Making a Settee Cover, Part 1

Today I thought I’d share the sofa cover I am starting for one of our living room’s settees.  Perhaps you have thought about doing the same with your favorite, comfortable but worn sofa!  Well, they aren’t that difficult to do.  🙂

Start by taking your sofa’s measurements.  Draw pictures on paper of your sofa and put all of the sofa’s measurements. These details may seem very simplistic, but I find that many things my daughter and I try to create from the internet aren’t detailed enough.       (upper photo)

Measure twice — As the old saying goes before you decide to start cutting.  I bleached a super large painter’s drop cloth from a big box building supply store, the 9′ x 12′ one, specifically for this project.  This took about two days to get it to bleach out enough.  After I get it all sewed together, I may bleach it again.  

I am trying for a Shabby Chic white-look.  These canvas cloths are tough, a whole lot of fabric and the cost is Perfect!  Just over $20.

1. Look at your cloth and drape over your sofa.  Check the cloth’s parts for where the stretch is in each section. If the cloth has odd pieces sewn-in to “fill in” to make the drop cloth the right size, check all of the pieces.  
2. My cloth’s “extra piece” was rail-roaded, which means it was turned sideways and sewn in.  Cloth has vertical, non-stretch warp and that’s the part you want going “up” on most of the parts of your sofa, if that makes sense. Warp helps the fabric keep its shape. The stretchy, sideways weft is what you want going “around” the sofa, and over the curving arm-parts. The weft is what will “give” so that it can cover the sofa appropriately when put on. 

1. Creating the pattern — So, as you go to cut your pieces out, you are creating the pattern right on the sofa.  I like to begin with the seat deck (take off the pillows and cushion, obviously).  My fabric had a seam running through the length of it horizontally.  This was perfect for the stretch to run sideways,  so I used that seam to “tuck in” at the back where the seat deck meets the front sofa-back.  This saved on sewing as the seam was already done!  (see 2nd and 4th photos above)
2. Cut out around the sofa’s arms on this first cut piece. Leave a seam allowance of the standard 5/8″, or as I learned from my tailoring instructor in college, you can just take a 1/2″ allowance on all of your pieces.  Up to you what you prefer. (see Sofa-Deck, front photo — the second photo down)

  

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