People have been complaining about my father's sofa for years. When you sit, you sink almost to the floor and good luck standing back up! It never bothered him until he had problems getting up from a nap one day, so he wandered aimlessly in a store for a few minutes and left because no one came to help him. I told him I could probably reupholster it, but no guarantees. He gave the go-ahead and I stripped that puppy down. Here it is mid-strip.
I began the re-covering process from the ground up, reinforcing the springs from underneath with webbing, and re-tying them. This was the easy part for me, because nothing on the inside has to look pretty.
Here it is reinforced and ready to be padded and covered. So far, so good, but from this point, I was regretting not taking better notes when I took that upholstery class.
I blind-stitched the front on first. Except I couldn't remember EXACTLY how to blind stitch, so it was more like visible stitching. Luckily, that portion is covered by the cushions! Then I did the inside of the arms and inside of the back. You can't exactly tell from this photo, but the back is lumpy. Oops.
I put on the front of the arms next, then when I tried to do the outside of the arms, discovered about 3/4 of the way through the process why there is a specific order to do these things in. Off came the outside and fronts of the arms. And back on they went, outsides first, then the fronts. After that, finishing the back was easy.
But I still had to make the cushion cases. I started one evening, measuring and cutting the pieces, starting to sew that night, but the thread kept breaking. I cleaned and oiled the sewing machine, checked the needle, put the piece in, and was halfway down the seam before I realized the thread had broken again! Frustrated, I completely changed the thread ... and was fine. The other thread was too old. I finished the case, measured it, and realized I'd allowed too much for the seams (which is better than not leaving enough, but still a pain). I had to rip it apart, cut it down and start over. Somewhere around 5:00am, I headed to bed. I followed that same process for the other two, but finally finished. I stuffed the cushions, stuck them on the sofa ... and somehow they were still too large! There was no way I was going to do them over AGAIN, so it will stay this way...
Well, that was March and April for me. How was yours?
You get a definite 'A' for effort! It would get wrinkly-looking anyway from people sitting on it, so you just gave it a head start. And I love that fabric! You were very brave to tackle this...I've had a pattern for 30 years to make a fitted throw cover because the dogs have destroyed the seat threads on our couch, plus it's always dirty, but I've yet to have even get the pattern out of the envelope!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Linda. I don't know how to sew from a pattern. They have all these complicated directions on them that I don't understand. I'm fairly sure that if I bought one, it would stay in the envelope, too!
ReplyDeleteWow, I am so impressed! I NEVER would have had the nerve or the know how to do that!
ReplyDeletethe fabric is beautiful, and I agree with Linda: it will get wrinkly anyway. This way it just looks all the more comfy!
If I'd tried to learn from a book, it would have been difficult, Ethel. Taking the class really helped a lot.
ReplyDeletethat's unfair that ethelmaepotter! already said what I wanted to say after reading this: WOW, I am so impressed! (okay, it's my fault, I am a little behind with reading blogs).
ReplyDeleteImpressed by your skills and by your patience. WOW again!
Haha, you haven't seen it up close, Martina!
ReplyDeleteDoes it feel more comfy when you sit on it? That should be the primary measure of success here!
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've sat on it since I finished it... but my dad is back to napping on it, so that's a good sign!
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