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Loose Covers

Feeling like a clever girl today... Finally, after about a year or more of wittering on about recovering my sofa I eventually got round to it!!   To be fair it was flinching about about the vast amount of fabric to potentially ruin, at considerable expense that was holding me back.  Its a lot of time and effort to put into something if you don't have (or like) the right material and good fabric cost lots of money.... Not having a pattern didn't help much and also to do the job right I knew it's not just about liking the fabric but also having lots of time, the inspiration, attitude and enthusiasm all on the same day - no mean feat!

I was fortunate when looking for fabric samples for college I came across a bolt of upholstery fabric I liked in a sale - Probably cheaper than your average good calico so thinking the worst here will be a practice run I bit the bullet and bought 15 metres - a guess as to how much I would need.  (spot on guess!)

To make myself feel better I got in touch with the original sofa manufacturers and got a quote for a new set of loose covers.  A mere £1200 -  It just made me more determined to do it myself!

Before - tired and grubby
The day arrived, all the requirements were in place even the zips!!! and three days of wrestling with unyielding fabric, many contemplative moments, mucho pinning inside out, rather unartistic drawings not to scale, big tacking, hesitation about cutting funny shapes -  gallons of tea (mostly cold) - a massive amount of patience, some - but not too much unpicking - for less then a £100 I have a rather lovely recovered sofa... A big departure from red which has been my 'colour' for ever and I need to do the scatter cushions - some time next week, I need a break - I've got quite a bad case of sewing machine elbow or something similar.

After - its me thats tired and grubby now!

Technically I saved myself about £1100 which  I should go and spend on myself ha ha!!
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  1. Unknown2 February 2017 at 12:27

    Wow!! That looks amaaaaazing! :) I love it! We've got an old rather tired-looking sofa... You could have inadvertently found yourself a new mini-money-spinner there! x

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    1. ruby starrs4 February 2017 at 13:25

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