Waiting for the mail

Materials: SKRUVSTA office chair and post bags

Description: A while ago, I got hold of 5 old post bags from our former company. As a remembrance of the company I used to work for for almost 25 years, I knew that I wanted to make a new cover for the Skruvsta chair. First I have washed the bags twice, they were very very dirty and stiff I used a lot of fabric softener to make the genuine jute more flexible.

First I peeled off the orange fabric and cut the bags open. IKEA used about 300 staples... Then I tore the seams, so I had all the different parts of the fabric separate and ironed them flat.I have used these parts as pattern, easy! I had 5 original post bags from our old post company, once called PTT (now TNT). I have puzzled with the red/white/blue stripes (the Dutch flag) so it would fit in one line on the three different parts on the inside of the chair. Then I sewed all the parts together and placed them over the chair.

With an electric stapler and with the help of a friend, we stapled the cover onto the chair. She was pulling the cover and I shot the staples into the wooden parts of the chair. I have used 14cm. long staples. On the back of the chair I used the text of the bag which means Owned by the PTT.

I sewed two straps of the original bags on the back site of the chair. I have used a thicker seat (6cm) and used the old zipper, which I placed on the back site of the seat instead of on the bottom, because I have made the seat doublesided. The number on the chair (80) is the year the bag was made. Real vintage bags!

~ Denise Witjas, The Netherlands