:) I think that's the highest amount of change that Porkrind has ever collected!!

Rachel, you're the winner! :)

When it came time to make new covers for the cushions, I cut one of the old ones apart carefully and laid the pieces out on my fabric and cut out new ones. I had to make a couple of adjustments at this time....I couldn't find zippers that were as long as the old ones, and I didn't want to use the old ones with the big metal teeth...or do new cut-to-size ones with big metal teeth...but I looked through the drawer of zippers at the JoAnns...even though the girl said all of the zippers they had had been put out just the night before...and found 2 36 inch zippers that worked pretty well.

:) This is where I stayed for a while, one-because I ran out of red thread, two-because I was a little scared. After I got started it wasn't nearly as scary as I thought I would be. I have learned that upholstery fabric can be very forgiving...so even though my sewing is not at a professional level...look how nicely that cushion cover turned out! :) It looks SO much better than the old one....even I was impressed with myself after I finished that! :) Now I just have to do that all over again. :) I love to see this couch coming together!

We're going to be leaving for Kansas Wednesday morning for my dear Rachel's wedding. :) Porkrind saves change for us, and when we go on trips, well, he goes to the bank, and whatever he's collected is our "fun money" to spend on our trip....for snacks and such things. I think he's outdone himself this time!! This morning I put him on the scale before I emptied him and he weighed 10 pounds. :) I'm going to guess that he has about $60 in him. :) If you guys wanna venture a guess before the end of the day...I'll send a prize out to whoever gets closest without going over! (in the spirit of The Price is Right) :)

It would probably be easier to see these if I took the picture at night, but oh well! :) Aren't they super cute??! I love them...they make the room so much more lively and colorful...instead of off-white walls with cream-colored curtains. :) I left the plain curtains underneath to help block out more light, and just added these over the top so our room has some color. I love this fabric SO much, I think it goes perfectly with our reds and oranges. :)

And here is what she is looking like today with and without the old cushions.

Hopefully later this week I can show you what she looks like with NEW cushions!

The next step is to pull everything through and around, pull it tight and staple it. The arms were probably the hardest part so far...trying to get everything pulled right without too much puckering and too many folds. This is the first arm I did, which surprisingly, actually went a lot easier than the second....by the time I finished fighting with the second arm I had given in to the knowledge that it's not all going to be perfect...but I'm ok with that. :) It's after this step that it starts looking really good...it looks like a finished couch if you just look at it staight on.

Oh yeah! I also removed all the staples from one side on the bottom to fix that gap I had in the middle, hooray!

I still have to put the backside and outside of the arms on, and I have to do my cushions. My plans for today are to finish my curtains and hopefully to start on my cushion covers. I think the cushions will be the most difficult part because they involve actual sewing, which requires a little more precision than just pulling and stapling.

:) This is where I am at so far. I think I'm going to quit for tonight and clean things up. Hopefully soon I'll be able to work on it some more. :) Until then, enjoy learning about the wide world of upholstery!

I laid a new piece of batting over the couch, tucked it all in and poked all my holes. Then I used the back/arms piece of fabric as a template for my new piece...they had sewn 4 pieces of fabric together, but I'm guessing that's because of their stripe pattern, so I decided to try it all in one piece, and it did end up working out, yay! :) Then I marked where each of the buttons were supposed to go...and threaded each of my buttons. Then I got to work putting the buttons in and trying to make sure they were all about the same depth and tied them off around a piece of batting at the back.

Finally, we are on our last "De-upholstery" step! :) This is where we remove all the buttons, and then all the staples holding the back/arm fabric on. :) I am SO glad to be done removing staples!

Two things that I've done so far I wish I had done differently...The first one is that I should have been wearing work gloves while pulling all those staples...my fingers are sore and I have a blister!

The next one is this....I forgot the cardinal rule of upholstery...which is...always start at the center and work toward the edges...I ended up with a gap at the front middle leg, so I'll probably be taking out MORE staples and re-doing that. Otherwise it's going pretty smoothly. :)

YAY! Now it gets fun! I covered the deck with a piece of new batting, then I used that strapy-thing to hold it down...it holds it down right there to give the cushions a place to rest. :) After taking the deck fabric off I used it as a template for my NEW deck fabric, sewed my two pieces together, and put it on the couch. Then I stapled it all in place....isn't it looking great!!?

There is not much that I know about this couch, but I'll tell you what I DO know....Someone used to sit on the left side of this couch and play guitar. This is what I found in our couch....a green Merry Christmas sequin, a pencap and a green wooden stick thing, a hairtie, and three guitar picks. All 3 of those guitar picks came out of the left side, I thought that was very interesting. :) I'm easily entertained. :)

This is where it starts to get good! I removed all the staples holding the deck fabric on. Since this part is underneath the seat cusions, you only use your main fabric for the front third, the back part can just be any old cheapo fabric....:) I decided to use my pretty floral accent fabric! I got a bunch of it, cause by the time I decided to order someone had already bought all but two yards and all they had was a 20 yard remnant...forgive me if I've said all this before! Anyway...THIS is the part where you find all of the things that people have lost in the cracks of the couch! :) Stay tuned!

Our expenses so far has been as follows:

Salvation Army Couch (with much potential!): $45
U-Haul rental: $50
Fabric: $120
How-to Book: $8
Staple Gun: $30
Other general supplies: $25

I found a GREAT deal on fabric....otherwise this process probably wouldn't be saving much money. As you can see we've spent almost $300 already, so as it is a great savings over the $945 couch we intended to purchase, it is not too much of a savings over the any-old-value-priced-sofa from the furniture store. But...I am the kind of person that doesn't like my home to look like everyone else's, so, a custom-upholstered piece from the middle of last century suits me well. :)

Everything I had read so far about re-upholstery said to start small...I am glad I didn't. I think that if I had started with a smaller piece and found out how much work it was going to be, I would not even have attempted a 7 foot couch. :) I think this re-upholstery stuff is great fun...heh...but I wouldn't suggest doing it alone. Having a wonderful helper that is much stronger than I am has proven invaluable! Also...it would be ideal to have a helper who has done this sort of thing before...or is quite overly-confident in their abilities to do just about anything. :) Heh....It's been really fun for me because I have not yet doubted my ability to make this couch wonderful...it actually makes me laugh how cocky I feel about it....because as we all know...pride comes before the fall! Stay tuned for my first mistakes! :)

Next you start taking the fabric from the back and outsides of the arms off...this gives you access to all the stuff you need for re-upholstering! :) We had several layers to take off here, so it was a bit bothersome, and felt like it was taking FOREVER! Be sure to keep this fabric intact to use as a template. :) The rest off the stuff went in the garbage bag with the skirt. :)

Step 2 is skirt removal. Oh my...they used a butt-load of staples to attach this skirt! We found that if you took the staples out of a small section, you could just grab ahold of that part and pull the rest off...much easier than removing thousands upon thousands of staples. Generally you want to keep your old fabric pieces as templates for your new ones....but we're gonna let our new couch show off her legs, so we stuffed the staple-laden skirt in a garbage bag.

The first step in "de-upholstering" is to flip the couch upside-down and start taking the "dust-cloth" off. The dust cloth is the piece of fabric that covers the bottom and makes it look all neat and orderly. :) We found that the best tool for removing the staples is just a plain old flat head screwdriver. Also...we laid an old sheet in the middle of the living room to catch all the yuckies and so we wouldn't lose staples in the carpet.

Here are a couple of "pre-upholstery" shots. This will be the last time you see this couch looking like this :)

I got a very exciting and very LARGE package today! I think it weighs like...50 pounds...it was HEAVY! :) I can't wait to get started on my couch! We still need to go pick out a stapler....the book said that for the occasional upholsterer I should probably get an electric one, so soon we shall go pick one out and I can get started. :) AAAAHHH! Have I mentioned that I am excited!? I am.

We decided to buy a cheap couch and try to re-upholster it. I was a little wary at first, but after reading a bunch of stuff online and finding this "so simple upholstery" book at the half price books store I'm pretty confident. I'm pretty crafty anyway, and love to learn how to do new things, so I'm really excited about it. I ordered a cherry red microfiber fabric yesterday, and a really fun floral accent fabric for pillows and curtains and stuff. :) I can't wait to start learning.



I have to admit something....over the past several weeks I have become a HGTV junkie. It makes me want a house of my own to decorate SO badly. I love all the fun decorating stuff that's available for pretty decent prices. I can't wait to live in a place where I can paint all my walls whatever colors I want! :)

Also...since I have to work tomorrow on my birthday, we're celebrating today! I got to open my presents this morning before Jason went to work. He got me a photo printer, and I played with it a little, and it's way fun. It prints both 4x6 and 5x7 sizes and has a large touch screeen, way fun!

Also, thanks Joanne for the bracelet! :) It's so pretty! I can't wait to wear it somewhere.