-Personalizing Your Style-
Nothing is
more exciting than decorating your home and adding your own personal style to
that design process. Throughout the last few years I have made a variety of dining
room slip covers and I wanted to share a few of those images with you, as well
as show the various styles available for you to choose from in the event that you
are interested in having slip covers made for yourself.
This morning
as I meandered the internet for slip covers for chairs I found quite a variety.
This is also consistent with the variety of requests I receive from customers,
each one a bit more different than the last. In short, I can pretty much make
any type of chair cover. Knowing what my customers are looking for when it
comes to style helps a great deal but despite that, I am always happy to help
guide those that need it through the design and ordering process because I know
it can be rather overwhelming.
The time I invest in putting together the
project details behind the scenes once your measurements have been received
including the yardage that will be calculated, fabric picked, and creating a
pattern to fit your style requests take a decent amount of time on my part and
so it is my hope that this particular post will serve to lead you through some
of the basics so that by the time you are ready to contact me for an order, you
already have an idea of what you would like in the way of style.
The chair
style for your dining room chair covers is either going to be the general
Parsons styled chair, or other. If it is different, then I require an image,
and you are free to send that along via etsy or via email (Craftzies@gmail.com). I just ask that you
message me via etsy-my favorite mode of communication when it comes to orders
on Craftzies-and let me know you have emailed me an image.
Knowing the
quantity of slip covers you are looking for is necessary when determining the
fabric you would like for two important reasons. First, I need to make sure
there is enough fabric available for the project you are interested in and I
cannot do that until I know how many slip covers you need. This mainly comes
into play with upholstery fabrics at local shops such as Mill End where they
purchase a limited supply of a particular fabric and they either have enough of
the print you are interested from their availability at their one store, or between their two stores.
If the shop does not have enough of the fabric you have selected in order to fulfill your request, you can either decide to mix that fabric up with another fabric, or go with another fabric print altogether in which the yardage needed is available for your entire order. The second reason why the quantity is needed in order to determine the yardage is because multiples of slip covers in conjunction with upholstery fabrics picked, ends up leading to less yardage needed for the project. That means that if you want one upholstery slip cover you may find it requires two and a half to three yards of fabric in order to complete the project but the request for a set of six may in the end require only 14-15 yards of fabric.
If the shop does not have enough of the fabric you have selected in order to fulfill your request, you can either decide to mix that fabric up with another fabric, or go with another fabric print altogether in which the yardage needed is available for your entire order. The second reason why the quantity is needed in order to determine the yardage is because multiples of slip covers in conjunction with upholstery fabrics picked, ends up leading to less yardage needed for the project. That means that if you want one upholstery slip cover you may find it requires two and a half to three yards of fabric in order to complete the project but the request for a set of six may in the end require only 14-15 yards of fabric.
Measurements
are essential for determining the specific yardage needed though many customers
ask what the general yardage is for one slip cover, and also for multiples up
to sets of 8 and I would say you are looking at about 3 yards of medium weight cotton fabric needed
for a parsons styled slip cover that is full length with a draw string, hidden
elastic or side ties to cinch up the back. That does not include the fabric
needed for a set of 4 rosettes in back which is about an additional half yard and usually an
alternate fabric option. Slip covers that have arms
also require around half to ¾ yards of fabric to cover the arms per slip cover.
Fabrics that
are on the bolt usually have a width of around 44/45” and require more yardage than
the wider fabrics that are of upholstery quality. The general
yardage needed, based on my project notes, is about 15-16 yards of fabric for a
set of 8 full length upholstery slip covers. If you were interested in a set of
6 to 8 slip covers in medium weight cotton fabric with a print, you can expect
a minimum of 2.75-3 yards of fabric per slip to compensate for the narrower
width and the pattern being matched up throughout.
If the chair
style you are looking to cover differs from that of a standard parsons styled
chair then I really like to have an image of your chair, whether it is an image
you pulled off line from the manufacturer or one you took yourself. Many
customers like to save themselves some time and send over the measurements from
the manufacturer. Images are fine but I usually ask for additional measurements
as what they provide is usually just so you know if the chairs will fit under a
table or in the space you have, and are not enough to get a solid fit on my part
when making your new slip covers.
The fabric
you pick will determine not only the yardage needed, but if more than one bolt
of fabric is needed for the project as you can expect about 12-15 yards of
fabric on bolts in the fabric stores. In some cases they may have less though
places like Joann’s usually carries about 14-15 on full bolts when they arrive
in the stores (that’s what they say at least). Again, upholstery fabric in
quantities yields less yardage needed, fabrics on the bolt as opposed to the
rolls usually has a narrower width and that-along with fabric patterns in which
the pattern needs to be matched up-alters the yardage needed. In many cases
customers like to send me fabrics they have picked and I have no problems with
that. You will see details on ordering and sending fabrics and such in my other
blog posts, and I have listed those below for quick reference.
Cotton
Fabric Prints & Solids- http://www.craftzies.blogspot.com/2012/06/cotton-prints.html
Upholstery Fabrics- http://www.craftzies.blogspot.com/2012/07/upholstery-fabrics.html
Fabric Bolts! Fabric Bolts!- http://www.craftzies.blogspot.com/2012/07/fabric-bolts-fabric-bolts.html
The real
question is what style you are interested in? Here are some options to ponder:
Full Length
Slip Cover-This
style offers a straight, simply skirt with a cinch in the center back that is
by way of a drawstring, hidden elastic or side ties.
Short and
Simple Slip Cover-This
style is similar to that of the Full Length Slip Cover described above however
the skirt on this is much shorter, falling anywhere from about 6”-12” in
length. The skirt can be gathered, pleated or with all sorts of frills and
other such details as well.
Chair
Back Slip Cover-This
is a style in which only the back of the chair is covered. This requires much
less fabric and prices are lower than the full length versions.
Seat Slip
Covers-This style is
where only the chair seat is covered, attached via ties or snaps.
These slip covers are usually machine washable and can be
made in solid colored medium weight cotton, medium weight cotton print, or even
an upholstery fabric. Prices for solid cotton is the lowest price, cotton
prints slightly higher, and then upholstery is priced higher. Upholstery
fabrics picked are priced slightly differently than the cotton fabrics chosen
in which I charge you for the fabric needed and then a flat rate for the work.
You can also expect to pay the shipping fees that the postal service charges me
and in some cases I am able to offer you an estimate of what shipping costs
will be. My price is around $15-$20 per slip cover for the work, not including materials or shipping for upholstery fabrics, and I have on Craftzies an estimate of around $55+ for slip covers in upholstery weight fabric as fabric priced around $17/ yard + ends up being around that $55 for a finished, full length slip cover similar to what you see in teh images below.
Whether you
would like a shorter chair skirt, a simple no-frill styled skirt, tiered
layers, zippers to cinch up the slip cover backs, draw string to cinch, hidden
elastic, side ties, or something entirely different, together we can design
something perfect for your slip covers.
For example,
the customer who ordered this set of slip covers had a set of twins and opted
for the hidden elastic in order to cinch the back up because she didn’t want
her boys to go around pulling out the ties in back whenever she wasn’t looking.
Hidden elastic in back solved any potential problems there.
This
customer only wanted the back of her chairs covered, and she needed them to be
tight because her cat was on a personal mission to destroy the chair backs. A
tight weave from an espresso suede cloth and wide wraps around side ties with a
big button solved continued cat destruction.
Here are a few more from previous orders to give you an idea of fabric choices and styles.
Enjoy-Lindsay
