18 April 2014

The Fabric that Keeps on Giving

Is it just me, or does anyone else have a piece of fabric that they just keep using up for random things, and it never seems to run out? I have one such piece of fabric, and there's actually a reason that this particular piece of fabric keeps on going. We bought about 10 metres of the stuff. Why you might ask? We had a sofa bed that needed a new lease on life, so I was going to make a slip cover to go over it and new cushion covers. Before I had a chance to sew it up though, we changed our minds and spent a small fortune having it re-upholstered, so instead of looking like an awkward brown lumpy chair (let's face it, that's what it would have looked like with a slip cover), we basically got a brand new sofa bed.

And I was left with the world's largest piece of upholstery weight brown drill fabric to add to the stash. We're talking something like 9 years now, and I still have over 5 metres left.
I've already made a peg bag, dirty washing bag, camping peg bag and head rests (they were actually covers for memory foam for clients to rest their heads on at a physio. So comfy, I should suggest this idea to my chiro!) There's probably been more, I just can't remember what.



My latest project from this fabric is chair covers. Near the end of last year we bought a new dining suite, and really don't trust little people who have a tendency to spill food and drink on the table, chairs, floor, anywhere really, and wipe their hands on whatever is handy. (This may be a bit harsh, it's mainly my almost 5 year old, and she doesn't do things like that very often).

Chair without cover
So, chair covers it is! The plan was to make enough so that all 8 chairs have covers, (or so there will always be two that are clean enough to be used), and I finished the first two at the end of December. And one of them got dirty finger marks on it the first time it was used. I completed the next two a couple of weeks ago, and managed to take some photos before the dreaded dirty finger marks appeared. The next four were completed in an afternoon when my husband asked if I could get them done before we had a house full of visitors coming. Mission accomplished!

Chair With cover

Gaping at back 
Minor gaping at side
I had been pondering what to do about the design so that there's no gaping at the back of the chair. The plan that I went with was to make them out of one piece (plus ties) so there weren't any seams along the top of the chair cushion. Other than adding darts at the back, seams along the back of the chair and a curved section to go down the back would seem to be the only other option to correct this. I decided that I'm fine with them how they are.

I've had this fabric lying around for so long, I guess I can call this a stash bust! More chair covers anyone?


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