Sew a skirted slipcover for a plain dining chair.
A short skirt on a dining chair covers only the upper portion of the chair's legs. If your dining chair has distinctive legs, you don't want to cover them up with a full-skirt slipcover. Use a home decor weight fabric to make the skirt, so that it is durable enough to withstand use. If you want, you can use a printed fabric for the short skirt and a solid fabric for the seat cover. Using two contrasting fabrics means you don't have to worry about matching the patterns when you sew.
Instructions
1. Place the paper on top of the seat of the dining chair. Trace around the four sides of the chair with the marker.
2. Cut out the traced shape.
3. Measure around the widest part of the chair's seat. Be sure to measure around all four sides. Add 2 inches to this measurement. This is measurement A.
4. Place the traced paper shape on the fabric for the seat and trace around it, half an inch away from the four sides. Cut the shape out of the fabric.
5. Cut a piece of fabric for the skirt that measures measurement A in length by 6 inches in width.
6. Fold the edge of the long side of the skirt fabric up half an inch, then up another and pin. Stitch along the inside edge to hem. This will be the bottom edge of the skirt.
7. Fold the skirt fabric in half widthwise, wrong sides together. Find the center of the front side of the seat fabric and align the center with the fold on the skirt fabric.
8. Unfold the skirt fabric. Line up the top side of the skirt fabric with the front and two side edges of the seat fabric, placing right sides together. Pin along those three sides, and sew with a half-inch seam. You'll have extra skirt fabric hanging off of the end of the sides. This will form the skirt on the back of the chair.
9. Fold the top edge of the skirt fabric for the back of the chair down half an inch, and stitch in place.
10. Slide the seat cover and short skirt over the chair seat. Bring the two back sides of the skirt fabric together. You want the skirt fabric to overlap itself slightly in the back, so that you can attach the hook and loop closure to it. Position each side of the closure to the back of the skirt fabric and pin in place. Take the skirt off of the chair.
11. Fold the short sides of the back of the skirt fabric over half an inch to conceal the raw edges, and pin. Sew along the inside edge.
12. Sew the hook and loop closure to each side of the back skirt fabric using a zig-zag stitch.
13. Position the seat cover and skirt on the chair again and close the back of the skirt by bringing the hook and loop closure together.
Tags: skirt fabric, half inch, back skirt, dining chair, back skirt fabric