This office chair was still functional, but its faux leather was so damaged that you could hardly say the difference between this object and a Jurassic Park dinosaur. I almost threw it away, but I gave it another chance in the last minute with this DIY project. This is how I made a fancy jeans cover for an old office chair.
I bet that the Italians who invented jeans, in the 17th century, never thought about launching one of the long-lasting types of fabric, used for uniforms and haute couture fashion collections equally. The French, the Germans and then the Americans built up its development, turning jeans into a Wild West icon. I’ve added my contribution to this history, using old jeans for upholstery, saving from destruction an old office chair.
The chair was still functional, its only problem was the damaged upholstery that was chipping away when moving it from one place to another. Since nobody else was willing to restore it, I took my scissors, screwdrivers and sewing machine and got to work. In the worst case scenario, I’ll turn in to pieces and be thrown away.
The First Step: Disassembling the Chair
To make it easier, let’s make a list of necessary materials and tools:
- three pairs of jeans in adult size and in close shades of denim,
- a cord 3.28-3.93 feet long,
- a sturdy removable zipper, 23.6-27.5 inch long,
- centimeter, scissors, sewing pencil,
- sewing machine with thicker needles (I used 110, for thicker / resistant material / jeans), because there are too many stitches and too thick to be done manually,
- electric screwdriver,
- optional, an upholstery stapler like this one , to attach the fabric to the back of the chair,
- optional, some sponge for restoring the seat.
The first step is disassembling the chair to the parts it si composed: the arms, the seat and the back. Each one needs to be upholstered separately.
Handles
Remove the cushion from each arm. I decided to keep the original material and only cover it in jeans, because it’s much easier than replacing the old fabric entirely.
I cut a piece of fabric big enough to wrap each pad and fix it on the inner side using the stapler. It takes one single leg to wrap both pads in jeans.
Be sure you leave the screw holes uncovered, by chopping small pieces of fabric on each side, as you see below.
The Seat
Let’s move to the second part, where some repairs were needed: the foam was worn out and uneven, so it needed a refresh. If you want a softer seat, add a piece of multipurpose foam under the cover.
I cut the legs from a pair of jeans, and cut off the thick seam on the inner side to turn each leg into a plain piece of fabric. I sew them together to have one big piece of fabric for the whole seat cover. For making the cover, I put the piece of fabric on the seat and left enough fabric to wrap the sides plus another 5-in. I cut the corners round, as you see below.
Fold the fabric on the inside and sew 1.5-in from the margin, as you see below. You will use this seam for the cord one step later, so you could tighten the cover on the seat.
Doesn’t it look good or what?
The second part is ready, only the backrest is left!
The Backrest
Use another pair of jeans, and take the same steps for using the lower side of the legs and having two pieces of fabric, in the same size as the backrest. Cut two smaller pieces of fabric for the sides, and cut them round at the upper corner, following the line of the chair.
You need a detachable zipper on the lower side of the backrest cover. Also, you might need to make one more fold close to the zipper, on each side, to keep the fabric tight on the sides, but loose in the middle, where is more pressure on the cover while sitting.
Let’s Build the Chair Back!
Each of the parts has holes for screws in them, and you need to be sure they are all accessible for screwing. Since some of these screw are covered in fabric at this stage of the making, you have to pierce the fabric to make room for them.
Gather all three pieces of the chair, and took the steps in reverse for assembling it.
Fix the screws and tighten them, and you’ll get a brand new chair with the fanciest cover you can make from ucpycled jeans!
Sometimes we give up things just because they seem it’s not worth the effort to repair them, but we’re wrong.
I worked half a day on this project, but I’m really proud of how it turned out with a very little spending: $2 for the foam, $3.3 the jeans, which is a total of $5.3 compared to $100 for a professional refurbishing job. But I think it works despite not being a professional.
It’s my favorite place now.
I don’t know why the stores never sell furniture with jeans upholstery. They look great and fit in just about any kind of home. After all, don’t we wear jeans almost everywhere?
Does this project inspire you? Pass it on to friends who are passionate about DIY and share it on social media!
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