High Chair Heist

Woohoo!  The Dritz Mystery Box Challenge train is making a stop on my blog today!  My sweet friend, Jennifer, over at Ellison Lane is hosting a super fun week of challenges and giveaways to help our friends over at Dritz celebrate their fantastic new website, and I’m so happy to be a part of it!

So…the challenge…Dritz sent me a big box filled with oodles of goodies to play with, and all I had to do was have fun and come up with a project that used at least 5 of the items.  Score!  Best challenge ever!  The box was absolutely packed with fabulous notions to work with, so I knew this challenge was going to be seriously fun.  (PS- If you’re drooling over this loot like I was, be sure to hop over to Jennifer’s blog for a chance to win your own Dritz Mystery Box full of awesomeness!  She’s giving away 3 of them!)

SO, what did I make?  I’ve been wanting to tackle this project for pretty much a year now, and as soon as I heard about this challenge, I knew this was what I’d be making.  Didn’t matter if they sent me clips, clamps, needles or bleu cheese- I’M MAKING HIGHCHAIR COVERS IF IT’S THE LAST THING I DO!  (luckily they didn’t send bleu cheese, and my nose thanks them).  I was psyched to see tons of great items, perfect for the high chair cover I’ve been dreaming of.

I love IKEA.  I really do.  And I love these IKEA BLÅMES highchairs- in fact, my twin toddler boys eat in them 3 times a day.  They’re sturdy and they match my kitchen, but something tells me that the person who designed them probably isn’t a parent…or at least a parent of twin toddler boys with exuberant eating habits.

That’s right- these things leak food like water through a sieve.  Front, back, sides…doesn’t matter how you slice it- an enormous amount of food WILL end up on the floor, and the majority of that food is coming from inside the seat (not over the top of the tray).

What else do I love about them?  Well, for starters, the wood surface is about as easy to clean as white silk.  I wipe, I spray, I scrub, I scrape, and it still looks like it’s been through Iwo Jima.

There’s no doubt about it- if I’m going to preserve any sliver of my sanity, these chairs need covers that eliminate the holes, and hide the horror that they’ve endured.  And as much as I wanted to shop my stash for some darling designer fabrics , I knew this puppy needed to be more durable than any quilting cotton could ever dream to be.  Towels.  Thick, sturdy, indestructible towels are just the ticket.

My plan?  Improvise.

Step 1:  Drape the towel over the chair.

Step 2: Randomly start pinning things.

3: Randomly start cutting things.

Step 4:  Serge. Sew.  Repeat.

Notice all of my fabulous Dritz products??  Ah!  My favorites were these awesome “Getta Grip” sewing clips!  These are going to come in handy for so many projects!  What else did I use?  The mat, the cutter, the elastic (yes, it was sparkly), the needles, and the Ezy-Pull Bodkin (ps- that’s your new nickname, BODKIN).

Voila!  One totally improvised I-hope-I-can-replicate-it terry cloth high chair cover that I can shake out into the yard, and throw in the washing machine after a big messy meal!

The leg holes are little elastic openings…no food shall pass!

And there’s even a cute pocket on the back for bibs, utensils, toys, vodka…

Now, on to make another before I forget how I made the first one!  If all goes smoothly, I’ll snap some pics and post a little tutorial for all you BLÅMES victims owners out there.

And that’s it for my Dritz Mystery Challenge project!  I think it was a success, and my floors are already thanking me.  What will you make with all of your Dritz notions???  Don’t forget to hop on over to Ellison Lane to enter for a chance to win your own mystery box of goodies!

XO