Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Slip-covering the cats' chair


 Umteen thousand years ago, a relative of mine worked at a fancy furniture store and several very nice pieces entered the family.    Over the generations, they have been abused, by children and pets alike, and a rather battered arm chair, with good bones, has come to rest in my apartment.     It still has its original covers, but has spent the last 30ish years with a pink corduroy cover that I've never really liked.
fort cat-beast
Until I took the pictures for this post, I didn't realize just how much time the cats had taken to spending sitting in it.   So.... I guess it is now mentally tagged as theirs (although I reserve the right to nudge them aside and lounge there myself, as it is really very comfortable.)   


scissors for scale

In my continuing adventures in stash-busting, I chose a thick purple denim-ish woven that has been kicking its heels up for years --- and it was just barely enough.   The scraps above are all that I had left after cutting the pieces out.

                                     
slicing and chopping to get it all in the fabric available...

As the original slip cover never quite fit correctly (sorry Mom)  - I decided to start from scratch - and measured every part of the chair, added some ease, and cut out the shapes and just started pinning them in place
She knows it sets her fur off nicely

I've been working my way along the seams, pulling them tight, pinning everything in place, and sewing them down.

Pudgo here likes to pull out pins.  

 To get around flipping and whatnot, as I had the right side out when I pinned everything to the chair, I'm doing french seams on everything.   After marking where I want the final seam to go, I've been marking 5/8" up, sewing that as my inner, trimming, flipping and generally frenchifying the slip cover as I go.

math!

As it stands, I have the main body and each arm put together.   I still need to add the sides and pull it all in, so it looks neat and tight, rather than the floppy mess currently acting as the focal point of my living room days before my housewarming this weekend.   So, no pressure.  Not like basically everyone I know is going to come over and ask me if I made it. Nope.  Not at all.

it looks so much better in person
T-4 days until the ravening hoard arrives and the chair must be finished....

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