Bar Stool Covers

   I have been getting furniture together for our Son's first off campus apartment. We had two bar stools that we picked up at Bed, Bath and Beyond to use in our new house, before we had our furniture moved. They had dark brown legs and a vinyl brown seat. The colors for our Son's living room and dinning room are red, black, and gray. I took the seat off the legs and spray painted the legs gray. (Thanks Debbie for turning me on to the art of stray painted furniture.) After three coats of gray, I put two coats of polyurethane spray on them. Beautiful!
   My dilemma was what to do with the seats. Leaving them brown was not an option.

 First I thought I would reupholster them with a red vinyl, but that would be way too much work, because they have buttons on them. If I reupholstered them with vinyl or cloth I would have to take the old cover off, repad them, and then try to cover them keeping the shape and strong structure .Plus they have such a small boarder under the seat to staple, there was just not enough room. After talking to my daughter about it she suggested a drawstring cover. SOLD!
  I took the seat, laid it on the same fabric I am using for the couch cushions and marked it by adding 7 inches on all four sides. I cut out the rectangle, ironed about one half inch hem, then folded it about one to one and a half inches all around to make a casing. I took a ribbon from one corner, laid it in the fold, pinned it so it would stay toward the fold, and then sewed the casing along the edge being careful not to stitch the ribbon. I tacked the ribbon down on one end and left a long piece out the other end for tying. I hate stringing ties through casing, so this took that step out of the process. When I was finished two opposite corners had the ribbon tacked down and two opposite corners had the ties coming out each side.

Next, in the middle of each long side I tacked down a thicker black ribbon, making sure not to sew the ribbon in the casing. These ribbons are used to tie the sides together under the seat.

Now it is ready to go on the bar stool.  Just lay it on top, pull the draw string on the opposite corners and tie in a bow.  Then I tucked the strings up under the cover to hide them. Tie the ribbons in the middle under the seat to keep the sides tight and not droopy.

DONE!  Love how they turned out and great for a college student because you can take them off and throw them in the washer.