How to Make a Ruffled Skirt Slipcover for a Bench

A few weeks ago, I posted a few fabric inspiration pictures for our family room on Instagram. The existing fabrics were getting tired and dull, and I was ready for a change.

I grabbed a few fabric swatches at one of my favorite local fabrics shops, Design Finds, and took them home to see how they looked with the existing fabrics. I decided I liked the black striped linen to cover a $5.00 bench I found at a local thrift shop and the large and small houndstooth patterns for some accent pillows. The bench I bought was well-functioning, just ugly. It needed some cosmetic surgery, but all the bones were in good shape.

I really loved the way the fabrics looked for Fall and Winter. So cozy and a bit masculine, with a Hunting Club sort of look and feel. I thought they would go well with the white sofas and new satin black bookcases in the family room, as well. I wanted to bring in a feminine touch with a  ruffled slipcover for the bench. A ruffled slipcover that I had never made before, that is. I had read a few sites about slipcovers over the years and sort of studied them for sofas, but they always looked to be a much higher sewing level than mine ( basic self taught- ha! ) with lots of sewing techniques I am not familiar with yet.

So for all of you who want to sew basic things and have machines but haven’t had any “real” sewing lessons, this tutorial is for girls like us: basic with lots of pictures and simple directions. This is not perfect or sewing- wise politically correct, but it’s my version. Feel free to tweak, by all means! I’ve never been one to give up without trying ( high school Math being the exception ), so I hope you’ll stick with me as I walk you through How to Make a Ruffled Skirt Slipcover For a Bench ( Beginner’s Edition) 😉

Basic Reupholstery Steps for Bench, Ottoman, or Console Table Bases

Materials Needed:

• Bench, ottoman, or console table to cover ( my bench was 46″ L x 17″ H x 21″ D )
• Foam ( I used 2-3″ )
• Batting ( a regular size roll was just enough for this bench )
• Staple gun/ staples
• Hot glue or spray adhesive ( for holding foam in place before adding batting )
• Scissors
• Electric knife ( optional but good to use on thicker foam. Make sure you have a separate one for your kitchen 🙂 )

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Step 1: Check to make sure the legs are sturdy and in decent shape,and then examine the foam and batting. Replace if necessary. Will the legs be exposed or hidden? Paint or not, depending on your recovering choice. The foam here was ok, but not firm enough, so I added more.

Step 2: I added leftover 2-3″ foam I had from another project by placing both pieces over the top of the bench, then cut it as close to size as possible. I added hot glue underneath & between the foam to give it a little adhesion. I tried spray adhesive first, but that didn’t hold well to each of the surfaces, in this case.

Step 3 : Next, I added quilt batting over the top of the foam, allowing extra for pulling tight around the foam for extra security for the next step.

Step 4 : I pulled the battling tight and stapled all the way around the bench, then cut off all the extra material.

At this point, you can decide how you want to recover your bench: simple reupholstery with fabric and nailheads, fitted slipcover, or more of  a relaxed & casual ruffled skirt slipcover. I chose the last one because our home is French Country/Cottage style. I also like that I can use this slipcover for a few seasons, than change it for the warmer months if I decide to do so.

Adding a Ruffled Skirt Slipcover to a Bench

Materials:

• Fabric ( I started with 1 yard but had to go back and get about 1 1/4 yds more )
• Scissors
• Pins
• Sewing machine ( obviously match your thread to your fabric )
• Thermoweb Heat ‘n Bond 3/4″ is what I used – optional because you can pin and hem, but it makes a nice clean hemline easily )

Step 1: Drape fabric over the top of the bench. This was approximately 3/4 of a yard and extends down the sides a bit. ( You can cut your shorter is you want your ruffles or knife pleats to be shorter, but be careful: measure twice cut once!! Can you tell I may have made that mistake?! )

Step 2: From the remaining fabric, decide the length you want your skirt to be. I liked the way an 11″ drop ( meaning how long the ruffle will be from the top piece ) looked with this particular bench height. Basically, I had to cut strips out of the remaining fabric which was not always a consistent length. Some pieces were 21″, 26″, etc. I just continued to cut more as needed to work my way around the bench. Remember to keep your pattern going in the same direction.

Step 3: Out of the cut strips, form pleats using a fan-like method and pin each pleat. I like to pin with the pinheads down, so I can pull them out as I sew. Much easier. Also, if you are new to sewing, the bulk of fabric goes away from the needle on your machine…we will get to that in a minute, but it will save you alot of time if you pin this way to begin with.

Step 4: After pleats are formed and pinned, I pinned them to the main top piece to see if I still liked the drop length. Remember that this piece will be hemmed so it has a nice, clean edge later.

The hounds’ usual antics: Is this the fabric you didn’t want us on, Mom?!! 😉

Step 5: Sewing the Ruffles ~With machine properly threaded and ready to go, lift presser foot on your machine & place fabric with pins facing up ( pinhead down ) underneath on your sewing machine with bulk of fabric to the left. Lower presser foot and hold fabric in place. This is a straight stitch method, nothing fancy. A very basic thing to know when sewing anything is to sew a few stitches, hold the reverse button, and go back over those stitches again. This holds the stitch so that the thread and stitches don’t come undone. Sew straight down over the top of the pleats to hold them in place, all the way down to the end of the fabric piece, and then end your stitches with another reverse to hold stitches in place. ( you can read more about that in your sewing machine manual or watch this helpful video )

 Continue this same process for all the cut pieces for the ruffled skirt. Remember, pleats will take up alot of the fabric, so you will have to keep cutting additional pieces to work your way around the perimeter of the bench. Important tip: Join pieces as close together as you can when pinning pleats and then pinning pieces around the bench. ( as seen in Step 4 ) You will eventually be pinning and sewing all the pieces together into one long strip and you want to make sure it goes around completely with no gaps. You can always cut the excess off at the end, which is what I did, but better to have that excess than not 🙂  ( another mistake I’ve made )

Step 6: Adding the Heat ‘n Bond to the hemline. This particular one uses no steam on the iron and uses a high heat setting. Place the proper side down on the hem tape, fold fabric up, and iron. Super easy and looks great every time! 

Step 7: Adjoining pleated fabric strips together. Hold 2 strips end to end and pin inside. Check from the other side to make sure you formed a smooth seam. You can iron this later for smoothness, but you want the pieces to look continuously connected before you sew. This is the inside view pictured below ( the side you will sew ) The finished seam will be on the other side.

Same tip again….it’s important and saves time!!

Step 8: Leave the ending seam open until the very end when the slipcover is sewn and you have fitted it properly into place and adjusted it.

Step 9: Pin corner pleats before adding skirt. This was an area I needed help, but I just kept moving forward. Stubborn, anyone?! You could take the top cover off of the bench at this point and sew the pleats ( from underneath- opposite side of fabric ) or you can just pin the skirt on and sew it all at one time. In hindsight, I probably would advise beforehand. I also would have trimmed off the extra fabric under the pleat, as well.   Hashtag #liveandlearn 🙂

Step 10: Pin the long sewn ruffled skirt piece to the top seat piece again- right side out, with ruffle edge under the tucked under top edge. I never mentioned this before and probably should have, but I just folded the top edge of the seat cover under and held the ruffled skirt edge under that and pinned as I went along. Hope that made sense?! The reason I didn’t use the Heat ‘n Bond Super on the edge of the top piece is because it has a stickiness to it that doesn’t do well with sewing machine needles. It makes mine kind of thumpy, so I try to stick with just using it on hemlines. They do make a Heat ‘n Bond lite that is sewable, I believe.

Now you are going to flip the slipcover over to the wrong side of the fabric and pin again. This is alot of pins, yes, but the reason is because this is the side you are going to be sewing the slipcover. Carefully remove the slipcover and take it to the sewing machine.

Step 11: ( otherwise known as the step where I almost starting drinking at noon. On a weekday. Arggghhhh, sheer madness!! ) I pinned the slipcover on the wrong side ( you can remove the pins on the front side after you do that or you can take them out as you go. Just make sure everything is pinned and holding the raw edges from the top piece under if there are any. Ok, back to the madness. Here, let me just show you the madness as an image:

It may not look bad to you here exactly, but there was so much fabric, it kept bunching up and my bobbin kept messing up. Then I kept sewing the wrong piece because it was tucked under the small presser foot area. I guess I need something heavier duty for this type of project, but anyway, I knew what this meant. It meant I was going to have to hand sew the whole skirt to the top thing. Betsy Ross style. Ugh. I was not happy, nor am I a good seamstress. I totally winged it. And cursed. And said I wasn’t going to do it.

 And then I just hunkered down and did it. It was long and tedious, and I sat there sewing and thinking how I’m not sure I’ll ever make a slipcover again, and good thing there are people who like doing it and are good at it, and no wonder they charge so much and…….on and on and on… In the words of  sassy Taylor Swift, it was exhauuuussssting.

Step 12: When I said I wasn’t a good seamstress, I meant I’m on a sewing buttons on level. I never really learned to hand stitch well ( why would you when they make sewing machines?! )  But I just tried a straight stitch all the way around the slipcover, and it turned out ok. Not perfect, which I’m sorry to admit, but I do prefer. Especially when it’s in an area where you will see it. This was a lesson in patience and moving past perfection. One thing I want to point out is to make sure as you go along sewing by hand or machine, that the front is looking the way you want it to. Make sure all the pins are in place until you sew it, then you can remove them. Also, make sure all the edges are tucked under as you sew. I found that by stopping and checking, I saved myself alot of headaches and frustration later.

Step 13: ( not pictured ) After everything is sewn, you will have that 1 open seam I mentioned in Step 8. Fit and adjust the slipcover to the bench, and then pin the open seam ( wrong side ) Make sure it isn’t too tight or pulls the slipcover awkwardly. Now you can trim any excess fabric if there is any. Sew the seam closed, iron if you need or want to, and place the slipcover back onto the bench. That’s it!

One last look at the $5.00 thrift store bench “before….”

And “after….”

I’m pretty happy with it, despite the frustration it caused me, but I hope this may inspire you to try something you have found intimidating in the past. It really was just step by step trying to figure it out. I know the pleats and corners aren’t as perfect as I’d like, but there’s always next time. Maybe. Let me know what you think. Do you think you could or would  try this? I’d love to know! Email me or comment if you have any questions. Good luck!!

Have a great Tuesday! xoxo 😉

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, but all opinions are 100% my own. I was not compensated in advance for any of these links and the sole purpose is to share good products with my readers when I find them.