Couch Update! #3

The White Whale is slowly being reeled in! I decided to take the plunge and carefully use the seam ripper to delicately and carefully remove the bottom cushions from the couch frame. When I went for it though, I realized they were only held on by some thin, interfacing like strips of fabric. So the Amazing Boyfriend viciously took a razor blade to it and sliced it off! I think a bit of the couch came off, but it'll all be covered in fabric in the end. No harm, no foul.

So I covered the cushions and that was that. Ok, not quite that was that. I don't have the zippers I need to properly encase the cushions, ie. I need some LONG zippers, like 30".  So I have raw edges and a completely open edges shoved up into the back of the couch where you can't see them! Let's see the fruit of my work...

Check out that pattern matching between cushions! Its spectacular! I can't even put into words how much I love this couch. There's nothing better than 80 degrees, outside on your enclosed porch, on your fabulous, patterned, cat-hair repelling outdoor couch. I tell Amazing Boyfriend that I'll be in paradise and he knows that means that I'll be on the porch.

Next, the hardest part, covered the main couch frame. The frame still shows, this is just in image where you can't see it, so it has to be covered. That will take a while though since I'm currently 3,000 miles from paradise.

Two things I have discovered, if you are making covers for your cushions:
The best way to make a 'pattern' for your cushions is the measure the cushions, cut a rectangle, and then use a cup and trace curves around the corners. Two things to note here:
1. When I traced the cushion onto the fabric, it invariably always ended up way way way too large for the cushion. When I measure and then cut as noted above, it was always perfect.
2. Curving the corners rather than having pointy corners resulted in a cleaner look. The cushions actually fill the curved corners, whereas the pointy corners stick up like little ears. A sofa with ears is a big no-no.

Previous posts:
Introduction to the White Whale
Progress
Hey, I remembered I made some pillows

Couch pillows!

I forgot I made these. Correction, I forgot I made these for use on the outdoors couch as I've been using them on my indoor couch. I've been trying to up my print mixing repertoire and I love the way these go together. The pillow forms are outdoor safe and the backs are done up with buttons. I love pillowcases with button backs. Charmant!

Fabric from fabric.com

Oh hey, Foliage! Do you approve?

Couch update!

The large back cushions are now covered. I'm really really good at covering cushions now. And attaching centered zippers. Wanna see?

Next is the whole enchilada? Well, AB had an idea. Let's rip off the seat cushions and cover those separately and then the main frame of the couch. But. I'm worried that once the cushions are removed from the frame, I'll discover that the cushions and the main part of the couch share only one layer of fabric between the two and the innards of one of those will be exposed. I'm not really keen on sewing fabric to upholstery. I can cover it all I want. I can't sew onto it though.

Removing the cushions would make the angles of the final cover easier as well as make the final product look neater. What to do, what to do?

Anyway, its going to be a while. The couch is outside and its sleeting.

White Whale

World meet White Whale. White Whale - world.

This is a big project that I though of, oh I don't know, in April of last year. This is my amazing boyfriend's (here on known as AB ie amazing boyfriend) average Ikea couch. And when we moved in together, I decided it would be relegated to our awesome enclosed porch. Oops, we decided it would be out there. Its comfy, attracts cat fur (as you can see), attracts cat claws, and it amazing already bleached since moving it here in September. Since I knew, sorry we knew, it was going outside, I started looking for already made Ikea slip covers but by golly if I'm going to pay more for a slipcover than AB payed for the couch. Unless I make it that is. Then paying more is totally fine. How on Earth does that logic work out?

Decided on an ikat outdoor waterproof fabric from fabric.com that's washable (!).

I got 12 yards cause I've never covered anything before, I was 3,000 miles away from the couch and was on the phone with AB and his tape measure. Its a dream to work with, especially after sewing silky stuff for so long.

Long story short, look what I made!

So the couch is in 3 main parts. Two small cushions at the arm rest, two large cushions for the backrest, and the whole enchilada. I've now got the small cushions covered. My goal is to get all the covers very very tight. I really like tight upholstery. And this cover is as tight as it'll get.
Here's what it looks like now.

They look much smaller now.

I've decided that the cushions will have zipper closures. At first I thought I would have tabs with snaps in the middle of the back of each cushion, but in my first experiment, I realized that the z-dimension of the cushions required some more wiggle room to get the cushions in the covers. Zippers it is. I hate installing zippers. Always have, always will. Anyway the zippers look really nice and they are hidden because they are at the bottom and backward facing side of the cushions.

Next, I'll do the big cushions, and then the white whale. Hopefully it will be done by the time the temperature gets above 70. This year.