Gettin' Crafty and Snazin' Up the Living Room

Picture this: when I moved in with Pat about seven years ago, he had a crazy-patterned Ikea futon for a couch and an old blue lazyboy loveseat. I added my green plaid loveseat and 70s gold arm chair to the mix, making for quite the eclectic livingroom ensemble.

We eventually got some coordinating furniture covers, which helped a little, but they never quite fit right or stayed on.

So, a few months ago, we finally invested in new furniture! We picked out a beautiful livingroom set in chocolate brown microfiber. We got a couch, a loveseat and two arm chairs - and they all match! It makes me feel like such a grown up to have nice matching furniture!

The only catch was the super-ugly throw pillows that came with them. They almost matched the crazy-patterned futon's throw pillows which we kept because they're so comfy. Add to that the few other funky pillows we'd collected over the years and our livingroom was still kind of a mess.

So I decided to recover all eight of them - even though I hadn't sewn since home-ec class in junior high. How hard could it be, right? Okay, I'm not gonna lie - it was kind of hard...

I started by looking up some how tos online and decided to follow this one: http://cottagemagpie.com/how-to-sew-pillow-cover/. It's a simple slip-cover style with an opening in the back so you can remove them if needed. The only thing  I did differently was leave off the trim.

Then I measured all the pillows and went to Joann's to get some fabric. That seemed like a simple task, but it took me over two hours to pick out the three different patterns I needed to cover each of the different sizes.

I wanted to bring in some lighter colors and I eventually found the perfect modern flower/leafy fabric for the four new pillows. Then I chose an ivory for the two largest pillows and a fun brown and ivory zebra print for the two little rectangle pillows. I'm not usually a big fan of animal prints, but this one just seemed to work.

Then I had to unbury the sewing machine, dust it off and read the directions so I could remember how to use it.Since it had been so long, I decided to do a practice run with some inexpensive
material I had on hand. It was then that I realized this might be a lot harder than I had anticipated. It took hours.

It ended up taking a few weeks to get them all done and I messed up A LOT along the way (thank goodness for seam rippers!), but I finally just finished! And what a difference it's made! I love how the livingroom looks now.

I think this was the perfect project to help me brush up on my sewing skills. I'm totally inspired and ready to find my next sewing challenge!

If you've done any fun crafty projects lately, please share!