Slipcover How To

Hi Everyone! Thank you for all the kind comments you been sending on the chair slipcover. Sorry this post is late, I was out of town for a few days and haven't been near a computer!

I'm back home now and will finally share with you how I made the slipcover for my chair. It all started with this post from Apartment Therapy on slipcovering a reading chair. The chair was similar to mine and it gave me inspiration to finally do something about my "elephant in the corner".

Before

After



I did some reseach on slipcovering and read a few articles:

The Nester on her slipcover project

And I did a lot of searching for fabric. Some of you have asked where I found such a deal on the Dwell fabric. I found it on this website: http://www.onlinefabricstore.net/ in case you wanted to get some of your own. Someone also asked if the fabric is durable. It's an upholster grade fabric and is made of cotton. I haven't had it that long so I'm hoping it lasts a long time and continues to look good. I'll probably spray some Scotch Guard on it to protect it from stains. I'll give you any updates as they come!

Ok, enough talk down to business!
I started with some old sheets I bought at Goodwill. I wanted to make a templates to use for cutting out my nice fabric. Since I'm a first time slipcover-er I didn't want to waste precious fabric with mess ups.

I cut large rectangles out, then fit them snuggly around each section of the chair, pinning as I went. I wanted the original shape of the chair to show through so I pinned as closely as I could around the edges.

After I did that I trimmed any extra fabric edges to get about a 1.5" seam allowance I would to for my templates. I marked the templates so I would remember where each one was supposed to go.

I then used my templates to cut my Dwell fabric out. Using the sheet templates allowed me to line up the pattern how I wanted.

Then I repinned my new fabric templates inside out on my chair to get my slipcover shape.

Then sewed the whole thing up. It was a little cumbersome with all the fabric laying everywhere but I was afraid to unpin anything and loose my shape.

After I sewed it all up I refitted it on the chair to see how it fit. I pulled out a few seams that could use some refitting and stitched up a few spots that I had trouble getting the first time around.


The arm for example I pinned again and resewed.

Then is was time for the cushion, I thought that since I have done a few pillows in the past this would be easy. But it was time consuming and hard.

I traced the shape of the cushion onto the fabric leaving a 1.5" seam allowance.

To get the fabric allowance for the middle cushion thickness I used a piece of string and ran it all along the edge. Then laid it out on the fabric, measured a few inches on either side, and cut it out.


The harded part was sewing along the T-Shape of the cushion. Other than that it wasn't bad.


I then pinned the fabric around my cushion in the same fashion as I did the chair, leaving an opening in the back.

Once I finally finished sewing (I've never sewed this much in my whole life!) I got to work on the bottom. First I cut off the outdated skirt.

Originally I was going to staple the fabric to the underside of the chair to give it a more upholstered feel. But in the end I just used pins to adhere it so I can take the slipcover off whenever it needs cleaning.

Slipcover before skirt tucked under

Though the pictures don't show it I ended up sewing a piece for underneath the cushion using some leftover sheet fabric.

Then I was all done!

I hope this has been helpful and gives anyone who was thinking of trying this themselves some courage. You can do it!

Read more at http://diyshowoff.com/2013/08/15/before-and-after-diy-contest/#DlHqDqOhFOFmE5zd.99

This Weekend~

I'm in Washington DC this weekend taking in all the sights. I'll be back in business next week. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!



P.S.- My Slipcover project made it into the Top 10 of The CSI Project! I'm so excited!

Slipcovering an old Lounge Chair

It's done! You may remember that one of my plans for this year was to try and take an upholstery class so I could reupholster this old chair. It belonged to my parents who bought it when they first got married. They gave it to the hubs and I when we bought our first home when we were young and furnitureless.

I love this old chair, it's comfy and a good scale for our living room. Not to big or bulky, just right! And I thought it had good lines, just needed some new upholstery. Well, I have yet to take an upholstery class but decided slipcovering would be a good option. I searched and searched for quite some time for just the right fabric for it.

The first thing I did was cut off the old skirt to expose the wooden legs underneath.

Next I used an old sheet to make a template for each piece I needed. This is my most ambitious sewing project yet. I'm not a proffesional seamstress so I wanted to make sure I was doing this right. And I didn't want to risk wasting my nice fabric with any mistakes I might make. This also allowed me to line up the pattern where I wanted it.

After I cut all my pieces out of my new fabric I refitted them on the chair again to find the lines I was going to sew along.



Then sewed it all up! I am so proud and excited about this project I can barely contain myself.

And check out the cute wooden legs that have been hiding under the skirt all these years!

For details on how I did this check out my post here. 



Happy Mardi Gras!

Happy Mardi Gras!! Just because we live in Texas doesn't mean I can forget about one of my favorite holidays. Back Home in Louisiana we would have gotten today and yesterday off to celebrate. Mardi Gras is a whole season long known as Carnival Season. It's starts on January 6th (the Feast of the Epiphany) and goes until the day before Ash Wednesday. In Louisiana there are parades, balls, and parties all season long.

We had a Mardi Gras party and had all our decorations out.

Beads!

More Beads!

And of course King Cake.

I had to order my King Cake from a bakery in Louisiana. Some of the bakeries in Texas try to make King Cakes, but it's just not the same cinnamon-y, sprinkly, icing goodness we get back home. The great thing about King Cakes is not only do they taste good you could get a prize in you piece!

 If you get the baby you're King or Queen of the day! But, there is a catch. The King or Queen is expected to have another Mardi Gras party, thus another King Cake!

With all this excitement you might think I've forgotten all about my stripey chair upholster. Nope- still working on it. I'm hoping to finish it in time for The CSI Project contest this week.

If not oh well as we say- Laizzez les Bons Temps Rouler (Let the Good Times Roll!)! Happy Mardi Gras!

Another Chair ReUpholster!

Ever since I saw this post on Apartment Therapy about slipcovering a reading chair I immediatly thought of my old stripey chair my parents gave me. I love the chair, its so comfy and the scale is good; not to oversized and bulky. But the fabric isn't cutting it anymore.

If you remember one of my goals for this year was to learn to upholster specifically so I could do something about this chair. I haven't taken an upholstery class but slipcovering seems like a good option.
I've been searching for the perfect fabric to reupholster the old stripey chair with. But since I needed 7-8  yds I was limiting myself to $10-12 yd. I may as well buy a new chair if it cost any more. I didn't want to just buy any old fabric, put in all the work, and then not love the final result.


So I started with JoAnn fabrics, sometimes they have 40% coupons online, but there is the JoAnn elusive 50% off coupon I was waiting for.


I thought I liked this one because of the large pattern. I thought also that it would bring some color into my living room but wasn't totally in love with it. I almost purchased it only because I was getting tired of searching and the 40% off coupon I had was expiring.



But then I saw this by Robert Allen and fell in love. The large pattern is perfect, the color is great, but Dwell Fabric is pretty expensive.



It comes in lots of great colors. But Fabric.com had it for $16 yd. To much!

After doing some more searching I saw that Emily at A Well Dressed Home got it for $12 a yard! What a steal. She said she got it at a store in Dallas and I briefly thought making the 4hr drive was worth it. But common sense got a hold of me.

JoAnn carries Dwell Studio fabric but not this pattern. Bummer, my coupon would be no good! I called around to some fabric suppliers here in town and their prices were way more than anything I had seen online.

So back to the internet I went. And what did I finally find? The fabric for $13 yd. SOLD! I thought it was worth it for a fabric that I loved. Now I'm just waiting for it to come in the mail.



This will be a pretty ambitious sewing project for me and I'll probably do it in several steps. Wish me luck!

What's the most ambitious project you've taken on?

It's Here! It's Here! (Again)

Woo hoo! The Royal Studio Design stencil I won from Made By Girl just came in! I'm pumped! I feel like it's Christmas all over again with these packages showing up on our doorstep.

Not only did it come with the stencil, they sent a paint brush, smaller flower stencil, and a how to book.

Now what to stencil? I'm not sure when I'll get to this unexpected project but in the meantime I've been searching inspiration images and can't decide what room in our house needs this fabulous stencil.


Bedrooms are always fun. Ours could use some pizzaz. (All images from Apartment Therapy)

Or adding some pops of color to a bathroom:

Go completely off the wall (literally) and stencil the ceiling? (Image from Not Just a Housewife) 

And of course since I haven't stenciled anything on this large of scale before I'll probably be doing some research. For starters this Stencil Tutorial is pretty helpful.

So many ideas I can't decide! I've got a lot of thinking to do.


Have you ever done a large scale stencil? Any tips or tricks?