Dining room slipcovers (Deployment projects #163-170)

They’re Finished!!!

I’ve finished all my dining room chair slipcovers!!  Eight big chairs – what was I thinking?

They look soooo much better now! 

 

Look at these before pictures.

They weren’t bad in our last house where we had orange in every room, but here, they just clashed!!  It was too much in that room!!

Now, with all the new neutral slips, this room now fits with the rest of the house.  Calm, peaceful, light and bright!!

 

If you are wondering about the walls in this room, (remembering that we are renters!) you can read all about them here. 

So, here is the quick and easy tutorial of the simplest slipcovers ever made!

 

All of these steps will be done with the right side of the fabric next to the chair.  The fabric I used was a hopscloth linen look fabric from JoAnne's.  I prewashed it in hot water and dried it on high so that all possible shrinkage had taken place!

1.  Lay the fabric over the front of the chair from the top to the bottom.  Allowing about 4” extra on both the top and the bottom, cut off your length of fabric.

2.  Lay your fabric on the floor folding it in half lengthwise.  Split (cut) your fabric along the fold.  These two pieces will become the front and the back of your slipcover.

 

3.  Pin your front piece of fabric so that it lays over the entire front of your chair and over the top back.  (You are just pinning it so that it doesn’t fall as you work with your fabric.

  

4.  Lay your second piece of fabric down the back of your chair and start pinning around the shape of your chair.  I like to use my pins as if I was drawing a line with them.

5.  Continue pinning all the way around the entire top of your chair.

6.  Once the entire top is pinned, it is time to move to the two side panels.   Cut two squares of fabric long enough to cover the side panel. 

7.  Pin around the top three sides of the square, curving it around the corners of the seat, and matching it into the back “seam” of the chair.  Repeat this for the other side.

 

8.  Step back and take a look and make sure that it looks just like you want it to look when it is finished.  Carefully pull it off your chair and take it to your sewing machine!!  I used my serger for this so that it would cut and seal all my edges at the same time.  This fabric frayed really easily and I know that these are going to get washed a lot!

 

9.  Starting with the seat portion, follow the pin line (taking the pins out as you get to them) and sew/serge all the way around the seat sides.

 

10.  Next, you just have to sew/serge all the way around the back sides and top.  Remember, just keep following your pin line.

11.  I forgot to take pictures of this last step…  put  the slipcover back on your chair (right side out this time),  mark your hem-line by pinning it.  Take you slip back off and finish the hem of your slip, the same way you would for a skirt.

 

11.  Put your slip back on your chair and enjoy the beautiful new easy to achieve look of your simple slipcover!

12.  Repeat steps #1-11 seven more times so that your entire dining room set is slip covered!!

 

Goodbye Miss America - - Hello Beautiful!!! (Deployment Project #121)

There truly wasn’t anything overly wrong with this chair before I re-upholstered it.  The fabric was in great condition.  And, for having a white background, it was also very clean.  In fact, this is the first chair that I have ever re-upholstered that I didn’t find popcorn in the chair when I took the old fabric off!!

The only thing wrong with this chair was her style.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I am a very patriotic lady, and so is my friend who is the proud owner of this chair.  But she was ready for a change.   We headed over to Joann's and perused their selection of fabrics - - we finally decided on this fabulous blue and cream fretwork fabric. 

I absolutely loved working with this fabric!  It was the perfect weight, had the perfect amount of stretch, and it looks fabulous on the chair!  It is “Lovely Lattice” by Waverly.

 

  

 

“Dear Jesus, Please make the time go by quickly.” Breaking 100 in the Deployement Project #’s!!

Along with their other requests and praises, my kids pray this every night before they go to bed.  They want the time until Daddy comes back home to go quickly.  I couldn’t agree more, but I do have to say that I believe God is answering their prayers!  I tell you what, the time is flying - - and that is a good thing, but I’m not sure if I can keep up!!  I did not even realize that my last post was two weeks ago!  Yikes!!

Thank goodness you all are patient, kind and loving readers!!  It is not for a lack of projects for me to post about, that is for sure!!  I have been sooooooooooo busy with projects, I feel like I have about a 100 to post (ok, maybe not 100 that might be an exaggeration) but actually finding the time to post seems to be the problem!!  Of course, tonight I am taking a project break while I  sit here writing a  post and  watching the Survivor Finale at the same time!!  Multi-tasking at it’s best.

So, here’s a Deployment Project Update:  (sorry, I didn’t take pictures of it all - - it’s that whole time management thing!!)

Since I last posted, I have made 14 pillows

 

Embroidered 4 more sheets

My mantra for now!  Keep calm and carry on!

Sewed 3 dresses and 1 shirt

Painted 2 more Station Signs

Re-upholstered 2 couch cushions

Sewed 3 camera straps

and Re-upholstered this sweet bench.

 

And - - through all of that I have taught school ( we are almost finished for the year - - wooohooooo!!!), kept the house fairly well maintained,  made it to they gym (although not as much as I would have like to!)  mowed the lawn (until the mower died, then I just gave up on that one!), chauffeured the kids back and forth to swimming, fencing, art lessons, guitar lessons,Awana,  and birthday parties, had my Mom and Dad visit for a long weekend to celebrate my birthday and Mother’s Day, had a great friend come this weekend and give me some “Design Intervention,”  picked up some sweet deals on craigslist (can’t wait to share those with you!) - - oh, and I even fed the kids a few well-rounded healthy meals! 

Whew!  See why there hasn’t been any posts lately?  That takes my Deployment count to 111!!!

I could sit and beat myself up about not posting as often as I would like, but I had a sweet new blogger friend, Linda, remind me in an email this week, “Looking forward to your next blog, but remember that your kids come first and your blog groupies understand that so we wait patiently.”    Thanks Linda!

Hopefully there will be more posts, more often, but I can’t promise that.   I can promise you that I do have some fabulous projects that I am currently working on and eventually I will post about them!! 

Introducing Ethel and Drop Cloth Chair Re-upholstery (Deployment Project #76)

Let me introduce you to my newest family member… Ethel.

After my new (less than one year old) very expensive embroidery/sewing machine broke down for the third time in year that I have had it.  I knew something had to change.  That was 2 months ago and my machine is still in the shop getting fixed - - actually, it got sent back to the factory, but is STILL not fixed.  After talking with a representative from my sewing machine company, I found out that I was actually killing my machine with all the re-upholstery stuff I was doing on it.  Going  through up to 10 layers of thick fabric actually broke the feed dog spring on my machine - - not a common piece to break!  He suggested that I find an old 1950’s Singer machine and use that for my re-upholstery projects.

I found Ethel on Craigslist a few weeks back.  She’s simple, but she is a workhorse!  She will plow through anything and just keep right on going - - no little annoying beeps or error messages. 

There is something enduring about her. 

Her simplicity. 

Her history.

As I’m using her, I wonder about her past.  Who used to own her?  What did they make with her?  Has some mother sat at her and made dresses for her little girl?  Has a grandmother sat at her and made a quilt for a newborn baby?  Has a mother and daughter worked at it together to make a wedding gown?

Let me just throw in here that if you are only doing one re-upholstery project, or even two, you have nothing to fear - - you are not going to break your machine.  I do one to two re-upholstery projects a week - - that much pounding on a machine is just too much!!

So, let me show you the first project that Ethel has completed.

This is the chair I was telling you about yesterday.   This chair is going in a little boys’ room.  My friend wanted a vintage look that would be durable for two toddlers!!  She also did not want to spend a lot of money on the fabric for the chair.  I ended up using drop cloths to re-upholster it.

I had never used drop cloths, but of course I have read about them everywhere on blog world.   I decided to try it out.   I would say that all in all, it was easy to work with - - maybe a bit more difficult to work with than a heavier weight upholstery fabric - - but for a loose, informal look I think it is fantastic.  I did wash the drop cloth before I used it - -they stink something fierce straight out of the package!!

This chair has quite the history.  My friend bought it when they were stationed in Germany.  Brought it to DC when they moved here,  and now, I’m re-upholstering it before they move back to Germany!

Look at the before fabric - - ugh!  Time for a make-over!

When I got the fabric off, I realized that this chair had been re-upholstered once.  There was still some of the original fabric on the chair.  It was originally upholstered in a chartreuse green silk.  I can only imagine that with all her fun curves and details, she was one fancy lady!!