Saturday 18 February 2012

Armchair slipcover

OK I've managed to peg out washing today and these little fellas are starting to show their faces.......





 


 .......so I'm feeling very Spring like, helped along with a generous dollop of sunshine onThursday morning and the fact that I actually went out without my coat yesterday!

Hello, my dear followers. Life has been busy, as it is for us all, but I'm still enjoying the wonderful world of Key Stage One, even though one of my pupils did ask me the other day "Mrs Lovis, why have you put your dressing gown on?" as I donned what I thought was my best cardigan in an effort to provide an extra layer of warmth in my classroom. Out of the mouths of babes....... :)

Lots happened since my last post. Obviously been busy with the job (Mr Ofsted is breathing down our necks -Oh Joy) Had a birthday. Yay! Attended a speed awareness course (naughty!), became a Great Aunt, been horribly ill, but not done much sewing until this half term, when I've been desperately trying to finish off a couple of long overdue projects so that I can put my design head back on again.

But first let me share with you what is probably the most perfect birthday present ever.
Just look at this gorgeous hand made card and matching gift tag.......!






Lets have a closer look.







and look what it was announcing.......







Big squeal! A sewing stamp set, which I haven't stopped stroking yet......


.....and then even bigger joy....just look at all of this......fabric!!!!








Regular readers of my blog will know Vicky, a fellow blogger and also my buddy. She had cleverly thought I could make use of the leftover bits of fabric she had. I was touched by the thoughtfulness of this present and wondered how exquisite her fabric choices have been. Such a great idea for a fabric freak like me. Thank you Vicky.

The birth of my niece's beautiful baby daughter has made me come over all babylike and I've been scouring shops for wool and have a few little fabric ideas which I hope to bring to reality in the not too distant future (who am I kidding!)

Let me show you the slip cover I made. If you're a follower you'll know that one of the things I made before Christmas was a roman blind and window seat cushion for a lovely lady who wanted to give her teenage daughter's bedroom a bit of a makeover. Don't have any pics I'm afraid as it was all very Hush Hush and I haven't had a chance to go round and take a few snaps since Christmas.

But what she also asked me for was a slipcover for a winged armchair.  As far as I'm concerned slipcovers are definitely not for the faint hearted. But a casual slip cover was what was required and before I could stop the words tumbling out of my mouth I heard myself saying "OK then,I'll give it a go." 

With great trepidation I started this project feeling a little (LOT!!) out of my comfort zone
and then I remembered the marvellous Miss Mustard Seed or as I like to call her now, 'my new best friend.' You simply must visit her amazing blog. Here is the link to the video tutorials I used for my chair. They were my saviour. Of all the incredibly useful things she said the thing that stuck most in my mind was 'Just think of it as making a dress for your chair'.  'Yes', I thought, 'I get that', and so with pins in my mouth and fabric rectangles at the ready, I started to make 'the dress' for the chair.

This is the result. I'm not expecting a round of rapturous applause but it has certainly whetted my appetite to do more slipcovers although I wouldn't recommend starting with a winged arncahir.








Joining the arms to the wings was the worst bit. I added a couple of ties on the back to keep everything in place......








.......using cotton twill tape. (I think I probably love this as much as I love my linen thread)











The cushion added the final embellishment and was made using some of the fabric I had left over from the roman blind.






I'm quite excited at the moment as my eldest son is due back from his school ski trip this afternoon. I can't wait to hear what he's been up to, although I expect I'll get the mum rated version :)  I think that's probably all for now. I'm off to pay long overdue visits to your lovely blogs and catch up on all your news.

Thanks for stopping by.
EDITED TO ADD: Have decided to enter this into Wendy's Handmade Monday so why not pop over and see what that talented bunch have been up to :)

24 comments:

  1. Good to hear from you Caroline :) We missed ya!

    I know what you mean about chair covers... they scare me, I have a pattern sitting in my collection which I was going to use to recover my old sofas... I wimped out and went to IKEA so I am really impressed that you have gone for it.

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  2. It's good to hear what you've been up to - was wondering how things were going with the teaching an' all. Belated Happy Birthday! The pressies you shared with us are very thoughtful. The slipcover looks very good - I can imagine it being extremely tricky, so you did very well! Good luck with OFSTED - oh, the anticipation...I don't miss that bit of teaching at all!
    x

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  3. Happy birthday! Even if it's late. :)

    Marvellous job on the chair cover - that would scare the pants off me. You did good.

    Also wanted to tell you that if you are concerned about your images being pinned then there is a way to prevent it.

    You can get a simple piece of code off the Pinterest site, under the Help section:

    http://pinterest.com/about/help/

    Scroll down to the "Linking to Your Blog or Website" section and the code is there.

    Just copy it and paste it in your blog template (the html version) in the head section.

    I've just done it to mine - apparently if anybody tries to pin an image from my blog they will get a message saying I do not allow it.

    I saw this info on another blog in the comments section, where there is a bit of a discussion about it.

    http://knitsofacto.blogspot.com/2012/02/pinterest.html

    Hope that helps you feel better about it all. :)

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  4. So pleased you enjoyed your present and had a good birthday. The relaxed slipcover is looking fab and I love the cotton twill tape fastening. Hope your young man returns with all limbs intact! Vicky x

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  5. Happy Birthday! Brave lady with that slip cover but I love the little bows!

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  6. Happy belated birthday,good luck on the OFSTED front, and well done on that chair cover - excellent job.

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  7. The chair cover is great - very well done. Mr OFSTED is a horror - hope his 'visit' goes well. Belated Birthday Wishes - hope you had a great time. Hope you have a good week.

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  8. A wonderful gift would not know which to start on first. Love the chair cover a neat idea

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  9. Chair cover is amazing....well done!!
    What a beautiful card, gift tag and pressie....really thoughtful xx

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  10. Wow, fancy attempting ( and succeeding) in doing a chair cover, you are my hero, I'll have to give it a go now. Happy birthday!

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    1. Your slip covers look really good - I know I would get into a real mess attempting that! Always good to get prezzies that really meant something to you. xC

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  11. Happy birthday!! It sounds like you squeezed a lot into your half term holiday! I love the present you received, thats a lot like my kinda present and don't worry about Ofsted, I have just been inspected and it went really well - we got Outstanding so you will be fine! x

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  12. I can understand your trepidation with the chair. I made new covers for my suite a few years ago and although it was hard work it was worth it in the end.
    Your new fabric looks lovely, lucky you.

    Have a good week

    Jan x

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  13. Wow - that's pretty impressive! I did a speed awareness course too! Ofsted is a nightmare - good luck - all those lesson plans! When we had one some years ago, one of my tutor group decided she'd like to lead our tutor session. She was brilliant and we didn't do anything like what we were meant to. I labelled it 'student-led learning' - the inspector loved it and we got a Grade 1.

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  14. Wow very impressive! :-) xx

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  15. Glad to see a post from you - I have missed your posts! Nice job on the chair - now I have 2 settees ...... Mich x

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  16. Nice to hear from you this week - I hoped we would. Sometimes starting a new project is the hardest part.

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  17. I quiver in fear behind the recovered chair... and ask you to do mine now LOL

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  18. Happy belated birthday and well done on the chair cover. I could do with a cover for my sofa but my sewing skills don't even stretch to threading a needle so there's no hope for me! Good luck with ofsted. x

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  19. Oh my the slip cover came out smashing! I have thought of trying something like that but never have had the courage. You are amazing!
    Happy birthday to you. :)

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  20. great creations! love the seing-themed cards! and the stamps are truly gorgeous, and so are the fabrics!

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  21. Wow - you are such a talented lady! and with Ofsted lurking too!!! I am mightly impressed. Hope all went well.
    Jo x

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