Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Very first slipcover!


Hello everyone! It's been another long while since my last post. But I've been keeping busy. Since I last posted, I've had my in-laws for a visit, had another skype session with my friend Michelle. She's been helping me learn how to turn a beautiful and easy heel for socks. Poor thing, I've been a real pest and still have nothing to show for it. Ah well, all in good time, eh Michelle? ;-)

Something I've been working on and finally finished is.........

Ta-daaaaaa!

My slip covered ottoman. Yay me! I cannot believe I actually did this. I've been reading other blogs where they slip cover furniture and they make the most beautiful coverings. And every time I'd read/see those slipcovers I think..."Why don't I try to make one myself"? But then I talk myself out of it. I REALLY didn't want to spend a bunch of money of fabric and then not finish the slipcover or worse yet, cut up all the lovely fabric and have it all go to waste! Fabric don't come cheap ya know. But then, I saw slipcovers that were made with painters drop cloth. They are really inexpensive. And then... I found an ottoman that only cost me $2.00! So I thought, now I need to try to do it. So I went out and bought some painters drop cloth for $5.00 and proceeded to "think" about how to go about doing this. I bought a couple of books on Slip covering furniture. But for the most part, they didn't really help me all that much. About the only thing I did get from it was on making the pleats. Which I finally did a couple weeks ago. But then I got stuck once again. I wasn't sure about the cording. If I should put cording on my slip cover or not. There was already cording around the top of the ottoman and I thought it would be too square-ish if I put cording on top of cording. In the end, my mother-in-law actually suggested I just rip off the cording on the ottoman and re-use it to put on my slip cover. And that is just what I did. The ottoman itself is not the best looking thing. It will always need to have a cover over it cuz it's actually rather gross and ugly looking. (I did clean it but it didn't help it much to look at). And I'll probably reapholster it at some later date because it does sink down in the middle. It needs to have new cushions and some kind of stablilizing board or something. But, for now, it is stylishly usable. Can you tell I'm sort of patting myself on the back? I am just so stinkin' proud of myself for having actually done this. And it doesn't look half bad! I would show you more pictures but for some reason I'm having an issue with blogger not wanting to upload my pictures. If I can get them on later, I'll do it. That's how proud I am of how it turned out!

So, yesterday I finally got my new book "Simple Socks, Plain and Fancy". This is the book that Michelle suggested that I get. She makes toes and heels with these directions. I've watched her do it and it looks super simple. Although, having read directions... it suddenly doesn't sound as easy as Michelle made it look. But I'm going to give it a try here in a few minutes. Now that I've finished the slipcover, I want to finish at least one pair of socks!

Okay, not sure what the deal is. I'm just not being able to get more pictures up so I'll just let it go for now. I'll try to put up more pictures later. Now, I want to get some knitting done. So...

Hope everyone is enjoying their day and I'll catch ya'll later! ;-)

7 comments:

pam said...

Wow! I love that. I have a couple that sure could use a nice new cover like that. The problem is when trying to decide between sewing for a piece of furniture or myself, I always win.

Joan's Good Life said...

Ahhhh, but Pam. You KNOW how to sew with a pattern. Me, not so much. This was all without a pattern. I only WISH I could sew clothing! ;-)

chellebelle said...

OHHH I love it.. I think that I would like to see my jeans material with the pleat now.. Nice job! Glad you got your book! what about the needles? call anytime for help.. I'm glad to talk to a grown up!

Jessica said...

I love it! I keep wanting to slipcover our ottoman and I have a bunch of inspiration pictures with pleating- I just can't decide on a fabric!

Norma's Nonsense said...

That looks great Joan! Love the painter's drop cloth idea!

Corinnea said...

This is fantastic and clever you, using a drop cloth!! It all looks very sharp and clean. I'm impressed! Come help me finish a chair I started three years ago!!

Joan's Good Life said...

Thank you everyone! I am pretty stink in' happy with hoe it turned out!!
Chelle- I ended up ordering the wrong needles but, I'm keeping them. The nickel ones will work just as well as the wooden ones.
Corinne- My next project is to recover my $ 10.00 wing back chair with more drop cloth! YOU wanna come help?
Thanks for all the slipcover love everyone!!!