Who doesn't love the Ikea Antilop high chair? It's lightweight, easy to dismantle, easy to clean and most importantly of all, it's £13!!!
I really wanted a cover for the highchair to make it a little more comfortable whilst Elsa munches and I didn't like the £6 one that you can buy from Ikea as the sides are just in the right place for grubby fingers to poke. So I was doing a little Pinterest digging and I found that some clever people have made theirs with their own fair hands, so I thought I would take a little stab at it, can't be that hard, right?
I can honestly say that this cover was ridiculously easy to make, infact I made it during Elsa's afternoon nap (with a little time to check Instagram of course). I'm really proud of this cover, infact I would say that it is one of my favourite DIY's ever.
I found a printable pattern here http://www.instructables.com/id/Ikea-ANTILOP-Highchair-Cushion/ which I have adapted slightly to make the cover reversible (twice as long inbetween washes, bonus!) So here's what you will need:
- Two types of fabric, just a little bit bigger than the pattern (I decided on a floral and a chevron, you never know what mood you're gonna be in!)
- Wadding/Batting
- Pattern printed from above website
- Sewing machine (not pictured)
-Thread (not pictured)
-Scissors (not pictured)
-Iron (not pictured)
Put your favourite fabric on top of the wadding making sure that they are bigger than the seat pattern and then using your sewing machine, stitch them together in a random manner, this makes sure that your wadding isn't floating around inside your seat cover, here is a close up of how I stitched them together.
Now pin your pattern to your stitched fabric and carefully cut out, ensuring that you allow 1cm seam allowance, and then repeat this process with your second fabric.
After you have done this, cut out the other pattern piece (the sort of semi-circle) in both of your fabrics, this will be the piece that hooks over the back of the chair to keep it in place.
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| For some reason this image is upside down. Does any one know how to rotate images on Blogger? |
The thin pieces of chevron fabric on the top left of the image are the ties that go around the leg post to secure the cover to the chair, these are so easy to make (there's not a pattern piece for these).
Cut two lengths of fabric (either fabric will do) about 20cm long and 5cm wide. I pressed both sides over to meet in the middle and then folded in half, to secure, just sew down the edge
Before you fold in half, fold over the top edge that will be showing and press, cutting out the sides so that they don't stick out when sewn (as per bottom picture).
Here is what the finished ties should look like, you will see that only the top end is neat as the other will be stitched into the seat of the cover.
With your two semi-circles of fabric, just sew right sides together along the straight edge only, then turn right sides out and press your seam.
Now, pin the leg post ties to the bottom as per the picture, ensuring that you leave about 1cm from the leg post gap and the semi circle to the top (both need to be pinned to the right side of the fabric). It's entirely up to you whether your top 'hook' matches the front or not, if you want them to mis-match, pin like I did.
Now, pin the other side of the seat cover right sides facing, ensuring that the leg post ties and top hook are on the inside, like so.
Now all you need to do it sew both pieces together, but make sure you leave a gap big enough to get your hand in for turning.
Once stitched, I snipped at the fabric on the corners, just to make sure that the edges are clean once your work has been turned.
Now, all you need to do is turn the whole thing the right way around and sew up your turning hole, I just ran along with the sewing machine rather than doing an invisible hand stitch, because once I start a project I want it done, and I am not a perfectionist, so a few visible stitches wont bother me too much!
Once you have sew your work closed, just give the whole thing a quick once over with the iron.
Also, as you can see, the pattern allows space for the safety harness not to be affected, great huh?
So there you have it, easy peasy! Let me know if you decide to make one of these nifty little things and how you get on!
Lots of love xxx
