Emily takes on a sewing machine

Our sofa has been driving me crazy. B's brother and sister-in-law passed their old sofa down to us. It's very comfortable, and it's long enough for B to take an afternoon nap on during football, so it meets his criteria. The fabric on the sofa is a faded denim, and it has some stains, which are, without a doubt, a result of the parties B threw at their house while "housesitting" when he was in high school.

So, when we moved into our house a year ago, knowing we were inheriting the party couch, I ordered a slipcover from SureFit. It was hard to find one in stores due to the T-Cushions that were, and have rebecome my arch enemy. I wanted a separate seat slipcover, but those are expensive, and they don't come in my favorite colors, so I went with the cotton duck one piece in natural. Now, this decision was kind of like choosing to wear your one piece racing suit to the 8th grade pool party instead of your bikini - it leaves you dateless, looking shabby and just a little uncool.

And I have loathed it since the day I put it on the sofa. It comes un-tucked the second anyone sits down, the back pulls up and stretches, it's been a long year of battle between Mr. B (the expert tucker-inner) and the slipcover.

Here are some Befores, which unfortunately don't show how awful it could get, since I usually did some tucking before taking photos:

This is the best I've got to show you how disheveled things got:Sooo, I found instructions on how to make a slipcover. And I thought to myself, "Hey, I've never really sewed anything, but why couldn't I sew a slipcover for a full sized, extra deep sofa?" I've clearly been duped into thinking that DIY is easy by all my crafty blog friends - and the This Young House DIY phenoms. So I took myself to the fabric section of Walmart - because they sell cotton duck on the cheap, as my instructions pointed out - and while there I thought, "Hey, if I buy it in natural, then it will match the slipcover I already have, so I'll only have to make slipcovers for the pillows and cushions".

So I bought 8 yards of cotton duck in natural, took it home, and started with the back pillows. Easy shmeasy. I cranked them out in about 4 broken needles and 2 hours (I had to learn how to use the machine, cut me some slack). I was hooked on my "craftiness". So the next night, I decided to tackle the seat cushions. Whew. I now know why they charge so much for custom slipcovers now. All in all, I'd say it took about 5 hours, but I'm a novice seamstress. And very proud of myself.

It's definitely not perfect, but this is a blog about imperfection, so really, you'd have to ask me to step down if the slipcover was perfect, right?

Still working on the throw pillows, I'll report back.

I used the old slipcover to cover the frame of the sofa, and, because it's faded over the course of the year we've had it, I tossed the new covers in the wash on sanitary cycle with a teeny bit of bleach. Then I put the covers on the old cushions, tossed them on top of the slipcover and called it good. The sun will have to do the rest of the bleaching so that it's a perfect match, but it's good enough for me for now. It's messy, I need to take an iron to the cushions again, but they don't come untucked, so I'm a happy camper.

This $47 solution is the closest I'm going to get my Crate and Barrel dream sofa for awhile (thanks a lot roof leak and car accident), and I'm just so darn proud of myself for finishing the project.

Wanna tackle this yourself? Here are the fantastic instructions (and a really cute blog, you might want to Google Reader it like I did). Let me know if you try it, I'd love to see the results.