How to Weave Rush Chair Seats

Rush chair seats, historically made with bull rush cattail leaves, are a rustic addition to your home. If your existing rush seats need repairs, or if you want to reseat another chair with rushes, you can very simply make the seats yourself. However, the process is time-consuming and often tricky, so prepare yourself for a long afternoon of weaving the coarse fiber in and around the chair legs. The work will be worth it, though, when you see your completed chair.

Rushes
Water
Tacks
Light hammer
Scissors
Varnish

Instructions

- 1
  Prepare the rushes for weaving by cutting them down to 30-foot lengths and dunking them in water. Don't soak the rushes or they will become difficult to handle.
- 2
  Sit or stand so that the chair is facing you, as if you were knee-to-knee with a person sitting in the chair. Tack a rush next to the front left seat post on the interior of the left seal rail, so that the tacked end of the rush points directly away from you and the loose coil of rush points toward you.
- 3
  Draw the length of rush toward you, over the front seat rail, under it in a loop, over the left seat rail and under it in a loop. The rush should now wrap once around the front seat rail and the left seat rail. Continue weaving by drawing the rush over the right seat rail, wrapping it around the rail in a loop near the right front seat post, and then drawing it over the front seat rail near the right post, again forming a loop.
- 4
  Continue counterclockwise around the chair in the same fashion, always wrapping the rush over the opposite rail, around it in a loop, and then in a loop around the adjacent rail, forming right angles at the corners. Push the rush tight against the previous strand with every row you weave around the chair seat.
- 5
  Switch to a new length of rush as needed by tacking the rush onto the interior of a chair rail as described in Step 2 and proceeding with a new length of rush.
- 6
  Continue weaving until the chair seat is complete. You will finish in the center of the seat. Complete the seat by tacking the final end of the rush to the interior of the seat and cutting off the excess.
- 7
  Finish the rush chair seat with a light varnish. The varnish will protect the rushes and keep the edges from fraying.

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