Recovering a Patio Lounge Cushion

We've had the new dogs home for about six weeks now, and everything is going along fairly well.

There are some ups (the new dogs don't have to be on leash when we go outside in the backyard) and some downs (I threw out the living room rug this weekend because I am so tired of steam cleaning out the bathroom "accidents").

We've also come to realize that, like most-two year-olds, they still need a lot of supervision or they get into mischief.

We spent a lovely Sunday out on the back deck a couple of weeks ago. Everyone was having a good time, and Scarlett discovered the joys of basking in the sun on the lounger.

Sweet face, right? Don't be fooled, there's a devil lurking in there. A few hours later, while we were inside eating dinner, we heard the two little dogs galloping back and forth, jumping over things and chasing each other. But then there was a loud ripping noise and we ran out to see what had happened.

We found this:

They were so proud of themselves. Tom had to hide his laugh behind his hands. I wasn't so happy because I love that lounger. Our neighbour gave it to us and the cushion is thick. Like six inches thick.

How do you replace that? Well first, you spend your lunch hour the next day searching every online site that delivers to Canada. Then you visit several stores after work. But you end up with nothing that even comes close. Unless you want one custom-made for $$$$.

I was preparing myself mentally to just suck it up and settle on a thinner cushion, but decided to take a stab at repairing and recovering the ruined one instead. I went through my fabric stash to see if I had anything suitable for outdoor use and found some patterned material that was sturdy, yet still soft and velvety.

I restuffed the cushion with the foam and batting that had been torn out, then used thick thread to sew as much of the shredded fabric back together as possible, just to give a framework for the new material. (No pics, sorry.)

At first I only recovered the damaged section, and I was pretty happy with that.

But then I started thinking it would look even better if the entire side was the same. So out came the fabric and sewing machine again, and I covered the top section as well. Hey, I was right, it did look better.

I'm so happy with it now. It looks intentional. It almost looks like I know what I'm doing or something. :-) I hate to admit it, but I even like it better than the original. Should I thank the little hooligans for making it happen?