Chair Cushion Covers

I bought a pair of wooden folding chairs for $6.90 each at the local thrift store.  They are both in great condition.  I wanted something I could put outside at Pennsic and not cry if it got damaged.   Pennsic is known for many things - including sudden downpours and flooding.  I'm not leaving my super expensive, period correct, Savonarola chairs outside without extreme supervision.  However, I do want to leave something out for guests that is comfortable.  Normally, my encampment had four or five Viking chairs out.  Since it's just me for the main encampment (there is a branch of our group camping right next door), I thought a bench might be nice.  However, when I saw the folding chairs, I realized that might be a better idea.

Now, the folding chairs are comfortable but I thought some cushions might be nice.   I bought a 4 pack of very plain beige chair cushions from Wally World (ie, Walmart) for about $8 USD.  At home, I had some left over fabric from my SIL's Renaissance Fair gown I made her a couple of years ago.  It's a simple floral damask that isn't period but the color looks really nice and the pattern isn't discernible right away.  So, I doubled the cushions and made slip covers for them out of the mint green damask.

 The slip covers themselves are really simple.  It's one big rectangle, folded over, and sewn at the sides.  On the back opening, I hemmed it to prevent fraying.  I also added the small flap which is just another rectangle, folded over, but sewn shut and attached to the bigger bag at the center back.  The small flap gets tucked under the cushions to help hold the cover in place.

Oh.  And I added pink tassles.  Because, although this isn't period correct, all medieval cushions appear to have tassles.  Therefore, since this is for a medieval event, I needed to add tassles to make it look more medieval ish.

 See?  Pink tassles.  They are just some left over acrylic yarn I used to make a couple of monkey fists that got covered in more pink yarn.  I then sewed them to the corners.  It's not period looking but it's not blatantly modern either -which is good.  If a true medieval/renaissance person came up and saw the chair, they'd instantly recognize that it's a wooden chair.  There wouldn't be any questions about what the heck it's made out of.  Actually, there is a 16th C Italian chair that is similar to this style but I'd have to make a back cover too.

Here is the back of the chair.  The flap is just tucked in under the cushions.  I'm using the original ties to tie the cushions to the chair.  It's quite comfy and the covers are very washable.  Yay!

Now back to more Pennsic prep....