The Couch, How It Ended
It’s taken me as long to finish writing about The Couch as it did to make it. Not really, but it has been a few months. Here’s how it all went down…
Stripping: 10.5 hours; Easy, messy, fun for the first few hours; Important to remove every nail and staple to insure solid stapling later; Found coins from as far back as the 1950s, Doritos, stickers, and this dirty, eyeless Santa eraser
His home is on my monitor stand now.
Spring Tying: 2.5 hours; Very important in order to make the shape of the seat back perfect and solid
Arm Shaping: 6 hours; Necessary for modernizing the overall look; Made it up as I went along
(Black walnut sawhorses handmade by Dad)
Shims, 2x4s, nails, screws, glue, probably a little bit of blood
Felt & Burlap Layers: 2.5 hours; Creates stability between frame and foam; Easy and fun
Foam, Cotton, & Muslin Layers: 7.5 hours; Foam and cotton create the real body of the couch and must be done with the exact results in mind; Muslin help smooths everything like a corset; Drew with chalk and sharpies to get the staple and piping lines symmetrical and in the right places
Against the far wall of a 2-car garage, zoomed all the way, and the couch still doesn't fit!
Sharpie Magic!
Fabric Cutting: 2 hours; This is only counting the actual cutting of each piece; Not counted are the hours where I laid the fabric out, measured, thought, planned, measured again before ever getting to the cutting
Welt Cord: 2 hours; Just sewing the yards and yards of piping to go around the yards and yards of sofa
Fabric Application: 15.5 hours; I sewed 3 pieces together with piping in between for the seat, 3 similar for the seat back, and another 3 for the outside back; Keeping the pieces as straight and pucker-free as possible was crucial because everything shows up in the finished product; These 3-piece panels weighed about two tons and were like wrestling an anaconda; Stuffing the fabric between the seat and the seat back made me cry once and fear the possibility of breaking bones due to the tight fit of all parts; Glue is used in two places; The arms are my proudest accomplishment; Fabric app was definitely the hardest part
Excellent color choice!
Excellent stapling skills!
The last of the hard stuff.
Finishing: 2.5 hours; Dust cover application met with a huge sigh of relief and disbelief that I was actually done; Scrubbed the brass of the feet to a shine; Stood the monster upright, climbed up on it for a rest, and then looked at it every day until delivery
And the final product in its new home. So pretty, so cool, so glad I’m done.
Note the pillow made from The Couch's previous hide.
Themocracy
The finished couch looks amazing! I’m so impressed with your upholstery skills.
OMG! This couch looks aMAZing. wow. You make it look so easy! The hubs & I are planning to reupholster an arm chair & I’m fairly confident we can do it, but reading how LONG every step took you is making me a bit scared…
My. God.
You know when someone is explaining a project to you and you’re all, “Sure, yeah, I get that” but you really don’t? Well, now I do and I think you are very modest in your approach. You kicked this couches’ ass. Great job!
ditto what Erica said. mega ditto!
AWE.SOME.