A Personal Triumph

You know, being back in the United States after serving in the Peace Corps proved to be a fairly easy transition. One thing that I had completely forgot about, though, was setting up house. In preparation for Peace Corps service, we sold practically everything we had in order to reduce storage and junk we'd need to haul around. My older brother who is now residing in Australia did a superb job describing the purging process as well as the next steps of reacquisition. For me, I'd been able to put off reacquiring household items for over a year and it took a decided mental adjustment to bring me back to the reality of making a house, a home.

So, upon our arrival and subsequent settling in, Nils and I went about purchasing a variety of things we needed to make our living situation more comfortable. Among these items was a futon, purchased for a reasonable price from craigslist, which folds out into a rather spacious queen-sized bed. When it's transformed back into a "couch", however, it's slightly less appealing. You can see hospital wheels sticking out, a sturdy metal frame, and a bland off-white covering tri-folded indelicately. To remedy the problem, I determined to make a cover that would make it look more like a couch.

First things first; finding the right fabric. After a little searching, I found a Calico Corner store (which doesn't actually sell calico at all, but more home decor fabric) and tried to see what would both work and not cost too much. Upholstery fabric is surprisingly expensive unless you're fortunate enough to catch a sale. In my case, I didn't hit a sale, but I had in mind what I wanted and found a roll of fabric on clearance that suited the look I was going for. At an affordable $5/yard, I worked it out with the salesperson to determine how much fabric I would need. At first she was confused since I used the word 'futon' and she thought I wanted to cover the futon mattress rather than make a couch cover. Anyway... In the end, fortunately, I purchased enough and didn't have too much left over, even after cutting piping on the bias :)

Okay... so the material sat in the corner of the living room for a while. I admit, I'm a procrastinator and I had the perfect procrastinator's excuse of not having a sewing machine (though I could have borrowed my roommate's machine from upstairs). Anyway, Nils bought me a new sewing machine in November for my birthday and with the upcoming arrival of Nils' family for Christmas, the stars aligned and I finally got the couch cover done and in time for its debut. In addition to doing the couch, I also made 5 pillows, which were quite necessary as the couch lacks back support.

Triumphant at last, I present to you... my living room couch!