Slipcovered Settee
June 27, 2010
I love it when a plan comes together ! I’ve been working on the living room all week, mostly the wainscoting, but one of the other pieces I also wanted to makeover was my brown velvet settee. I love the shape of this piece – it fits on the wall next to the fireplace to perfection, but I was sooooooo done with the dark brown color. Rather than pay big bucks to have it reupholstered, I decided, for now, to simply slipcover it.
I’ve mentioned before that my sewing skills are limited, but over time, I’ve been challenging myself to take on more intermediate sewing projects – this was certainly one of them. I confess, I’ve admired the slipcovers across blogland for a long time, but this is my first attempt at slipcovering a piece of furniture myself. After four days of piecing it together, bit by bit, I’m pretty satisfied with my new summer linen slipcover.
Lovely readers, meet my little settee and her pretty new linen slipcover.
Before:
After:
There were several reasons why I chose linen. One, what’s not to love, because I absolutely looooooove linen. Okay, okay, so it wrinkles if you breathe on it, but the piece underneath is so tailored, I knew it would work if I could just keep my seams tight enough. Two, linen is classic, and oh so French, so that completely appeals to me.
First, I prewashed the linen, then I cut my fabric into pieces and started to pin it all around. It took me for-eh-ver to get this right. You have to pin your slipcover inside out, sew your seam, keep your linen tight (but not too tight!) the entire time, then flip it right side out and try it on your piece to make sure your seams are straight.
Over. And over. And over again.
Sheeesh, sewing a slipcover is challenging – my seamripper and I were BFFs this past week.
So after I sewed all the parts in place to satisfaction, I added a pleat at the bottom. Gotta have the crisp pleat ! I folded my fabric strips over and stitched them together. Then I pressed them with an iron to get the crisp edge, then slowly created the pleat with my sewing machine.
Next, I pinned the pleat to the edges, and attached with my sewing machine. Finally, I hand stitched the edges of the arms since I didn’t want to bother with the perfection of the perfect circular edges on the arm rest. Works for me !
So here she is, ain’t she sweet ? My first real slipcover !
I love the flirty pleat next to the traditional dark wood leg.
Oooohhhh, and there’s a sneaky peek at the completed wainscoting, now finished in the living room, plus we installed a new mirror and light fixtures.
4 yards of linen on sale at $7.50 a yard = $30 for the slipcover, woo hoo !
I saved some cash by not reupholstering it, so I splurged on this pillow cover perfection from Pottery Barn.
LOVE.
More pics of the living room upgrades to follow later this week ! But for now, I’m loving my summer linen slipcover. Bliss !
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Tags: linen slipcover, settee
You did a great job! Love it.
So beautiful! I LOVE the pleats. I’ve gotta do me some pleating on something. ANYTHING.
First of all, that settee is just gorgeous!! I love the legs!! I can’t believe you did the slipcover yourself! And you said your sewing skills were limited!
Wow, it looks great! I love me some boxpleats! It reminds me so much of the slipcover I did for my sofa. I actually just finished slipcovering my dining chairs too!
Wow! Great first attempt, I would say! Love the simplicity of the colour and fabric and the pleat is extra sassy.
XO
Lenore
You are so inspiring! The ruffle is my favorite part!
It looks amazing, yet again! I’m with the others, the pleat has me swooning. :)
Girl, you are SO good with that sewing machine! What a great job & the little pleated skirt is perfection. Bravo
I love how a slipcover can bring extra life to an old (but much loved) couch. Love the pleats too!
Kate! I must say how amazed I am by you. You can have a vision, not ever having tried a project before and totally rock it! You are the queen craft-ess :) I must admit, slightly green with envy at your creativity. What an amazing transformation. Keep it up girl!
Love the new look! the pleats were the perfect touch! Can’t wait to see more:-)
Can I just say how much I LOVE your new slipcover? Especially the ruffle. That little touch that you’ve used on a few different pieces now is my favorite part. Want to come to my house and help me with a few things? :-)
Oh. My. God. It looks amazing! I am so jealous of your your slipcovering abilities. Or, at the very least, your “fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants” ability! So great.
I really, really, REALLY want slipcovers for the chairs in my living room, since they currently live under dropcloths, but I am terrified.
that looks amazing!
Looks terrific! I “slipcovered” an old chair years ago, but to make things simple I just hand stitched the upholstery fabric directly onto the chair. It was really easy and worked well.
Lovely. You completely transformed the setee-before it was formal and now so comfy. Great job, as usual!
Amazing as always!! I just love how clean and fresh the fabric makes it look! It looks like it has always been that way!
~Terrell @ FrouFrouDecor~
Kate,
It’s beautiful! I love the fact that you used linen…it really suits the piece nicely. Very crisp and clean looking…so summer! Good Job!!
Love it, Kate! I too love the pleat against the legs.
Beautiful job on the slipcover. I’ve been wanting to cover a love seat I have but just don’t know where to start. How do you know how much fabric you need? Would it be easier to try and re-upholster it instead? I envy your “go for it” attitude.
I absolutely love all the little pleats! You must have the patience of a saint. :) I can’t believe how tough it is just to cut a straight line, as I learned this weekend while cutting and pinning the pieces together for two pillow covers!
Four days? I’m on day 12 of sewing a slipcover for a love seat. I try to get one complete seam a day. Yours looks fantastic. I’m so proud, they are really tricky! Way to go!
As always, I’m awed! So proud of your “can-do ‘attitude.
this is gorgeous…. and you’re incredible! Can’t wait to see the rest of the room…. loving the wainscoting!
keep going, CG!
Wow, you did a great job and made it look so easy !
Adorable! I love the pleated skirt! Here’s a tip – take some cut lenths of upholstery foam for cushions (I use my scraps) or fabric tubes cut to size and tuck them into the crevice all around the seat cushion until they can’t be seen. This keeps the fabric tight after sitting so you won’t have to fuss with it! Good job!
I’m so impressed Kate. I have slipcovered exactly one piece of furniture, a chair, and there were lots and lots of curse words involved in the process. The corners were the worst. You cover/fabric selection is ideal for your home’s style.
What a fantastic transformation! Looks like a deep breath of fresh air! You have guts girl, and it certainly paid off. Congrats!
Wow~it really does look beautiful!
This makes me want to tackle some wing back chairs I’ve been saving.
Wow! What a beauty! Awesome job, and thanks for the instructions on how to do it. Although I am sure that my slip cover would be crooked and the ruffles would look more like spikes, you have given me the confidence to add this to my list of things to attempt.
Keep the great ideas coming.
You are like a goddess with that sewing machine. That slipcover looks FANTASTIC!!!
Amazingly cute! We just bought a linen couch from Restoration Hardware, but if I could sew I would totally have gone that route! Nice.
You did an amazing job!! Love it!
Beautiful! I love how you do the pleated ruffle. I’ve admired that since you did it on the upholstered bench cover.
Looks fantastic! I feel your pain on the seams. I redid mine about 1,000 times!
Wow. Just wow. I love it – the piece looks completely different. Love the linen, love the pleats, love the pillow, love how summery it looks. You continue to awe me!
I am so impressed! It looks amazing!!!
GEEZ LOUISE! I love the choice of fabric! Your finished piece is gorgeous. Amazing job Kate. And the wainscoting…holy smokes.
I absolutely love this!! I’m dying to make a cover for our old loveseat, but can’t bring myself to splurge on the cash it’s going to cost :)
Oh, it looks sooooo much better. Awesome job!
Hi Kate -
I have done this myself and smiled when you said how many times you had to take the slipcover on and off to get the fit right. All those on’s and off’s paid off as your piece looks great.
Wow I am totally impressed with your sewing skills. That turned out so fab and it looks perfect!
great job! the pleating is sooo good.
Awesome job! I’m working on my first sofa and I DO sew. Still nervous but you’ve encouraged me!
Ellen
Now I’m drooling! Great job! And I love the curves of the settee! Can I ask where the settee is from?
Hello:
I am new to your Blog and have to say I just love it…
You did a terrific job on your slipcover…just beautiful!
Warm Wishes,
Susie
It certainly looks like you have plenty of sewing skills. This turned out so lovely, the lines of the sofa are wonderful.
I just slipcovered two parsons chairs in the same linen with an inverted pleat trim on the bottom and I love them as much as you love yours! Found a great source for linen online – fabrics-store.com – so I am ready to tackle a rolled arm chair out of cotton duck (unlike linen, duck can handle teenage boys and dogs that like to “dig” a pit on the cushions). This will be my sixth slipcover and they definitely get easier the more you do. So . . . keep sewing!
You should be SO proud of yourself. It looks FAB!!!
Kate, what do you mean your limited sewing skills???? It looks sooo professional and so lovely! The pleats are amazing. You can hop over here and sew a slipcover for my yellow settee any time!
5 stars, girl!
ox, Mon
That is seriously awesome. The linen is beautiful and it looks very professionally done.