Crest of the wave

What a week! First I win the #simplicitybloggerchallenge (have I mentioned that yet?!), then I successfully complete a really quick, easy and effective sewing project. I've made a new cover for my IKEA POANG chair. You know these beauts? They're cheap, comfy and not all that ugly. A lot of people I know have one. Our's was plain and looking a bit tired. I should've taken a 'before' photo, but I forgot. So you'll have to imagine it ...  it was beige-tactic, accented with a few unidentified stains.

And now it looks like this!!!

Wowser! I am so please with the result. The key is, of course, the A-MAZING fabric. It's a cotton canvas from Fabric Rehab (again!! - they are fast becoming my absolute favourite). You can find it here. Unlike that stretchy jersey that I tried to make a dress out of a few weeks back, I absolutely nailed the fabric choice here. It looks stunning, it's comfy to sit on and I'm pretty sure it will be hard wearing. 

So, how did I achieve this transformation? Firstly, it was super easy, so I shouldn't gloat too much. I based it on the step by step instructions in this  blog from Stickleberry (thank you!), but I changed it up just a bit so that I could use a plain fabric on the back. You see, my theory is that this project needs an amazing fabric (otherwise you might as well just buy a new cover from IKEA). But amazing fabric is expensive. Sooooo, I wanted to use the patterned canvas for the front, and then finish the back with plain cotton. That cut the cost of the fabric by about a third, so it was well worth doing. BUT, there are a few important measurements to keep in mind if you want to do the same. I'll highlight them below...

I didn't take any photos of the process as I went along, so I've drawn seem diagrams instead. This was a really fun to do, so I might do it for more of my blog posts in the future. Let me know if you like it -or if you hate it I suppose. But don't be too mean!

Step 1 : Measure your existing cushion and cut out your fabric

The important thing here was to make sure that I had enough patterned fabric to wrap around the head-rest and down the back of the cushion a little way. I nearly messed up here and had to sew an extra rectangle of fabric onto mine - fortunately you don't notice it  now it's finished. I allowed an extra 4cm at the end of each piece, so that the ends that would be eventually exposed could be hemmed neatly. Then I inclded 2cm everywhere else as a seam allowance. This is a generous seam allowance, but I wanted to play it safe to accommodate any measuring mistakes!

You should also allow enough plain fabric for there to be an overlap once your cover is finished. 

Step 2: Sew fabric together

This step is easy - I just had to sew the two ends of the fabric together! That's it. 

Step 3 : Put cushion on top of fabric

This is easy too. I laid the existing cushion on top of the fabric, with the  right side of the fabric and the back of the cushion both was facing up towards me. The important thing here was to get everything lined up right so that the fabric would wrap around far enough at the top and the bottom of the cushion.





































Step 4 : Wrap fabric around cushion 

So now I could wrap the fabric around the cushion. I tried to make it as tight and even as possible. I then pinned the layers together from the bottom fold to the point where the two fabrics overlapped. 

Step 5 : Velcro

Next, I took a piece of velcro and pinned it in place on the right side of the fabric - making sure that it will be able to attach to the corresponding velcro on the existing chair. 

Step 6 : Remove cushion and sew

That's almost all there was to it. The next step was to remove the cushion and stitch up the part that I had pinned together (i.e. from the bottom to the overlap). Then I pinned together the top bits and sewed them together.

Step 7 : 'Clip and sew' the corners

So that the cover would sit neatly around the curved corners of the existing cushion, I stitched diagonal lines across each corner, and then clipped them just outside this line. Apparently shearing scissors are the best tool for this job, but I don't have any. So I cut a straight line and then zig zag stitched along it with the overlocker foot.

Step 8: Stuff your cushion in

Then a bit of  a press and that was it. I stuffed the cushion into the cover and I was done. BOOM!

Fanfare Please...

So this is a blog post I never thought I'd need to write. 

Do you remember the Simplicity Blogger Challenge I entered a couple of months ago? Well, they announced the winners today and ...  quite unbelievably ... I only flippin' well went and won the newcomer category! I'm not really sure what else to say about it. I'm completely flabbergasted and really grateful. It's given me the kick up the ar$e I needed to keep on sewing and keep on blogging!  I'll admit that the summer sun and my enthusiasm for the new garden have somewhat distracted me lately. As  result, my output has been - let's say - 'found wanting' lately. Well, not anymore! Time to put this renewed vigour into action!!! I'm working on a new post as we speak - and trying out a new approach to the way I present my blogs. Watch this space...