~ Slip Sliding Away ~

Continuing with the saga of my last post ... here is the evidence that I did not listen to myself when I vowed never again to personally slipcover my furniture.

The sofa and love seat seen here were upholstered in a lovely floral tapestry ... in 1991.  Some time around 2005-2006, I grew weary of the lovely floral tapestry and I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I wanted white slipcovers. (Hence, my link to White Wednesday!) I looked into having them sewn for me but the man with the pins in his mouth had retired and everyone else was was too expensive.

Then one night while we were talking with some friends in our living room, I zoned out of that conversation and started having my own.  In my head ... I think.  It went something like this: "YOU could make the slipcovers, you know you can.  You just have to be patient like before.  Only much, much more patient, but that's beside the point. If you can get the fabric at a decent price, you HAVE to do it.  C'mon, everybody's doing it.  You'll be really cool if you do."  I'm not certain I even said good-bye to our friends as they left. I was in the zone.

 As luck would have it when I went to Home Fabrics the next day they had the very white denim I was looking for, it was on sale for, like, $3 a yard and there was just enough.  The zippers for five ten cushions almost cost as much as the fabric.  Clearly it was meant to be. My biggest worry was finding enough piping in the right size.  Let me just say that without my #12 foot on my Bernina sewing machine, I could have never tackled that much covered piping. That there's a lot of piping.

I did use my same system of only working in the mornings (I am a morning person, let's face it) and never working once I was feeling frustrated.  It took me almost a full month to complete them both. My living room looked like a construction zone the entire time.

I had a huge dilemma in the end as to whether or not to do a pleated flounce or a ruffled one.  I went with the ruffles and never looked back.  Also ... if you noticed that I go for that "dressmaker detail" of using buttons for the opening as opposed to zippers, there is very good reason for that.  I'm afraid of zippers.  (And I have a wonderful buttonhole attachment for my Bernina.)

Since then, I have stuck to slipcovering pillows.

But, I never say never anymore.