I must be crazy for wanting to cover this stunning red velvet, right?
I picked this sweet red velvet chair up at the Salvation Army five or six years ago, while I was still living with my parents. I loved it for its lovely curved back and the millions of buttons. The chair languished upstairs in my old bedroom while I moved from place to place–first I was in a dorm room with no space to spare, and at my next two places I had a huge turquoise sectional that didn’t leave room for much else. When my parents offered us their gently-used living room furniture, we gladly accepted it and got rid of that old, beat up sectional (it was older than I am, and and Chowder had really done a number on the arms). I also brought along my red velvet chair in hope of finding room for it. Luckily we were able to fit it in the living room alongside that gently-used furniture my parents gave us, which is a shade of light brown, and a dark brown leather chair of Kirby’s.
I had plans to eventually reupholster the chair myself, which I’m sure I could have done but with a lot of trial and error considering my lack of experience, but Kirby’s mother Ms. Dianne (who is a pro at both sewing and upholstery, among other things) was planning a visit anyway and offered to do it for me while she was here. She offered me the option of making a slipcover instead of reupholstering the whole thing, since I picked a lighter fabric and we have so many animals and tend to eat and drink in the living room. I’m not always the biggest fan of slipcovers because I’ve seen some awful ones. Up until now, the slipcovers in my life have been ill-fitting, expensive, and available in very few colors and patterns. This project has completely won me over, however, because when you make the slipcover yourself then not only do you get to choose whatever fabric you want, but it’s custom-made for that specific piece of furniture and it fits like a dream. Plus, it’s removable and washable, I only spent about $20 on all the materials. That’s a downright steal!
Lucy is making a guest appearance in this photo as well.
I bought five yards of a linen muslin at only $2.90 a yard, and it was just enough fabric to cover the chair. We made a separate cover for the cushion, reusing the original cushion cover’s zipper. The cushion itself was just a bunch of stuffing crammed down into the cover (I’m not sure what the stuffing is made of, but Ms. Dianne said it and the chair itself are very, very old), so I bought some polyester quilt batting and stitched it around the cushion so that it won’t come apart every time I take the cover off to wash it.
The act of making a slipcover was much simpler than I would have guessed. After making the cover for the cushion, Dianne used the chair itself as a pattern, cutting and pinning pieces together on the chair itself. She sewed them together as she went along, keeping everything wrong side out and putting all the pieces back on the chair. By the time she was ready to sew the whole thing together, she had several smaller pieces–the seat back (made up of long vertical strips sewn together), the back of the chair (two separate pieces, with the velcro already attached), the bottom and front, the arms, etc. Not until they were all joined and double-stitched did she turn the whole thing right side out. I’ll be on the lookout
One downside to the slipcover is that all those beautiful buttons are covered up. However, I think the vertical lines of the slipcover (they might be kind of hard to see in the picture, but they’re pretty pronounced in person) are much more casual, in keeping with the rest of the furniture in our living room, and a bit more modern as well. Along those same lines, we didn’t bother making a skirt for the slipcover (notice the chair originally had a very fancy pleated one) because I think it looks better without one.
The back is secured with sew-on velcro, while the tie helps with tightening.
We discussed whether or not the velcro would provide enough hold, and finally decided that some ties might also help keep the slipcover taut. On top of that, Dawn and I agree that the bow is downright cute. Now we can comfortably seat seven in our living room, which means we should probably invite some people over soon.
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