I think sometimes dining chairs don’t seem very welcoming or comfortable.  In fact, often, the wood back chairs aren’t very comfy and can cause a lovely dinner to be cut short.  Well, never fear, a solution is here; chair back covers!  And now that I’m talking about them, I wish I’d padded them a bit, but that is certainly something you could add.

This is an easy project as long as the backs of your dining chairs are fairly straight up and down.  Additional curves will make it tougher for the fabric to stay against the chair since they are only held to the chair with ribbons.

Materials List:

• Paper to make a chair back pattern
• Fabric of your choice
       (Approximately 2 yards per chair)
• Thread to match
• Satin ribbon or grosgrain to match or co-ordinate

Instructions:
1. Begin by laying the back of the dining chair flat against a piece of paper large enough to make a pattern, and trace around the back of the chair.  Cut out the pattern.

2. Pin the pattern to the fabric you’ve chosen and cut out four of the pattern pieces.  Two will be for the front panel and two for the back panel.  Make sure to add ½ inch all the way around for seam allowance.

3. Determine where to locate the ribbons to best hold the covers in place.  We selected seven different positions, three across the top and two on each side as you can see in the photo.  The area where the top met the sides and created a bit of a jut out in the design had a tendency to fold back at times.  I think if you have a similar design, I would use interfacing on the fabric to make it stiffer or the idea of adding a bit of padding would certainly help as well.

4. Cut two 9-inch pieces of ribbon for every location.  Pin one piece of ribbon in each predetermined place along two of the fabric pieces.  Pin them to the right side of the fabric with the ribbons extending to the center of the fabric, not to the outside.

5. With right sides together and ribbons to the inside, pin two pattern pieces together – one with ribbons and one without.  Sew the panels together leaving an opening at the bottom to turn the chair cover right side out.

6. Trim the seam, clip the curves and turn the chair back cover right side out.  Take the cover to the ironing board and carefully iron the cover flat, making sure the side seams are pulled out a far as they can go to match the pattern you made.  Then hand stitch the opening closed. 

7. Tie two panels onto the back of each dining chair. One on the front and the other on the back and forever sit more comfortably at your dining table!

Shari

© 2011.  mattandshari.com, all rights reserved.

Comments (4)

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written by etameca, September 01, 2011

Now THIS is a project I'm certain I can pull off! I love the custom look. They're so elegant. Thanks Shari!

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written by Shari, September 01, 2011

You are so welcome! I have to say this is one of those projects that goes in my favorites file. It was fairly easy to do and it looked fantastic in the room!

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written by I_Fortuna, October 27, 2011

These are great and easy. My chairs are square back and could use some padding. I wanted something easy to dress up the dining room for the Holidays. I will be using 1 1/2 to 2 inch wide double sided satin silk ribbon in gold or red to make them even more festive. The dining furniture is antique turn of the century hand painted and it is beautiful but a little chair cover will be a nice change and add a lot of color. Thanks for this easy idea.

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written by Shari, October 27, 2011

So glad you like them! Your idea for the gold or red ribbon sounds wonderful! Send a picture if you can!

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