet...

Let me check again...nope

It's here!!


And...it wasn't my package from England!  It was the lovely Stella & Dot Necklace I ordered from Jo-Ann Coe at a fun party last week.  Love it.


And the other package was a pair of sneakers my hubs ordered so he will be excited (probably not as excited as I am about fabric samples).  Two boxes of happiness but, I am on the edge of my seat waiting for my oilcloth samples.  I know they are busy other there with the Royal Wedding and all but this is important!  As luck would have it they arrived a few days after the Royal Wedding...and they were in this little tiny envelope LOL!

Okay, so I am a little disappointed...could they be any smaller? 
I am laughing at myself that I originally thought they were in two big boxes!

You get what you pay for, they were free!  I don't know why my expectations were so high, duh!

On the positive spin, I got a good idea of what the patterns looked like from their website and the samples did give me a good indication of the texture of the fabric.  Really sturdy and definitely wipeable.

These are the three I am considering for my dining room chairs.  I'll use some of the "samples" from their website, otherwise you would need magnifying glass:

These others were just for fun, maybe something for a future project.

I also ordered some samples, well a few yards from http://www.fabric.com/they should arrive by the end of the week!  Yes I am a little obsessed.  The samples from England where from http://www.norfolktextiles.co.uk/

Cheerio!