Parsons Chair Slip Cover Tutorial-Part 1 Pinfitting

Parsons chairs are one of the easier pieces of furniture to slipcover.  They aren't very big and they have no arms or cushions to worry about.  So if you've been wanting to learn to make your own slipcovers, this is the perfect beginner project.

I'll be covering 2 identical Parsons chairs that were picked up at a Goodwill for $5.00 each.

The fabric on them is WAY outdated and they are a little worn, but I don't see all that.  What I see are 2 chairs that are perfect for slip covering.  The fact that they are white is a huge plus because then I don't have to worry about the original upholstery showing through the new fabric.  These would have been perfect to slipcover in white, but I chose a light blue stripe.

Parsons chairs take 4 yards of fabric each.  It doesn't matter the size or shape of your Parsons chair, it will take 4 yards.  I know it sounds like a lot of fabric for such a small chair, but the skirts take 2 yards alone.  If your Parsons chair has decorative legs that you plan on showing with a short skirt, then you can get by with 2 1/2-3 yards.

Before you start, you need to decide if you will be dry cleaning your slipcovers or machine washing them.  With a teenage son and 4 cats, I always opt to machine wash mine.  If you decide on machine washing them then you need to pre-shrink your fabric ahead of time.  

Pre-shrinking should be done with no more than 5 yards at a time.  I measure 5 yards off the roll of fabric, cut it off the roll and serge the cut edges so it doesn't fray real bad in the washer.  If you don't have a serger, it's ok, just zig zag across the cut ends.  Wash your fabric with the same laundry soap, water temp and drying temp that you will be washing your finished slipcovers in.  You want to get all the shrinkage out now.

Make sure you take your fabric out of the dryer the minute it's done, you don't want wrinkles to set in.

Step 1.  Blocking

The first step in pin fitting a slipcover is blocking the fabric to the chair.  Always leave a few extra inches when blocking.  You don't know how many times I thought I was leaving plenty of fabric to later discover it was barely enough.

Blocking is done by pinning your fabric to the different sections of your chair and then cutting them out leaving extra inches to go back and pin tightly to the chair later.  Use T pins for blocking.  They hold the fabric securely to the chair and won't allow your fabric to shift on you.

I always block the back first.  Since my fabric is a stripe, I found the center of the back of my chair and lined up one of my stripes there.  Make sure you keep the fabric straight, you don't want it to get tilted on you.

As you can see by the picture above, I used 3 T pins at the top, 1 on each side and 1 at each bottom corner. You can use more T pins if you want, but I wouldn't use less.

My stripe fabric made it easy for me to trim my fabric straight a few inches from the chair side edge.

 Then I trimmed it approx 2 inches below where the skirt will attach....remember always leave plenty of extra fabric.

Now that you have the back blocked, lets block the front of the chair the same way.  I matched up my stripe at the top to ensure it would align with the stripes on the back.

Before you trim your front piece, I need to tell you about "tuck ins".  Tuck ins on furniture are those deep crevices where you find change and crumbs and god only knows what.  Parsons chairs have a "tuck in" where the front meets the seat.  It's usually 2-3 inches deep.  Some slipcover professionals ignore the "tuck ins", I choose not to.  "Tuck ins" are the perfect place to form a pocket like area and this pocket gets shoved down in the crevice.  It helps to keep the slipcover from shifting around on your furniture.  If you've ever bought a ready made slipcover and it wouldn't stay in place on your furniture, I can almost guarantee it didn't have these "tuck in pockets".

  So I'm gonna show you how to do a tuck in pocket.

Because of the shape and style of my Parsons chairs, my front fabric piece will wrap around and cover the sides.  So before trimming my front sides, I had to wrap the fabric to the sides and then trim a few inches away.  

I'm leaving about 3 1/2 inches at the bottom of my front because that is where we are going to make our "tuck in pocket".

To block the seat, lift up the pocket from seat area and pin it up out of the way for now.  Lay your fabric on the seat and fold 3 1/2" up at the pocket area.  Remember to keep your fabric straight.  Put a T pin in each corner and center front and back.

I measured my boxing, that's the part that is right under the seat, and cut 2 pieces that were 2 1/2" taller then my boxing.  1 piece will not be enough to go around 3 sides of the seat.  I pattern matched my stripes and pinned them together leaving 1/2 seam allowance to make one long strip for the boxing.  T pin this to your boxing.  The boxing usually does not wrap around to the back side, just the front and two sides.

Step 2.  Pinning
Now that you have all your parts of the chair blocked (except the skirt area) it's time to pin it to fit around the curves and corners of your chair.  I use old style silver pins that are not too long.  I start with the upper back of the chair.  Starting in the center top, pin close to the chair edge the back to the front.  I made sure my stripes were lining up perfectly.  Since my Parsons chair has rounded corners at the top, I pinned the straight areas first and went back at the end and pinned in pleats/darts to neatly follow the curve of my chair.

The next area you need to pin is the "tuck in" pocket.   Pin the extra fabric at the bottom of the front and the back of the seat together to form a pocket.  Make sure both fabric pieces are sitting down in that crease and then line them up together and pin about 3" from the crease.

As you pin outward towards each side, you need to pin diagonally back to the chair crease.  When you get to the crease with your pins, pin as close to the crease as possible.  Make sure you head towards the crease a few inches before the side edge of the chair.  Structurally there are wood posts behind this area and so the "tuck in" crevice ends 2-3 inches before the side of the seat.  By pinning at the crease here, it will allow your fabric to go around these posts when you tuck the pocket into the "tuck in" area.
Trim your fabric 1/2" away from your pins along the diagonal pinning.  then 1/2" from the crease.  But don't trim too far yet!  Take small cuts until you have this whole area pinned.  Notice I did not trim into the fabric that needs to wrap around to the sides.  In order to release the fabric to wrap around to the side of my chair, I had to cut slits UP TO but NOT past the pins.   Make the first slit at the corner where the fabric needs to turn the corner.

 Continue cutting slits into the front back at the crease until you get the fabric to release and make the turns to the back .

You can put this area on pause for a minute while you go back and trim the pocket.  Trim along the pocket edge, through both layers 1/2" away from pins.

Pin the back chair piece to the front chair piece along the side edges.  Stop right before the boxing.  Now pin the boxing to the seat.  Make sure your pins run along the very edge of the seat.  Try to keep them straight and even.

The area where the seat, front, back and boxing all meet at the bottom of the side edge is probably going to be the hardest part of pin fitting this chair.  It's not really hard, I just want you to know that once you get past this next step, it's all down hill from there.
This is what this area will kind of look like at this point.

Pin the upper side to the boxing.  Pin the boxing to the back.  Keep in mind that what and where you pin together fabric is where the seam will be.
Now back to my curves at the top front.  I pinned in pleats/darts.  I pinned mine several different times trying to figure out how many pleats/darts and exactly where they should be to give the smoothest look.
I ended up with 3 pleats/darts at each curved corner.

Step 3.  Trimming
Trim everything 1/2" from your pins.  This gives you a perfect 1/2" seam allowance to sew by.  Start with the upper part of your chair and work your way down.  When you get to an area that has intersecting seams, just make sure you trim those 1/2" from your pins too.

Step 4.  Notches
Once you unpin your fabric from your chair, the pieces might look foreign to you and you won't remember exactly how each of them lines up.  Never fear...notches will guide the way!  Make small notches along every seam.  When it comes time to sew, you will just need to match up the notches and you know you will be sewing things correctly.  I like to think of notches making it like puzzle pieces.  You might later think 2 pieces go together a certain way, but if the notches don't line up then it doesn't fit together that way.  Just make sure your notches aren't so big that they go beyond the seam allowance.

Step 5.  Trimming the bottom for the skirt.
I usually attach my skirt somewhere in the close vicinity of where the boxing meets the legs.  You can put yours slightly higher of lower if you want.  When you decide where your skirt will go, put a pin there.  Now measure up from the floor to this pin.  Tip-if this chair is going to sit on carpet, then measure it on carpet.  If this chair is going to be on a hard floor, then measure it on a hard floor.
Using a pencil, mark all around your chair 1/2" less then the skirt height.  My skirt length is going to be 14", so I marked 13 1/2" up from the floor all around my slipcover.

Once you have made marks all around the chair, join these marks to make your cutting line.

Cut the excess off along this line.  No need to notch this bottom edge.


Congrats!  You have just pin fit your first chair slipcover!!  It wasn't that hard was it?!


Follow me and stay tuned for the Part 2:   How to sew a Parsons Chair Slipcover

Pin It