Sew a New Cover for a Plush Kid’s Chair

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Sew a New Cover for a Plush Kid's Chair by The DIY Mommy

Last week, I had a table at the Little Monster’s Swap Meet in Spruce Grove to sell my Golly Gee Baby goodies. The LMSM is a massive new & used kid’s items sale in our town, and you can find some amazing deals there. My lovely friend Leah was helping man my table, and before she took off to peruse the baby goods available at the show I asked her to keep her eyes peeled for some plush kid’s chairs. Both Baby A and Little C didn’t have one, and I didn’t feel like paying $30 for each. Well, guess what? Leah scored two chairs for $2 each! One was an Elmo chair and the other was Winnie the Pooh, but I didn’t care because I wanted to try to wash them and recover them to match my girlies’ room decor.

Sew a New Cover for a Kid's Plush Chair by The DIY Mommy

As an Easter surprise, I managed to get one done (the night before Easter Sunday!) in a purple princess fabric that will coordinate with Little C’s new purple & hot pink room. The fabric is not my first choice, but I knew she love it and I wanted her to be thrilled! I think I’ll make another cover for this chair in a faux fur or minkee fabric (and I’ll do Baby A’s in something similar) just so that it doesn’t wrinkle as much and so that it’s softer, but here’s how I made this one (the same steps would apply to whatever type of fabric you want to use):

Materials:

  • 2 yards fabric (I used quilting cotton for this chair, but I think a faux fur or minkee fabric would wear better and be softer)
  • 1/4″ elastic

Directions:

Sew a New Cover for a Kid's Plush Chair by The DIY Mommy

Since I bought these chairs used from an unknown someone, I first took off the old covers, machine washed them, and steamed the foam insert with my little steam cleaner. If the foam on your chairs is in good condition like mine was, there’s no need to do anything more at this point. Otherwise, you can repair cracked foam with spray glue.

I had two chairs, but if you only have one I suggest to take photos of it from all angles before you take it apart. You can then use these photos as a guide when sewing your new cover together (otherwise you might end up with a lot of strangely shaped pieces and have no idea how they go together)!

Sew a New Cover for a Kid's Plush Chair by The DIY Mommy

Cut the old cover along all of the seam lines. You’ll have pieces somewhat like shown above. If there are duplicate pieces, stack them together to remind yourself that you can cut them all at once.

Sew a New Cover for a Kid's Plush Chair by The DIY Mommy

Fold your fabric in half (or however it needs to be folded to fit all of the pieces) and, one by one, place the pieces of the old cover onto the new fabric and pin them in place. Keep your new fabric in mind – if it goes one way (like this one, where the princesses are all standing upright) make sure to place the pieces in the right direction.

Cut around the pieces as shown above, leaving a 1/2″ seam allowance. This particular piece shown had a dart in it, so I cut small slits at each end of the dart to mark where I’d have to sew it later.

Sew a New Cover for a Kid's Plush Chair by The DIY Mommy

Divide your project into manageable portions. For this chair, I chose to sew the seat pieces and the back pieces separately and them sew them together at the end. Use a serger or a sewing machine to sew the three seat & arm pieces together, and then sew on the front piece as shown.

Sew a New Cover for a Kid's Plush Chair by The DIY Mommy

Sew the sides, back, and top curved piece together.

Sew a New Cover for a Kid's Plush Chair by The DIY Mommy

Sew the front of the chair cover to the back of the chair cover, and then cut a piece of elastic that’s smaller than the bottom of the chair. I sewed it to the bottom raw edge of my chair cover with my serger, pulling it as I went. You could also fold the bottom of the cover a 1/2″ to form a casing, and then thread the elastic through.

Sew a New Cover for a Kid's Plush Chair by The DIY Mommy

Pull the cover over the plush chair foam insert and you’re done! It’s a new, washable cover for your child’s plush chair that matches her room.

When I make a cover out of minkee or faux fur fabric for Baby A, I’ll post that one too.

I always feel so satisfied when I can take “junk” and make it look pretty!

9 Comments

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  2. How easy do you think it would be to do a zipper bottom rather than elastic? Any suggestions on how to do a pattern for it? The one I have has elastic but I dont want the foam exposed my daughter like to pick at it.

    1. Hi Jenn! I suppose you’d just have to cut out a square for the bottom, cut it in half, and then sew a zipper in the middle. You’d just have to make sure you added seam allowances for the bottom edge and zipper. If you give it a try, I’d love to hear how it went for you!

  3. Hi,
    I wouldn’t mind recovering my baby’s chair and I would do the zipper one.
    2 yards of fabric, with which width?
    Thanks!

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