Fabric Bench Seat Cover

DIY Upholstered Bench Cover

A few weeks ago, I brought in this bench to our kitchen table. It’s great for the kids, and actually seats a few more booties than the existing chairs. Only problem was… the upholstered seat was getting TRASHED. Or at least it was on its way to getting trashed. Until I sewed a simple cloth cover!

This Turkish towel was the perfect length, the perfect color, and had just the right amount of pattern (stripes for the win!)

Step 1. Sew Tabs

I used an old drop cloth and cut 3-inch strips. I folded the strips in half, and sewed the seam. Trim the excess fabric.

measure and cut strips out of drop cloth

I’m SURE there’s an easier way to do this, but I threaded a wire through my strips, and then pinned the end of the wire to the end of the strip so that I could sloooooowly pull it inside out.

pull tabs inside out so seams are in the middle

Step 2. Cut Turkish towel

Fold the Turkish towel in half, and cut down the middle.

Step 3. Assemble bench cover

Place the right sides of the fabric facing each other, with two of the tabs pinched in the middle ends aligned with the edge of the fabric. (Our bench has three legs so I added a pair of tabs at either corner and then two more pairs on either side of the fabric in the middle.) Sew both sides of the fabric leaving the ends open. Turn inside out and you should have a length of fabric, with closed seams and three sets of tabs along each side.

Tie in place and serve pasta with red sauce to your hearts content!

A couple ways to make this even easier… You could use ribbon or rope instead of the tabs. I happened to have drop cloth and it happened to match the Turkish Towel I ordered. The right size table runner could be another option in which case, you could just sew tabs/ ribbon to the underside of the runner and call it a day. You get the idea.

The cover is already doing its job… I can flip it over to buy myself some time but then it’s easy to remove and throw it into the laundry while the kids are sleeping.

If it’s easier to see how this all came together, check out the video tutorial here… (and SUBSCRIBE while you’re at it, pretty please!):