As we are counting down the days until school starts I keep thinking of new projects that I want to get finished before next week. I've been wanting to spruce up my very boring breakfast area. I love all of the things that you see in blogland made of antique grain sacks. I decided that I wanted to make some chair covers for my breakfast table chairs out of grain sacks. I went onto Ebay to see if I could find some. WHOA, those things are expensive. I could buy new chairs for the price of a grain sack. So I chose to make my own version. You are going to love what I used:
I found both of these at my local Walmart. And let me tell you, if you have never made anything out of a canvas dropcloth (I hadn't) you have no idea what you are missing. You get a buttload (in case you don't know, that means alot!) of fabric for less than $10.00!
I found out that a standard pillowcase fits perfectly over my chairs so that is what I used for my pattern. I cut the front and back. Another great thing about the dropcloth is that it is hemmed all the way around. I used this as my hem for the inside of the covers. I knew I wanted to add a ruffle to the back. Once I had my pieces cut out, I went out to my new favorite site,
The Graphics Fairy, and found four french designs. I printed them out onto the transfer paper (don't forget to reverse your image) and ironed them onto the back pieces.
Next, I cut out an eight inch strip of fabric and folded it in half for my ruffle. Because the fabric was so fabric I couldn't use gather them using a stitched thread. I had to gather them by hand. Never did that before, but it turn out great!
I sewed on the ruffle, then topstitched to make it look nice. Last I pieced it together like a pillowcase and VOILA...
my version of a grain sack chair cover (I have no idea where that stripe of sunlight is coming from).
I used a different graphic on all four because I didn't want them so matchy, matchy. Here is picture of all four.
I'm linking up to: