To make seat covers for dining room chairs, measure the seat pad including its depth, cut fabric with a 2cm seam allowance plus enough to wrap underneath, sew a simple casing or elasticated hem around the edge, then fit the cover over the pad and pull it tight beneath. For a drop in pad, the simplest method needs no sewing at all: cut the fabric oversize, wrap it like a parcel and staple it to the underside. Both approaches take under an hour per chair once you have the measurements.
Making your own covers gives you complete control over fabric, and it is the cheapest way to refresh a dining set. It also means you can make a washable spare set, which is genuinely useful in a household with children.
There are three practical options. A stapled cover wraps the seat pad and fixes underneath: neat, tight and permanent until you remove the staples. This suits drop in pads that lift out of the chair frame.
An elasticated slip on cover pulls over the pad and gathers underneath with elastic or a drawstring. It can be removed and washed, which makes it ideal for family use, though it is slightly less crisp than a stapled cover.
A tie on cushion cover sits on top of the seat and fastens to the chair back with ribbons or ties. This suits chairs with a fixed seat that cannot be removed, and it adds padding as well as colour.
For dining seats, choose a medium weight woven fabric with some structure. Cotton canvas, cotton linen blends, heavy twill and upholstery weight cotton all work well. Avoid anything thin or stretchy for stapled covers, since it will distort as you pull it.
Look for a rub count of at least 20,000 Martindale if the chairs are used daily. Machine washable fabric matters if you are making removable covers, and it is worth pre washing before cutting to allow for shrinkage. Skipping that step is the most common reason a cover no longer fits after its first wash.
Patterns need thought. A small repeat is much easier to match across six seats than a large one, and directional prints must all run the same way. If you want to see how different weights and textures behave on a finished chair before committing, our modern fabric dining chairs UK sale range shows a good spread of upholstery types.
Remove the seat pad from the chair. Measure the width at the widest point and the depth from front to back. Then measure the thickness of the pad.
Your fabric size is: width plus twice the thickness plus 8cm for wrapping under, and depth plus twice the thickness plus 8cm. For a 45cm by 42cm pad that is 6cm thick, you would cut a piece 65cm by 62cm.
Measure every pad individually. Even in a matching set, pads can vary by a centimetre or two, and on shaped pads the front is often wider than the back.
Lay the fabric face down on a flat surface and centre the seat pad on it, foam side down. Check the pattern is straight and centred before you fix anything.
Start at the centre of the back edge. Pull the fabric over and fire one staple into the underside of the pad. Move to the centre front, pull firmly and staple. Do the same at the centre of each side. These four staples set the tension for the whole cover.
Work outwards from each centre staple, alternating sides to keep the tension balanced, placing staples every 3cm. Stop about 6cm from each corner.
Corners need a fold rather than a gather on square pads. Pull the corner point straight up and over, staple it, then fold the two side flaps in like wrapping a parcel and staple each. Trim the bulk from inside the fold so the pad still sits flush in the chair frame.
On rounded corners, make several small even gathers rather than one large pleat. Trim excess fabric to about 3cm beyond the staple line.
If you want a tidy finish, cut a piece of hessian or cotton lining slightly smaller than the pad base, turn the edges under and staple it over the raw fabric edges.
Cut the fabric to the same generous size as above. Round off the corners slightly so the hem sits smoothly.
Fold and press a 1cm hem around the entire edge, then fold again by 2cm to create a casing and press. Sew close to the inner fold, leaving a 5cm gap to thread the elastic through.
Cut elastic to roughly 75 per cent of the perimeter of your fabric edge. Thread it through the casing with a safety pin, overlap the ends by 2cm and stitch them together securely, then close the gap in the casing.
Fit the cover over the pad and adjust the gathering evenly around the underside. The elastic should hold it firmly without distorting the shape.
Cut two panels the size of the seat plus a 1.5cm seam allowance all round. If you want padding, cut a piece of 2cm foam or several layers of wadding to the finished size.
Make four ties by cutting strips 40cm long and 6cm wide, folding lengthways, sewing and turning through. Pin two ties into the seam at the back corners, pointing inwards, before sewing.
Place the panels right sides together with the ties sandwiched inside, sew around three and a half sides, turn through, insert the padding and slip stitch the opening closed. The ties then fasten around the chair back uprights.
Make one cover first and test it before cutting the rest. A single trial cover reveals any measuring error while you still have fabric to spare.
Buy all fabric from the same batch. Dye lots vary, and the difference will be obvious across six chairs sitting side by side.
For households with young children, consider making two sets in the same fabric. Having a spare while one is in the wash is far more useful than it sounds, and the marginal cost is small once you have the pattern worked out.
Fit a fabric protector spray if the covers will not be washed often. It gives you a few seconds to blot spills before they penetrate.
New covers cannot fix collapsed foam, a sagging seat base or a wobbly frame. If the pad feels hard through the fabric or the seat flexes when you sit, replace the foam or repair the frame first. A new cover over a tired pad simply looks like a new cover over a tired pad.
If the chairs themselves are beyond helping, replacing them may be the better use of a weekend. Our dining chairs UK sale range covers a wide spread of upholstered and wipe clean designs, and the modern dining table and chairs sets UK sale collection matches proportions for you. Everything is at Furniture in Fashion, with free delivery to most UK mainland postcodes.
Once you are comfortable with a basic cover, piping is the addition that most improves the finished appearance. It defines the edge of the seat, disguises the seam and gives a homemade cover a tailored look.
Piping cord is sold by the metre and is wrapped in a bias cut strip of fabric before being sewn into the seam. Cutting the strip on the bias, at 45 degrees to the grain, is what allows it to follow curves without puckering. A zipper foot on the sewing machine lets you stitch close to the cord.
Contrast piping in a second colour is an effective way to link the chairs to another element in the room, such as a rug or curtains. Self piping in the same fabric is more subtle and suits patterned material where contrast would be busy.
A skirt is the other common addition. A gathered skirt suits traditional rooms, while a box pleated skirt with corner pleats looks crisper and more contemporary. Both need the seat depth and width measured accurately, since a skirt makes any distortion in the fit obvious.
Pattern matching across a set of dining chairs takes planning. Decide first where the pattern should be centred on each seat, usually the middle of the front edge, and mark that point on your template before cutting.
Large repeats waste a considerable amount of fabric, since each seat has to be cut from the same point in the pattern. Calculate the number of seats you can cut per repeat, then work out how many repeats you need and add one for safety.
Stripes need to run consistently. Decide whether they run front to back or side to side and apply it to every chair. Mixing directions across a set looks accidental rather than considered.
Directional prints, where the design has a clear top and bottom, must all face the same way when the chairs are pushed under the table. Check this before cutting, since it is not recoverable afterwards.
Not for drop in pads. Fabric can be wrapped and stapled to the underside, which gives a tight, professional finish without a sewing machine.
Medium weight woven cotton, cotton linen blend or heavy twill with a rub count of at least 20,000. Pre wash it if the covers will be laundered.
Measure the pad width and depth, then add twice the pad thickness plus 8cm to each dimension. That typically means around 0.5m of 140cm wide fabric per chair.
Pull the corner point up and staple it first, then fold the two side flaps in like wrapping a parcel. Trim bulk from inside the fold, not the outside.
Yes. Tie on cushion covers sit on top of the seat and fasten to the chair back uprights, adding both padding and colour.
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