Sewing Cushion Covers...at Last! And a New Sewing Storage Solution...(And New--Prayer Request for August)

I'm finally getting these done!  I have had so much to do this last summer that I thought I'd never get to work on Mom's cushions, but I have managed to sew a few more covers. 

This week is the first time that I did one of the large covers with inset zipper and folded flaps on the ends.  It turned out to be pretty easy to do.

I also cleaned out my sewing desk and drawer organizer. I hadn't straightened out this stuff since last October! 

With so much sewing on the horizon, I figured I had better get organized and decluttered again.  Don't you just love this tower drawer organizer?  I bought this from Wal-mart a long time ago and don't remember what I paid for it. But it's worth every penny!

What is it with me...is it nesting?...hurricane angst?...Fall friskies?? 

I don't know..maybe it's just that I've got most, though not all of the paperwork done for Dad and the house is showing again. Whatever it is, I've been straightening and decluttering everywhere.

You can see my projects hanging in the right hand corner. I'll be replacing a zipper in a pair of men's dress pants. I also have a couple of alterations to do and a 'sewing party' to organize for working on a ministry banner for a friend.

 

But for some reason, I just had to establish some order. I even worked out a laundry sorter in our very tiny laundry room!

But the first priority is these cushions. I'm getting quicker at these now that I've kind of figured out how to put these together. I had to do some hand-basting around the corners of my cushions near the zipper edge so it would stay together long enough to remove the cushion and sew everything in place by machine. But most of it is just pinning and stitching straight seams.

 

Hopefully, in the next few days I can show you how I installed this zipper and covered the big cushion. It's much more involved than the tutorial for the small cushion which you can see here.

I think that before the rush of the holidays (and certainly the hurricanes) is a great time to do some organizing and decluttering. Does the 'nesting' instinct ever hit you unexpectedly?

Happy Homemaking!

*******************************

News Flash on Grandbaby..

Dear Friends, We got a call from our son who said August was still having problems breathing at times and would we please come get Lena. He was pretty shook up and of course we drove like the wind to get her. They are at Texas Children's as we speak but we haven't heard from them yet. I'll be calling soon and we are going to take Lena up to see them here in an hour or so. Please keep August in your prayers. I'll let you know what's going on as soon as I can.

Love,

Donna

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Recovering Couch Cushions...

This was a 'fun' project! Well..sort of. It's a great challenge to recover a cushion..but it's a wee bit tedious too.

This next week, I'll be doing exactly that for my mom and sister for their second-hand couch purchased for their new house.  I'm not exactly looking forward to it, but I'll have fun posting pix of my progress over the next few days to help out the rest of you, if you are about to tackle a job like this and want to know what the pitfalls are.


I recovered this bay window cushion last spring, for a friend. Here is one end view.

1.The first step is to seam rip the whole original cover apart.
2. I used the pieces as a pattern to lay out on the new cloth.
3. I saved the zipper and piping to reuse. The hard part is figuring out how wide to cut the side strip to reapply the piping.


I measured out a strip that was the width plus 2" each for the upper and lower piping. You can take up any excess by folding it behind the piping and into the seam allowance. That allows for a perfect fit.


Adding the zipper was a bit of challenge. But not too hard.

This was the most difficult part..pinning and then sewing around tight thick corners.

Right end of cusion.

Left side. To smooth the ends, you can tuck in strips of batting. I didn't want to make it so tight that I couldn't get the cushion back in!

Well, I'll be sewing 5 large couch cushion covers and 4 small ones.  I should be the expert on this by the time I'm done!