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March 5, 2011

Chairs with Fabric Woven Seats

That title sounds horribly dull, but hopefully the post will be interesting!  Years ago, I figured out how I could re-do chairs that had damaged woven bottoms without having to spend a fortune taking them to a pro.  I could weave new bottoms and/or backs from leftover fabric or worn out sheets or dropcloths.  See tutorial here.

I recently wove a set of four ladderback chairs using dropcloth fabric. I put them at my store.  They aren't in my booth.  Another vendor had a vintage library table from Auburn, Alabama and the wood from that table went perfectly with my chairs.  The look great together.


The dropcloth fabric was a real mess to work with.  It ravels horribly.  On the other hand, the messy edges of each strip really give the finished seats more character. 

The color and texture look really nice with this dark wood.  It looks a bit like linen, but of course it's much tougher.

I wove another lone chair with brighter fabrics.  I used to use a real mix of fabrics and colors.  The last time I did that (see my Rocker Re-Do) I decided it turned out way too busy to suit me.  This time I stuck to a bit of a color palette - red, white, and pale green.  It's bright, but in a nice folksy way.

It's in my booth on top of a table.  There's another photo of it in yesterday's post.


You might recognize the green paint on this chair. It's one of the ones I painted while trying to find my perfect green. (See Experimenting with Green Chairs and one of my favorite posts - Smitten with Green) I really roughed this chair up, going for a very chippy vintage look.  It was fun to do.  I put the chair out on my porch for a photo and almost didn't have the heart to take it to my booth.  I'm selling it for $24, which is ridiculously low for the work I put in it.  Oh well.  It was fun. I saw a similar version on Etsy for $140 plus $30 shipping.  I wonderful if she has ever actually sold one of her chairs for that much.  I should probably mark any future chairs I weave a little higher.


The woven seats hold up well.  I have one that I wove over a decade ago.  It has been on a porch the whole time.  The fabric shows some fading but is still very strong. It's in better shape that a chair with a rush bottom would have been!

The next seats I weave will probably be for me.  I have four wonderful, large, oak rockers given to me by a friend, waiting to be cleaned up, painted and woven.  I'd really like to tackle that project in the next month or so.