How To Make A Slipcover For A Rocking Chair – It’s the weekend!! I’m not going to lie….it’s a bit cloudy outside, my husband is busy working in the garage and I’m happily drinking iced tea in my pyjamas!
She is the one to call. I knew I wanted a glider chair for preschool, so I started looking. I shopped at baby stores, online stores, and furniture stores, but quickly learned that rocking chairs are extremely expensive! I wasn’t keen on the black frame and beige cushions, but for $200 at Walmart I could buy a brand new glider, so I had a small budget to work with. I’m still not convinced to spend $200 on a chair I don’t own
How To Make A Slipcover For A Rocking Chair
Or my search has grown to include thrift stores, garage sales, and classifieds. While looking for chair inspiration, I found this beautiful chair online with the perfect color palette for our small room…but my $200 budget didn’t stretch to the $997.00 price tag on this rocker!
Glider Cushions/rocker Cushions/ Rocking Chair Cushions/
But with all the ugly sliding chairs I had seen second hand, I was sure I could find a chair with a light wooden frame. So it was a bargain that I was able to purchase the chair and fabric to finish it off for under $200.00. Challenge accepted. A month later I bought this gem used for $70.
The cushions were stained and dirty, the material was in poor condition but the chair itself was excellent quality and cost over $400 brand new. So went to our truck! When we got home I realized there was no way to remove the fabric from the pillows to wash them. I just took the pads (foam and all) and scrubbed the outside with a brush, detergent and a hose. Then, after three days of air drying in the sun, I realized I couldn’t do it by pouring something on it every time. So I knew I needed to make removable covers instead of lining them. That way I could take the clothes out and wash them whenever I wanted… and I could choose the fabric and color I liked.
So I went shopping for clothes, which was also very expensive. A plain gray dress at our local fabric store would cost me over $150 which put me $200 over my budget. Then it dawned on me… Fabric curtain panels or fabric shower curtains are much cheaper to buy!
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Then I found this beautiful gray tweed curtain panel for $22!! One panel was enough fabric to make my entire chair! Thanks Walmart!
My grandmother is good at what she does and we have worked our way through simple trial and error. Since we didn’t have a pattern to use, we took an old teal sheet to make a simple pillow pattern. This way we can sew and trim as needed before cutting the fine material. We put our practice guard on the pad and pin and make the adjustments we need until it fits perfectly.
Then, when our practice templates suit our taste, we cut the same templates from good material. (The upper part fits the back cushion and the lower part fits the seat)
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My grandmother and I decided that zippers would be stronger and easier to remove, so she sewed zippers to the bottom of both of these covers.
So for the foot slider we just cut a piece of fabric several centimeters larger than the foot slider and sewed around the edges.
Next I took a stapler and wrapped the footstool in fabric. (See my fabric wrapped canvas tutorial)
Eliza Rocking Chair
I give my grandmother full credit for creating the armrest cover. She came up with an easy way to wrap pillows, by cutting a rectangular piece of fabric, folding it into pieces and sewing strings to attach it around the existing pillows. Fantastic!
Then we sewed more ties and attached them to the back of the seat cushion and the top of the back cushion to secure them to the wooden frame of the chair! This was the end result!!
It turned out ten times better than I imagined! I love the gray tweed against the natural wood color and the convenience of removing and washing the covers every time I move in (which is often).
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Since this DIY project is custom for my chair, I apologize for not having a proper tutorial. So I found a great basic tutorial for reupholstering a glider chair here. It didn’t help us much because I wanted zippers instead of snaps, different armrests, different footrests and didn’t like the idea of wrapping all the original ties so we sewed our own so none are original. The fabric will be visible.
We still made mistakes, had moments of confusion, but with lots of laughs it worked out. I have to say though…after all our little fabric cutting mistakes and all the slip stitching (which we hadn’t originally planned) we gave up! We cut it pretty close…haha.
I am a DIY, craft, frugal, business loving girl with a love for baking, sewing, cooking, lots of energy and creativity. Sometimes if you’re on a design budget, a little DIY can go a long way. For my daughter’s new bedroom, I took a once tired slipcover/rocker and made new slipcovers with a modern print. I’m not an expert by any means, I really don’t know how to sew. But it turned out relatively easy, so here’s a simple DIY glider cover tutorial if you want to try it yourself.
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Know how to sew. This is the first thing I’ve ever done, so this tutorial is designed for beginners based on what worked for me.
I opted for DIY slipcovers instead of stuffing slipcovers. If you choose to take apart the original covers, you have a pattern to work with, which makes it easier. But the covers are removable and washable. A bit of a no-brainer for a piece of furniture that gets spat on regularly.
I started by removing the back cushion from the slider, laying it flat on my new fabric and cutting two pieces of fabric large enough to make a cover.
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Using two pieces of fabric from pattern to pattern (you sew it inside out) I stapled all the way around the edge. If you’re a beginner like me, basting is a loose, hand-stitched temporary stitch designed to hold the seam until it’s properly sewn.
You could pin it instead, but I thought it was a more foolproof way to make sure it would be perfect when sewing it on the machine. With the cover inside out, I removed the pillow and used my sewing machine around the sides and top, leaving the bottom open.
If you get to this point and it’s not right, it’s easy to fix. See how I changed the seat cushion below.
Sunset Trading Horizon Slipcovered Swivel Rocking Chair
To close the bottom of the DIY Glider Slipcover, I folded the fabric down and ironed the seams…
I used sewn on snaps (like these) to fasten them together. If I were to do it again, I would use velcro like I did on the seat cushions (see below). Velcro looks nicer when the cover is on the pillow.
Next I made some ties to attach the pad to the glider frame. I copied what was on the original pillow by ironing two long strips of fabric. (Clean edges are easier to sew.)
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Then I hand glued them to the back of the cover so they were in the right place to be tied to the back of the chair.
The seat cushion was the same as the back cushion. Although with a thicker pad I had to make some adjustments.
Again, I started by removing the seat pad from the glider and spreading it on the floor between two pieces of fabric. I then pinned the back of the pillow in a straight line. I didn’t need to do this for the back cushion as it was easy to see that the pattern was straight with the thin cushion. Of course, if you use a solid fabric instead of a print, it doesn’t matter.
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I stitched all the way around the pillow again, aiming to have the seam at the bottom of the pillow rather than the middle. I thought it would be easier this way since I would be dealing with a lot of folds in the corners.
Speaking of folds in the corners (which I’m sure isn’t a technical term), I pinned them when I pinned the edges.
Once everything was pinned and secured, I removed the pins, removed the cushion and machine sewed the sides and top. Again I put the pillow back
Easy Going Jacquard Stretch Sofa Slipcover Non Slip Couch Cover, Recliner Size, Deep Teal
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