Parasols are great, but I use a walker most of the time and this means I need both of my hands. What I do is rope the umbrella base onto my walker and insert the umbrella. I wanted to make a cover for it because it is a bit jarring to see the colorful, thoroughly modern umbrella at an SCA event. I didn't, however, really want to spend a lot of time with it.
I took yellow twin sheet that I got at a thrift store and about five and a half yards of emerald green fringe and made it into a cover. I cut a hole in the top to fit the top of the umbrella and overstitched around the hole. I trimmed the sheet to a rough circle by draping it over the umbrella. I had to fill a bit of it with a piece I trimmed off another place. I hemmed the circle.
Then came adding the trim. Four and a half hours of hand sewing and I realized I'm short trim by about a yard. Crap. Well there is a part of the cover without fringe. If I run into the same fringe again I'll get it and fill in. It's annoying because I thought I had it measured much better than that. Here it is:
Not my best work, but not bad.
