High Chair Back Cushion {DIY}

Since there was nearly a 5 year gap between Bailey and Ruby, we didn’t keep the high chair we used for the oldest three kids for space reasons.  Sabra was done with THIS IKEA high chair and gave it to us.  I see now that they have a new cushion insert!  For only $5.00.   So that’s awesome.  Even still, this tutorial is for those who love to sew, love a quick and satisfying project, love to pick out their fabric choices, and who want less laundry ;).  Using vinyl from the home decor fabrics at Joann means this cushion doesn’t ever stain and can just be wiped down if needed.

First off, why a cushion?  Ruby wasn’t sitting well at all for a long time—she is 10 months old now and still, due to her open heart surgery, she won’t sit.  She is behind physically a bit, but she does roll a lot now which is awesome.  And we’ve found this past week that she can sit, but she doesn’t have any interest in doing so.  Which is ok :). Anyway, since she wasn’t sitting well but obviously old enough for solids, we went ahead and started her in the high chair.  But she kept throwing back her body and whacking her head on the hard back.  Solution:  make a cushion.

So just a quick rundown on how you do it.  As I said, this is for an IKEA high chair but can easily be done with similar high chairs.  I didn’t take pictures of everything because I wasn’t fully committed to posting about it, but here’s what you need to do.

First, make your pattern pieces by laying down the high chair and centering a piece of paper under the portion that needs the cushion.  Roughly trace the inside outline for your second pattern piece.

My pieces looked like this—I did cut off about one inch along the bottom edge on the shorter piece.  The left side of both of these patterns is the “fold” line when cutting your fabric.  If you look below, the squares are 1”.

See how if I put one pattern on top they don’t match up?  This is to accommodate the space between the front and back of the high chair, so it will slip on easily.

Since the fabric doesn’t fray, I only needed to cut one of the shorter pieces out of vinyl.  Then the longer, thinner piece I cut two vinyl pieces of fabric and two quilters batting.

Baste the batting onto the wrong side of the vinyl fabric to treat it as one pattern piece to work with.  If you put the batting on top it is easier to sew it through.

Once you have the batting basted to the two longer pieces of vinyl, sew the shorter piece with the wrong side facing the right side onto the top of the long piece, just around the edge. This creates the pocket that will slide over the back of the seat and hold it in place.

It will work a lot easier if you have a non-stick presser foot. I have one now but didn’t at the time and so I used tissue to sew on top of the vinyl.  Just sew with the tissue on top and then pull it off through the stitching. 

Now take your two longer pieces with the batting basted on and the back “pocket” piece sewn on (see picture above), sew around the edge and leave an opening for turning.

Turn the fabric through.  At this point I didn’t think it was soft enough, so I added the loose polyester batting inside the hole until I got it stuffed how desired.

Now just sew the hole closed, tucking in the fabric as you do so.

Simply slip the cover onto the back of your high chair and ta-da!  You now have a seat cushion and a happier baby :).   

Hope you all have an amazing week :).