Old Chair, New Chair

This week I spent a night completely alone in our house for the first time. I suddenly realised that since we moved here at the start of 2012, I have spent plenty of nights here with just me and little B, and I've spent plenty of nights away by myself, but I've never been completely alone here overnight. So with my boys in Cambridge at my in-laws, I giddily found myself at 3pm on Sunday afternoon with an entire half day stretched out before me. So after getting loads of work done, I decided to spend my evening not curled up in front of Call the Midwife, but finally recovering one of the bargain Parker Knoll armchairs we picked up in October from the Shepton Mallet Flea Market.

For the tiny sum of £25. we bought this wooden framed and oh-so-comfy armchair, but as you can see, the fabric was in a pretty disgusting state.

Having already bought a new, thicker seat pad, some lovely cream woven fabric and some tacks I was all set to get to work. I sewed up a new seat cushion cover and then with hammer and pliers in hand, ripped away all the old fabric, unearthing a wealth of dust and stuffing inside. Then taking my trusty staple gun, I attached the new fabric, finishing off the back piece with the tacks and a little bit of freehand sewing. And all whilst listening to archived Desert Island Discs on BBC iPlayer.

Five hours later, including a break for dinner, I was finished. Here's how my blissful evening of me time and handiwork turned out.