Slipcover Couch Makeover
by
Tova Pearl
5 Materials
$75
4 Hours
Medium
So.... I had this really gross looking armchair that was really in need of refreshing. I asked a question about it on hometalk and got the feedback that it was too stained to paint over. Being that I had some basic sewing skills, I decided to make a simple slipcover. Because i had never made a slipcover before, it was not an easy project but I like how it turned out.
This is the Before photo. It was stained from denim dye rub-off and just normal wear over the years, that did not come off even with professional cleaning. Next time I will not be buying microfiber furniture, as it seems to not take the years as well as the fabric ones.
First, I chose my fabric - a kind of canvas I had seen used to make dropcloth-style slipcovers, but with a little bit of extra thickness. Then I washed it in a quick 15 minute washing machine cycle and let it air dry. This is important because if you want to be able to wash the slipcover later, it needs to have already been preshrunk or it might not fit your couch again! After searching around the internet for some slipcover tutorials, I realized that what i needed was not a pattern, it was just a technique. That technique was to pin and baste pieces of my fabric to the chair, just improvising around it's shape, which was pretty square and simple.
Here is the fabric being pinned on. (That just means you pin all the fabric on, so you make the whole slipcover in it's inside-out form)
After each few seams were pinned, I sewed them and then put the cover back on the chair and sewed some more, until all of them were done. I made a lot of mistakes! But what is nice about sewing is that you can rip out your seams as many times as you want and just try it again!
I then sewed some pillows from a nice blue cotton check fabric. (This was the easiest part) I like sewing straight lines :-)
Here are the pillows - a simple tuck back style .
Here it is done. Definitely not a professional job but it is nice and slouchy and comfy and doesn't look like a dirty couch anymore! And it's washable when stained. I made some extra pillows too and am planning to cover another chair like this as well. Once you start slipcovering, everything looks like it needs a slipcover :-)
Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
Hometalk may collect a small share of sales from the links on this page.More info
Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 21 comments
-
What a great project! I have a butt ugly chair that cleaning doesn’t work and my husband won’t let me get rid of. What a great idea! Your cover turned out so wonderful. I’m going to try it. Thanks so much for posting this! 👍
-
I am going to do this! thank you so much for sharing. Great job! :-)
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Well done for tackling it but why didn't you iron the fabric after washing?
Was this the first time you tried this creation?