A little project

We've got this old stool in our kitchen that is much loved and greatly abused.
Undoubtedly it was secondhand when my mother came upon it because in those days we used what we could get.
Originally the seat was covered in that pale red of yesteryear with white piping and white sides.
Mum bought it because it was great for checking out the top shelves in her kitchen.
My ex who was 6' 1 1/2' used it to reach the ceiling for painting.
I've used it for everything because I am short.

Once the vinyl was totally ruined with paint I decided to recover it.
Being poor I used what I had which was this burnt orange polyester that was also used in the curtain tiebacks.
I love co-ordination you see.

Then that top got ruined with paint and I made a little cutsie top with some expensive quilting fabric from my stash. (more money at that stage you see!)
It was a simple rectangle with rounded corners and elastic sewn to the edges just like a fitted sheet.
Following on from life and the fact that expensive quilting fabric doesn't take the rigours of it too well I pulled it off and threw it out a couple of months ago.
Cutsie fabric does not compensate for holes around the edges.
No way.
But there the story ground to a halt.
I even tried to force things along by sticking the chair in my bedroom-cum-sewing room.
I would sigh as I checked my teatowel stock one day and then the expensive cottons another day.
None were right.
Then I realised that I was chasing colour and in my cream (messy) kitchen I needed less colour.
Finally, inspired by this post over at Kootoyoos blog I worked out how to fix it.

Take one rectangular doily - must be ultra pretty - just a little larger than the top, roughly thread any old elastic near the edges (using your fingers, not a needle or anything useful like that) and slip it over.
5 minutes to a new seat.
Of course you can still see the paint spots through the pattern but that is because we really do love our family stool and everything that went into it.