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.
First I started with one of the cute Target Dollar spot beach towels. The covers I had seen online used longer towels but I had these, they were cute and CHEAP so they were perfect for my needs. 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. If you were clever enough you could cut around and use all the seams the towel already has to prevent hemming or using the serger on the ends. A serger would have came in very handy for this product but I don't have one and did not want to drive 40 minutes to my grandmothers to use hers. 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 had not used my embroidery machine in almost a year so I needed to test it out, the back of the chair cover was the perfect way to do so. I embroidered an L on it just to make sure my machine was working. I cute the light pink terry cloth wider than my towel because A) it was a wider material and B) 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 part 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.
gotta love the Dollar Tree for Cheap Beach reads! Of course I will end up with more than this in the pockets but I used these items as a guideline when deciding on the sizes.
Sew the pockets up and then sew them onto the towel with a single straight stitch. TA DA... Your beach towel chair cover is ready for some fun the sun! These pictures aren't the greatest but they are the only ones I took before the rain moved in.
The pocket in the picture above should probably have been sewed closer to the bottom, but I am lazy and didn't want to rip the seam out to resew it. Next time for pocket placement, I would fold the towel in half and use that as a guide to sew on the pockets toward the foot area of the towel like the other side pictured at the top.
You can personalize them with coordinating colors, embroidered names/initials ( I did my initials on the top of the cover). Use a design stitch on the pockets, add velcro or buttons to keep your items secure in the pocket, sew in a built in cellphone pocket and so much more! You can make the back flap shorter, I was using a piece already cut and didn't know what to expect so I figured it was better to use too much than not enough. I have a few sections gathered at the seam to create a wider area to fit large wider chairs.
I am going to use another towel to make a large beach tote so my chair cover, beach towel and all other beach items will fit inside. I hope you enjoyed this simple tutorial and are ready to make your own chair cover. Send me pictures! I would love to see your creations. If you have any questions please feel free to ask.
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