Thursday, June 3, 2010

Progress on the couch

The actual couch portion of the slipcover didn't take me too long and I think it turned out fantastic! The seat cushions, however, are way more time consuming! I've been working on one this afternoon. ONE. It's done, minus the closure (and I haven't decided how I'm going to close it). Sean thinks that I should close the backs with snaps, but I can seem to find the actual snap press to do so. I'm sure I'll find it, it's just that currently my sewing stuff is in two different rooms (well three, since I took over the dining room too!). :P





Each seat cushion has been double stitched, which also adds to the time investment per seat cushion. I'm sure being as it was the first one, made it take longer as well.

I think I'm going to work on the back cushions next because I think they'll go way quicker than the seat cushions and at least I'll feel like I've gotten more accomplished!

Please ignore the fabric mess in the second picture. :) I'm still working now and that's my great cutting surface - the floor. ;)

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

A project finished

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Slightly under nine years ago, Sean and his dad built a new porch, really small, just to enter and exit the kitchen because the cement stairs there at the time were just not cutting it (no hand rail, not even, separating from the door, etc). Well, they built the stairs and they built the floor, but never put any side rails on it. With Nora, she always stayed close and we never had any fears of her jumping. But, with Josh, well, we did. So, Sean finally built the rails to surround the porch. It's fantastic, now I don't need to wonder where Josh is while trying to unlock the door! Now he just needs to build a nice handrail to match!


In the next few days, I'll have some pictures of the basement - as we've been working down there as well. All we're working on is walls and floors, not getting too fancy with a ceiling or anything. ;) We've set him up an office, just in case he gets a job working from home (and also to get all his stuff in one place - anyone with a husband in the IT field can understand that you have lots of crap, particularly if he does both hardware and software). We're also going to work on the main area in the basement, tossing up a few walls (to block off the sump pump, water heater and furnace) and finish painting walls and floors.

So there's a party going on....

And it's for the ugliest couch. I'm pretty sure that I've e got it. The thing about this ugly couch? It's so comfortable. I adore it for it's comfortableness. It's also very old, it was Sean's great Aunt and Uncle's couch. It's solid. None of that cheap crap that they make today, kwim?

So, what makes it so ugly? Well, clearly the pattern is old and dated. I'm sure it was fantastic during it's prime. Also, notice that it's white? Well, it should be white, I know, it's pretty dirty. We used to have a 90 pound black lab that would jump on the couch - especially when the couch was in front of the front window because then he could see (and bark at) his squirrel friends. Add in a few kids and well, the couch is now stained and even torn (part dog, part kids). But there are parts that are worn through (like on the arms) that clearly were not caused by kids or dogs, but rather, probably just age of the material. We try to position the torn cushions upside down so that it doesn't look totally hideous, but if the kids put it back together (because the love tearing it all apart), you never know what you'll walk into.

Here it is.


The torn arm.



Notice the marker here?


And the many tears....




It might be the last time anyone sees the ugliness though, since I bought some fabric yesterday for a slipcover. I'll be slipcovering the main part of the couch and also making individual cushions. Everything will be removable, because, as most of my momma friends can attest to, kids make messes. ;)