An official ban on ugly office chairs.

I've been meaning to do this forever. I bought the ugly chair months ago. It's just a plain office chair from Target with a seat in a hideous shade of green. It was better than the others.

I'd been procrastinating because frankly I wasn't sure how to do it. But today I said to myself... "Self, suck it up and figure it out. I can't stand looking at that ugly office chair anymore."

I remembered that my mother had told me that her grandmother used to whip up slip covers by covering the chair in the fabric, pinning and cutting it to size with seam allowances. I didn't quite trust myself to do that and I was using some good fabrics, so instead, I started with some pattern paper. This stuff is the consistency of a light papery fabric. I think it's called swiss tracing paper, and I got it at a sewing machine store.

I laid out the paper on the chair and cut around that leaving enough for a seam allowance. Then, not trusting that it was symmetrical, I folded it in half and cut the curves to match. I decided to cut the fabric on a fold too so that I couldn't make a mistake and have a lopsided cover.

I tested it out by laying it on the chair and surprised myself that it looked like it would actually work.

Then I simply measured around the chair to make a skirt, cut those pieces and patched them together (I couldn't find anything long enough to go all the way around a chair that I liked so, patchwork seemed the obvious solution).

After that, I gave the skirt a little hem and finished out the back edge where the bars are. I left a gap in the back and made another panel back there to finish the skirt.

The top was the tricky part because it's a curved back and the bottom is less wide for the top. So, anything I would make to fit the bottom couldn't get over the top... not to mention go with the curve of the chair.

I solved this by leaving it open on the sides and tying it with ribbons that I sewed on.

I like it. The ribbons made it a little frillier than I would have wanted, but it works.

Me thinks I should tell myself to suck it up and stop procrastinating more often.

Comments

[jamie]

1.

Beautiful Job!

[Kimberly Shaw]

2.

Move over Target! Bari J. is coming out with her own line of cool furniture. This is Fantastic!!!!

[Kimberly Shaw]

3.

Move over Target! Bari J. is coming out with her own line of cool furniture. This is Fantastic!!!!

[paige]

4.

do i see a new future of slipcovers by bari?
way too cute , way too cute!!
xo

[Liz]

5.

Yipee! I LOVE it! I've avoided buying a good office chair for just that reason; they're all hideous to me. But this gives me hope!

[Hannah]

6.

Oh My! I love it!!! very very cute!!

[Tammy]

7.

okay, that is darling! makes me want to cover mine!!

[Laurie]

8.

so cute!

[kirie]

9.

Beautiful! I love working with that paper for bigger projects. I also use brown kraft paper or brown paper grocery bags to make patterns, too. It doesn't drape as well, but it works to get symmetry, and it's cheap or free.
Can't wait to see what you come up with next!

[sheree]

10.

this is super fun! Sure to inspire you as you work...

[Doris at Threads of Conversation]

11.

Great chair! You should have included a "before" shot.

[Missy]

12.

Love it!