Wednesday, February 8, 2012

How to ReCover a Couch – Step 2

Ah, the arms. The arms took a good bit of thought and staring. (I do some of my best work after staring “vacantly” into space)

I wanted to do this with no sewing and no visible staples or tacks or anything like that. The couch has a rolled arm, so it wasn’t as easy as making some sort of standard gift package edge. I decided on a draped look that would show off the curve of the rolled arm.

Firstly, make sure that you have a lot of extra fabric overhang, you’ll need it.

Drape the fabric over the arm so that it is flush with the inside corner and hangs on the floor side by a few inches. Secure it with staples on the inside edge so it doesn’t move around. I also secured it on the floor side with a few staples so that it wouldn’t move around when I started pulling.

the arm is coming along...
Now, with those long front flaps o’ fabric – before you staple anything, play around with the fabric to see how you want it to drape. Think like you’re wrapping a really oddly shaped present.


Take the inside edge and pull it across to the outside, angling down a few inches. Keep the fabric taut and secure with staples. I secured directly under the roll of the arm into the frame. You may want to put a couple underneath the bottom as well.

inside edge is secured
Now take the outside edge and pull it across to the inside. Here you’re going to want to angle downward steeply, I tucked the fabric in on itself a bit to get a steeper, cleaner edge and a nice looking wrinkle. Pull the fabric all the way over to the seat area and secure on the inside. You’ll be putting more fabric over the front seat part, so it doesn’t have to be perfect. But perfection doesn’t hurt…

notice how the fabric goes across to the seat area
lots of staples - lots
Lastly, flip your couch over again and secure it all on the bottom of the frame.


Before you trim the excess you may want to tuck the extra under the couch and turn it upright again, just to make sure you really like that arm. Once you trim the extra fabric it’s a lot harder to change it. Needle nose pliers are super-handy at pulling staples.


Repeat with the other arm, and voila! We’re close to done!


Links below to the rest of the tutorial!
BEFORE
STEP 1 
STEP 2
STEP 3
AFTER!

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