A Drop Cloth Slipcover

This is a post from last fall that I am linking to Pink and Polka Dot's

Thanks for hosting!!!

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If you have followed my blog any this summer, you know that I have become a drop cloth connoisseur and have found many uses for this splendid and inexpensive material.

I showed you the drop cloth curtains I made for my kitchen.

You can read more about them here.

And then I promised you I would show you how I made my drop cloth slipcover for my wingback chair.

I finished it the first week of August, but that is the same week that we found out Mom had cancer, and life was put on hold. And though life changed drastically for my family in the weeks to come, those weeks quickly became the most treasured moments of my life.

Mom is the one who taught me how to sew, though I will never be the seamstress she was. She could sew anything…she could sew professionally.

I am not a professional.

WARNING:

If you are a professional seamstress, I would like to suggest that you stop reading this post immediately.

If you chose to ignore my warning, the following may occur:

Headaches, nausea, loss of breath, light-headedness, weakness in the knees, swelling of the ankles, dry mouth, watery eyes, vomiting and diarrhea.

If any of the above symptoms last for more than an hour, please consult your physician.
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Now for the rest of us….

This was the wing back chair that my mom gave me to slip cover. She had been storing it in her basement, but since she wasn’t using it, she wanted to give it to me.

Since drop cloths are so inexpensive, and I like their texture, I decided to use them to slipcover the chair.

I will try to explain how I slipcovered the chair, but please keep your expectations low…

First of all, I look at the chair like a puzzle. The seams on the chair outline each piece of the puzzle.

So I take my material and lay it over the piece of the chair I want to make a pattern of, and I use a pencil to draw a line where the seam is.

This is how I did it on the front of the arm.

Then I cut about 1/2 inch around the pencil mark for the seam allowance. It doesn’t have to be perfect because slipcovers aren’t perfect. They are supposed to look a little messy!

Then I repeated the same process on the wings of the chair, the front, the back, and so on….

Then I sewed the pieces together to create the slipcover.

I took the slipcover off and on a hundred times checking to see if it “fit” each time I sewed on another piece.

I did use cording on some parts of the chair, but you wouldn’t even have to do that.

(And I forgot to take pictures of how to make the cording. Sorry.)

For the skirt, I just measured across the bottom of the chair to see how wide the skirt needed to be, and I measured down to see how long I wanted it to be.

Then I just cut a rectangular shape using those measurements, cutting about 1/2 inch more around each side for the hems.

I cut a little flap to go on the corners under the front skirt pieces.

Yes, I haven’t trimmed the thread yet…

This is what the inside of the chair looked like when I was finished. I just used some leftover white canvas material that I already had for the seat.

I got real fancy-smancy on the back…with velcro!

I put velcro on the back to make it slip on and off easier. (Pay no attention to the mess in the corner or the exposed insulation in our kitchen. Did you hear about my unexpected kitchen renovation? If not, click here.)

I secured the material even better with an hook and eye.

Sorry for the blurred picture.

I didn’t worry about how it looked because this side of the chair is up against the wall!

I also used velcro for the back of the seat cushion, instead of a zipper. It’s sooooo much easier. I’m not a zipper-gal.

So, there you have it! Clear as mud????

I think it turned out great!

I washed it for the first time today, and it didn’t fall apart! Yeah!

It has actually stayed pretty clean considering the fact that four little dirty boys have been sitting in it for a couple of months.

And if the material gets ruined by one of my boys (which is pretty much a guarantee), I won’t be too upset because it cost me less than $20.00 to create. Minus the HOURS of sweet precious time it took me to make it.

Okay. I would be upset!

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I am linking this post to some great blogs, so go check them out!

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

DIY day at A Soft Place to Land (Tuesday)

Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage

Blessings,

Kitchen Curtains

*****This post was edited to add to Funky Junk Interiors' Saturday Nite Special. Go check out the fun!

I spent several months this summer trying to find some curtains for my kitchen windows.

I knew that I wanted floor length panels, but I wasn’t sure what type of material I wanted. I thought about black and white buffalo check, but was afraid that would be too bold.

I wanted something more subtle.

I had in the back of my mind some curtains I had seen in blog land. They were made of drop cloths, and I thought they were beautiful.

The first ones I saw were at Layla’s blog, The Lettered Cottage. You can read about her curtains HERE.

She got her inspiration from a picture she saw in Pottery Barn…

Then I saw them appear again on Judy’s blog, Gracious Southern Living. You can see how she made her beautiful curtains HERE.

Don’t you love the black detail on the bottom?

So I decided to give them a try and see if I liked them.

I made many trips to Lowe’s and Home Depot to find just the right drop cloths (yes, I have analyzed drop cloths!), and you can read about my discoveries HERE.

One of the many things I learned was that not all drop cloths were alike.

See the difference between the top drop cloth and the bottom drop cloth in the above picture? I got these at the same store!

Many of my followers asked me which drop cloth package to get? Honestly ladies, I found that drop cloths wrapped in the exact same packaging were sometimes still made of different materials.

So I spent about 20 minutes in the store comparing the drop cloths, holding them up to the light, opening the packages, etc. The Home Depot guy must have thought I was CRAZY!

I could hear him thinking, “Come on, lady, pick one already! It’s just a drop cloth!”

I liked the drop cloth in the bottom half of the picture best. It had a lot more texture and beautiful brown flecks in it.

But YOU can choose whatever type you like best! (The variations are very subtle.)

Here are the things I love most about drop cloths…

1) They are 6 feet by 9 feet,which means they are super long and perfect for curtains to go from the ceiling to the floor.

2) All four sides are hemmed. Saving you some time when making your curtains.

3) They are a super heavy canvas material which requires no lining. Saving you another step!

4) And most importantly…They are Cheap! About ten dollars a piece. That’s a little over 3 dollars a yard!

Now, I chose the simplest way possible to make my curtains.

I have made window treatments before that were a lot more time consuming. These are the curtains and roman shades I made for my previous home. (It was Christmas time…)

But for my drop cloth curtains, all I had to do was hem the top and bottom of each panel, and I was finished.

I simply ironed the top of the panel down 2 inches, and sewed a straight stitch all the way across.

I did the same thing for the bottom of the drop cloth because I wanted mine to puddle in the floor.

If you didn’t want yours to puddle, you could do a bigger hem.

To find the correct length, create your two inch hem on top first, hang the curtain up with the rod and clips that you want to use, then let the drop cloth drape on the floor. Next, pin the bottom up to the length you want it. Take the curtains down and iron the hem the length you chose, then stitch. No cutting required.

If you do not own a sewing machine. simply hem your drop cloth using an iron and some hem tape. You can get hem tape for a few bucks at Walmart or just about anywhere.

It looks something like this…

I bought my clips and curtain rod at Hobby Lobby.

Though I love the “look” of the clips I chose, they are not as strong as the ones I got for my den curtains. The drop cloth is very heavy and has slipped out of the clips.

Then I took some black ribbon from Walmart and a couple of tassels from Hobby Lobby to create my tie backs.

To attach the tie back to the wall, I got real fancy and used a curtain clip. Could this be called a Window “Mistreatment”?

I love the finished look!

I had a very difficult time getting a good picture of my curtains. During the day, the sun is so bright that I get a huge glare in the picture. And of course at night, the picture quality is not as good.

Here are my curtains through my buffet mirror…

I also made drop cloth curtains for my den…

And a drop cloth slip cover that I will be sharing in a future post…

I am linking this post to Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch. Stop by there to check out some really great posts!

Blessings to everyone,

Traci