Saturday, May 25, 2013

CAT-PROOF FABRIC

I have a client who rescues Persian and Himalayan cats and, hopefully, finds them new homes.  At any given time she has between 30 and 35 cats.  The funny thing is, never does her house small like there is even one cat, let alone as many as she has.  One of her biggest challenges is keeping her furniture safe from the scratching paws of all these residents.  After much trial and error, she found a fabric that none of the cats like.  It is a kind of fake ultra suede, and whenever she finds it, she buys ALL of it.  At the present she has several large bolts of it.




 One of her kitty cats, relaxing on the new chair cover.

Because of the style of the chairs, they were a bit challenging.  As you can see in the above photo, I had to make little tabs that snap on to connect the skirt to the base.  
The 'cushions' have batting inside, just to give the chairs a bit of padding, but not make them look so formal.

I had to do gathered corners on the front because of the shape of the legs.  A tailored pleat would have bowed out in a funny way.  

The slipcovers made the chairs more inviting.  My client was happy, and, maybe even more importantly, the cats were all happy, too!