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I finally finished sewing my slipcover for my yard sale find and I have decided that I will never, ever, ever, ever, EVER sew a slipcover ever again.  It was a challenge! But, look how it turned out…

Hello beautiful!

My $20 yard sale wing back chair finally has the dress she deserves.  I knew she could be gorgeous!! In case you’ve forgotten, this is her before:

This is my inspiration photo.

I’m embarrassed to admit the number of hours I dedicated to sewing the slipcover but once I got started, I just had to finish.  I don’t have a designated sewing or craft room so once I got out the sewing machine, the ironing board, the iron and a zillion sewing supplies, I felt driven to just get it over with.  I also have a puppy, Boo, who chews everything so I couldn’t leave my supplies out for too long.  I set up shop in my dining room after Easter lunch and dove in.  (My dining room table is used more for crafting than eating.  Anyone else relate??)

I found a great tutorial from Remodelaholic that really helped me.  If you would like to sew your own slipcover, this is a great place to start.  I don’t feel confident in my sewing abilities to give you my own tutorial especially since several of my steps would include to pray and/or cross your fingers that it works out.  Because that’s what I did.  A LOT!  If you look real close at my slipcover, you can probably see those moments.

I used 2 dropcloths to make the slipcover.  I have some fabric leftover but I definitely needed both packs.  I bought my dropcloths at Wal Mart ($9.97 each) and they looked like this:

After I first wrote about this project, I had some questions about how the dropcloth feels – was it too heavy, was it scratchy, etc. But I think it feels like a nubby linen, if that makes any sense.  It did have a tendency to get really stringy when I cut it, but I tried to be super careful.  Ya’ know.  In between all that praying.

The trickiest part for me wasn’t the cutting of each piece (like a puzzle) but sewing it all together.  I had the most difficulty on the front of each of the curvy arms.  If my chair had square arms, this would have been much easier, but those curves killed me.  I remember an especially low time…I started singing “Hakuna Matata” to keep my spirits up but it creeped out my kiddos.  I must be a horrible singer.

Finally, at around 10pm on the Monday after Easter, I finished.  I danced.  I high fived myself.  And I sat in my chair! Ahhh…

Now, my blank space isn’t so empty anymore.  I still need a lamp because I am really excited to curl up with a good book and read right here.   I also need to decorate the walls behind it, but for now, I am happy to be done.

So, I started off this blog post by saying that I will never, ever, ever sew a slipcover again! Buuuttttt ….this might be like childbirth.  I may forget the pain after looking at this beautiful chair for long enough and get lulled by another yard sale find looking for love.  I just hope it doesn’t happen again soon!

Thanks for reading! If you need me, I’ll be in chair.