Covering an Old Ikea Chair

I was fortunate enough to inherit this old Ikea chair from a friend.  It was in great shape, but the cushions were a bit stained.  So, I took a trip to make favorite fabric store to liven it up a bit.

This was a quick and easy project.  I don't even know how long it took, because I did it all while I was waiting for the paint to dry on my dressertainment center.  This super-fast solution has had a huge impact on our living room.  Here's what I did:

First I used a seam ripper to carefully separate the pillow from the back cushion. Using the cushion as a pattern, I cut two rectangles of fabric.  They were one inch wider than the cushion, and about six inches longer.  I sewed the sides and bottom together with the right sides facing and a half inch seam allowance.

Before covering the cushion, I attached fusible velcro to the back.  The existing cushion was attached to the frame with velcro.  So I just measured the cushion to determine where to put the velcro.

I stuffed the cushion into the new cover and pinned the top where it needed to be closed. Then I pushed it down as far as I could so that I could sew the top closed with my machine.  The top seam is covered by the pillow, so I left the extra few inches to hang loose at the top so that I could attach the pillow.

I used the pillow as a pattern to make the pillow cover.  The pillow cover is a rectangle that folds around the pillow.  The edges were stitched together with the right sides facing.  The top was closed in the same way as the back cushion, leaving a few inches of extra fabric at the top. 

 
I attached the pillow to the back cushion by sewing together the extra flaps. These flaps are hidden by the pillow when it folds down.  I did sew the corners of the flaps in so they don't poke out.  This picture shows the pillow folded backwards.

Last step was covering the footstool cushion.  Once again I used the existing cushion as my pattern.  I cut a rectangle that was long enough to go all the way around the cushion, with about six extra inches added on.  

I basically made an envelope pillow case.  There are plenty of good tutorials out there for making an envelope case.  Here is the under-side of the footstool cushion.  You can see the opening.  I just slipped the cushion in and turned it right side up.

Ta-daa!!  Instant room update in very little time.  If you can sew a straight line, you can do this :)