How to Sew Dining Chair Covers [Free Sewing Pattern]

Learn how to sew your own dining chair covers with this Free Pattern and sewing tutorial. DIY Dining Chair Covers are a great sewing project to protect your dining chair upholstery from spills and all the other messes that children make, they are easily removable and washable. And of course sewing your own Dining Chair Covers means that they are infinitely customisable. 

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What Your Will Need to Sew Your Own Dining Chair Covers

Fabric

You can Sew Your Own Dining Chair Covers from just about any fabric that takes your fancy. Lighter weight fabrics are going to wear out faster and stretch fabrics might be difficult to keep in shape. I’d suggest using woven non-stretch fabric such as upholstery fabrics or woven cotton like I’ve used for my DIY Dining Chair Covers.

Wadding / Batting

You can buy quilters wadding by the metre or in small packs. You’ll need enough fabric to cover all of your chairs. A 1 metre length of wadding should be enough to make four DIY Dining Chair Covers.

I’m using a lovely quality cotton mix wadding, the same as I use for my patchwork quilts. It’s availible from my Etsy shop.

If you’re on a tight budget you can sew these DIY Dining Chair Covers with wadding alternatives. An old fleece blanket or hoody is a good option. Any light weight fabric with plenty of “bounce” will do the job.

Backing Fabric

If you have small children and want to protect your dining chairs from big spills I highly recommend using a waterproof fabric for the backing. I’m using some lovely raincoat fabric I inherited, here’s a link to something similar at Minerva Fabrics.

Binding

You can use commercial bias binding if you like but I love to make my own. For these Dining Chair Covers I’ve used an old cotton pillowcase to make the binding and the straps out of. 

Thread

I love Coats Moon Thread. It’s cheap as chips and suitable for just about any sewing project. I’ve got lots of colours available in my Etsy shop. 

You’ll also need basic sewing supplies like a needle and thread. You could Sew Your Own Dining Chair Covers by hand but it will of course be much, much quicker with a sewing machine. 

You’ll also need some marking and cutting tools. I love my rotary cutter, mat and ruler.

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How to Sew Dining Chair Covers

How to Sew the Base

Start by measuring the seat of the chair you’d like to cover. Make a note of this measurement and add about 8 extra inches to each dimension. 

Cut out your fabric, backing fabric and wadding to this size. 

Make a quilt sandwich by layering the backing fabric right side down, then the wadding then the fabric right side up on top. Pin the sandwich together using safety pins placed every few inches. 

Quilt all the layer together. You can use any quilting pattern you like. I have just stitched in diagonal lines across the whole of my Dining Chair Covers. Make sure that the stitching isn’t more than 8 inches from any other stitching, or your Dining Chair Covers may get damaged in the wash.

Trim and square your quilted Dining Chair Covers to measure your original dimension plus 4 inches. 

How to Make the Straps

Cut strips from your backing fabric 4 inches wide by 25 inches long.

Your will need 8 straps for each dining chair.

Fold each strip in half along the longest side with the right sides of the fabric together.

Sew along the longest edge, I like to use a quarter inch seam allowance.

Turn the strips the right way out.

Tuck the raw ends to the inside of the strap. Press.

Top stitch along the two long sides and the enclosed end of the straps. 

Sew a pair of straps a few inches in from each corner of the base. 

How to Make the Binding

You can use shop bought binding if you wish but I like to make my own and this is how I do it.

Cut lengths of fabric 2.5″ wide. The longer the lengths, the better. 

Join the individual lengths to make one long continuous length of binding fabric. 

Place the ends of the lengths of fabric right sides together at right angles. Pin them together.

Stitch across the right angle.

Press the two pieces flat with the excess fabric pressed in opposite directions, just like pressing a seam open.

Trim off the excess fabric. 

Fold the length of binding in half wrong sides together and give it a good press.

I like to roll my binding around itself to keep it neat until I need it. 

How to Sew the Binding

Place the length of binding along an edge of the quilted chair cover on the right side. Hold it in place so that the raw edges of the binding and the raw edges of the cover are lined up.

Stitch along this edge. I like to use a quarter inch seam. 

When you reach a corner of the chair cover base stop sewing a quarter of an inch before the corner. Fold the binding back at a right angle so that it is lined up with the next side. Then fold it back on itself along the next side of the quilted base. Start stitching again a quarter of an inch from the corner along the next side. 

Fold the binding to the wrong side of the quilted chair cover. Sew it in place. 

You can stitch it by machine but your stitches will show on the right side of the chair cover unless you stitch in the ditch from the right side and make sure you catch the binding on the wrong side. I really struggle to do this neatly so I prefer to sew the back of my binding in place by hand. It does take longer but it’s a nice relaxing job to do in front of the TV so I don’t mind at all. 

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I hope you have enjoyed reading about my adventures in sewing.

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I do hope my sewing project has inspired you to have ago at sewing your own.

Pop this post in your Pinterest board so you can find it later.

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