Make your own wedding seat covers?

Danni19

Hi everyone,

I am getting married next year in a lovely venue, but the chairs are not the prettiest. I would really like to cover the chairs, but don't think I could ever afford to hire covers (£4.50 a cover for 75 chairs = £337.50!).

I am considering making the covers, and then possibly hiring them out afterwards, but I really don't have a clue where to start!

Can anyone help? If anyone has a template, or knows good places to buy the fabric / organza that would be a brilliant start!

Thanks

Danni

flea72

i dont think there is any way you would be able to make chair covers yourself,for under £4.50, more like £10 each

hiring them out yourself afterwards does seem to make sense, but factoring in cleaning, wear and tear, and the fact that you will only have one style, in limited quantities, that you are offering, may mean you are excluded a bit from the market that is out there.

Flea

scubaleopard

I can only imagine how fiddly they are. All those tucks and bows etc. I think it will be really expensive in "stress" making them Could u hire soome chairs from somewhere--- a village hall or school?

Danni19

Oh dear! Not a very positive start!

Surely it can't be that hard to make them. The bow certainly isn't difficult, as this is just a piece of organza tied around the chair isn't it?

Would it really cost £10? All you need is organza and and white cotton material.

As for stress - I've got a year to make them, and a friend helping who will use them after me. Can't be too bad I'm sure.

Danni

flea72

just for a guide - cheap organza minimum £4/m - really slippery to hem, might be lucky to make 2 bows from 1m of fabric. its not just a case of tying a bow in a length of fabric. a decorative bow, tends to be gathered at the middle, and then sewn into place, and if hiring, people will expect every bow to be identical

decent white cotton to make the chair covers, £6/m - might be able to get 1 chair cover per metre, but more likely you would need 1.5m per chair (due to height of chair back) - you could use a cheaper fabric like a lining material for £3/m, but then i wouldnt expect that to last long term, so not suitable for hire plans

but the biggest thing, will be the time to make all the chair covers, when you factor in the stress factor of that, i would rather hire from someone else, as sorting out the rest of the wedding stuff is bad enough. i take it the venue has no plans to replace the chairs before your big day. id be well peed if they had new chairs in a years time, and id spent months making covers for their old ones!

Flea

fifilafolle

I've heard about a few companies who provide you with the chair covers un-laundered, i.e. they're washed but you have to iron them yourself. Much cheaper! Couldn't remember the websites so did a quick Google search and found this on eBay - £1.79 per chair! I'm sure you could do a bit more hunting and find some others...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170107707646

Good luck and let me know if you find anything good as I am also pretty disgusted at the cost of chair cover hire! (But still want them ha ha).

highlight_2

We recently hired a quantity of chairs and chair covers for our companys annual Xmas party, along with tables to match.

After getting frustrated with dealing with the numerous options offered by different suppliers (none were like for like) we eventually settled for using a local shop in Sheffield called YOUCANHIRE. (tel -08706 004 007)

www.eventchairandtablehire.co.uk

We found they were the most competitive and the whole service was really quite easy to deal with. Needless to say being a Xmas party the table covers and chair covers did need cleaning afterwards!

:A

LilMissEmmylou

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Wedding-Chair-Covers-Hire-Package-worth-445_W0QQitemZ140201147713QQihZ004QQcategoryZ3260QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

£200 for up to 100 covers and bows in your chosen colours. Still pricey but at only £2 each a lot cheaper than your current quote

actually just seen this it cost more BUT you get a heck of a lot with it and i figure your price would cost less as you have 75 guests and not 100
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/WEDDING-VENUE-DRESSING-AND-CHAIR-COVERS_W0QQitemZ260204388139QQihZ016QQcategoryZ365QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

greengre

Hi Danni,

I was going to make my own, but decided not to have the covers at all now. But I did get the material and we did cut and make some. If you know a couple of people with sewing machines that woudl be great! We got one of the chairs, and made the template ourselves. I dont know where you live but Abakhan Fabrics are fantastic, they have a shop in Manchester and one in North Wales.

If you do want the chair covers, I do think its worth while making them... if you have the time

Dawneybabe

Hi
Try Jessica Claire Designs www.jessicaclairedesigns.co.uk based in Coventry. Lovely quality chair covers in white/cream/black and loads of different colours of organza for bows. £4.00 per chair including set up & cleaning. Highly recommended.

nuttywoman

LilMissEmmylou wrote: »

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Wedding-Chair-Covers-Hire-Package-worth-445_W0QQitemZ140201147713QQihZ004QQcategoryZ3260QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

£200 for up to 100 covers and bows in your chosen colours. Still pricey but at only £2 each a lot cheaper than your current quote

actually just seen this it cost more BUT you get a heck of a lot with it and i figure your price would cost less as you have 75 guests and not 100
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/WEDDING-VENUE-DRESSING-AND-CHAIR-COVERS_W0QQitemZ260204388139QQihZ016QQcategoryZ365QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I made 4 of those chair covers for a neighbour whose kitten was climbing up her leather chairs shaped just like the ones on ebay.Fabric used was lining material at £1.20 a metre and it took about 8metres with spare left over.
I measured all the chair, made a rough copy, adjusted it , then made them up.They look really good too, if i may say so.:T