Masculine to Feminine

Are you ready for the some-what reupholstering results?  Hope you haven't lost sleep waiting for the reveal.  

When I am working on something I have never attempted before, I must confess that some nights I do go to bed thinking about possible techniques or applications. Fortunately though, I haven't succumbed to dreaming about straight pins, or paint brushes or fabric swatches yet.  Amen!

Now, where did I leave you yesterday?  Oh yes, with an image of Big Mr. Brown soon becoming Little Miss White.

I purchased a cotton twill slipcover made for a more tailored sofa and tried to custom fit it to our puffy, comfy, overstuffed couch.  

Needless to say, it didn't really work.  So I took off the sofa"s three seat cushions, placed the slipcover,  on, inside out,  and began tucking in the excess...  

 

and ripping out seams where it was too tight.

I cut off excess material and pinned new seam lines together, following the contour of the arms and side panels.

After I had pinned the entire slipcover inside out to the sofa, I gingerly removed it and took it to the sewing machine - aka: operating room for what I hoped would become a firmer, new skin.

Another fitting showed areas where a few more nips and tucks were needed and then a trip back to the sewing machine for another operation.  It took three more fittings and three more operations before the first phase was complete.

After the fourth fitting, this time with the three seat cushions in place, I was satisfied enough to continue with the cushions.  

I didn't have any more slipcover material.  But I did have a throw that I had purchased at IKEA months earlier.  It was an open weave knit, revealing more of the brown color of the cushions than i wanted.

So I made a large pillow case for all three cushions out of an old ivory colored sheet.  I then placed the cushions inside and put them on the sofa.  I wrapped the IKEA throw over the sheet-covered cushions like I was wrapping a present.  

It turned out better than I thought and looks like it could be an inherited french country sofa, which matches the new dining area better than did comfy, masculine, Mr. Brown.

A few home-made pillows and masculine leather...

was transgendered to linen-look luxe.

Some of you may be asking, "Why?  Why did she go to all that trouble to change a perfectly great sofa, that looked really good to a sofa that looks okay?"

I have only one answer. "Because I can."  And as long as I can move my hands, work my brain and piddle in my home, I will change things up."  Who knows linen may make a change back to leather in a year or so (or a few months).

There's nothing I like more than digging through my stash of ribbons, material and odds and ends to create something new out of something old.  

That's how I made the pillows.  And yes, He-man made the amazing hollowed stump table sitting in front of the slip covered sofa.  But both of those are subjects for another post.

I hope today is a day that gives you satisfaction through your persistent effort.  I hope you are able to transform a problem or a challenge into something lighter.  I hope you like what you do (or did).

50. I am grateful for freedom to create.

Yaya