Creations, Chair dress-up

Strolling through blogland the other day I read a post about a craft room redo, by Carol over at Oasis in the Desert. Beautiful photos and everything delightfully organized and bright colors…and then I saw IT, the crown jewel of her mom cave…her chair!
She had made the cutest slip cover for her chair…WHY HAD I NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT!
You know how you can look at something everyday and never really see it? This is embarrassing. This little beauty is in my studio which is basically in my kitchen, you know, front and center of all the action…Ohhhhhhhh, I had to do something immediately!
This is my work chair, and it gets a lot of abuse. Paint splatters, glue, you name it, it’s on there somewhere! Nasty is it is, it is so comfortable and I can roll around all over the place and grab supplies when I’m working. OK trusty little chair, time for a face lift!
I have never really made a slip cover before but I figured I’d give it a shot since this wasn’t my living room. I actually had the black and white fabric and decided to buy some zig zag print, not sure of the plan yet, but I like to lay out my options…After draping the chair with some of the fabrics to see what I liked in the space I began with the skirt.
I chose the egg yolk yellow zig zag for the skirt and cut a length that would fit around the chair base and leave enough room for a ruffle at the bottom. A girl’s got to have her ruffles! I made a wide ruffle out of the cotton black polka dot and pinned right sides together on the yellow skirt.
I did a machine hem on the polka dot, turning the fabric over twice so it wouldn’t fray. Yeah, I should have hand hemmed it, or at least switched to black thread, but trust me, no one will ever notice once it’s done.
Next I put a piece of contrasting fabric on the chair, right side down, and traced the seat circumference with a piece of chalk {that little yellow spec in the center}
I cut out the fabric, leaving a generous 1 inch edge around the chalk line. Not sure why I did such a big allowance, maybe I thought I would adjust it if necessary…hmmm, that doesn’t sound like me…but ever hopeful for better habits.
Then right sides together I pinned the skirt to the seat fabric, easing the skirt around the corners.
So far so good! Notice how the fabric is similar to the black & white storage boxes…total accident, I just love anything black and white.
The skirt back is open because of the stem of the chair back, it surrounds the seat enough to stay in place.
Instead of making a fitted piece for the chair back I decided to make a simple pillow case cover and add some ties to use to keep it snug. I fashioned wide lengths of the yellow fabric into ties and placed the raw edges, right sides together, into the seam allowance of the chair back slipcover. Once sewn the chair back was complete.
Cute?
I used the salvage edge on the chair back cover so no hemming was necessary at the bottom.
The tie back helps keep the chair back cover in place but doesn’t interfere with the chair back stem which connects to the base.
The best part is that on busy painting days I can slip the whole thing off in seconds. When I’m done for the day I close up my desk and it goes back on in a flash!
Thanks for visiting my little studio today, little changes can make such a BIG difference!
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I’m joining some of these great parties this week:
the Tablescaper for SEASONAL SUNDAY
Between Naps on the Porch for METAMORPHIS MONDAY & TABLESCAPE THURSDAY
Stone Gable for ON THE MENU MONDAY and TUTORIALS, TIPS & TIDBITS THURSDAY
The Gunny Sack for WHAT’S IN THE GUNNY SACK?
Memories by the Mile for TUESDAY TRIVIA
Savvy Southern Style for WOW US WEDNESDAY
Cuisine Kathleen for LET’S DISH
Rattlebridge Farms for FOODIE FRIDAY
Alderberry Hill for MAKE THE SCENE MONDAY
The Dedicated House for MAKE IT PRETTY MONDAY and ANYTHING BLUE FRIDAY
No Minimalist Here for OPEN HOUSE THURSDAY
the Answer is Chocolate for BFF OPEN HOUSE
The Busy Bee’s for THURSDAY BLOG HOP
Crafts ala mode for WHAT TO DO WEEKENDS
check out these amazing blogs!
What a great idea!! Turned out great!
Kenley
As soon as I saw this…I thought the same thing…Why didn’t I think of this? Sigh☺ So cute
Perfect little chair slip! Beautiful!
How mad do you think I am right now that I can’t sew a stitch?!? I have a kitchen office chair that is suffering so, but I could never do this! What a great idea that turned out to LOOK really great, too!
Oh my goodness, this is so so adorable!! I have one of those ugly office chairs too! I need to use your wonderful tutorial and make one!!!
Thanks for your great instructions!
It turned out so cute! I love your fabrics and the colors! I’m so glad I could be a positive influence….teehee!
Carol
Adorable! Much better than the plain office chair!
What a cute update to your office chair! Love it!
Morgaine from Madcap Frenzy
http://www.madcapfrenzy.blogspot.com/2013/03/totally-tuesday-link-party-2.html
this is just darling as anything!! I love it! I’ll be looking for one at a tag sale now… 🙂 Linda
Thanks Linda!
very cute!
Cute!
What a great transformation!!! Thanks so much for sharing this on last week’s FESTIVE FRIDAY FIESTA Link Party! Can’t wait to see what you have in store this week!!! =D
Love your little chair’s face lift~ so cheery and adorable Jenna!
This is so neat! I’m hosting a new linky party at http://hickorytrailblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/efforts-and-assets-linky-party-1.html
I would love to have you!
Angela