Today, chair covers have become popular again. With their help, you can keep the upholstery in its original form, protecting it from dirt and grease. The cover can be easily removed, washed and put back on the chair, and also makes it possible to update the interior without special material costs.
Benefits of covers
First of all, the advantage of chair covers is their low cost – you will need much more money to stretch or buy a new chair. Such covers can be sewn independently by choosing the appropriate material that matches the basic style of the interior. Experimenting with shades of fabric, you can complement the overall color palette of the room or give furniture a completely new look. With the help of covers, it is easy to change the interior depending on the seasons – snow-white covers look great in summer, and more cozy and comfortable warm shades in winter.
Also, the covers perfectly protect the chairs from the claws of pets who love to sharpen them on the new leather upholstery.
The correct pattern and 1,5–2 meters of fabric is all you need to change the design of your apartment. It is not necessary to purchase expensive material; the main thing is that the purchased fabric is easy to wash and iron, and is also dense and strong. Chairs are exposed to intense stress (especially in the kitchen), so the fabric must withstand frequent friction and not fade.
We take measurements for covers
To get the most accurate chair pattern, you need to take detailed measurements. Particular attention must be paid to the legs, which usually expand towards the bottom. Take as many measurements of the upholstered chair as possible, draw a measurement chart and identify the widest and narrowest areas.
Mark them on the drawing, then make a paper copy of the back and seat, attach the paper to these parts and trace the outline with a pencil.
Then take your scissors, cut out the pattern, and fit it by attaching a paper drawing exactly to the seat and back. You will have patterns that will serve as the basis for building the next pattern. The rest of the details will have to be built using calculations.
Preparation for sewing covers
After you make the patterns of the cover parts, you will need to calculate the fabric consumption, because when sewing chair covers it always seems that you need a little material. This is not the case, a standard-sized chair with a cover requires 130-150 centimeters of fabric.
It so happens that for a cover with a skirt and other decorative elements, you need to purchase about 2 meters of material (and even more)
When buying fabric, also consider seam allowances, hemming and inaccuracies in the cut. Imagine in detail how you will cut out the parts, taking into account the width of the backrest and the flaring of the legs. The simplest solution is to create inserts for the width of the chair back, which go up to the sewing line of the cover skirt. The extension of the legs downward is achieved with a wedge added along the edges of the skirt. Most often, a standard size cover requires one and a half meters of fabric.
We sew chair covers
To sew the cover you will need: percale (fabric for a pattern); – a pencil; – a sewing kit.
Take a piece of percale that is 8 centimeters larger than the surface of the cover. Cover the front of the chair back with it so that the shared thread of the fabric lines up with the vertical centerline of the back. Spread the percale from the center to the periphery, pinning it with pins every 5-8 centimeters.
Make sure that there are no folds or wrinkles on the fabric to be pinned, which can further spoil the appearance of the cover
After you have snugly wrapped the entire chair, cut off the excess fabric with scissors, leaving about 2,5 centimeters for seam allowances at the edges and on the seat. This is necessary if you plan to adjust the seat and backrest as two separate parts. Then pin the resulting darts from the percale with pins, check their exact correspondence to the sample, and only then start sewing them from the main material.
For the skirt pattern, measure the sides and front of the seat. Once you’ve decided on the length of the skirt you want, cut and sew pieces of percale to the desired width and length. In this case, the seams should go along the back leg or hide in the fold. Pin the skirt to the seat with pins.
For a very thick chair back, you will need to make a special insert that will connect the front and back of the chair. Measure its width, which is equal to the thickness of the back, adding 2,5 centimeters of seam allowance to the resulting figure. The insert may taper slightly towards the top. Cut out a strip of fabric of the appropriate width and pin the edge of the fabric to the front of the back.
Pin the seams as well, adjusting the insert to the top edge of the skirt. Repeat the manipulation on the other side
Place another strip over the back of the chair, cut and fold it. Trim the seam allowance to 2,5 centimeters and remove any previously pinned pins. Now use the individual pieces of percale as patterns and cut out similar pieces from the base material you have chosen for your covers.
After cutting out all the necessary parts, sew them on a sewing machine or by hand. Overlock the edges of the parts. If you sew by hand and don’t have an overlock, zigzag the edges.