Kid’s Swing Makeover

A few weeks ago, my backyard neighbor (the horse people) gave me this kids porch swing. She prefaced it by asking if I knew how to sew, to which I replied, “Of course!” Then she lamented about how sewing is becoming a lost art, and too many young people don’t know how to sew.

Well, I promised her that I would fix it up, and that I would give it back to her (not throw it away) if I ended up not being able to/not wanting to fix it.

Well, turns out it was just the project I needed to christen my new sewing machine.

Here’s what it looked like before:

I wish I had taken pictures of it when the fabric was on the swing so you could see what bad shape it was in. Honestly, I would have redone the fabric even if the fabric was still in good condition because that blue striped duck/frog print? Yeah… not really my cup of tea.

So I went to the fabric store on the hunt for the perfect outdoor material.

This wasn’t even half of the selection, but it was where I ended up with the perfect fabric (and please excuse my pictures – I left my camera at my in-law’s house, and so I’ve been using my iPhone. The picture above was from the collection I took to send to Russ so he could determine which he liked the best).

I wanted something gender neutral, kind of whimsical, and bold colors. This fit all of my needs, and it was only $6/yard.

I have a bunch of extra (plus I’m sure there is still more at the fabric store) so I am thinking about finding some patio furniture on KSL that needs recovered cushions and doing something like this as well. I might go back and get some solids to pair with the stripes.

So, the first thing I decided to do after finding the perfect fabric was to spray paint the frame. The white was dinged up and rusty, so I took the whole thing apart (not before taking LOTS of pictures so I could figure out how to put it back together again), washed the parts, and went to town with the good old Rustoleum. Thankfully the days I was spraying were pretty warm, if windy, so I just hid in the garage and sprayed away with the garage door open. I probably should have been wearing a mask, but safety-shmafety.

 
Vince was being my little helper. You should have seen him and Joss with the empty spray-paint cans making the “shhh” sound and “spraying” stuff. Cuties.

Well, I didn’t take any “during” pictures, so I’ll cut right to the chase – here it is in its finished glory!

I just copied the old material to make the swing and the canopy. My canopy ended up being a little bigger than the original, and my seat ended up being a little more stretched than the original, but who cares – it’s beautiful, right?!

I really like how it turned out. And if you are wondering why it is sitting in my living room instead of out on our beautiful porch… this is why:

Reasons #1 & #2

 
Reason #3 (although this is actually a picture of the LAST snow a few days ago… today wasn’t really snow… it was more like hail, and then slush falling from the sky. It was totally gross and made me a little ornery.)