Instead of recovering it with plain black silk, I decided to use a plaid. This beautiful piece of brown, gold, cream and black silk taffeta was purchased from The Dressmaker's Shop. If you haven't shopped at Kimberly Lynch's online store, I highly recommend it. She has lovely fabrics suitable for period pieces, for reasonable prices. The bottom of each top piece for each section was scalloped. I used a pair of vintage scalloping shears to recreate this.
The new cover, all sections stitched together. Once all the sections were stitched, I finished the bottom edge with a narrow rolled hem (machine stitched).
The first step in recovering the parasol is pushing the finial through the center of the cover and drawing the fabric tightly to the little space 
under the finial. I used buttonhole thread to do this and went around the finial several times before knotting it off. Next, the tip of each section is stretched tightly to meet the tip of each rib. The rib tips are little metal pieces with a hole through which to draw the thread and a bit of the fabric. I worked the cover onto the frame by moving from side to side, in order to keep the cover taught. This is similar to what is done in millinery. When the tips were secured, I stitched the cover to each rib just below its hinge.
under the finial. I used buttonhole thread to do this and went around the finial several times before knotting it off. Next, the tip of each section is stretched tightly to meet the tip of each rib. The rib tips are little metal pieces with a hole through which to draw the thread and a bit of the fabric. I worked the cover onto the frame by moving from side to side, in order to keep the cover taught. This is similar to what is done in millinery. When the tips were secured, I stitched the cover to each rib just below its hinge. 
The finished cover, with original beading added.
Ready for summer! This was much easier than I had thought. Now I'm ready to tackle a larger, Edwardian parasol!
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