Transformation Thursday

I am a putz. Seriously. I somehow deleted the before picture, and I was being so diligent to chronicle the whole project. Wah! You can see the couch as it was before, but not in all of its glory, just piece meal.

We bought this couch (And chair and ottoman) last summer from a friend of ours that was having a garage sale. It has great bones. It is the kind of couch that hugs you when you sit in it. The seat cushions are deep and the back cushions are high. It invites you to nap and rewards you with a restful slumber. Now, if only I could teach it to make coffee and do the laundry, that would be something. We paid $150 for it and I know that we got a good deal. To be honest, I have never loved the green color of the ottoman and the club chair, and the couch pattern, although lovely, said fall to me all the time. I let those things go because the furniture itself was in such great condition and I knew that it was coming from a clean home.

I decided to slip cover the couch and I knew that it would be a big job, so I waited until my mom arrived to begin the undertaking. I picked her up from the airport Wednesday evening and we began working Thursday morning.

We decided to use the existing fabric as our pattern, and to save money, salvaged all of the cording. There is my mom, hard at work. She is really the brains of the operation.

We had the Batman house and all of its figures out just in case we needed some super hero help. It turns out that Batman can't sew worth a lick and the Joker just complains that Batman is a goody two shoes. The two of them are about as useful as a back pocket on a shirt.

Here we have the aptly named right side of the couch. This was my mom's side. The cording is perfect as are the pleats and the fabric fits the arm like a glove.

And here we have the wrong side of the couch. My mother is fixing my novice work. I told her that my side looks like a ghetto slip cover. She laughed and consoled me by saying that this is not beginner sewing, and the ghetto should be proud to sport such a slipcover.

My mother is a very good seamstress, and I do exactly what she says. She was giving me directions on pinning the cording to the fabric and I asked her if it would be easier to do it another way, and then I described the way to her. She said that, yes, that would be an easier way, but this is not sewing 101. I got a baptism in fire, m'dears.

My sewing skills improved. I had a cordingpalooza Sunday night and sewed until my fingers bled. I also made the back cushions. I was beyond thrilled with myself, and attempted a one person high five. It turns out that a one person high five is really just clapping.

The finish work was brutal. We stapled the skirting onto the couch, but had some issues. We had to ask my husband come in with the nail gun to help us because the electric stapler was useless against the wood of the frame. The bottom cording is hot glued on because it was just easier. I sustained a life threatening glue injury. All I have to say about that is finger prints are over rated. The glue gun is hot, y'all.

I love the little pleats on the arm.


There she is in all of her glory. I christened it yesterday with a little snooze.

My mother said, when we finished, "Can you believe we did that?" Yes, I can. We jumped into it before we could think about it. This was not just a slipcover job, we re-upholstered this sucker.

Mom, we rule! (Well, you rule. I just do what you tell me to.)



**UPDATED*** Didja know that tonight begins the new season of Project Runway? Let's dish tomorrow.