This is the last chapter of Part Two, and the only one that involves work the customer can take off and wash.
Loose covers — sometimes called slipcovers — are removable fitted covers that slip over an existing piece of upholstery, fastened with ties, hooks, or a zip along the underside. They protect the upholstery beneath, can be dry-cleaned, can be replaced when the customer’s taste changes, and are a viable alternative to a full re-cover when the budget doesn’t stretch.
Loose covers are closer to dressmaking than to upholstery. The skills that matter are accurate measurement, a well-pinned mock-up in calico, careful pattern-cutting, and confident machine sewing — none of them upholstery skills as such. We do loose covers in the workshop because customers ask, but we know perfectly competent upholsterers who refuse the work and pass it to a specialist soft-furnishing shop. Either is an honourable answer.
Many of the cover-fitting techniques from the cover chapter — pile direction, pattern matching, corner pleating — apply equally to loose covers. The main difference is that loose covers are sewn together as a garment rather than tacked into the chair.
Measuring for a loose cover
Measure with the chair fully upholstered (cushions in, everything in its working position) using a fabric tape measure (paid link). The measurement points you need are: back height (top of cresting to floor), back width (at the widest point), seat depth (front of seat to where the back rises), seat width (at the front), arm-to-arm width (outer edge to outer edge), arm height and depth, and the skirt drop (bottom of the cushion to where the skirt ends).
Note any pattern repeat on the chosen fabric and add 30–50% to the yardage estimate accordingly. Loose covers in patterned fabric are particularly fabric-hungry, because every panel needs the pattern centred and matching across seams.
Loose-cover yardage estimates: dining chair 1.5 m; tub chair 6 m; armchair 8 m; two-seater sofa 14 m; three-seater sofa 18 m. These are for plain fabric. Add 30–50% for patterns.
Cut the pattern in calico first
Cut every panel in calico (paid link) first, pin them in place on the chair, adjust the fit, mark the seam lines with chalk, and only then transfer to the show fabric. Loose covers are dressmaking; calico is the mock-up; you cannot produce a well-fitting loose cover without it.
Pin the calico panels together at the seam lines — wrong-side out, with pins running parallel to the seam — with the panels meeting at exactly the point you want them to meet on the finished cover. Once the calico fits well, mark every seam in chalk, take the cover off, lay each panel flat, transfer the chalk lines onto the show fabric, and cut leaving 15 mm of seam allowance.
Same reason as in the cover chapter: calico is £6 a metre, show fabric is £40–200. Mistakes in calico are cheap; mistakes in show fabric are expensive. Never skip the mock-up step on a loose cover.
The main panels
A typical armchair loose cover is built from around seven visible panels, plus a separate cushion cover (or covers) if the chair has loose cushions. Each panel is cut as a separate piece; they’re sewn together at the seams to form the finished cover. A full set, counting the outside arms, outside back and the underside band, is closer to ten panels than seven.
Once the panels are cut, it helps to see how the finished cover relates to the chair beneath: it’s clothing over the upholstery’s skin, tucked into the crevices, hanging as a skirt, and pulled tight underneath so it doesn’t sag.
Sewing and finishing
Loose covers are sewn on an industrial walking-foot machine using a heavy upholstery thread (paid link). The main seams take a 15 mm seam allowance; visible seams (where the cover wraps around an arm or runs along a front edge) are usually welted for strength and visual definition. Plan the welt-or-no-welt decision at the calico stage; the welt has to be sewn into the seam itself, not added afterwards.
Hem the bottom edge of each panel with a 25 mm folded-and-stitched hem before assembly. Where the cover wraps around the underside of the chair, finish with a drawstring or with hooks-and-eyes (paid link) to hold it in tight tension. A loose cover that sags around the bottom looks untidy whatever the rest of the work is like.
Zips at the back of seat cushions and back cushions let the customer remove the cushion cover for cleaning. Use trade-grade chunky zips (YKK #5 or equivalent) (paid link), 600 mm or 700 mm long, in a colour matched to the fabric. Insert with a zipper foot (paid link); the technique is straight off any dressmaking primer.
French seams (where the raw edge is enclosed inside the seam) are the hallmark of premium loose covers and stop the cover fraying in service. Add about 30% to the sewing time for French seams; most of our loose-cover customers won’t pay the premium and we use straight seams with overlocked edges instead.
Tools & materials for this job
- Fabric tape measure (paid link)
- Unbleached calico (for the mock-up) (paid link)
- Heavy upholstery thread (paid link)
- YKK #5 chunky zips (600–700 mm) (paid link)
- Zipper foot (paid link)
- Piping cord (for welted seams) (paid link)
- Hooks-and-eyes / drawstring cord (paid link)
One of the first customers through the workshop in 2024 brought in six dining chairs and a pair of armchairs from her dining room in Hebden Bridge, all in the same fabric, all loose-covered. She’d had a previous set made some years back and wanted a fresh set in a newer fabric — the old set would go for dry cleaning and stay as a spare for when the new ones come off for washing.
It’s the right way to run a working dining set: the loose covers absorb the wear, the chairs underneath stay untouched. We finished the eight covers across about three weeks of evening sewing. She agreed to come back in five years for the next set; loose-cover customers tend to be loose-cover customers for life.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, English country houses swapped between two sets of upholstery seasonally: winter dressings in heavy velvets and damasks, and summer dressings in lighter linen or cotton loose covers. The summer covers protected the rich winter upholstery from sunlight and dust during the months the family was in residence; in winter they were stored and the heavy upholstery exposed.
The custom is the historical root of the loose-cover trade. Domestic-scale production, with covers run up by household seamstresses, persisted into the 20th century. Loose covers are now ordinary furniture rather than a luxury, but they began as a labour-intensive seasonal ritual in great houses.
- Skipping the calico mock-up. Loose-cover work is dressmaking; you cannot fit one well on a first try in show fabric. Calico mock-up, every time.
- Insufficient yardage for patterned fabric. Each panel needs a complete pattern repeat, matched across boundaries. Add 30–50% over the plain estimate.
- Loose underside. A cover that sags around the bottom looks amateurish from any angle. Drawstring or hooks; pull tight.
- Wrong machine. A domestic machine can’t handle the thicknesses at a welted seam. Industrial walking-foot machine, or send the seams out.
- Quoting plain yardage when the customer wants pattern. The single most common quote-error in loose-cover work. Always confirm the pattern repeat before quoting.
That closes Part Two — eleven chapters covering every technique you need to take a stripped chair through to a finished one. Part Three takes those techniques and applies them to seven complete projects, walking through each from arrival in the workshop to delivery: drop-in dining seat, stuffover dining, stool/pouffe, headboard, wing-back, Chesterfield, modern sofa. The first project is the cheapest possible thing to ruin, and where we send every apprentice on day one.
A well-fitted loose cover is dressmaking-grade work — calico-mocked, pattern-matched, pulled tight underneath. Send a photo and the fabric you have in mind for an estimate. Get a quote on your piece →