Mostly, everything but Sewing

Now that we’re using the sofa more I thought it would be pleasant to have an ottoman too. I toyed with the idea of finding a old ottoman and reupholstering it. This is a great plan but I couldn’t seem to locate any old footstools at any of our local thrift shops. Even a great bargain on ebay for furniture gets eaten away when you have to pay for shipping and handling so I didn’t even look there.

I did come across this one at furniturecentral.com, which was on clearance. It was discounted from $175.99 to $49.00. The clincher was that shipping was only $10. They had an added discount of %20 at the moment which basically took care of the shipping. So my price out the door was about $52.

As pictured on the website it is a little too tall, but I thought I could replace the legs and that would bring it to the height I needed. I ordered it and it arrived a few days ago. It is just what I wanted!

I have enough of the sofa slipcover fabric to cover it. Making a slipcover for it will be very easy and fun!

I also bought pillow forms and a bright coordinating fabric to make a couple of throw pillows, another easy and fast project that should go quickly!

In May, a few weeks after my previous burst of work, I started on the final stage of the slipcover, putting the skirt on.

I ended up not using the pattern piece I made for this. I just cut long strips of material based on the dimensions of the skirt I wanted. I measured out the distance from the point on the sofa where the skirt attaches to it, to the floor. Then I measured the lengths for the front, back and side sections of the sofa.
I left material in the pieces for a good sized hem and seam allowance for the top and then calculated the extra length to include deep pleats. For the front and back sections I planned a center pleat as well as corner pleats.
Once this was done I pressed and pinned the hem up on all the sections and for the front and back pieces formed the center pleats, pressed them and stitched them in place across the top. I then started pinning the sections to the slipcover.
It was fairly easy task to end up with four sections with markings for the four corner pleats that would fit perfectly to the body of the slipcover. I removed the pins holding it to the main body carefully so as not to dislodge any of the pins marking the corner fold backs.

I took the whole skirt shebang back to the sewing room to put it all together. I attached the four pieces to each other at the corners with small seams that came down only an inch from the top of the skirt. With the pieces all attached to each other I could now mark and press the corner pleats in place. I left enough material in the fold back section of the pleats for 4 inch deep pleats, two inches on each side of the pleat. I then cut and attached a pleat facing to finish things off. With all the facings in place and all edges serged and hems marked I ironed everything to make sure that all the pleats lay flat. I attached the trim to the skirt top and then I was ready for the final step, attaching it to the slipcover. Things went off without a hitch. I pinned everthing together making sure the pleats were all at the right places and sewed it up!

Fortunately somewhere along the making and fitting of the slipcover I decided I wouldn’t need to leave a zipper or button opening. It needs a bit of strategy to get it on the sofa but it goes on fairly easily once the key areas are in place.

So now we’re at the spot I came in before, with only the cushions left to do. What a workout for my memory, I’m glad I took pictures along the way!

From the previous point in the project it took me a year to come back to it. I resumed work on the slipcover in April of this year.

I dug out my muslim pattern pieces and tried to remember what the different pieces were. Fortunately I did do a good job of marking them so I was able to figure out what everything was. I started planning my cutting by placing the pattern pieces on the fabric.
I sewed the pieces together as I cut them and pretty soon I had the back cushions and one armrest completely sewn up. I had purchased a few bundles of a coral pink trim at the same discount store that I bought the fabric at. I had no idea how much I would need so I just bought all I could find in the same color. It was also super discounted so I stocked up.
I put trim down the center back seam and used it to edge the front of the armrests. Ultimately the only other places that I put the trim on was on the two side gusset pieces and on the top of the skirt piece which goes all around the sofa. I had bunches of the trim left.
I think the trimming added a great touch. Here is a closer look at the armrest. At the top right, if you look close, you can see the trimming on the gusset piece.
Here I am measuring out a strip of fabric right on the couch to make the piece that covers the front board. If this had been a regular sofa as opposed to a sleeper, this piece would have covered the whole seat area.
I did a lot of pin fitting as I sewed the parts together. I’m sold on this technique. I think it saves a lot of time in the long run, though it is a bit tedious.
I had fun finally seeing the slipcover starting to take shape.

I had promised to go back and try to detail my earlier work on the sofa slipcover. So here is an overview of what went before the cushions.

Back in April of last year I was having family over for dinner and thought that the sofa looked too shabby for company. We’ve had this foldout sofa for years and in a previous house it was situated next to a sunny window. It was a favorite spot for the cats to lay along the back and alternately snooze and gaze out the window. The result of all this cat love and sun damage were torn and faded spots along the top. The sofa was a perfect candidate for a slipcover.

Nudged into action by the thought of house guests I took out my sofa patterns and studied them for ideas on how to proceed. I already had about 30 yards of a very nice floral home decorator Waverly fabric. I had found it at Fabric, Laces and Trims where it was sold to me by the pound! This store carries lots of remnants and seconds quality fabrics and trims. The fabric had obvious printing defects but most of it was in good shape. I immediately thought of using it for making a slipcover. I believe I got the whole thing for about $15.00. Of course, it sat in my sewing room for many years, but I always knew that some day I would try it.

Well, I never did get it done in time for the family dinner, but I made a start back then and finally a full year later finished it off in about two months.

This is what the sofa looked like at the start.

 
I used McCalls pattern #3278 to guide me. It has a great explanation on all the basic techniques needed to take measurements of the couch, construct your muslin pattern, pin fit it to your couch and mark it up for sewing together.

With my measurements done I started laying sections of muslin on the couch and smoothing them down.
I followed the instructions on pinning the muslin to the couch.
As each section was pinned and fitted I would make marks on it indicating seam lines, gathers or center points, anything that would help me later in sewing it together. Then I would cut around the piece edges leaving ample seam allowances.
In this way I ended up with the whole couch covered with cut out pattern pieces. This was a good time to mark match points on adjoining pieces. I also labeled the different sections (left front, right gusset, etc) which aside from the obvious would remind me which side was the right side of the pattern.
From start to finish the pattern making took me about two days. Not bad, I wish I would have been as diligent doing the rest of it.

I finally had a chance to finish the last cushion. Earlier in the week I bought some twist pins so I could use them to secure the slipcover in place. It looks pretty good for my first attempt at slipcovering anything. Here I am feeling proud of myself.

I guess DH was glad to have it finished too. I went away for just a minute and when I came back my spot was taken.

This is not my first blog, but it is the first one open to the public. I’ve enjoyed visiting other knitting and sewing blogs and thought some of my sewing projects might be interesting enough to put in a blog. So here I am jumping into the sewing blog community. I usually sew clothes for myself, but my project of the moment is slipcovering our old foldout sofa. I’ve never tried to do anything like this before but it seems to be coming along fine.

I started last year and have been working on it in fits and starts. A month or so ago I decided to finish it once and for all. It’s mostly done, just needs the cushions. I will try to include some of what I did to to get to this point. For now it’s on to the covering the seat cushions.