coffee bags

Latley, I've been obsessed with grain sacks, coffee sacks, burlap sacks and the like. Saturday we took the weekly trip to our favorite local coffee shop, Primavera. They roast all their own coffee right in their store.

There are always stacks of coffee bags, full of beans ready to be roasted. But this was the first trip that I saw empty bags. They were just sitting in a stack on the shelf.

  I asked Brett (the owner) how much he was selling them for. When he told me they were free, it took everything I had not to jump up and down in excitement. So I dug through the stack and picked this one.



My first thought was to make a pillow, but the fabric is a little rough and sheds a lot. So now I am thinking I might turn it into some wall art.





I'll keep you posted!

Oh, and if you're in the Birmingham area check out Primavera Coffee Roasters. You'll never go back to charbucks again.

 

 

Linking up with A Beach Cottage

slipcover adventures.....the final reveal!

It's finally finished!

Pay no attention to the pillows. They are just random ones gathered from other rooms of the house. I am still searching for the perfect pillow fabric.

I have to say I am really happy with how this slipcover turned out. I have learned so much in the last few months about sewing, cutting, piping and hemming. It's been all trial and error and experimentation, but I've really enjoyed the process. I know I have a lot more to learn. This is only my second slipcover, so I can only imagine that I will learn more and more as I continue to work on new projects.

If you are a beginner sewer and nervous about slipcovering, don't be! You will make mistakes, but they can all be fixed. Your seam ripper might become your best friend, but that's OK. ;)

Here's the back. My favorite part of my chair slipcover was the bows in the back so I decided to do that again with the couch. LOVE!

I feel like I should remind you what this ugly ol' thing looked like before...

If you missed any of my slipcover posts you can find them here:

getting started, back & seat, arms, arm fronts & skirt, cushions. 

Thanks for following along for my slipcover adventures! I hope you learned something along the way and I hope you try your very own slipcover soon! If you do, I would love to see your results or help you if you have questions!


Linking up with Shuanna

and Marian
 

The last step....covering the cushions

I feel I would be depriving ya'll if I didn't let you know the whole truth.....that right now while I sit and type this post I am enjoying the most delicious watermelon mojito. There I said it. Now we can move on to how I slipcovered my cushions. Oh and if you would like to enjoy a watermelon mojito too you can find the recipe here.

Moving on, cushions are a lot like pillows. If you've ever made a pillow cover you know they are pretty simple. If you've never made a pillow cover, you may want to start with that before you tackle a slipcover. :)

I chose to do a "pillowcase" style cover for my cushions - meaning there is an opening on one end. I secured the opening with ties. There are a million ways to secure pillow or cushion covers. On my last slipcover I did an envelope fold for the cushion. It was a pain to stuff the cushion in and out of the envelope opening, so I decided against that for my couch because these cushions are huge.

For my cushion, I just laid the cushion on top of my fabric and cut out two rectangles, giving myself about 2-3 inches extra all the way around. Then I cut one long strip of fabric for that middle piece of the cushion that holds the top cushion fabric to the bottom cushion fabric. Because I will have an opening on one side where my fabric doesn't meet, I hemmed those edges. (The pictures below doesn't show it well, but the right side is the side that will be open. You might be able to see my hemmed edges). So with all the pieces inside out, I pinned my top panel to the side piece, with my piping sandwiched in the middle. Once I sewed the top piece, I did the same thing with the bottom pieces. Make sure you pin tightly. There is nothing worse than having a big, lose cushion cover. You want it to fit nice and smooth.

I had a lot of trouble with the cushions on my chair. Mainly because I was piping without a piping foot and because there were a lot of small corners to go around. But this cushion came out very well and I was so pleased. Everything was going great and I was trimming all my raw edges when this happened....

Yep, I cut a big fat hole right in the side of my cushion cover. I wanted to cry, but I thought I might wake the baby. So I didn't. The annoying part is that I did this same exact thing on my chair so I was being SO careful not to let it happen again! If this happens to you, Wonder Under is your friend. It's a fusible fabric interfacing that you iron on and then stitch over. It doesn't look pretty but it will secure the fabric so it doesn't tear worse when you wash it. Thankfully, mine was on the side of the cushion so it will never show unless someone inspects my cushions. If they do, I am claiming shark attack.

So here's how it looks after I added the ties. I just used 7/8" grosgrain ribbon. I stitched the edge of each ribbon piece to the inside of the cover. When the cushion is on the couch these face the back so no one ever sees them.

So that's all on cushions. They should be relatively simple, as long as you don't let any sharks near your fabric! :)

Tomorrow is the final reveal of my newly slipcovered couch! Make sure to stop by and check it out!

more slipcover adventures (and a whole bunch of pictures)

Sorry it's been several days since I gave you an update on the slipcover. I've been spending every second of my free time trying to finish it up and just haven't had  time to edit and upload the pictures.

But here, we go. The last post covered the arms and the seat. All that is left for the body of my slipcover is the front of the arms and the skirt.

Since I decided to pipe around my arm fronts, the first step is making your piping. Super easy. You just need cording and a 2" wide strip of your fabric. The length depends on how much piping you will need. I ended up using about 20 yards for this couch (including arm fronts, skirt and cushions). Just place your cording in the middle of your strip of fabric and fold the two ends of your fabric together then run it through the machine. It's a little boring to sew a straight line for 20 yards, but it's easy, mindless work.

Once you have your piping, then you can start the arm fronts. As usual, make sure your fabric is inside out (wrong side facing the furniture) and start pinning. If you use piping, your piping should go in between your two pieces of fabric. Think of it as making a sandwich. And making sure the raw edge of your piping is going in the same direction as the raw edges of your other pieces. Pin along the curves and as you get to the bottom of your arm you will transition to pinning the arm front to the seat of your couch/chair (instead of to the body of the arm).

If this all sounds confusing, I apologize. It's not exactly easy to type these instructions. If you are a visual person, like me, check out Miss Mustard Seeds video series. It makes so much more sense when you can watch someone doing it.

And here is the best tip I will probably ever give you. It will save you countless hours of frustration and seam ripping. Buy yourself a piping foot for your machine!! I didn't even know they existed when I slipcovered my chair. I used my zipper foot because that's what was recommended to me. It was a horribly, frustrating experience that resulted in a lot of seam ripping and some piped arms that still bug me every time I look at them. Miss Mustard Seed uses her zipper foot and it seems to work for her because her piping looks beautiful, but I am not nearly as talented and for me the zipper foot was not working. So if you are more of a beginner in sewing, spend the $12 and purchase the piping foot. I would have paid 5x that for the convenience it brought me!



Here is the finished result with the piped arms. They aren't perfect. But I am happy with them and they are a million times better than the piped arms I did on my first slipcover!

Here's a close up. Ignore the wrinkles. I don't believe in ironing. I figure the wrinkles will eventually fall out. ;)

So, onto the skirt. This was my first skirt attempt. I did not add a skirt when I slipcovered my chair. And I decided I wanted to add pleats on the corners for this one (never done those either) so it was all a big experiment for me, but that's half the fun, right?!

The picture below shows the skirt all pinned (and of course everything is inside out).

It's hard to see the pleat on the corner because it's inside out, but if you look closely you can see the little rectangle on the corner. I pinned and sewed the pleats first before I pinned the whole skirt.

Here's a close up of the finished skirt and one of the corner pleats. Again, nothing perfect here. But I like it. Who wants perfect anyways? ;)



I don't get all precise about measuring the length of the skirt. I hem my edge first and then as I'm pinning the skirt I just eyeball the length at the bottom and pin accordingly. Again, perfection is not my goal.



If you want perfection, I think reupholstering is the way to go. Slipcovers are never going to be perfectly fitted and 100% precise. For me, that's part of the appeal.

So the  body of my slipcover is done! All I have left is the 2 cushions.





I finished one cushion last night and hopefully the other will be done by tonight. So the final reveal is coming soon! Stay tuned.....

half way there...

Saturday night I finished the arms and the seat of my slipcover. I feel like I am finally getting some momentum going and hope to have it all finished in a few days!

So here's the progress pics and some tips on the arms and seat for those of you attempting your own slips!

The seam between the arm and the back rest is probably the hardest part of a slipcover for me. I find it very hard to pin in those deep crevices.

I don't have any great tips as I am still experimenting and learning how to do this. But I like to drape my fabric over the arm and then push the two pieces of fabric that will be meeting into the crevice.

Then I sort of pinch the fabric in the crevice and then pull it out (so I can see what I am doing) and pin it. To double check I push it back in the crevice to see if the pin is in the right place.

I usually reposition each of the pins for this seam about 5 times before I decide it's not getting any better. I hope I'm not the only one!

The easier part (for me anyway) is when you are not having to reach inside a crevice to pin. I like when you can just follow the lines of your couch with the pins like in the picture below, with the back portion of the arm.

Here is the side of one finished arm.

Here is the view from the back

Now that I have the arms, I can start adding the seat.

This is a straight line so it would be super easy to pin if it weren't for that darn seat crevice. So I decided to pin a little above the crevice. I'm a rebel like that. Plus, I figure the cushions are going to be covering it so it doesn't really matter if my seam isn't exactly in the right place. Oh, and because I hate pinning in a crevice. Have I mentioned that?

Ta-Da!

Now I just have to put on  the front of the arms (with piping), the skirt and cover the cushions! Shouldn't be too much longer!

If you have questions, let me know. I'll try to help the best I can!

interrupting the slicover marathon for a very important message!

Friday I got my hands on my very own can of Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint. I am in heaven!

I have been listening to Marian and Shaunna and many others rave about Chalk Paint for several months. I've been dying to try this product, but there wasn't a stockist in my area and shipping for the paint is pretty pricey. I knew it would be worth it, but I didn't have a specific piece of furniture in mind that needed painting so I decided to be patient and wait until I actually had something to paint.

But then I received an email from my sister last week that there was a stockist in my area. I was beyond excited and emailed Stacey at Faux Studio Designs immediately. Turns out she had just placed her first order of Chalk Paint and was opening her new store on June 1st.

I still didn't have any new furniture to paint, but I couldn't resist heading over to meet her and check out the Chalk Paint. Stacy was awesome and I had a great time talking to her. I felt like I was meeting Birmingham's version of Miss Mustard Seed. We talked about painting furniture, buying old furniture, auctions, craigslist, yard sales, slipcovers and of course Chalk Paint!

I bought one quart of Old White because I know I will love that color on anything. I can't wait to try some of the blues and greys too, but I need to find some furniture first! Plus, I am making myself finish the slipcover before I start any new projects!

If you are in the Birmingham area check out Stacey's new shop, Faux Studio Designs! She is stocked with Chalk Paint plus she offers furniture painting classes and she paints custom pieces too.

She's located at 2116 Old Montgomery Hwy Suite B in Pelham.

I finished the arms and the seat of my slipcover tonight. Post on those coming next!

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!