Nasty Sofa? Slipcover It!

Take a look...

This was the before...

White slipcovers brightened the entire room!  I know I know, I have a one year old and a three year old and white slips might not seem like the sanest solution to dressing up my furniture.  But they are!  I have washed the covers numerous times now and they are holding up beautifully.

Some of the stains that have washed out of the slipcovers:

• marker
• crayon
• oatmeal
• juice
• mystery brown goo
• blood

Here is the blood.  I stuck myself with a pin when I was sewing the slipcovers.  And the stain came out!  Oxy Clean is amazing stuff, especially on blood.

I am not going to pretend like this project was easy.  It was totally doable, but very labor and time intensive.  The payoff was HUGE, so all the blood, sweat and tears were worth it.

Before I go any further, I have to say that I never ever ever could have even attempted this without an awesome ebook:

The Lazy Girls Guide to Custom Slipcovers

And here is her blog:

Pink and Polka Dot

This ebook was made for me.  Kristi wrote it in a way that gave me confidence but didn't lose me in all the details or rules.  She totally encouraged me and somehow made me believe that I could do this.  I think her passion is seeing the world slipcovered... she is so sweet and helpful and loves posting pics of the final products on her blog.  If you are going to attempt this, you will be spending some $$ on the fabric.  Do yourself a favor and make a small investment in the ebook!

I also slipped a chair.  Here it is in progress:

Here it is finished:

I actually started with the chair (to give me the confidence I needed to tackle that crazy sectional).  Kristi instructs in her ebook to pin the fabric inside-out when making your slipcover.  Only problem with the sectional?  It isn't symmetrical, so that won't work.  I hemmed and hawwed and sighed and complained when trying to figure out how to get a clean look on the arms of the sectional.  And then it hit me:  Pin the arm of the sectional slipcover on the chair!  The chair and sectional are from the same line of furniture, so it worked out beautifully.

 So this arm on the sectional

was shaped by pinning inside-out to this arm on the chair

And it worked!  You need to understand that I have very limited sewing skills.  I love problem solving and muddling my way through new experiences, so I would say a small amount of knowledge + the ebook + the right attitude can get you some new slipcovers too.  And I love the word custom.  They are just for me and my furniture; not from some kit I bought at Target (although I do have one of those slipcovers on a chair upstairs).

Here is one more look, because I'm so dang proud

Thanks for visiting!  I love comments so let me know what you think and if you're going to try this at home!

Blessings,

Jamie
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