slowly, but surely

Projects take a little bit longer when you have a toddler at home. If I could just have one uninterrupted day I could finish this slipcover pretty quickly, but with a toddler it's more like one hour here and one hour there, wherever I can fit it in during naptimes and after he goes to bed in the evenings.

So I appreciate your patience, while I finish this project a little bit at a time.

So after I finally finished cutting all my pieces and washing everything*, I started working on the back of the slip. For some reason, I didn't take a picture of the entire back piece, but here are the details for those of you who want to know. I cut two pieces for my back and they overlap by about 1-1/2 inches in the middle. I hemmed the sides that overlap so they have a finished edge and I plan on sewing on ribbon to each piece so I can tie my slipcover in the back. This is what I did on my chair and it turned out to be my favorite part!

*just a note on cutting pieces and then washing. My small pieces did fine, but my largest pieces had A LOT of shrinkage. The seat had so much shrinkage that it was no longer big enough no matter how I tried to make it work. So I just want to warn you. If you try this route, you should make your cuts generously!

OK, moving on. After the back pieces were ready, it's time to sew the back to the "back rest". I don't really know what the correct term is for this part, but it's the front side of the back (the place where your back rests) so that is what I will call it!

Straight lines like this are easy. You just get your pieces where you want them and then pin along the line of the couch.

{Always make sure you are working with your fabric inside out, meaning the "right" side of your fabric is facing the couch when you are pinning.}

Once you're all pinned, it's time to sew! This is the most fabric I have ever worked with and it's a little difficult to manover it all around while sewing. I do really like this duck canvas though. It's a great weight and doesn't bunch up while your sewing like some lighter weight fabrics tend to do.

Next was the sides of the back rest. Originally my plan was to have the back rest all one pieces, extending all the way around to these sides. But I played with my fabric for a long time and could not get it to work. It was going to be too much fabric bunched around those corners. So I chose to use seperate pieces for the sides.

You can see below how I pinned the two pieces  together. If you are a beginner sewer like me, curves are the most difficult. So take your time and stop every few inches to make sure your fabric isn't bunching up underneath your presser foot. Also when you are pinning it helps to use a lot of pins and pin close together. This will help you follow the curves better. I always use my blue fabric marker for the curves too. I just draw a little arch and it help me know exactly where to sew when I get to the curved part.

Below is one side after I finished sewing. I'm pretty happy with it and I am actually glad now that I went with a seperate piece for the side. Of course, I repeated these steps for the other side as well.


Next is sewing on the arms. I'll be back with progress pics and details as soon as I finish that part!

Thanks for following along on my slipcovering adventure!