Simply Stephanie

Simply Stephanie

Monday, October 27, 2014

As ye sew, so shall ye rip

  Sewing was never something I was taught. It was something I had seen my mother do, something many women in my church growing up had done, but never something I was really interested in. Until about three years ago.

  I was in need of some skirts and I didn't have the money to buy them. My sister-in-law said she knew a lady who could turn old jeans into jean skirts. "How hard could that be?" was my thought. So a few youtube tutorials, my mother's old sewing machine, and a couple of pairs Goodwill jeans later I was making skirts for myself. From there, I moved on to taking in some clothes that were too big, and I was pretty proud of myself considering no had ever really taught me.

  That was all about three years ago. Since then, my mother-in-law gave me my own sewing machine for Christmas last year and I have done a few simple projects. A couple of skirts from Pinterest tutorials, and some hemming, but nothing too major. Then came the big idea!

  I have these two over sized chairs in my living room. Isn't that fabric absolutely lovely???
Ya, not really. Well, buying new chairs is financially out of the question, being that we're taking this survey trip and having a baby and all. However, a lady in our church has some experience re-upholstering furniture, and she agreed to help me with these two chairs. How great is that? All I have to pay for is new fabric; and by new fabric I mean, we're using creme colored painters tarps. It looks better than it sounds, you'll just have to trust me.

  She did warn me that it would be time consuming; and it definitely has been! I thought the worst part would be taking the old fabric off; and by the way, it's certainly not the fun part. Sadly, that's not the worst part. The worst part is when you have to sew the new fabric pieces together to be put on the chair. Again, my thoughts were "How hard could it be?".

  Turns out, it's a lot harder than it sounds. The sewing skills that I thought I had back then are really not all that phenomenal, I'm finding out. Piping - well, my advice is, don't use it unless you absolutely have to because I did a lot of ripping out what I had sewn during the piping phase. Cushion covers - never seem to fit the cushion right no matter how many times you have redone them. Pleating - I lucked out and happened to get it right the first try. Thank goodness!!!

  So what is the fun part, you may ask. Well, I'm guessing it's putting the chair back together, or just enjoying the finished product, but I haven't gotten that far yet. I guess I'll have to let you know if and when I can actually make this cushion cover fit the cushion. Till then, I have some more ripping to do.


 





2 comments:

  1. Sounds like so much fun! I don't envy you at all. Ilove your title, by the way! :)

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  2. I never thought it was fair that you could teach yourself to sew while I couldn't manage it, even with lessons! : ) Can't wait to see the finished project!

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