Barely 2 months after getting him the walker, the fabric showed signs of fabric stress. I could see the loosening of fabric weaves near the groin area. A few days later, this was what it became. We had 2 options - (1) purchase another walker or (2) take up the challenge and sew a replacement. I told Boon, "Since we will have to get a new walker, then might as well let me try making one. We can get a new walker if I fail...".
So my challenge began... First, a picture of how the damaged seat looked like.
My plan was to do reverse engineering. Before I started taking it apart, I took many pictures of the seat. Front view, back view, inner view, side views, bottom view. As many as I could so it is easy to see how it looked like before being disassembled.
Then I started unpicking slowly.. and taking pictures as I went along.
Then I laid my 'pattern blocks' onto the new fabric (Michael Miller's) and batting, leaving 1.5cm seam allowance, and cut both fabric and batting together, then got started sew happy!
I could only sew after Colin goes to bed, with a bed light lamp and machine's light. This is the final product 2 weeks later. :) Much prettier and more durable than the previous seat. The only thing I reused was the light blue trim.
Inner view. Not the best sew lines... Reinforced the sides to prevent snapping of thread.
Top view. Noticed how I painstakingly matched the circles? Am happy with the result. :))
The greatest challenge was sewing the trims when it got to the top. I had to exert a lot of energy to compress the foam so that it could go under the needles. Glad it all worked out without any needle breaking incident.
A great experience!
