Party Dress Chair Cover

Last week, after I bought the book Quilts by Monday, I said I was going to make a quilt by this week.  What I neglected to say was that first I was going to make a cover for my office chair.  I needed a cover because I recently painted one of the walls orange, and the chair needed to step up and join the party.  I thought it was going to be a quick project, but it took at least three times as long as it took to paint the wall.

Last week I also said I was going to use up as much of my fabric as possible. but I didn't have anything the right scale, so I had to go shopping.  I bought one yard each of these home dec fabrics at Jo-Ann Fabrics.   I  didn't pay attention to the fabric content, nor to the laundering instructions which recommended dry cleaning.  I knew I was going to wash them eventually, and I'd rather have a surprise before I made my project instead of afterwards. 

This photograph shows the selvages after the fabric went through the washer and dryer.  The green/cream is mostly cotton, and was full of wrinkles and ravels.  It looked normal.  The print on the right came out without a wrinkle and not much raveling.  It must be nylon or something.  And it's really slippery!  I couldn't use it on the seat, even with cotton for backing.  I tried it, and I slipped off the chair every time I swivelled.

I wanted the fabric to have some body, so I decided to quilt it.  For the chair top, I made a large rectangle using the multi-color nylon print, backed with this yellow cotton I already owned.  (So I did manage to work in some existing fabric after all.)  I quilted from the front, free motioning around the motifs.  You can see the pattern of quilting better on this yellow side.

This is the outside of the chair top.  I folded the rectangle in half and slipped it over the chair back.  The slipcover top was too wide, so I kept moving pins until I figured out where I wanted my seam allowance.  Since I wanted this large pattern centered, I did this on both sides.  

Here I'm auditioning the rest of the fabric.  I used the green/cream in the upper right on the seat.  For its backing, I used the two yellow fabrics on the bottom that were in my stash.  To finish the raw edges, I thought a contrasting stripe would be pretty.  I decided to use both the pink and the orange, also from the stash. 

I wanted mostly pink, with just a spark of orange.  To make it easier, I first sewed strips of orange to large strips of pink, then I crosscut the large pieced rectangle into 2" strips that would be my edging.

It took so long to free motion quilt the chair top, that for the seat I just did straight-line quilting.

 

With all the quilting, there wasn't much draping going on.  To me, the chair looks like it's wearing a party dress - a brightly colored, sleeveless bodice and a twirly, swirly skirt.  That's why I call it my Party Dress Office Chair.