Broken Chair to Sewing Chair Extraordinaire!

So, ever since.... well, ever since we got married, my sewing machine has generally found it's home on my desk, though a chair... lets just say I generally have had to go find one any time I want to do a project.  So I have been on the look out for a chair for some time.  My biggest struggle hasn't been in finding chairs, there are a lot of chairs in this world, but in finding a chair that is narrow enough to slide under my desk and also not too much $$$.  Then I found this beauty:

Just $2 at my favorite thrift store!  I have a thing for old chairs... side note, I have another random old chair that I sometimes would use for sewing, but doesn't fit under my desk that I love!  So this one had one glaring problem:

One giant hole in the caning (caning is a method of weaving chair seats and other furniture).  Since I really wanted this chair for sitting on, this wouldn't do.  However! I figured I could probably do something to fix the hole and make the chair sit-able!  After some research, this is what I decided to do. 

First: Remove all the old caning from the chair.  Not too hard, I just cut most of the middle out then un-threaded the rest.  The hardest part is that this stuff is prickly!

Cleaning up my mess

Next I cleaned the chair real good.  It was dusty and smelled a bit like cat... I got it second-hand after all!

Next with some help from Mr. A.....

I cut a bunch of long strips of fabric, 2 inches wide and probably 45 long (? I just did the width of the fabric, but it was a random bit out of my stash...)

Then we started connecting them to the chair.  So the chair had holes all the way around the opening for the caning, so all I did was use a small crochet hook to help me pull the fabric through, then tied a basic knot.  I will deal with the ends later. :)

Eventually I had a strip in each hole going one direction, like so:

Then I started the same process from the other side, but weaving in the strips as I went along. 

Now I thought I took pictures of this step, but I can't seem to find them...

Lastly I used the crochet hook to weave in all the ends from tying the strips on.

Tada!  It fits under my desk!

No more hole!  I've used the chair several times recently and seems to be holding up just fine!  Love it! 

ps. my totally awesome desk only cost me $1!!!  One of my favorite things is that the middle drawer on each side is the perfect size for patterns!  Score one for me!