Hand Printed Slipcover for Vintage Settee

All right, let me just tell you, I am THRILLED with the result of my recent slipcover endeavor.  Remember the vintage settee I wrote about here, here and here? Well, I am finally finished and can't wait to show you how it turned out!! I actually finished this back on April 17th, but I took so many pictures, I had to go through them all, decide which ones were best and get them loaded on the laptop. Plus, for every project I write about, there are roughly ten others on the sidelines in various stages of progress. I twirl a lot of plates! I will let the pictures mostly speak for themselves, but I have to say again, this project turned out better than I had expected! I am so, so, so happy with the result. So here is a recap:

Started with this

Inspired by this

and this

via

   Made this stencil

Printed this fabric

(six and a half yards of heavy white canvas)

Most of my fabric pieces had to have a curved shape, either cut on the bias or cut actually curved on the fabric itself.

This is an 'interior' shot of how I put things together. Even though I cut curves into the pieces, some parts still needed a dart here and there to ease the curves along. Here you can see some of those extra seams. This thing has more nips and tucks than Joan Rivers!

And made a slipcover

Not one to shy away from detail, I even printed the underside of the cushion platform.

So there you have it! 

I wish I could give you a step-by-step sewing tutorial, but my methods are a bit in-exact, what I refer to as 'hack and slice.' I really just draped the fabric roughly in it's place, lightly drew the outline for that piece on the settee (back, side piece, backrest, cushion pieces, etc.)cut it out, and pinned it all together before sewing to make sure it fit together properly. Because I printed my own fabric, six yards was enough since I wasn't having to match up the print on any two pieces. Cost breakdown: $40-61/2 yards of white canvas, $8-one quart of interior, flat paint in Grape Jelly by Martha Stewart and $5.99-two packs of stencil vellum. Settee was free. So based on the price of the couch I listed above as an inspiration for this, I saved $5946.01!! Ay, that's a lot of paisley! I will write later about some other changes I made to this area as a result of the slipcover being finished. As they say, one finished project prompts 5 others! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you like the settee; I really, really love it!

Sharing at these fab blogs. Go check them out!
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Slipcover Progress

Just wanted to keep you guys in the loop as far as the progress I am making on a slipcover for my vintage curved settee...yes, I said Progress! A couple of sneak peeks:

This is the current state of affairs in my living room. It's worse than it looks in this picture....much worse! Loose thread everywhere, straight pins all over the place, several pairs of scissors lying around, but it's a productive mess, so....

This is the stencil I cut specifically for this project. As you can see, I am using purple to print the fabric. I am having to cut the pieces first, print the fabric, then pin it all together before sewing, which is why I haven't finished yet! But it will be done soon......very soon!

My blog friend Michelle told me this would be a challenging piece to slipcover because it has a curved back and seat, and she was right! She would know about re-upholstering tricky curves and tight spots...see her amazing chair makeover here. I felt a bit like an engineering degree would come in handy in figuring out all the curves and angles and how they fit together. Needless to say, I ripped a lot of seams! It's a good learning curve, though.......get it? Learning curve....*cymbal clash*

And it's all coming together. 

I hope **fingers crossed** to have it finished today. I am really excited to have it finished and checked off the to-do list.

Stay Tuned!

Going For It

Remember the vintage curved settee I posted about here?

Well today I am tackling that beast and attempting to make a slipcover for it. You know how you always have a certain minds eye picture of what the finished product will look like? I only hope it comes out looking half as good as it does in my head!

 I got six yards of heavy white canvas for $6 a yard and I am printing the fabric myself using a stencil I cut.....again, in my head it will look fabulous!

This piece is tricky because of the curves and I have never slip-covered such a tailored piece before. It is really well made so just getting the tailored skirt off was a real pain in the arse!

There were about a million upholstery nails in that thing so I had to use my pliers and puuuulll with all my strength to get that skirt off!

It's not the easiest thing to heft around either...awkward shape so it tends to tilt and pivot exactly when you don't want it to.

ANYWAY...I'm going for it. I printed a test of the stencil I cut for this and I think it's going to look soooo good. Well, at least in my head...............

Wish me luck!

Have a Seat

I recently 'inherited' this vintage curved settee from a neighbor. It was sitting in her driveway waiting to be picked up for donation, so I asked if I could have it, and she said yes!

This sucker is heavy and solid as a rock! The upholstery has seen better days, but even so is still in pretty good shape for it's age. I will definitely take the skirt off to modernize it and instead of re-upholstering completely, I think I'll do a slipcover. This piece is exceptionally well made from a furniture company out of Pasadena, CA ( I lived in Pasadena when I was first married and our son was born there!)

Another reason I want to do a slip cover as opposed to re-upholstering is because of the filling.......

It says Cattletail and Hog Hair! I don't even know any furniture company that uses cattletail and hog hair stuffing anymore! Of course, I am aware of the Hastens horse hair filled mattresses which cost an arm and a leg......Anyway, I can see potential for a huge mess in trying to open up the cushions for reupholstering, so that's why I'm slip-covering instead.

 I think I want to go in this direction....

 A bold, graphic print combined with the retro shape could be really cool. Or maybe an airier and curvy print would work better........

Via West Elm

Yea, I think I really like the paisley print. What do you think?

A rough draft

Well, it looks like I have my work cut out for me...........

Wish me luck!