Chaise Slipcover... a retrospective

I absolutely MUST get motivated to do some home sewing. I've made so many garments recently, but I have a slipcover project waiting for me, that I VOW that I will start on tomorrow. (I bought the fabric over a year ago, washed it, pressed it...) To get in the mood (and to convince myself I am indeed CAPABLE of this, I'm posting about another successful slipcover process: this upholstered chaise...from a few years ago. Here's the finished project

It began with a Sealy Posturepedic chaise I bought at a yard sale for $5 up in Seattle. We had the little utility trailer up there with us, so we were able to haul it back, Granny Clampet style, strapped to the top of the trailer. I didn't sit in the chaise enroute like Granny, but when we got home, I climbed up there for a photo op.



I used my Thompson Baby Walker: a portable industrial machine with a walking foot. I bought a welting foot that has a little groove that nicely rides over the welting. I made miles and miles of welting.


First step was to take off the cushion and cover that in a box style with welting with a zipper closure.


... the finished cushion in place



The slipcover has a pleated skirt. These little lined rectangles are the part of the skirt that goes behind gaps in the skirt to form a pleat.


... pinning the skirt onto the bottom of the slipcover, with welting. This last step is so heavy and so thick, having to go thru so many layers, with the welting and the lined skirt with pleats and the fabric behind the pleats. Very slow process.


...and speaking of Granny Clampet. See the photo in the oval frame on the wall above the chaise. That's my very own Grandma and her sister when they were little. My grandma's the one on the left. She was born in 1899, so that photo must be from the very early 1900's. My grandma is the one who taught me to sew, beginning with rag dolls with bright yellow yarn hair.