Necessity brings Crafty

They say necessity is the mother of all invention.  Now that I am a mother, I find that necessity brings about craftiness.  I was blessed with a hand me down highchair.  I know that this highchair is at least on its fourth child.  The high chair has a nice wood frame with a padded seat cover.  The problem is that through the years of use, the laminate on the seat cushion has started to peel away.  My two boys found this peeling interesting and started helping the process along.  I researched replacement covers online and found that  the cost would be anywhere between $30-$50 plus shipping.  This is quite a bit more than I wanted to spend, so I went to the local "Bernina In-Stitches" store and found some very cute oil cloth fabric.  The oil cloth fabric is expensive at almost $19/yard.  I purchased 3/4 of yard which with tax was $15 +change. I already had some left over fabric from another project which I was able to use for the backing of my slipcover.

The End Result

No more peeling seat

I am definitely a novice when it comes to sewing, so by no means do I think the end result is perfect but it seems to serve its purpose. 

The Before....Peeling Seat Syndrome

Here is how I made the slipcover.  I started out by taking the current seat cover and outlining the shape onto my new oil cloth fabric.  Once I had the template design, I copied this onto my backing fabric. I doubled the top half of the seat back on the oil cloth to make a new pocket to slip over the chair's frame.  The pictures below show the process.  I inserted the old cushion into my slip cover.  I left gaps where the Velcro straps come through.  I hand stitched these openings once I had the old cushion inserted.

Testing out the look/fit

I have enough oil cloth left over to make a good sized changing pad and possibly a bib or two ( I will post progress on these ideas later).  All in all the cost savings is worth the effort, even though I stayed up till 2 am working on this.  With two small boys, my projects happen during bed time.