My First Slipcover

Hello Again from The French Hen's Nest

I did it Miss Mustard Seed!

Seven years ago when I was single and money was quite tight, my sweet sister Jeannie (the other French Hen) bought me a good

Voilà!

quality sofa from goodwill that only needed a cover and got it for $20!  I had just moved into an apartment and was grateful to have the sofa.  Although it was a very well made sofa and the lines were classic, the upholstery fabric wasn't very pretty.  



Old upholstery with skirt cut off.

 

Anyway I put a cover on it and have enjoyed it since.  When I got married and moved into our home I really wanted to replace that sofa.  The problem was (and is) that a well made sofa is very expensive and my old sofa is sooo comfortable and sturdy we hate to part with it.  I looked into having it reupholstered- $400 for fabric and $700 for labor!  I am not going to spend $1100 on a sofa my sister got for $20!

So I decided I would make a slipcover for it.  After once again looking at fabric I kept thinking about messing up $400 fabric. So we bought another slipcover for it from WM and lived with that for 3 years. 

I added cushion covers and pillows

Enter Miss Mustard Seed, http://missmustardseed.com/  .  If you haven’t discovered her blog- where have you been?!  She has a tutorial for making slipcovers from painters’ canvas dropcloths!  Perfect for a beginner.

So after watching the tutorial about 4 times (visual learner) and thinking about each step, I purchased 2 -9' x 12' dropcloths from Lowes for $19.00 each.  I couldn’t find the brand she recommended but the ones they had were a nice beige color so I bought those and didn’t have to bleach them.  I just washed them in hot water twice to shrink them and soften them up.

 I began as she said by making about two miles ( maybe an exageration) of welting. That part was time consuming, but easy.  Following her instructions it took me about 5 days to finish the slipcover, working about 3 hours each evening.after work.  The hardest part for me was the corners on the cushions and I had to re-do a couple.



1 cushion down and 2 to go!



I had previously made red down filled pillows for the back of the sofa and some decorative pillows with some toile my sister Jeannie sent to me.  Since my husband is quite tall and our sofa is quite low I used bed risers to make it higher for him.  They are completely covered by the skirt and the sofa sits nice and sturdy. 




Voilà!

 

Now my ugly duckling is a beautiful swan!  Thank you Miss Mustard Seed for the encouragement!

Be brave and try it.  Let me know if I can help and check out the tutorial.

Be blessed.
Linda

Partying with Time Travel Thursday @ Brambleberry Cottage

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