New Patio Umbrella

This weekend my son pressure washed my deck and I am getting the itch to get my plants outside and do some digging in the dirt.  I have a little “sitting room” on my deck and always have an umbrella out there to keep the spot cool and shady.  This is what my umbrella looked like this spring!

I bought this umbrella for $2 at an auction last spring.  My previous umbrella had been the victim of high winds, so I found this one cheap…I disliked like the green but at that price, I could live with it!  So…anyway it sat out all winter and the fabric was falling apart, but the frame is still great! I thought it might be worth replacing the fabric, but I couldn’t decide what kind of fabric to use.  I priced fabric and found it would take too many yards to make this a reasonably priced redo. 

Well, I was at Home Depot and saw a drop cloth! I don’t know why I had not thought of a drop cloth before.  I cut apart the old umbrella and used it as a pattern to make the new one.  I measured, cut and sewed.  I even brought the umbrella base in because it was raining and I wanted to work on it at night.  The first time I sewed it all together, I realized it was too loose at the top, so…off it came and I drug it back to the sewing machine and adjusted the top portion. 

Much better!  I was satisfied!  Now I wanted it to be waterproof, so I used two cans of Scotchguard fabric protector to waterproof the fabric.

So yep, I spent the weekend with a patio umbrella open in my living room!  Just keeping it real…

 

This whole project cost me $21 for the 9 X 12 drop cloth and the Scotchguard was $7 for the two cans.  Everything else I had.  I used quilting thread for the seams and serged every seam.  Hopefully it will hold up to the weather and sunshine!

I am linking to these great parties!