summer of sewing

I purchased a couch when I was in college for $35 at the Salvation Army. It was comfortable and cheap, which was pretty much all I was looking for as a student. It happened to be yellow and lime green velvet from the 1950's, but that didn't really concern me at the time. Somehow my college treasure has managed to stay with me through 8 moves and 12 years. I have covered it with slip-covers, blankets, sheets, and even made an amateur slip-cover myself once in an effort to make it blend in better with its surroundings (all of which were more annoying than good). I think the reason it never left my possession is because it really is very comfortable and well-made, and well, I still don't have any money! I decided to make it my summer project to reupholster it myself. I ordered the fabric from one of the companies we work with- it's 100% recycled polyester (why how green of me! not to mention that I saved the whole darn thing from ending up in a landfill!) It took me over 60 hours to complete the reupholstery, one third of which I spent diagramming and engineering just how I was going to do it. And believe me, I now understand why you have to pay so much to have someone do it for you. It's a lot of work and patience. In the end it was totally worth it, and I am loving my new couch!

Before:

After!
Hercules was always willing to help along the way... I think here he's helping me measure out the bolt of fabric... yep, 8 yards!
I started with the seat and back cushions. Here are the pieces before they got sewn together. The welting (or piping as some say) was tricky. First I made the welt out of a rope from Home Depot and sewing fabric around it. The tricky part was sewing it around the edges of the pillow in a straight line. It was a multi-step process.




I decided to just keep the yellow velvet on the couch. It wouldn't do any harm staying there, and in fact it might help keep everything together! I added a layer of batting to make it a little softer.
I decided to approach the frame from the inside ---> out

Don't be afraid of a staple gun if you're going to try this yourself!









Of course, I could not put my old, lumpy pillows on my brand new, custom love seat! What do do... make new ones! I ordered the inserts on line, and sewed away!



I made coordinating ones for our futon (just ignore the green for now, some day I may recover that as well, or we may get a new couch!)



All very satisfying, and the best part is now we get to enjoy a newly decorated space!

Being an interior designer, people always assume that my home is beautiful, the truth is that I don't have the money to spend on my own home, which I think is partly why I enjoy making other people's spaces beautiful. But now I don't have to be so shy about my place ;)