Brocade Parasol cover for the garden

We have had this parasol since the early 2000s when we bought it for a BBQ which was for my 40th birthday party so its approximately 16 years old and very tatty.

On top of its age, we used to have two pet rats. One day, many years ago now, it had started to rain and I quickly brought it into the house before going to work. I did not have time to put it away so left it in the living room. Unfortuately I left it next to Snowy the rat's cage and he pulled the fabric into his cage in order to chew. Snowy died years ago. I think in January 2004 but his destruction has been with us every summer ever since. I fixed the hole with iron on tape but it always looked tatty after that. Though also promted good memories of Snowy the rat.

Anyway this year the parasol really has had it and needs to be disposed of. Before sending to the tip though I decided to have a go at making a new cover since the frame is in working order. It seems so wasteful to just throw it away.

I have lots of this gold brocade. I thought when I started this project, that I had plenty but it turns out because its based on triangles its actually taken more fabric than  expected.

I used the original parasol to get the triangular panel sizes by laying my fabric on the floor outside on the patio because of the large size and sticking my old cover on top.

I then roughly cut around one triangle and then used that to make another four triangles.

Problem! I need six in total not five.  I actually made our Christmas table cloth from some of this gold brocade a few years back and it looks lovely every Christmas, so I do not really want to cut that up to finish this. Especially since I do not even know if this is going to work.

Cutting it would have given me enough fabric to make the thing properly. In the end I had to piece one of the triangles so in the end I have 5 large and two smaller ones which make the sixth panel. I do not really want to have one panel in a different fabric. As it turns out you really do not notice the pieced panel at all. Also my fabric goes in all different directions and does not follow a grain ine because that was the only way to get this out of my available fabric. It works anyway and has been used for a couple of weeks now with no issues.

I decided since this is not going to be waterproof I am not going to even bother to try to make the top rain cover that the original parasol shade has.


Most bought parasols seem to have this extra skirt like bit at the top. Mine is just sewn as simple triangular panels from top to edge if you see what I mean. Thats simpler to make and just as good to block the sun. I am not going to leave this out in the rain anyway.

So this is all sewn up together and overlocked and then I tried it for size. I needed help for this because at the time I had no edge or pockets to go over the ends of the frame so getting ths to position on the frame to check it will fit was quite difficult.

But it looked like it will work.



So then how to finish this?

I debated putting all my brocade bits together and adding a frill at the edge. This would work.  But really I am not a frilly person so in the end I decided against a frill. Also it would have added a couple of days to the makig process because the sheer size of this meant it is difficult to sew and that meant doing everything slowly to balance the fabric on my table and sewing machine to enable the sewing. It took much longer to make than I expected anyway.

I have lots of dark green wide bias binding so I decided to use that as the edge and then to add small pockets to hold the ends of the frame to the parasol. The original old cover has these small pockets and that has worked all these years.

So then the big event.................and it works!

Its not at all perfect, but should last this summer at least, and if it does not get too wet it may be Ok for a few more years.One of the panels is a bit saggy so yu have to ensure the frame is in the pockets properly but once up its great. I am very pleased with it and happy not to have bought  new one.

I really like to walk down the garden and see my new home made parasol.

Unfortunately, its started to rain now so that could be the end of summer in the UK.

But then its June!

It usually rains here in June and at least the runner beans like the rain. Its time to sow them now so that is what I am doing for the rest of today.

This was an interesting lockdown project. It was very easy despite having no pattern or directions and if you have an old tatty parasol and some available fabric I would certainly recommend having a go at making one of these. This would work in any midweight fabric. You could even have all the panels in different fabrics or put braid on the edge or lace.

Hopefully the sun will come back soon so we can sit in the garden again and use my parasol.

Until then, I have put the cover into my airing cupboard until the sun comes back so probably a month or so I expect.

 Bracken