Reduce-Reuse-Recycle: High Chair Cover

A Nice New Cover

Sewing Project: A New Cover for a High Chair 

A friend of mine loaned us a high chair several months after Lucas was born when we started solid food. Lucas was 4 months at the time and used it for over a year. Then, it was time to switch to a booster seat to eat at the table with mom and dad. We made the transition from high chair to booster seat last summer.

As a "Thank You", I decided to make another seat cover. The high chair was around 12 years old. My friend used it for her daughter and was going to pass it to one of her niece who just had a baby girl. The original cover of the high chair, which was in plastic, was ripped at several spots in the seat and was particularly damage around the in-between leg area. The plastic had gotten hard over the years. I did not think to take picture of the original cover to have a "Before" and "After". I was really pleased with the result. It was not has hard as a thought of a project and my friend liked the cover a lot!

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Before you start - Are you thinking to add new features to your new cover? Double check your high chair design

If you want to make some improvement to the cover that you are making make sure that it will fit with the configuration and different functions and options that your high chair offers. I was planing to add a pocket on the back of the chair to add some storage. I could not because the high chair had a recliner options. I also thought about extending the side of the cover (around the front arm resting area) to have it coming down to add pockets as well. It was not possible. On the outside of the side were the locking ecumenism for the table top.


Material:

- 1 to 2 yards of material (small white hearts on red - that I already had)
- Tack thread or regular thread
- Pencil fabric


Template and Steps:

1. I laid down the fabric on the wrong side, placed the cover over it and traced around it. Then I cut 1 inch away from the line I traced and cut it all the way around.

2. Cut your fabric up to the line you traced marking the correct dimension of the high chair. The snips with your pair of scissors should be done every inch or so and even closer around the curvy areas.

Preparing the Hem

View on the sewed Curve

3. I pinned the bottom of the cover and realized really fast that it was too many pins. It was not safe, time consuming, not easy to handle to see  to see if it fits high chair and have it going through the sewing machine.

Too Many Pins

To finish the rest of the cover, I switched for a different option. The best way to shape the fabric along the blue line, defining the correct shape of the high chair cover, and sew the hem was: tacking. It was actually way easier and faster this way to build the hem, sew and try it on the high chair.

Tacking the Hem of the Cover

4. Dealing with Details: Back Cover (a) and Opening for Belt (b). 

(a) To add a longer back cover, I first laid down the new cover on the high chair, which was not tack yet, and placed over the back of the high chair an extra piece of fabric (around 1/4 of a yard) to decide of the length considering the handle on the back of the chair. Then, I roughly pinned the extra piece of fabric with the new cover and cut the extra fabric (of the back) following the curvy shape of the top of the high chair. Finally, I placed the right side of both back and front cover against each other and tacked it together to sew it.

Back View

(b) For the belt opening, I placed the cover in the high chair and made a hole with a small pair of scissors to have it fit at the correct place. I treated the belt hole area as a button hole to have it nice and define on the new cover. It took me sometime to have it done because of the width of the hole.

A Nice and Define Belt Opening

  5. When you are done with the cover try it on the high chair to set if it fits to your taste and make the necessary changes.

Hope it will help you in your new project.

Happy Sewing,  :-)

Laetitia