Every Nine Years - Upholstery!

Honestly I hesitate to call it upholstery - this project is so simple! However, handling upholstery fabric is very different from the fabrics I usually manipulate. It's heavy. It's stiff. It does not want to ease. It barely fits on my sewing table.

But, evidently, every so often, I get a bug to do a simple home improvement project. I'm planning a little party in a few weeks so I found myself motivated.

version 1

These wicker love seats are maybe 25 years old. They sit in the sunroom and do not see a lot of action. The last time I recovered them was 9 years ago. I covered them with Home Depot drop cloths. 

version 2.

The previous covers were so dark and dreary that I went a little wild and chose white. And that worked out great until 3 years ago when we adopted 2 black cats.

Since the arrival of our sweet kitties, I have kept them mostly covered with old white sheets. From time to time, I wash and dry the sheets to remove the cat hair. And, then, when guests are on their way, I whip off the sheets and pretend we keep perfectly white seats despite our black cats.

version 3.

This time around I chose a more practical fabric. I hope. It is probably some kind of polyester. I find that most upholstery fabric is polyester and I did not want to make this a hugely researched project, so I just popped over to the local big box store and found a roll of pretty upholstery fabric.

Because I bought everything they had, it was a bit nerve wracking to cut the cushions. And they had 1/2 yard less than I actually needed. As I've mentioned, I am the queen of buying-too-little fabric. And I got lucky again! Though most upholstery fabric is about 56" wide, this one was closer to 60" wide, including the selvedge.

I cannot believe how many times I measured and plotted on graph paper. I even got outside counsel from Mr. Now Sewing on the final cuts. It should be simple. The project is basically composed of 8 box-shaped cushion covers.

When I finally finished the last boxed corner, I was thrilled! And ready to move on to more satisfying sewing, like the on-going k3n weekly project. All in all, it took me about 3 days. So, really not bad.

And I am quite pleased with the final result. Now that I've taken pictures, I will replace the sheets until the party guests start to show up. Or maybe not.