I am so proud of my latest project that I will not sully the experience by babbling about it…
Oh OK then, I will. Cannot resist a little showing off, hehe… 😀
Remember this? Going back yonks ago I wrote about re-covering our lounge suite (way back here!), and mentioned that it needed doing again soon; well, I have finally got my act into gear and got it done. Took me from 8am Sunday morning and finished around 10.30pm Sunday evening, but it was done, and I am pretty jolly proud I kept it confined into a one-day project too… yippeee!
We bought this lounge suite twenty years ago, and I’ve recovered it approximately every five years. I’ve found the old covers are really on their last legs by this time… yup, we have three teenagers, three cats and a dog, so I guess we are pretty tough on our furniture! This is the fourth time I have re-covered this lounge suite and I think the outcome gets better and better each time. Nice to know practise really does make perfect, yes?!
This time I am nearly completely satisfied.
I took a few photos during to illustrate the process, but really it’s not a difficult thing to do, just, well, tiring. Tiring just because of the unwieldiness and bulkiness of it all… Struggling around with large swathes of upholstery weight fabric and draping and pinning, removing to carry over to the sewing machine, sewing, over to the overlocker, overlocking, carrying back to the lounge, re-fitting etc, is just a fairly draining exercise, full stop.
We chose this heavy hessian-like fabric which has a ecru warp, and a variegated weft of grey and sage green threads through it, resulting in a refreshingly light and bright sage-green/grey hue.
To make my covers, I’ve kept one each of the important pieces from my first re-cover of this suite to use as a template for each new cover and this helps massively each time…
I cut out the bigger pieces first and lay them in position, wrong sides out. Pin together, smoothing out any bubbles and aligning the grain to be as straight as possible, overlocking all the raw edges and sewing along the pinned lines.
I incorporated a fold, where the back of the seat meets the backrest, for some ease and to lessen strain on the back and seat areas of the cover when you are sitting on the couch. Yes, lounge suites need ease too!
Each cover and cushion cover was pinned and fitted together and basically finished inside out, and only turned right side out when it was ready for final fitting in place. Craig took off the old covers, and fixed a broken strap in the innards of one of the couches, which we only discovered was broken when we took the covers off! He also stapled the edges of the finished and fitted-into-place covers underneath to the wooden frame of the couch, and re-screwed the little wooden “feet” back into place over. Most importantly, he made dinner so I could continue working on the seat cushions undisturbed…. 🙂
Each of the four seat cushions has a zip on the back edge, so these can removed for individual laundering, if necessary.
I just love it. We all do. It’s not a new suite, but it feels like we have one now. Everybody is trying to be eco-conscious and green in all our choices, which means re-using and re-cycling as much as we can; but there is no denying the truth that something new, and especially something big like your lounge suite, is a very uplifting thing to have in your life. Agreed? So our lounge suite is not new, but it sure feels brand new all over again, and I feel good about achieving that newness buzz without having to go down the path of actually buying new furniture. And it gives the whole room a lift and makes everything feel so fresh and clean again…
And hopefully will last for at least another five years!!
(What will I do with the remains of the old covers?? Well to start with probably two new dog bed covers. We only have one dog, but she has two beds… go figure. Spoilt, or what?!)
