My Settee Project (Part 4) Finishing The Settee

Note: Originally posted this past Sunday (March 23rd).

The settee has been finished and brought home for a week now (Monday the 17th) and I've been procrastinating about writing-up this last part.

I was excited when my fabric came in. It came in around 3 in the afternoon, and I waited until work was done (4:30) to open it, unroll it, and look at it. I was really lucky to find that although I had ordered only 5 yards, they had sent approximately 7 because it was the end of the roll. As it turns out, I end up needing those two extra yards!



The pattern was a bit brighter and more "lime green" than I had thought, but otherwise, it was pretty much what I was expecting.

Continuing with my seat stuffing, I fixed the cotton (removed some from the front) and finished my rough cover.



Next, I prepared and sewed my cover. Originally I wasn't going to have a piping running across the front edge, but Pierre suggested that I put one to "square-up" the look of the seat.

Because there's a piping there, I wanted to match-up my fabric band. Basically, because there's a sewing there (the seat cover is 3 pieces consisting of the main seat, the piping, and front band) you lose an inch of the pattern if you use the same piece because of the 1/2 inch seam allowances. In order to match the pattern, you need to cut both pieces (main seat and front band) from two separate places on your fabric. Does that explanation make sense? Basically you need to waste quite a bit of fabric to avoid having the pattern mismatched at the piping seam.

To make things even worse, I cut my front band WRONG the first time (the pattern ended up in the wrong spot), which wasted most of 2 yards of fabric that could have been used as my side arms or possibly the back panel. I was very upset with myself, but we carefully planned out the other pieces, and it turned out okay.



Once the seat fabric was finally put together properly (photo above) and tacked in place, I started working on the back. It's at this point that I realized that all the added height of the finished seat made it VERY difficult to add the webbing, burlap, and other "foundation" work on the frame. It should have been in place after the springs were covered, and the edge roll was reattached, but before any stuffing was done on the seat.

It was difficult to do, but I managed to get the back webbing and burlap installed.

Next was redoing the "lumbar roll". This was a padded roll of straw wrapped in burlap. I have never seen one like this, and neither had Pierre. It serves as extra support at the base of the back. I simply transferred the straw into a new burlap sleeve, and sewed it shut on 3 sides.



It was then tacked on the bottom rails, and hand-stitched to the back burlap/webbing (as before).



Here's a detail. Also note the added piece of webbing on the arm. Originally the fabric was just pulled around the burlap and stuffing of the side arms, but having a webbing here (folded in half) helps add a lot of strength in this area. Other sofas often have a wooden rail here for this purpose.



Re-installing the horsehair and moss padding.



After the moss/horsehair was a layer of new cotton, followed by the rough muslin cover.



Finished fabric:



Work on the arms was next. Burlap was added (tacked only on 3 sides - none where the webbing strap above is), followed by the original horsehair padding. This was the only photo I got of this step.



I reused some of the original cotton for the arms. I had wanted to do the same for the back panel, but it was unevenly worn, and I didn't use it there. The reason: the old cotton is more compacted, and has fewer gritty imperfections than the new stuff. It's also a bit thinner, and I wanted to keep the arms relatively "slim".



Patterns were cut from the existing old covers (beige stripe ones) and used on the rough covers as "test fitting" since they don't need to be 100% perfect. This is prior to nipping and tacking them in place.



Rough arm covers installed:



Some adjustments were made to the patterns, and applied to the finished arm panels. These are also made of 3 pieces (top "wing", piping, and lower arm). These were matched and mirrored for height, but not matched with the back panel (which I could have done if I were super picky, and if I had a lot more fabric to work with). Additionally, the top wings were loosely matched with the arm as best as possible (the arm end where it meets the wing has a large curve, so getting a match is difficult). The left arm has a near perfect match because of the large leaf pattern that flows well into the bottom piece, but the right one was harder to match.

Side note: the seat's front band had been only temporarily tacked, since the arms wrap around under it.



Finished inside arms, along with the finished front band. This shows the piping being installed around the perimeter.



Side panel installed. Note: these are always tricky to install. There is a combination of 4 different fixing methods used on this single side panel:
- Cardboard "blind tacking" strip along the top horizontal section of the arm.
- Ply-Grip (a flexible metal edging) used along the curve of the wing top.
- Metal tacking strip along the front edge (basically a metal bar with nails in it, where the fabric is wrapped-over and tacked down).
- And a simple row of staples tacked down the backside of the sofa, as well as on the bottom edge.



Next, the back panel.



I wanted to stick with historic materials, so I used stretched burlap panels as a stiffener here.



The shallow curve was carefully tacked using cardboard strips (along the top), and metal tacking strips on both sides.



The last step was the bottom fabric. I used our "better" bottom fabric, which we use on our antiques, and hand tacked it in place.



ALL DONE!







Finished sofa as seen in my living room (note that the colours from the shop above are closer to the actual colours, and they look darker/dimmer in my house photos below).

My Settee Project (Part 1) Choosing Fabric

I originally picked up this settee (loveseat) off Kijiji (for those who aren't familiar, it's an online classifieds site similar to Craigslist) for 30$ a few months ago.

When I first saw it at the seller's house (which was conveniently just a few blocks away), I knew it had a fairly decent frame, coils (which are the best) and I liked the overall shape and size. 30$ was a huuuuge bargain, and I picked it up with Mom.

I've been enjoying it and using it in my living room since I bought it, but now it was time to redo it.

Although the current upholstery was pretty recent, I knew that the sofa had problems, and everything would have to go. The entire seat was all lumpy, and some of the spring ties inside were loose. The frame joints were also loose, so the frame would need to be knocked-apart and repaired.

Someone had also poorly/roughly sanded all the finish and stain off the legs, and I wanted to get them back to their original dark mahogany colour.

BEFORE:





But before I even started working on the sofa, I had the very difficult time of browsing through fabric choices. If you've ever had to pick a wall paint, this is just as bad, or worse. I don't think you guys can imagine the sheer number of fabric books we have at the shop. Probably around 200 or more books, each having anywhere from 20-100 fabric samples each. Prices range from around 20$/yard to hundreds of dollars per yard (150$+). An average price is generally 40-60$/yard for a high quality fabric with good wear.

Since I wanted a high-end, but decently priced fabric, I limited my choices between 2 or 3 companies (which was still around 50+ books). The following are some of the choices I was mulling over. I had thought of going with something fairly bold, possibly geometric. I also needed something that would work with my green living room, but that could also work in another room if I decided to move it (or get a larger couch, or if I repaint to a different colour, etc). I decided I should pick something either red, yellow/gold, green, black/white/grey or beige/taupe.

This one had a beautiful velvety texture, but I was worried the white would get dirty too easily (and it's a pretty "intense" pattern).


This was lovely.


This one was nice, but maybe a bit too modern for me, and again, I worried that the white may get dirty too easily.


These three were under serious consideration for about a week before I made my final choice. I really loved the red (or the yellow version of the same fabric - see below) on the right, but I didn't like the shiny/silky type feel of the fabric. The centre fabric is one that I REALLY liked, but the wear was only 9000 double rubs (which is considered "medium").




I was thinking of going with the yellow on the left, and doing a chair for the same room in this red damask.


I ended up nixing the above choices (either due to wear or because I just didn't like the look or feel of the fabric) and then pondered these two. I love both of them, but the green one was too much of a yellowish/celery colour that clashed with my green walls (see below), and the geometric one was going to look much too modern for me.




In the end, after a LOT of frustration, indecision, and doubt, I ended up picking this one.


It's a medium sized print, has good wear, it's similar to what's on the sofa currently (which I don't mind), it's somewhat period looking for the piece, and it has a nice feel to it. It also doesn't clash with my green walls, and the colours won't show dirt too much, so I don't need to be constantly worried about ruining it. It pretty much crossed everything off my list. Another small side note is that I could still use some red (or yellow) throw pillows on the sofa to give a punch of colour to the room.

Continued in Part 2!

Weekend Project: Ribbon Pillows

I'm currently in the process of reupholstering my antique loveseat for the living room. I had originally wanted the sofa to be a bright, bold accent piece. I was thinking of red, or red and white, possibly in a geometric pattern, but after working on the sofa, and realizing how old, beautiful, and well made it was, I decided not to go too crazy with it, and I chose a semi-traditional, but fun pattern in dark green and gold tones.

That said, I still wanted my bright pop of colour, so I chose to make bold throw pillows in a complementary red.

I saw some ribbon pillows a month or two ago on a few blogs, and I fell instantly (and madly) in love with them.



Pictured above: A house tour photo from a home featured on either Design*Sponge or Apartment Therapy (I can't remember), featuring a black ribbon pillow (from Target). The same pillow in orange (Target). Also in a similar style, but with a much more complicated pattern is the Adalyn Rug, in Navy from Lulu & Georgia.

I *HAD TO HAVE THEM*. After some internet searching, I found out that they are sold by Target, and referred to as "Grosgrain Toss Pillows". They cost 25$, come in several colours, and for whatever reason seem to have become completely unavailable. Several blogs refer to them as such, with a link to Target's website, but the links are dead, and they are nowhere to be found.

I found several other sites that sold similar pillows and pillow covers, but the prices were insane. One very fancy company had some for sale for over 300$ each.

Some more internet searching led me to a bunch of DIY tutorials. Based on those, I decided I could make these myself fairly easily. One tutorial mentioned using Heat-N-Bond to attach the ribbon, and I decided this might be the way to go.

One of the tutorials I looked at was this one:
How to Apply Greek Key Trim to a Pillow

I decided I would prefer to use a continuous piece of ribbon, rather than tediously measure, cut, and seal all the edges. I also decided to use a pattern (which is a method I have not seen elsewhere) to do mine. I hope you will all enjoy this little tutorial I've put together for you guys and gals!

Materials:
- Pillow inserts (I used some wonderful second hand feather inserts from Value Village at 5$ each)
- Quality fabric (decorator or upholstery weight)*
- Satin or Grosgrain ribbon of your choosing (either a contrasting colour, black, or white)**
- Matching thread
- Heat-N-Bond
- Iron
- Pins, scissors, shears
- Cardboard
- Sewing machine
Optional: Bias tape

* For a single pillow, you will only need 1 yard, for 2 pillows get at least a yard and a half.
** Depending on the size of the pillow (or curtain, or duvet) you're doing, you may want to vary the width of the ribbon you are using. For these 18" x 18" pillows, I used 7/8" wide ribbon. I used about 10 feet of ribbon for this 14" x 14" grid pattern, and I chose satin over grosgrain.



For throw pillow covers, you will want to make your finished cover the same size as your insert, or just a hair smaller. For my pillows, they were 18" x 18", meaning that my finished cover needs to be this size. For the fabric, and the pattern, you'll need to add an inch to the width and height for your seam allowance. So 19" x 19" in this case.

Make your pattern. Mine was made from 2 cereal boxes taped together. For this pillow, I was using 7/8" ribbon, so I used this as the base for all my measurements. For the placement of the pattern, be sure not to start it too close to the edges. I wanted a good 2" of plain red border, so my ribbon started at 2 1/2" from my pattern edge (remember the 1/2" seam allowance). From there I started to mark out the lines. The small corner squares (inside the ribbon) are two ribbon widths, and the "prongs" (for a lack of a better term) are one ribbon width. The centre rectangles are whatever is left. This seemed to work out really well for this size pillow, combined with this size ribbon.



After I had all of this drawn out, I figured out that I would only need the external frame with the prongs to be able to do all my corners and joints. This was cut away with a craft knife and a metal ruler. The ribbon pattern ends up being 14" x 14" with the prongs starting at 3 1/2" from the outside edges, and being 2 5/8" long towards the centre.



With this pattern, I could do an unlimited number of identical pillows, including longer pillows like rectangular pillow cases (as Sarah did in her tutorial) and I would just need to vary the width in the "centre rectangles" to suit.

The added benefit of the cardboard pattern is that it was also used to trace the 19" x 19" squares onto my finished fabric for cutting (which saved time).

With the fabric ready, I pinned the cardboard pattern to the fabric and into a double sheet of corrugated cardboard over my table. You could also use a cork board.

For the ribbon, I prepped the back side with ironed-on lengths of 3/4" Heat-N-Bond. The first end gets cut square, and you burn the edge with a lighter to seal it. After this, it's just a matter of folding and pinning the ribbon in place all the way around.





One of the trickier areas to fold around are the "prongs". For these, fold at a 45 degree away from the direction you're headed, and then fold the ribbon back over itself:





Once everything is pinned and ready, remove the cardboard pattern (carefully). The last corner gets clipped square, burned, and folded under at a 45 degree.



Iron all the ribbon down carefully. You will note that this continuous ribbon method leaves loose triangles. This is normal and to be expected.



I had been hoping that I would be pretty much done with the ribbon grid by this point, and that I could just either glue, or hand-stitch the little triangle corners, but I was really not happy with the performance of the Heat-N-Bond. I either overheated it accidentally, or there wasn't enough of a glue film to work well with my textured canvas material. I decided I would prefer to top-stitch over everything on both edges for a nice flat, and permanent bond. If you're using a smoother fabric, or perhaps the stronger Heat-N-Bond Ultra (I was using the "Lite") then you may not need to do this step.

I pinned down all my corners to make sure nothing would come loose.



A quick run through the sewing machine (with little to no problems) left me with a nice flat ribbon design.







For the rest of the pillow, the design options are left to your imagination. You can have a piping, fringe, or flap around the edges, a zipper closure, a sewn-shut closure at the base, or an envelope back. I am not a fan of "stitched closed" pillows because I like the option of easily changing the covers, or being able to wash them. I am also not a fan of the zipper because the bottom tends to look bumpy if it's not done perfectly. This left me with a quick and easy envelope back. These are not the best due to their tendency to be "gappy" at the back, but I may add a button to help with this.

Originally, I wanted to minimize bulk (eliminate a double hem since my red fabric is quite thick) by using a matching bias tape. After I did the fist two interior flaps, I decided I didn't like the finished look. The colour was just slightly off, and they looked a bit crinkled. I left the interior flaps like this, but I did a single hem on the other two top flaps. One had the selvage edge, for the other I did a tight zig-zag stitch to prevent fraying. Then I ironed a half inch seam and did a double top stitch. You can see both options here:





Side note: for the envelope back, you can make your overlap as large as you want, however, the larger it is, the harder it is to put in your insert. Some can be as much as a 9" overlap, but 4" is more common.

Pin everything, sew 1/2" all around, being sure to reinforce the envelope flap seams. Clip the corners, and zig-zag stitch the raw edge if desired.



For fun, this was the inside edge of the ribbon stitching.



A quick zig-zag stitch on the interior seams (I hate loose threads):



Finished pillow case turned right-side out. Isn't that great!?



Back side:



Finished pillow(s):



I think they'll look great on the sofa.

Time:
For those who are curious, I started these yesterday afternoon, and finished them this morning. This included a few breaks, and a trip to get more ribbon (I had bought an 18 foot roll, but I didn't have enough for both pillows). All-in-all, I'd say these took about 5 hours(?) or less for the pair.

Cost:
My fabric was around 12$/yard and it came up to 22$ with taxes (I got 1 1/2 yards and I have enough to do a third pillow), the ribbon was 2.50$ (x2 plus taxes), the thread and bias tape were around 4-5$, 10$ for both feather pillow inserts (new ones are around 12$ each). The Heat-N-Bond was under 5$ for a yard (with extra). So around 47$ for the two pillows, with some spare materials left. If I were to add-in shipping on flat-out buying the factory made Target ones (if they were available), it turned out to be just a bit cheaper to make them than buying them from Target, and I got pillows with feathers (better) and a higher quality fabric, so I think I did well.