Tuesday, June 28, 2011

the dirty chair meets the vintage sheets

     I got my white chenille rocking chair and ottoman out of storage this week and put it in my daughter's room.  It was extremely dirty from being in storage for 2 years and from my daughter coloring on it with hot pink sharpie when she was about a year old.  I took some cleaners to it and washed the covers for the cushions.  The cushions came pretty clean, but the ottoman and the arms of the chair were very stained and none of the pink sharpie came out at all, so I decided I was going to make slip covers.
     I really don't like slip covers.  I think they look cheap, but I don't have the energy to re-upholster the whole chair, so I'll try to make it look not cheap.  There was lace at the top of the flat sheet that I had chosen to make the slip cover from, but it was coming off here and there so I sewed that back on first.  I pinned the sheet straight to the ottoman and used my tailors chalk to draw a line where to cut.  The lace wouldn't reach all the way around so I make a little placket out of one of the pillow cases, which also had the lace on the end.  I cut a piece quite a bit larger but the same shape that I needed for the top and pinned it to the top of the sides, (wrong side out, by the way) pinning the fabric together instead of into the ottoman.  Then I slipped that off and sewed it all up where everything was pinned.  I made a big bow (and I did this blindly, with no pattern, so I can't really explain how I made the bows, but it's similar to a bow tie and tied the same) and sewed that to the front and it just so happens that the bow was perfectly sized to cover the placket that I had to add.

     The arms of the chair were very dirty.  I wanted the lace at the bottom of the arm covers so I used the 2 pillow cases.  I cut them open down the side and bottom seam and placed them over the arms of the chair.  I pinned them directly into the chair all the way around, marked with my tailors chalk and cut the excess off.  I then made 2 pieces slightly bigger than the front of the arms of the chair and pinned that to the fabric, marked and cut.  I took the pins out of the chair and sewed the arms up, hemming all around the raw edges.  I used ribbon to hold the backs of the arm covers tight.  It ties into a cute bow in the back.  I made 6 more smaller bows and tacked them on each of the covers. 

     I think it looks quite nice and it's very comfortable. :) I may make a throw pillow out of the rest of the sheet.
close-up of the bows:
and the finished product:

I was featured in my favorite blog!

I read this blog almost every day and It was really my inspiration to start a blog showing my own creations.  Kylee's tie dyed jumper made the page on father's day.  I can't believe I missed it!

http://www.newdressaday.com/2011/06/19/week-34-fathers-day-ndad-creation-medley/#more-7149