I Made A Thing!

Actually, I made a bunch of things.  I made my bedroom clean. (And re-arranged the furniture).  And then I made my sewing room clean. (And rearranged the shelving).   Pics of all that soon.

For now, though:  my sewing chair reeeeally needed an update.  I re-covered the back of it when I brought it home from the as-is bin at Ikea, waaaaay back in October of 2011.  The back fabric was still okay (aside from a couple of holes), but the seat had never been recovered, and it had definitely seen better days. It was covered with paint and loose threads, and the fabric had been worn shiny in a couple of large, butt-cheek-shaped spots.

Before: 

Oh, also?  It was...beige.  So office-y. 

After: 

Is that not some crazy grandma-riffic fabric?  Hee.  I've had this (printed, drapery-weight, cotton) fabric sitting in a bin for a couple of years, and though it's pretty horrible, I couldn't bring myself to get rid of it.  It's BLUE!  Like 90% of my stuff is blue.  And it's fun-horrible, tee-hee.

Both the seat cover and the back are just slip-

covers closed with a drawstring underneath.
Ikea's seat cover was permanently affixed to the
under-side of the seat.  I left the beige cover on
the back, because it was the only thing covering

the bare foam. 

The back also has a discreet zipper on one side

edge. When I made the original beige cover, I had

to slip-stitch the open side closed by hand (because the top of the back is wider than the 

bottom). This time I just happened to have a zipper

that kinda coordinated. :) 

The whole slipcover project only took me about an hour.

That was after an hour of ripping four years' worth of sewing detritus from inside the wheels.  It rolls again! Yay! Ew.

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The Slowest Couch Update EVER

So, sometime around April or May of 2013, I nabbed a sofa off the side of the road, and, looking back over this blog, I realize I never actually TOLD you about it. Oops.  The short version:  it was free, one arm was moldy and gross and I spent about three weeks cleaning, bleaching, and fixing up the fabric on that arm, and it came out great. Stained, but still great.  The couch looks to be an old Ikea piece - I can't find anything like it in the catalogs for the past five years, so it's at least older than that.  It came with two seat cushions, and no back cushions - no cover, either, just the basic under fabric that Ikea furniture comes with.

Fast forward to...yesterday.  Tired of both sitting on the floppy, thin cushions this sofa came with, and of that damned Day Sofa from World Market (I never like anything I do with it, and every time I decide to fix it up I get bored with it before I'm even finished, anymore. It's in the garage now), I took the loooong seat cushion that I made for it in 2012 apart, and used them to build and bulk up the white sofa's seat cushions.

Creating a long cushion for the convertible Day Sofa. 

All four of these pieces were made by slicing a pair of very thick salvaged seat cushions in half horizontally.

For the white sofa, I sliced the two larger seat pieces in half horizontally again, angling them to make a wide wedge, to build up the white sofa's cushions all over, but with the thickest part at the back to help reduce the steeply pitched angle of the sofa seat (I couldn't get up!)

Trying out pieces and shaping. 

A pic of the dry-run, with the wedges, a bit of rolled-up batting at the front edge to soften the transition between pieces, and a thin layer of batting (later doubled) wrapped around the whole thing to smooth out the seams between pieces.

After I was sure of the result, I used spray-adhesive to stick all the parts together and smoothed out all the edges.

Then I used an old cotton sheet to make a cover for each cushion, to hold it all in place.

Yes, I fixed the wrinkliness of the one on the right. It was just on weird. 

Now THAT'S what I call seat cushions.  They're about 2" thicker than the old cushions, smooth, soft, and squishy.  They look a bit slapdash in the pic, here, but keep in mind, this whole sofa is meant to be used with a slipcover, and the seat cushions are the same way.  This thing is so comfy with the deeper, softer cushions, that when I lay on it to chill later in the evening, I fell asleep right away and woke up covered with cats.

The next step will be to create back cushions out of the remaining two pieces from the Day Sofa in the top picture. After I'm satisfied with those, I'll be on the hunt for some fabric to cover this entire piece of furniture.  I can't wait!  This thing has needed a lot of work, but I adore the shape of it, and I'm really excited about getting it covered.  :)


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Day Sofa Cover Achievement: Unlocked

Before

Um...no. 

To' up, salvaged,  foam couch cushions "cleverly" concealed  by an old white matelassé blanket.  Not that I don't love the blanket - I adore it, actually.  I've had it since high school, but it's long since become too stiff to sleep under at night.




During

First step:  corral all those foam cushions into one long mattress for the sofa with a fitted cover made from an old sheet.:

apologies for the weird angle. 

After

Blanket turned cover!

apologies for the night picture.  :/ 

Yes, it's all floppy.  I wanted it that way.  All I did was fold the blanket in half lengthwise, pin around one edge and one end, sew it, and then slip it on like a pillowcase and fold the open end inside.  (1) I wanted the scalloped edge of the blanket to show, because that's one of my favorite things about it, and (2) when I get done dressing this thing up with pillows, put the back on, and rearrange the furniture the way I'm thinking of doing, it'll end up looking like a piled-up little daybed in the corner here.  :) 

Next:  a lamp! 

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Um...Never Mind.

Well, I THOUGHT I was going to have an update on the living room furniture today for you, but I sort of just FAIL.

About a week ago I made a cover for the cushions on my little folding day sofa, to turn them from a bunch of cut-up couch cushions into an actual mattress for the frame.  No problem.

Last night I got a spare hour, and made a really pretty little pillowcase-like slipcover for it.  Casual, cute, soft, neutral, and easily removed to be washed and de-cat-haired when necessary.  And I measured it.  I did. Several times.  I accounted for seam allowances and finishing and everything.

And it was still way too small.  I have no idea what happened.  Sigh.


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Over the next few days, I'm hoping I can show you a fixed version of that and thereby a finished day sofa.  I'm also working on that brown couch again,  and I have a NEW sofa to tell you about soon, too.

Soon.  Good night, I have SO much crap to do right now.

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