How to Make Slipcovers

Well, I thought I should create a how to, on how to make your own slipcovers. You should be able to find a lot of different designs for your furniture, so in a lot of cases you're not going to really need make your own. But I know there are a lot of creative people out there that want to come up with their own unique design. I can respect that and I thought I'd show you how you can go about doing this.

Here is what you'll need:

measuring tape
muslin fabric
slipcover fabric
sewing/fabric pins
needle and thread (or Sewing Machine)

How to Make Cushion Slipcovers

I think we can start with doing this for a cushion to keep it simple. You want to first start by taking a full measurement of the cushion. Make sure you get length, height and width. Next you just need to choose the type of fabric you want for your slipcover. I suggest picking something that is a light material. It just makes things a lot easier to deal with when making this.

Next you'll want to make a sewing pattern out of the muslin fabric. You just have to use the measurements you took on the cushion and cut out muslin for all the sides. At this point you'll want to pin each side of the muslin to the actual cushion and make sure things fit properly. If there is any extra fabric. Typically you want to leave about an inch for the fabric.

Now you'll want to baste the pieces of the muslin with your sewing machine. At this point you want to make sure that it fits with the cushion. Once you're satisfied with how it fits, you just have to rip out the stitches, so that you're back to the template.

At this point you're going to cut pieces for the actual slipcover fabric that are the same size as the muslin. You're going to follow the same process as the muslin by pinning it to the cushion. Eventually you sew it together and you have a slipcover finished. At this point you should already have a template made, so you can essentially do the rest of the cushions for a couch or whatever type of furniture that you're doing.

Doing a Sofa

Making a slipcover for a sofa is going to take a little more work since you're dealing with some far bigger than a cushion. The obvious first step is to figure out how much material you're going to need. Again you're going to use the measuring tape to measure this out. Typically you'll want to measure the distance from the lowest point to the highest point. Typically you'll need two times that number. You'll also want to measure the the width of the sofa and take 4 times that number.

From these numbers you want to come up with the total space you'll need. I just add the two numbers together that I got and divide it by 36 to get the amount of yardage needed. At this point, go out and buy twice as much as you're going to need. This is just a general rule of sewing.

At this point you're going to drape the fabric over the back of the the sofa. You basically want it to go right from the start of the cushions to the floor. You will want to keep a one inch hem and three inches of tuck in fabric. Use a few needles to stick this fabric to it's position.

Next you're going to drape the fabric over the arms of your sofa. You want to make sure that you get the fabric as smooth as possible and tuck the fabric right around the curves. You'll want to pleat the fabric and use needles to hold it to the sofa.

At this point all you have to do is adjust things to make sure it all fits. Sometimes you'll have to make adjustments, but you should be able to get it all to work. Next you just remove the pins and sew it on the sewing machine.

As for the cushions, you just use the previous tutorial that is above to make the slipcovers.