Chandelier or Cord Cover

I occasionally make things and think, "I should photo this and make a nifty tutorial to share my knowledge." Today I decided to do it! My daughter's room is in the process of being redecorated to her "big girl room" (although she still sleeps in her baby bed, I am thinking ahead!) and recently hung a cute shabby chic-y chandelier lamp in the corner of her room. I immediately noticed a need for the cord to be covered up.



Ewww, that just looks shabby, and definitely not chic. I *knew* this was something I could make, but wasn't sure if I'd *ever* have the time to do, so I looked around online and in town for a cheap cord cover. No luck. So I resigned to add it to my mile-long to-do list and picked up one yard of white polyester satin fabric at Hobby Lobby. Total cost about $2.50. Then I set off, camera at my side, to put this baby together. It is SO EASY! It took me 30 minutes start to finish. Here are the steps I followed:

Decide how long you want your cover, and how "poofy" you want it to be. It needs to be two to three times as long as the cord itself. Mine is 20 feet long. I wanted mine pretty full so I cut 5 inch strips, all the way through the width of the fabric. What I ended up with was four sections 60 inches long by 5 inches wide. Sorry the photo is blurry :(



Next, take two of your strips, RIGHT sides together, and sew them together, like so:


(Note: I am using my serger for this project, but a regular sewing machine can also be used just as easily. A serger is a machine that uses four spools of thread and two needles to make a professional finished seam as well as cut off the seam allowance all at once.)



Repeat for the remaining strips, so you end up with one very long skinny strip of fabric. Here is the seam from the RIGHT side.


Next you will want to finish both ends of the cover. I got lazy and just serged the edges so they won't fray, but you can (and probably should) turn the edge under and sew it down with your machine. I took a photo of both options.

Serged:


Turned under:



Next, fold your cover in half, RIGHT sides together longways, and sew edges together, making a long skinny tube of fabric.


Now is the hard part; turning the tube out. You can use a turner tool if you have one, or a large safety pin will work. Depending on how long your cover is, this may take a while. Don't get frustrated! You're almost finished!


The end coming out after lots and lots of pulling:




Now you have a cord cover!! Slip over the cord, scrunch, and viola!