reader submission - beach chair cover tutorial

The the Little Birdies had a big family outing planned to go clamming on Whidbey Island today with some friends. A few of us went last year and had a blast. But we're in the middle of a long, cool, rainy weather cycle, and we decided digging holes in the sand and exploring low tide is much more fun in the sun than the rain. Oh well--I'll just have to stay inside and craft instead! In fact, here's a great tutorial from one of our fabulous readers that will get me ready for summer, whenever it decides to show up.

Today's reader submission is from Lisa of princessthisisme.blogspot.com. She has put together a tutorial for this cool beach lounge chair cover to keep your your towel in place and your beach accessories organized. Brilliant. Take it away, Lisa!

How To Make a Beach Chair Cover


I searched online everywhere for a Beach Towel Chair Cover tutorial because I didn't want to spend the $30+ stores were charging for them. No tutorial found anywhere online. After inspecting a cover in person and chatting with my BCF (best crafting friend), I figured the cover would be simple enough to make. They are perfect for the beach or pool. The back "flap" keeps your beach towel from slipping off the chair or getting blown off by the wind. The side pockets hold all your beach essentials so all you need to do is lay back and soak up the fun in the sun!

First off you should know I am a messy sewer. My grandmother is a professional seamstress and would shudder if she saw my sloppy seams etc. But since this was for my own use and just something I threw together in less than 30 minutes, I did not go to any great lengths to make it perfect.

I started with one of the cute Target Dollar spot beach towels (only $1.25!). I had some cheap light pink terry cloth material on hand (I seem to have a hobby of collecting fabric!) but you could also use a 2nd towel for the back and pockets. A serger would have came in very handy for this product, but I used a simple tight zig zag stitch on the raw edges of my pockets and back. You could fold it and hem it to make it look more professional.

I cut the light pink terry cloth wider than my towel because I wanted the cover to fit any beach chair and this was the easiest way to make sure it would work on wider chairs. Sew the back section onto the top and side parts of the towel to make the part what will slide over the chair to keep the wind from blowing your towel away or slipping once you sit down.


Next I laid out all my "beach" items. A book, sunscreen, sunglasses, camera, cellphone etc. and cut the pocket sizes to make sure all my items would fit in the pockets. On the back part I made it longer so it could be folded down to "close" the pocket.



Sew the pockets up and then sew them onto the towel with a single straight stitch, leaving the flap at the top. TA DA... Your beach towel chair cover is ready for some fun the sun!



Thanks, Lisa! If you have a great tutorial you want to share with us, send us an e-mail with the tutorial and some pictures (or a link to your blog). We'd love to hear from you!