If you love interior design, chances are, you also love to update your décor. But if your budget can’t handle your ever-changing tastes, remember this: Slipcovers are a designer’s secret weapon. They’re easy to make, inexpensive, and offer a terrific interior-design opportunity. You can change the look of an entire room by switching slipcovers, so you might want to make a wardrobe of them for every season. Imagine the options!

Best of all, with the hands-on process shown in this tutorial from Quick Stuff to Sew, Vol. 2, even a beginning sewer can design and make a slipcover. All you need to do is plan a design, choose your fabric, make the pattern, and sew. The process is pretty much the same no matter what kind of side chair you’re working with, so you can choose to create a contemporary-style cover that extends up the back of the chair and down to the floor, as shown at left, or make a more traditional cover that leaves the back and legs exposed such as shown in the how-to steps on the following pages. Draping a chair is like gift-wrapping a package; just wrap the chair and sew. You’ll be sitting in style in no time.