If you are wondering what is happening here,
you may have not read
So, If you need to catch up,
go ahead and do that
HERE.
Ok, all caught up now?
On to Part 2!
After sewing the sofa arms,
my next step was to sew the sofa decking
(the part under the seat cushions)
to the seat front panel.
So I did that and laid the decking and front
panel piece back on the sofa face down.
Then I pinned the completed arm to the decking piece,
across the front of the arm, and across
the decking into the arm.
Do you remember how I left the piping long
on the outside of the front arm panel?
Well that is now pinned between the front panel and
side panel.
You can see where the yellow pin heads
are pinned in place.
I did this to the other arm as well, and
then took the arms and decking piece off
and sewed them together.
This shows the left arm sewn to the decking
and sofa front.
The next thing that has to happen is assembling the
seat back.
This sofa has a channeled or modified tight back.
This is different from a sofa that has removable cushions
for the back.
Because of the shape of this back,
it had to be made in 3 pieces and
sewn together.
I laid the fabric face down and then
pinned the tucks in place,
like the arms,
and then joined each piece with piping.
It is starting to look like a sofa at this point.
But the seat back is just tucked into the deck
and arms at this point.
Because the next step involves putting
zippers into the back panel.
I cut 2 pieces of the fabric
the height of the back of the sofa, by about 5 inches wide.
I stitched the zipper to the strips.
I stitched the other side of the zipper to the wide back panel piece.
With cut-to-size upholstery zipper,
you need to make sure you tack or finish
off the bottom so that you don't
accidentally zip the head off.
I took two little scraps and sewed them to the ends.
Then I pinned the back zippered panel in place,
pulling in folds to cover the zippers.
After I got the zippers sewn on to each side of the back panel,
I pinned it, wrong side out,
to the seat back.
The seat back wrapped all the way over the
top to the back.
Then I sewed that in place.
The pieces are getting heavy now,
with as much fabric as I am wrestling.
As each piece is joined with piping,
it is really starting to have a finished look in places.
The back zippers are hidden in the folds of fabric.
So now I have the slipcover in two pieces.
The seat back is sewn to the zippered back,
and the seat deck is sewn to the arms and front panel.
(sorry this one is so blurry)
This is where it starts to get a bit crazy!
I turned both pieces wrong side up again,
so I could pin them together and
figure out that little side panel.
I decided to sew the back piece to the
side panels so that I had a better fit
while wrangling those little side panels.
Just like the arm fronts and seat back,
these little side panels needed
to have tiny pleats where the back
connected.
So I pinned those pleats in place and tacked them down.
Believe it or not,
these little panels are the smallest
pieces in the whole sofa,
yet they caused me the most concern.
I cut the rectangles much larger and then
pinned them in place and started cutting around
to get the shape.
I was concerned that
the grain would get all wonky.
(like my technical term?)
But then I sewed those in place.
And then it was time to connect the back pieces
to the arm/deck/front pieces.
This is a picture of the excess fabric
of the arms and seat back that tuck
into the joint of the sofa.
This is what makes a nice tight, smooth look.
This is a HUGE pile of fabric to wrestle under
into my machine!
But it was worth it!
Success!!!
I love how the little side panel fit
to the rest of the cover.
The seam is tucked into the arm joint.
And the back fits nice and tight
to the side and arm panel.
At this point, I decided I wanted a ruffled skirt
all the way around the sofa.
So I measured the size I wanted the
ruffle to be, and then drew
a line all the way around the slipcover
based on that distance from the floor.
Then I pinned the piping all around the sofa.
I added up the measurements of the
circumference of the sofa.
Because the back was separated from the front and
sides, by zippers,
the ruffle had to be in two pieces.
I figured I wanted the ruffle to be roughly
2.5 times the width of the sofa, for fullness.
So for the back, the measurement was
75"x2.5= 187.5.
The fabric was 54" wide,
and I wanted to use full widths.
So, I could have used 3 or 4 widths
for the back.
I decided to round up and use 4 widths.
The front and sides ruffle ended up
being 7 widths.
So I cut 11 widths,
allowing 2 extra inches in depth
for hem and gathering at the seam allowance.
I pinned all the pieces together,
matching the design at seams.
Then I hemmed the ruffle pieces and
zig-zagged over fishing line for the gathering.
Fishing line gathers are so much easier to handle
for bulky fabric.
Then I sewed all that piping onto the slipcover.
Then I pinned and gathered
that ruffle to the slipcover,
right below the piping.
go ahead and do that
HERE.
Ok, all caught up now?
On to Part 2!
After sewing the sofa arms,
my next step was to sew the sofa decking
(the part under the seat cushions)
to the seat front panel.
So I did that and laid the decking and front
panel piece back on the sofa face down.
Then I pinned the completed arm to the decking piece,
across the front of the arm, and across
the decking into the arm.
Do you remember how I left the piping long
on the outside of the front arm panel?
Well that is now pinned between the front panel and
side panel.
You can see where the yellow pin heads
are pinned in place.
I did this to the other arm as well, and
then took the arms and decking piece off
and sewed them together.
This shows the left arm sewn to the decking
and sofa front.
The next thing that has to happen is assembling the
seat back.
This sofa has a channeled or modified tight back.
This is different from a sofa that has removable cushions
for the back.
Because of the shape of this back,
it had to be made in 3 pieces and
sewn together.
I laid the fabric face down and then
pinned the tucks in place,
like the arms,
and then joined each piece with piping.
It is starting to look like a sofa at this point.
But the seat back is just tucked into the deck
and arms at this point.
Because the next step involves putting
zippers into the back panel.
This is a roll of cut to size upholstery zipper.
it is a roll of zipper tape and several
zipper heads.
the height of the back of the sofa, by about 5 inches wide.
I stitched the zipper to the strips.
I stitched the other side of the zipper to the wide back panel piece.
With cut-to-size upholstery zipper,
you need to make sure you tack or finish
off the bottom so that you don't
accidentally zip the head off.
I took two little scraps and sewed them to the ends.
Then I pinned the back zippered panel in place,
pulling in folds to cover the zippers.
After I got the zippers sewn on to each side of the back panel,
I pinned it, wrong side out,
to the seat back.
The seat back wrapped all the way over the
top to the back.
Then I sewed that in place.
The pieces are getting heavy now,
with as much fabric as I am wrestling.
it is really starting to have a finished look in places.
The back zippers are hidden in the folds of fabric.
So now I have the slipcover in two pieces.
The seat back is sewn to the zippered back,
and the seat deck is sewn to the arms and front panel.
(sorry this one is so blurry)
This is where it starts to get a bit crazy!
I turned both pieces wrong side up again,
so I could pin them together and
figure out that little side panel.
I decided to sew the back piece to the
side panels so that I had a better fit
while wrangling those little side panels.
Just like the arm fronts and seat back,
these little side panels needed
to have tiny pleats where the back
connected.
So I pinned those pleats in place and tacked them down.
Believe it or not,
these little panels are the smallest
pieces in the whole sofa,
yet they caused me the most concern.
I cut the rectangles much larger and then
pinned them in place and started cutting around
to get the shape.
I was concerned that
the grain would get all wonky.
(like my technical term?)
But then I sewed those in place.
And then it was time to connect the back pieces
to the arm/deck/front pieces.
This is a picture of the excess fabric
of the arms and seat back that tuck
into the joint of the sofa.
This is what makes a nice tight, smooth look.
This is a HUGE pile of fabric to wrestle under
into my machine!
But it was worth it!
Success!!!
I love how the little side panel fit
to the rest of the cover.
The seam is tucked into the arm joint.
And the back fits nice and tight
to the side and arm panel.
At this point, I decided I wanted a ruffled skirt
all the way around the sofa.
So I measured the size I wanted the
ruffle to be, and then drew
a line all the way around the slipcover
based on that distance from the floor.
Then I pinned the piping all around the sofa.
circumference of the sofa.
Because the back was separated from the front and
sides, by zippers,
the ruffle had to be in two pieces.
I figured I wanted the ruffle to be roughly
2.5 times the width of the sofa, for fullness.
So for the back, the measurement was
75"x2.5= 187.5.
The fabric was 54" wide,
and I wanted to use full widths.
So, I could have used 3 or 4 widths
for the back.
I decided to round up and use 4 widths.
The front and sides ruffle ended up
being 7 widths.
So I cut 11 widths,
allowing 2 extra inches in depth
for hem and gathering at the seam allowance.
I pinned all the pieces together,
matching the design at seams.
Then I hemmed the ruffle pieces and
zig-zagged over fishing line for the gathering.
Fishing line gathers are so much easier to handle
for bulky fabric.
Then I sewed all that piping onto the slipcover.
Then I pinned and gathered
that ruffle to the slipcover,
right below the piping.
Next, I sewed it all down.
Did I mention that it was getting
really heavy to sew?
I folded back the selvage at the zipper
for a smooth edge.
Yes, I used a contrast thread
for zigzagging over the fishing line for the gathering.
I often use up old spools of thread
for gathering so I don't waste my
matching thread.
Now it looks almost complete!
I am in love!!
This is where the sofa back joins the rest of the
slipcover.
All that is left to sew now,
are the 3 seat cushions!
Yahoooooo!!!!!
I will post those photos in a day or so.
Happy Sewing!
Sivje
No comments:
Post a Comment