Deck chair repair - back to sewing. Yippee!

In spring 2011, we bought six identical chairs for our deck.

They are light weight and very comfortable to sit in. 

Unfortunately, the fabric was starting to tear along the side of the seat on some of them.  Last summer my neighbour sat down and the seat tore open dropping his butt in the middle of the chair.  Thank goodness he wasn't hurt.

 The frame is fine, so I decided to replace the fabric to fix the chair.

 After careful examination, it was time to take it apart.

Outside tools included a butter knife, kitchen scissors, needle nose and regular pliers.

Using the butter knife, I popped the plastic caps off the top and bottom of the seat frame.  The fabric is held into the frame with plastic welting cord.  From the top, I pushed the cord out the bottom side with the needle nose pliers.

Next I pulled the welting cord out the bottom side with the regular pliers.  Once the cord was removed the fabric easily slipped out of the frame.

This outdoor fabric is 100% polyester. The regular price was $24 per metre.  I bought two metres on sale for only $9.80 per metre,  it is 154 cm wide.

 

 The old fabric was used for a pattern.

 After about eight straight seams, it was ready to install.

The first side went in the frame without difficulty, by putting the fold in the frame then threading the welting cord through the casing.  The second side was much more difficult, because of the tension on the fabric I couldn't hold the fold in the frame and thread the welting cord at the same time.  I needed more hands.

This is my dear friend and next door neighbour Debbie.  Together with her holding the fold in place we got the second side in.  The welting cord is brittle it broke about four times, we just kept feeding the broken pieces into the frame until the entire chair was on the frame.  Then we snapped the plastic end pieces back into the top and bottom of the seat frame.

 Behold.. a lovely new deck chair.

I'm thrilled with the results.