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 :)

Handmade Monday - White Linen Transformation - The Finale (Part 3)

Good morning everyone happy Handmade Monday and a warm welcome to some new friends. I have been to visit your lovely blogs already, which was no mean feat this weekend let me tell you, when I lost the ability to 'comment', all sorted now thankfully. There are some great ideas out there at the moment.

Today I have the final episode in a series entitled 'White Linen Transformation' (or a before and after shot of a chair.)  If you're interested look here for Part one and Part two. My very good and very lovely friend is slowly turning her sitting room into an inviting oasis of cosiness (not that it wasn't in the first place mind) and as a finishing touch she asked if I would make a slip cover for a much beloved chair of hers.

So I took a big, no make that massive, no humongous GULP and said "I'd love to." It was a little challenging as I've never done one before and was a little out of my comfort zone. I read up a little, thought about it alot, and finally produced my first ever slip cover.

Lets have a closer look....

The cover is trimmed with piping........

........and I lined the skirt as I thought it needed a little more weight around the bottom (my curtain making skills helped me here).

I finished the back with a side velcro fastening for ease when slipping the cover on and off.

I'll zoom in a bit for a better look....

I learned new terminology like 'tuck in allowance' which basically helps the cover to sit tight and not move around when the chair is in use and discovered new equipment  like 'T-pins', which I didn't have but would consider buying if I needed to make more slipcovers, as my poor little dressmaking pins couldn't really cope.

Now remember this from last week........my little tease........?

Here's a few more......



I felt the chair looked a little barren and as I had some fabric left over, I made a little cushion to go with it. A piped cushion embellished with crocheted flowers and those gorgeous vintage market buttons.

It just helped to finish it off.

I did get a great deal of pleasure from using my existing skills and applying them to something different and learning new things at the same time and it looks just right in it's new home.  Just in case you're interested this book helped alot.


Courtesy of Amazon

Incidentally, as I started this project my eldest came in from school and said "Hey, that's really good!" but rather than feeling a warm glow of self satisfaction and pride in my work, his comment made me a tad deflated, as at the time I hadn't actually done anything to the chair, just stood it on my table for ease of working, without a piece of white linen in sight! I rest assured that he must have a keen eye for a good piece of furniture.

But I feel I must do something Christmassy now. I'm seeing lots of gorgeousness on all of your blogs and think I have a lot of catching up to do, but not of course before popping over to Wendy at 1st Unique gifts who has a brilliantly personalised gift to show us this week, I wonder what the other ladies have done?

Keep forgetting to say thank you to Sam at Sconchtextiles  for featuring me in her Folksy Friday a couple of weeks ago. Thank you Sam, make sure you visit her blog soon.

Happy Sewing!!!

Come back sun all is forgiven!

I'm afraid I owe you all an apology. In my last post I mentioned the need for a blind to shade the sun that was 'streaming' into the boy's room. Well, it's made, it's up, but theres NO SUN. So I feel I'm partly to blame for this sudden change in climate, Oh well, at least I can tick a job off on my 'to do' list.

Definitely no sunshine in these pictures! Had a little fabric left over so made a cushion as well.

Well it's very nearly the end of the Easter hols but what a fantastic couple of weeks it's been and I know this week won't seem too bad as it's only two days of school. Slightly nervous about Friday though as I've invited a few friends around for a BBQ to celebrate the Royal Wedding and it's forecast rain, I'm telling you I'm beginning to get paranoid about my power of our weather.

I'm going to stop wittering on now, thanks for stopping by and I hope you all had a lovely Easter break.

Cushions

Goodness Easter holidays are busy aren't they? We're all having a lovely time but not done too much sewing until today. But before I tell you about that..... as much as I love burying my nose in bargain remnant boxes and conjuring up ideas for what I can do with bits of fabric, I also love to browse through the waterfalls of fabric on display in various little shops and larger stores. I've had my eye on just such a fabric and finally went out and purchased it a few days ago. Here it is.....

It's going to become a roman blind destined for a window which catches the sun in the boys 'gaming' room. I hope to start it in the next few days.

Now, remember the simple fabric collage I did here , well today I put it on a cushion and added a little sentiment to go with it.

I used 'Stitch and Tear' for the sentiment. Basically, its a material which allows you to draw or write your design directly on to it. You then fix it to the face of your fabric in the required postion (I used masking tape) and sew over your design. The fun part is to rip off the 'Stitch and Tear' material when you've finished and it just peels away from your stitching (but thats for another post). It's the first time I'd used it and I was impressed with how it worked, it does exactly what it says on the tin.

The image was pieced together from scraps, but this time I had my lovely new embroidery foot to help me and it worked like a dream. My confidence is growing, although I do have quite a pile of 'practice' strips of fabric which gather at my feet as I'm working.

Anyway think thats all for now, I need to make the most of this lovely weather we're having.Hope you're all having fun.