Replacing/repairing dryrotted fabric on outdoor furniture

We have 4 swivel patio chairs and the fabric is getting pretty worn. Can they be redone with more fabric.?

I know it's been a while, but do you remember how many yards of fabric you needed for the entire set?

This link wasn't about the wood slat idea.

Have you done this? It is sturdy enough? I would be afraid it wouldn't hold up on chairs such as the picture above when someone sat it them.

I wish my husband was handy like that!

That was in 2017, how did it hold up? I'd like to do the same. I don't sew. Thanks for the idea.

I think she meant a strip of shower curtain!

We just did this repair. There are many YouTubes but very few that consider the pitfalls that can make a 4 hour task into it a difficult 2-day chore.

They make it look easy. Because they don't make the rookie mistakes, they don't clue you in what to avoid. So here goes:

Each of these "tips" was learned the hard way. Taking to time to read this over-long post may save you many hours and maybe a failed project.

Sling chair repair pitfalls & tips:

1. Get the width right! Measure center-to-center and add about 1/8" to allow material to loop the spline. We made the first 2 slings too tight (19 1/4 wide, which was 1/32 under center to center of the old one) and reassembly was quite difficult. We made the next one 20" and it sagged badly after assembly; we had to cut the seams & re-sew at 19 1/2 which was perfect.

2. Replace your spline! It's $1/ft and only sold in 25' lengths, yet requires 32' for all 4 chairs (check the calculator for your chair), so we skipped this. However, it's necessary if your chair has a lot of curves! The original will be stiff and out-of-round shape; this makes re-stringing nearly impossible. Our millimeter spread measuring tool shows the old one is 4mm x 5mm. So the original was about 4.4mm (just under 3/16) - meaning 5mm won't fit!

3. Ordering Spline: We first ordered 3/16" (5mm) replacement spline on Amazon because that seemed about right on a tape measure, but it was noticeably fatter when it arrived AND FEEDING IT WAS EVEN HARDER - impossible to feed around the curves! However, we found a China seller (KOMORAX Store) who cheated a bit so it's about 4.2mm (under the advertised 3/16), about the same as our original but round & more flexible because it's new. Shipping took 2 weeks to arrive, but worth it! After that, it took just 5 minutes for me to re-string both sides. It was still a bit difficult to get past the curves, but still just 1 minute for the first side and 4 for the 2nd (it's got more tension).

Although we did the first 2 with original spline, it took 30 minutes applying all my considerable strength with my wife feeding the other end, using large plyers etc. Each chair was an exhausting workout, risking ripping the material. The correct spline size on the last 2 chairs made all the difference!

Also our replacement material is a bit thicker, making oversized splines even more unviable.

4. Vaseline helps. Also using your 2nd hand to sort of "press the material" around the center curve, in one fluid motion for each inch or two, while pulling from above and someone feeding it from the front.

5. End-caps: The old end-cap plugs all broke no matter how carefully we tried removing them, and finding an exact replacement proved impossible for us. Plummer's putty works great to plug the end-cap holes; I just pressed the tops of the old plugs over the putty. The point is to keep the water out & not have scratch-hazards. Maybe later I'll glue the caps in place and paint the lighter colored plumbers putty brown to match, after it dries (takes a couple months to cure).

6. Thread color: The thread color we picked (orange/yellowish) is fairly visible on close inspection so any sewing mistakes are noticeable . Beige would have blended better. Note: Be sure to buy UV and outdoor rated tread. Also; some thread thicknesses aren't for home sewing machines. If doing it again, I'd probably go to JoAnn's for a spool that fits our machine as we had to load it into the internal spool - which has it's own tension & jamming challenges.

7. Unevenness shows: On one chair, I didn't pay close attention to the top for evenness (left top vs. right top) after treading the slings. It's about 1/4" lower on one side. It's very noticeable because the reveal-gap from the top back-bar is about 3/4" so even 1/4" difference catches the eye even from a distance. It's impossible to adjust once it's tight.

8. Cutting out the old fabric: Pulling it out takes considerable force. Its nearly impossible around the center curve unless you cut right up to the bar, but be SURE to leave a good length that's left wide, so you can grip it with large plyers and have room for new gripping when it rips.

9. Paint: We repainted using several coats Rust-Oleum satin Dark Walnut paint/primer, but also applied separate primer underneath, after light cleaning & sanding & rinsing & drying. Rust primer on the rusty bits, self etching metal primer on the rest. Self-etching primer doesn't doesn't replace sanding, but I figure it helps. It's really for raw unpainted surfaces so maybe regular primer is better - as I understand it there's acid that helps it adhere. Sanding may seem optional with self-etching primer but could save you from a much harder sanding chore in a year of removing all the now flaking paint!

Spray painting only added about $20 (4 cans) and 2 hours to the project but was soo worth it. I used multipole thin coats - re-painting missed areas after 5 minutes to dry a bit. Thin coats dry very quickly. I used smooth with somewhat medium-speed pass from an equal distance.

Note: Use a respirators! That stuff's nasty on the lungs. Surgical masks don't do squat.

They look like new - maybe better!

10. The spreader bars. People have reported great difficulty with installing them. I didn't have an issue by using reversing our clamp to make a spreader. Some also use a car jack. There's a special tool, but for 1-time use it's not worth the purchase or rental.

The first spreader bar can be twisted in *before* screwing the 2nd side in place. The 2nd spreader can be pounded in with a mallet (see photo below), using clamp-spreaders to get it most of the way there. Some touchup paint needed for the scraping.

Alternatively, we tried bending the bar then pounding it straight after on 1 chair. This works, but I found the other method easier. The damage to the chair is minimal and simple to re-paint.

11. Don't remove both sides! Loosen the 2nd for painting in the cracks, but it's way easier to feed the material to a side-runner that's mounted to the chair. The 2nd one will need 2 people to hold it in place & feed & pull. I managed it myself, but when my wife was around to help it went far easier for her to feed the material & help hold the bar steady a bit.

12. Material quantity: Buy extra material. We used "Phifertex Stripes Vinyl Mesh Raleigh Willow 54" Fabric" from Sailrite.com for $23/yd. Our chairs needed 3 yards and bought 4; wishing we had 6. Once we started sewing, we made matching umbrella holder and covered 2 patio chair cushions, but wish we had enough for pillows. So we're ordering more and have to pay twice; plus there's more waste when cutting from 2 rolls.

For one thing, I'd like to make Velcro-attached seat tops; to protect from So Cal UV rays destroying these in another 5 years.

Also; there's a trade-off on Phifertex ($14/yd) or Phifertex II (same as their Stripes - $23/yd). We felt the extra stiffness of Phifertex II made it more difficult to re-thread, but is far more durable. In fact, Sailrite.com only recommends it for sling chairs. However for chairs with a lot of curves, someone who's not strong may find it too difficult to reassemble. Phifertex I is technically good enough for sling chairs. Your call. After learning the tricks to ease the restringing it, we're glad we got the stiffer & more durable one, but it still took good strong handling to rethread. I suspect that many of the people doing videos use the more pliable (less durable) alternative, making it look so much easier than what we experienced, even after learning some tricks.

13. Hem bar cut: Cut hem fold-over short of the spline channel.

Most videos say to create a folded hem-bar at top & bottom to prevent fraying. However this creates a 4-layer section at each corner that has to feed thru the slit. At the least, this makes for a far more difficult threading process, at worst it simply won't fit. In our case, we had to cut the stitching, cut that final inch out of the hem, and re-sew with just the spline channel having material (ie: 2 layers to the very end).

Frankly; the Phiphertex II (or Stripes) material is so durable, you're probably fine just burning off the frays because there doesn't seem to be extra weight at the very top or bottom. In fact it's rare that your body even touches those sections if your chair has a final steep curve like ours, but the hem does look nice.

Respectfully; videos like this gloss over the details to the point of being useless to the newbie.

For example, her tape measure didn't even reach all the way to the edge of the fabric, as if precision isn't important. She says to just add 1", not 1" per side. Following this instruction could lead to much wasted time & material; or sags or overly tight fits impeding reassembly.

I'd suggest sailrite.com for calculator & instructional videos.

Calculator:

https://www.fabric-calculator.com/SlingChair/index.html

How-to:

https://www.sailrite.com/How-to-Replace-Fabric-on-a-Patio-Sling-Chair