These french linen-vintage grain sack-feedsack-vintage burlap bags or whatever you call them are the coolest things and I wanted some. I wanted some pillows and I wanted some to recover a couple of chairs and possibly a couple of barstools. I like the simple ones with one or two stripes. However, they are way more expensive then I want to pay so I haven't bought any yet. I just drool over the pictures of ones I want.
So, my friend, Jennie, found this link and sent it to me. Kathleen @ Musings From A French Cottage figured out how to make her own and shared the step by step instructions on her blog. So, I gave it a try and here's how it turned out. Wait until you see the finished product! By the way, total costs: less than $10.00 ( $6.00 for 2 yards of burlap although I only used less than a yard, $4.00 for a couple of bottles of paint althought I only used a little bit. )
Here's are my supplies: burlap, fabric paint, painter's tape, paintbrush, newspaper and a paper plate (not picture: scissors and a staplegun)
Here is the chair seat I want to recover.
First, I did a test stripe. Tape off where you want your stripe to be.
Paint! I dry brushed the paint on lightly and repeated until I got the coverage and color I wanted.
I wasn't sure if I wanted a red stripe or a brown stripe. After testing both, I decided to do red. Pull the tape off and you have a stripe!
I then taped off two smaller stripes and painted those.
Here's what it looked like after the tape came off.
So, for the real thing, I decided I wanted two thin red stripes. So, I cut a square of burlap a little bigger than my chair seats. Taped off the stripes.
Painted the stripes red. I found out that you can paint them as perfectly or imperfectly as you like. The less perfect ones looked a bit more vintage and authentic.
Here's what it looked like after I pulled off the tape. At this point, I'm getting a little excited about this.
Here are my finished burlap fabrics for my two seats. They needed to sit a while to dry completely.
Recovering the seats.
Put the seats back on the chairs.
Not bad, huh? Ten bucks!
I put the chair back in it's place. Sorry for the mess, we're getting ready for Valentine's Day.
I think they look really great, especially for ten bucks. Thanks, Kathleen for the idea and tutorial.