I decided to make slip covers for the seats and to paint the legs. I didn't have enough fabric in my stash for both stools so I had to buy fabric. One of the reasons I blog about my unique volunteer work at AWC is to show how used furniture can be inexpensively transformed, that being said I didn't want to spend a lot of money on the fabric. A great place to find inexpensive fabric is the linen section of your favorite thrift store. I visited once of my faces on their 25% off day and headed straight for the curtains. Curtains are great because they are usually made of a heavier weight fabric and they have lots of yardage. I found three cream colored curtain panels that appeared to be a matching set. Each panel was $3.99 ($2.99 on sale) - not a bad deal for more than 6 yards of fabric.
The cream color was fine, but a little boring. So I decided to dye it using Dylon dye (Navy Blue). As you can see the color ended up looking more like a denim blue. I had not used this brand before and I had to go in search of front loading machine instructions online. I found easy to follow instructions on the Dylon website. Once the panels were dyed, I discovered they were not a matching set after all. One of the panels was much lighter than the others - indicating a different fabric composition. Although I was frustrated by this at first, it ended up being a happy accident.
Now to make the slip covers. So first of all, I am self taught sewer. I am sure my way isn't always the best or easiest way - but its they way I know. I learned to make slip covers from Hildi on Trading Spaces. She basically took a bunch of fabric, pinned it around the chair, sofa - whatever - then sewed along the pinned seams. You can find a ton of great slip cover tutorials on Pinterest.
To make the slip covers look more custom and help them fit better, I used the lighter blue panel to trim the bottom of the covers and to make a sash to tie the covers to the chair - kinda like this.
After cleaning and priming the legs of the stools I painted them a warm whitish grey Benjamin Moore color called Abalone. I had a large sample of this color in my stash - I think it may have been the color in the Master Bath at our last house. Doesn't it look nice with the blue slip covers?
Finally I had a little extra fabric so I decided to make little lumbar pillows for the stools. These are not at all practical but I love them. I used my silhouette machine to cut the word "yum" for each pillow. I ironed the words on (backed with heat-n-bond) after sewing and before stuffing the pillows.
1 comment:
They look great! Really like the YUM pillows!
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