I decided to give my husband’s used and abused Missoni for Target sweater a second life. After he put the sweater in the Goodwill basket, I tried it on thinking we could delay its trip to Goodwill. Unfortunately, the sweater was not very flattering on me. So back to the Goodwill basket it went. A few weeks later, I decided to just try to give the sweater a second life in our house. I was looking for a fabric for a garage sale chair I had finished painting. I had temporarily put a black and white flowery fabric over the chair without staples or anything to feel the fabric before it became permanent and somehow it was not working. So, I gave the black Missoni Chevron sweater an afterlife.

I don’t have any before photos of the chair. But basically to make it white, I used my old reliable Mouse by Black and Decker for sanding. I sanded it lightly since I knew I was going to use a very forgiving primer.

After sanding and cleaning all the sanding residue, I sprayed the chair with one coat of the Zinsser oil based primer. I actually waited a complete day before applying the paint. I sprayed the chair with two coats of the high gloss white paint and I waited about two hours between coats. I am not sure what the waiting period was per the can instructions, but follow the can instructions instead of mine.

These are the tools I used for my upholstery job.

I decided I wanted everyone to know I had used a sweater for the reupholstery.  What could be more obvious than the shoulder area of the sweater?  Nothing.  So, I put the sweater on the chair, turned it around to see how the Chevron lines would look, and it was perfect.

I turned the piece around carefully (with the chair wearing the sweater) and just stapled it once on the top area.

I then stretched the fabric carefully and stapled it three times at the other end.  I then went back to the top and continued with the stapling.

I just made a knot with the sleeves to give the sweater a good stretch on the sides and started stapling on the other two sides of the seat.

After I finished with the stapling,  I cut the excess fabric. And by the way, I put all the excess fabric away since I have other plans for the buttons and the pockets.

This is the finished product. I know it is not perfect since the bulky sweater shoulder area is towards the front of the chair.  However, it looks a lot better in person that in the photos. I put the chair on the side of the table that gets the least amount of use since I am still not sure how the stretchy material will hold. I guess I will let you all know.

I think the chair makes a great contrast with my old Ikea pillow.  And this is the garage sale chair wearing a Missoni for Target sweater, as it sits in my kitchen. I love it!

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