The New Slipcover For the Old Ugly Sofa- Part 1

This is the "AFTER".

 (Yes, I know, I just made you read the ending
of the book before the beginning. But I just wanted to give you
hope that I really did finish this project!)

This was the "BEFORE".

Nice, huh?

What?
You think it is ugly????

Yeah, so did I!

But I bought it because my beloved 

yellow floral Laura Ashley sofa finally bit the dust

last year.  

I cried. 

So, we went to a lot of thrift stores,

where I measured a lot of sofas,

looking for the "footprint" or size and shape

that would work for my plans.

I wanted something that was built of solid wood,
had good springs, decent cushions,
and didn't "creak" when we sat on it.

$50.00 cash and we hauled it away!
We actually lived with the sofa like this
for almost a year while I did a lot of
other sewing.
And a lot of life happened,
 and the ugly sofa was not a priority.
And then we packed the house
and moved to our new home, where we live now.

But this sofa looked even nastier after the move,
in our current house.

Just....yuck.

So last month, I decided it was time.
I decided that a fitted slipcover
would look neater than a simple drape slipcover.
That meant I would need to make piping,
put in zippers, and cover each cushion separately.

So, grab some coffee and get comfy.
This is a long post with lots of pictures!

I measured every part of the sofa.
I added 1-2" for each side for seam allowances.

I graphed out every section as a rectangle and
then figured out how much fabric I would need
for each piece.

Thankfully, I had purchased about 20 yards
of rose cotton damask from Laura Ashley
when they were closing down all the U.S retail stores.

I also figured I would need  cording for about 26-30 yards of piping,
5 zippers
and some batting to wrap the cushions,
in addition to upholstery thread,
lots of pins, heavy duty machine needles,
cutting boards, rulers, scissors and pens.

I started the whole thing by making yards and yards
of self piping. This fabric had a very slightly
asymmetrical diamond pattern.
I didn't realize it was off, until I started making the bias.

I figured that for the 1/4" cording I was using,
I would need my bias strips to be 1-3/4" wide.

The bias is the diagonal line of the fabric.
That is important because piping needs to be smooth going
around curved areas.
It will pucker if you make the piping out of the straight grain,
either across the width of the fabric, or down the length.

After drawing my rows 1 3/4" apart,
I cut the strips apart.
I sewed the strips together and pressed the seams open.

Then I sewed the cording into the bias using the
zipper foot on my sewing machine.

(This is the Bernina 707 I rescued from
it's lonely life in my MIL's garage. Let's say
I liberated it. )

I don't love making piping but I love the look.

Then I started to cut rectangles of the fabric.

I laid the fabric wrong side out, 

so that I could pin the seams on the outside.

I pinned each step as I went.

A very wise friend told me to start with 

the arms. She said if I could get the arms to fit,

then the rest would be easy. 

So, I took her advice.

Pinning the arms made me nervous,

because of the curves.

I cut each piece as a rectangle,

then pinned and trimmed away the extra,

allowing about a 1/2" for seams.

The front of the arm was slightly smaller than the side, 

so I had to pin tiny tucks to make it fit.

Then I pinned the side panels to the arm and front.

Sorry this is blurry. 

After I cut the extra off the arm front panel,

I unpinned it and then pinned the piping

along the outer edges.

I left the ends long enough so I could join the front and 

side panels to the arm front panel. 

I clipped around the curve so the seams would not pucker. 

Then I stitched it on to the front arm panel,

using my zipper foot again. 

The zipper foot is helpful because.

I can get the stitches right up to the 

cording part of the piping. 

I pinned the side panel to the side of the top arm panel, 

with the piping in the seam. 

Then I sewed this seam.

I pinned the tucks in place and then stitched them down.

Then I repinned the front arm panel to the side panel/ 

top arm, panel.

Then I took the whole arm piece off and sewed it all together.

This is an awful photo,

but it shows how the arm joins

to the seat deck of the sofa.

As I sewed each piece of piping to it's panel,

I would pull out about an inch of the

cording and cut it off.

This is important because that cording makes

the joining at seams really bulky.

Well looky there! 

A fitted arm!

I did the same thing to each side and it fit perfectly.

I think this is a good stopping place for Part 1.

My computer is misbehaving, 

so I will just 

 post this part and then post part 2 in a day or so.

Update: Part 2 is up now and you can read it
HERE

and you can read Part 3 HERE

Happy Sewing!

Sivje

My First Sew Beautiful Story- A Giveaway!

Look! Do you see my name?

That is my name right next to 

 Janet Gilbert's name!

 Yes, much screaming and jumping up and down

was done by me when I saw it!

You see Sew Beautiful

is my very favorite magazine.

I have learned so very much of sewing,

smocking, 

embroidery,

construction,

design,

and inspiration 

from this magazine

and it's writers.

Janet Gilbert is my favorite!

(Yes, she knows that I was a stalker fan before

we finally "met" and now we are friends!)

And look!

Our story is even a "cover story"!

So Janet and I worked on this article together.

It features 3 of my skirts

and 3 of Janet's skirts.

One of the skirts is my 

Monkey Girl Bloomer Skirt pattern.

You can buy the pattern here from my blog,

or "You Can Make This.com"

Or from my Etsy store

Sivjegoose

Or from Fairytale Frocks And Lollipops

The corduroy A-line skirt with zipper trim

is featured in the article as a free pattern!

My photos are awful but the photos in the magazine are 

much better!

And the free tutorial for my "Math Skirt"

pattern are featured on the 

Sew Beautiful Blog!

There are many, many more

wonderful articles,

ideas and patterns in the Back To School issue

of Sew Beautiful!

So to share my joy and excitement,

I am giving away a copy 

of this issue of Sew Beautiful Magazine!

If you would like to be included in this giveaway,

please leave me a comment 

with your email address.

Thank you for sharing my joy!!!!!

Happy Sewing!!!

Sivje

Chinese Girls Faux Wrap Top and Capris

Yippee!!!!

Today was Ahnalin's last day of 2nd grade!!!

And I hadn't made her anything new to wear since.......

.........last week!

(Never mind that I wear capri jeans pretty much

every day. Sewing for her is my fun!)

I decided to make my little one a spring outfit

out of this "Memoirs From China" print by Robert Kaufman.

It was sent to me last year by another sewing friend, 

Hettie Lynn, because it reminded her of Ahnalin. 

I had been saving it for just the right occasion.

 I bought Simplicity 2677 a few years ago,

but had still not tried it.

For this top, I chose view D.

I cut the top in a size 5 with a size 8 in length.

Do you recognize the contrast fabric?

It is the same Michael Miller print

I used for Ahnalin's and Cherish's Christmas dresses.

I just had a few little scraps left, 

so it worked perfectly!

And, well, yeah. 

Rick Rack

Of course. 

The top is actually a faux wrap,

with a zipper and hook and eye in the back.

I really liked this little top.

I will probably use this pattern again.

Ahnalin refuses to wear jeans. 

She doesn't like how they fit and 

how stiff they are.

But I learned a while ago that she WILL wear

things that I make for her out of old, soft, worn jeans.

So I cut apart a pair of old black jeans. 

Reduce! Recycle! Reuse!

There is enough left over to make another jeans

mini skirt for her too!

For the capris,

I used Simplicity 2711.

I added the trim on the bottom, 

right at the hem line.

I chose this pattern, because

it is a little slimmer than most pants patterns.

I cut a size 4 in width and a size 8 in length.

I have also made the dress in this pattern before and

highly recommend it.

 

Ahnalin wanted me to take a picture of her climbing up the fence.

But you can also see the cute sandals I found to match!

Ahnalin is also very proud of the strawberries growing in our garden.

Classic!

So my girl wore this on her last day of 2nd grade.

Oh! And last night she reminded me that 

she wanted to give her teacher something special.

Her teacher's favorite colors are green and purple

and it had to say
"We Love Mrs. Dyer".

So, I made her a little prayer pillow.

When I am sewing for others, 

I pray for them.

My mom used to make prayer pillows

for gifts and it made such an impression on me

growing up, that I now do the same thing.

Ahnalin LOVED being in Mrs. Dyer's class this year.

She was excited that Mrs. Dyer gave her 

extra math books to work on FOR FUN this summer!!!

Ahnalin wrote this in class this year,

about her favorite thing!

I am a Mathematician 

by Ahnalin
My favorite kind of math is fractions and multiplication. 

I like to have a math paper in front of me.

 For a whole week we did star testing and it was so much fun.

 Math is the bomb!

So summer vacation has officially begun for Ahnalin!

She has big plans for sewing this summer!

Happy sewing!

Simple Corduroy Skirt For My Girl

So my girl was on another design kick the other day.

She pulled this remnant of black,

white and pink corduroy out of the stash

and requested a pleated skirt

to go with her new hat.

And it had to "Swish" too.

I found an unopened roll of this black

and white ribbon and used every inch of 

it to trim the yoke and hem.

And do you remember this dress from THIS post?

Well, Ahnalin wanted the same effect
on a long sleeved shirt
that just happened to have a stain in front.


The ribbon hides it perfectly!

And the shoes, 

well, I love them!

This picture makes me laugh!

Between the hot pink sweater and hat,

and the standing-on-one-leg,

I think she looks like a flamingo!

And then I started to play with the Black and White

feature on the camera.

And I love this one too!

Can you tell I really want to learn

to take pictures? 

She wanted to swing on Daddy's arm

and is still just short enough to do it.

And then she put her boots back on to

ride her scooter home.

But she reminded me that we had not taken

the "Classic Ahnalin" pose,

so she remedied that!

As to the skirt,

well, I did not use a pattern.

It was just a less-than-a-yard

remnant and math.

If there is interest, 

I may write up a quick tutorial 

for this super quick skirt.

But my projects for today

include smocking for a favorite client

and finishing the slipcover for my sewing chair.

I find that with the tendonitis in my hands,

that I have to take breaks from smocking

and do other types of motions for a bit.

And then I can go back to smocking.

I will have pics of the chair hopefully tomorrow!

Thank you all for your prayers for my hands

and for my India. 

She will be having surgery in January on her foot,

so she is off dancing for a while. 

Off I go to sew and smock!

Happy Sunday and Happy Sewing!