First, I want to say that I am so excited to be able to do a guest post for Shaunna! I love her blog so much and I am so envious of her amazing talent! I can’t wait to visit the vault and see some of her work in person!
I hardly deserve a spot here, I just got lucky and happened to be the first one to post when she asked for guest bloggers. So here it goes…
I have finally finished my first slipcover!

Can you believe that is even the same chair? I was sort of shocked when I did the side-by-side comparison!
This has definitely been my biggest project undertaking thus far. Thank goodness for Miss Mustard Seed! I feel forever indebted to her and and her video tutorials! My Mom and my washable, blue, fabric marker deserve a shout out too – I couldn’t have completed this project without them either!
You can see the earlier chapters of Adventures in Slipcovering, where I show you the original chair, how I made new cushions and my prototype made from canvas drop cloth here, here and here.
Below is the first step of laying out the fabric and cutting the pieces.
I had a hard time pinning in some areas, especially the little crevices and around curves. Here is where my little blue marker was a lifesaver! For the crevices, I would push each piece of my fabric into the crease and draw a line with the marker. Then I would match up the two pieces and pin along the my blue line. On the cushions I used my marker to mark all the rounded corners because I found it impossible to make a straight pin form a rounded corner. How Miss Mustard Seed does this without a fabric marker I have no idea. She is magical.
See the faint blue lines below? It washes right out when you wash the slip cover. Or if you dab a little water on it.

Here is a close up of the front arm piece. It’s the only piece on the body of the chair that I piped. The piping and I did not get along. I didn’t have to use my seam ripper once during this project until I got to the piping. Ugghhh. I am glad I only piped the arms and the cushions. Any more piping and I would have thrown the whole chair and the slipcover through my dining room window. 

Here is the completed body of the slipcover (un-hemmed). I am really happy with the body. Much improved from my prototype, which I am so glad I did first. I really learned a lot and this second time around my seams met much smoother and the whole body just looked more neat and clean.

I did not do a prototype for my cushions for several reasons. 1) I ran out of drop cloth and 2) I have sewn pillows and I thought sewing cushion covers would be similar. Well, I guess they would have been without that darn piping! Looking back I wish I would have done a prototype. I think if I had, I would have decided to cut the size of my cushions down slightly before making my real slipcover.

Below is a picture with the top cushion. It’s just fits a little too tight on the sides. I knew it was a tight fit when I cut the foam, but I thought the covers would pull the foam in a little making a perfect fit. I was wrong. My cushion looks taller than the old one too. However, I traced the old cushion exactly so I don’t know how that happened.

Here it is. Finally complete – both cushions piped, skirted hemmed, all done.

This is not a perfect slipcover, by any means. There are a lot of mistakes. A LOT. And if I look at some of the details up close I see all the imperfections. But if I stand back and look at the big picture I am pretty pleased. Especially considering this is my first slipcover and really my first big sewing project. Before this, I was the girl who sewed so infrequently that I had to get my manual out every time I hemmed a pair of pants to remind myself how to thread the machine. 🙂

I was very nervous about matching up the pattern. Everyone says not to use a patterned fabric for your first slipcover. Luckily I think I picked the perfect pattern. It’s very forgiving when it came to matching. I really didn’t match up the pattern on any of my pieces, but I think the separate pieces blend well and I don’t feel like you can tell.

I am really happy with the back. I love the bows. I decided to go with this option because I thought it would make for a better fit and would be easier to take on and off when I have to wash it. And with a wild toddler in my home I definitely plan on washing it a lot.

The picture below is probably the most accurate, as far as color. Still not perfect, but better than the rest. 


And just for fun….the before and after one more time. 🙂


Next slipcovering project……my couch! Wish me luck!

I will be posting pics of the couch project so I hope some of you will follow along. You can find me at 1060bliss.blogspot.com

Thanks so much for giving me this opportunity Shaunna! I really appreciate it and I hope you are having a wonderful and safe trip in Honduras!

***********Thanks, Alima!  Totally my pleasure.   You’ve got some mad slipcovering skills…I’m jealous!  😉