The Ugly Chair Project

I stumbled across this completely gross chair at a garage sale--but it was disguised with a blanket.  I was in need of a comfy reading chair for my home office--something that no one else would ever use except me.  The owner of the chair saw me looking at it and invited me to sit in it--it was wonderful!  Deep and soft, sturdy, and just perfect for reading.  I asked why she was getting rid of it, and that's when she took off the blanket.  I was about to turn away when she said something that immediately caught my attention:  If you take it now, I'll give it to you free. 

Well, needless to say, it went into the back of my truck.

At home, I threw it in the corner of the office, covered it with a blanket of my own, and there it sat until a few weeks ago when I decided to rearrange the office.  The chair, I thought, would have to go.  I would get a new one to replace it.  But then I remembered the curtains I had snagged at another garage sale...

I snagged 6 panels of these floor-to-ceiling curtains for a steal!  They are reversible and lined with fleece.

...and decided to try my hand at creating a slip cover.  I was inordinately please with the result, and it only took a couple of hours to finish.  Here's how it went:

First I separated the curtain panels so that I had two lengths of the same fabric.  I draped one of the lengths across the front of the chair, letting it drape over the back.  Then I tucked in the fabric around the back and arms:

Next I draped the second length of fabric over the bottom half of the chair and started tucking again. 

This time I used a long wooden spoon to really get the fabric tucked in well.

 

Next I started gathering the extra folds of the fabric and creating pleats.  I pinned the pleats with safety pins temporarily.

On the sides, I pulled the fabric around and pinned it.  I didn't worry about the bottom edges.  It was looking great everywhere else, and I had a plan for covering up the messiness at the bottom.

On the back, I pulled the edges of the fabric together and pinned those as well.

Next I took a long piece of narrow fabric (about 18" wide) and hemmed one long edge.  This would go at the bottom and cover up all the messiness.  I turned under the other long end.  I wrapped this piece around the bottom of the chair and pinned it in the back.

Last, I took a piece of fabric wide enough to cover the back, folded and sewed the edges, and pinned it to the back of the chair to cover up the edges of the narrow piece at the bottom and the space that the fabric did not cover.

At this point, everything was still pinned, so I got out a long needle and some strong thread and sewed the pleats.  But for all the rest I used this awesome fabric glue:

I just went around the chair and anywhere the fabric folded or was pinned or met up with another piece of fabric, I squeezed in a line of glue, pressed and held for a few seconds, and kept going.  Although this is great glue, super strong on fabric, I was concerned about using it on the pleats, because there were several folds.  That's why I used the needle and thread instead.

I still can't believe the finished product!  This was so much fun I am tempted to do it again with my "cool down" chair at school--another comfy chair for reading or just chilling out, but has some major flaws.  We'll see...  For now I'm just enjoying my "new" chair.

And we have to have a before and after:

Thanks for looking!

Until next time,

Go Get Crafty, Sister!

~Sister #2