Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Making a Slipcover for Grandma’s Sofa

Several weeks ago I took on a quick project of updating my grandmother’s sofa so that it could be used in my son’s apartment.

jess apt 1

Sorry for the grainy picture, but after hauling all of his belongings up to the third floor my energy was spent and I didn’t want to look for my good camera! I know that it takes away from the “big reveal” to show the “after” pictures first, but my “before” pictures are often so unappealing that I’m afraid no one will read the post if I don’t give you a taste of the reveal first. Let’s take a look at the sofa before the slipcover.

floral sofa before 2

Some time ago I upholstered this sofa in this beautiful fabric and my mother had it in her living room for a number of years. In the last couple of years my mom decided to eliminate one of her two sofas so she gave this one back to me since I had invested the work in it. It is still in excellent condition. Not having a use for it, I was going to get rid of it, one way or another. When my son saw it sitting in the garage, he asked what I was doing with it. When I told him, he protested saying that he likes that sofa and that I should not get rid of it! A few months ago, when he got a permanent job and started looking for an apartment, he asked me to do something “non-permanent” to the sofa. He said that he likes it just like it is but that it doesn’t look very masculine so I needed to do something. I lucked up by finding a bolt of 10 yards of navy fabric at my local Walmart for a whopping $2 per yard!!! I had them measure to make sure that it was indeed 10 yards. It was just a little short so I took it and got to work. It took every bit of fabric!

jess sofa 3

Whenever I am making a slipcover, I lay out the cut pieces of fabric and do lots of pinning before I sew then make adjustments as needed.

jess sofa 1

Because the navy was so plain, I added a band of natural linen around the bottom and made a couple of throw pillows of the same linen fabric. He and I are both pleased with the outcome.

Next post, I will show you what we did for his headboard.

a signature

I’ll be linking to Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style and to Homeworks at Worthing Court. Click over to see lots of inspiration.

3 comments:

Vel Criste said...

I actually love the first fabric more Lydia, but have to agree the new stream-lined look suits your son better! great job on both!!!!

Olive said...

Hi Pat, the sofa has great bones. The navy fabric is better for your son but I do like that floral. You are very talented to recover a sofa. I see you are in the same state as our booths if you come by do eat at Juniper as the food is fabulous. Ridge Spring is small but fun. Thanks for visiting me. xo, olive

Unknown said...

I would give anything to be able to do that - beautiful job Lydia!!!
Can't wait to see the headboard!
XOXO