As this long weekend draws to a close {I was off for President's Day - for those of you who had to work, I'm sorry!}, I find myself thankful for many things.
Of those things, these three are at the top of my list:
- I am thankful for parents who are willing to use their long weekend to come to my house and work their fingers to the bone THE WHOLE WEEKEND
- I am thankful for a husband who is supportive of my creative outlet - even when that means our home is disheveled for a few days while I create
- I am thankful for friends who are understanding of my {crafty} addiction and do not let my "flaking out" on things get in the way of our friendship
And now, a visual recap of my weekend:
Although the plan was to wake up bright and early to get started with the slip covering process on Saturday morning, a different project took precedence...
"What is that thing?" you might ask....well, that "Thing" is a little gifty for a sweet little cousin's 1st birthday! This little ballerina is sporting tie-on toe shoes, a removable tu-tu and a fancy hair piece (she is also wearing false eyelashes). Her "hands" velcro closed so she is great at practicing her ballet as well as giving hugs. Happy Birthday, sweet J!
After we got our creative juices flowing with the ballerina project, we then began the task of creating the slip covers. It started a little something like this...
Me: "What do we do first?"
Mom: "I don't know, let's just stare at the fabric for inspiration."
Ok, that's not exactly how it went. First we removed the cushions from the red couches. I guess I should show my "before picture". Again, I should say that there is NOTHING WRONG with my current couches and ottoman - I am just tired of the red {it's pretty design limiting when the urge to change things hits}.
Ok, so like I was saying, the first thing we did was remove the cushions from the cushion covers and then we used these covers as a base for our pattern for new covers.
Measure, measure, measure...
Sew...
Sew...
Sew...
{Dear Elna Sewing Machine Company, as you can see, we are an Elna family. You should give us some sort of prize. Thanks!}
The couch has three box cushions, the chair-and-a-half has one. Box cushions are NOT EASY! In addition to being hard to get lined up just so...they also require a TON of piping {in order to have that professional "finished" look}. To make piping, you need bias tape and cording. We purchased the cording and then made the bias tape.
Measuring for the bias tape {bias tape is cut on the 45' angle} while mom removes a "learning opportunity" from a box cushion.
Sewing the cording in the bias tape to make piping.
By Saturday night, we had what seemed like miles of piping made and had finished two cushions.
Sunday was spent finishing the cushions. Don't they look great on the red frame? Perhaps I should just stop here... thoughts?
Once all the cushions were made, we started to make the rest of the slip cover. We saved this part of the project for last. Warning...neither of us has done this before. I started by using craft paper to make a pattern for the arms.
We added more piping to the arm pieces of the slip cover and then draped the rest of the couch frame with fabric and began to pin our seam lines.
.
My old couch cushions were connected to the back of the couch. In this picture, you can see where we pinned the cushion covers down to the frame.
Once all the seams were pinned, we carefully removed the cover from the frame and sewed it together.
This is not the final product {there is still a bit of hemming to do}... but it looks nearly complete!
What do you think? Doesn't look like a slipcover, right? The beauty of this is that we can still use the pull out sofa beds in both couches, AND remove the cover for washing.
I am loving it so far!
Mom went home tonight and the couch is not yet complete - It still needs to be sewn. Also, I still have the ottoman to do. It's amazing how much time a project like this takes, but if you have the time and determination, it can certainly be a money saver. I tallied up the cost and at the end of the project, re- doing both couches and ottoman will have cost me $140 {including all material and notions - and YES I got a bargain on my upholstery fabric. Thanks, Sirs Fabric}. To get one couch reupholstered {slip covers are MORE time consuming} it can cost between $1000 and $1500. Wow!
Now that I have this more neutral palette in my living room, there are other changes in the works.
Stay tuned!
P.S. - Like my pincushion at the top of the post? Another mini-project completed this weekend!
