A stitch in time....

My poor couch... it gets pretty hard wear.


When you are homeschooling the house is never empty...it's in use all day long every day. My living room is where the kids do the bulk of their schoolwork, it's where they play and gather with their friends. It's where I sit and sew, and where our guests sit and chat. This couch has been an Indian canoe, a race car and a princess' throne. It's served us well as a sick bed, a theater, and (when Mama's not looking) a jungle gym, so it's no surprise that the upholstery has become worn- and torn. I'll tell you gals, the other side of this cushion looks just as bad... and I'm not sure where that hole in the corner came from. Actually the closer I look, the more tattered and battered I realize my couch is.

I'm sure there are many who have the resources to replace a sofa in this condition, but honestly, I'm not one of them. And even if I did, there is something to be said for repairing one's things, for using skill and creativity to make them useful and presentable once again. During our recent sew-a-thon, I took the time to do just that.

My first task was patching the large hole at the corner of the cushion. You might have noticed the irregular shape of the patch. That wasn't accidental- a repair like this can be made practically invisible by carefully matching the pattern and avoiding straight lines and hard corners. There were a few other rents and holes that I repaired in the same way.

At the corners of the throw pillows the piping had become so worn that the cording was visible. In places the cording was even broken through. I chose embroidery floss that coordinated with the upholstery and recovered the cording with a simple hand-over-hand stitch.










The biggest part of the job, by far though, was replacing the fabric on the top and bottom surfaces of the cushion. Fortunately, I had several extra yards of an exact fabric match, but even without that advantage one could still complete a repair such as this. Fabric could be scavenged from parts of the furniture that aren't visible such as the back, or even a portion of the skirt. Using a similar or coordinating print is another strategy which can be very pretty with a country sort of style.

The first step in replacing an entire fabric portion is detaching the affected piece, by snipping the stitching that holds it to the adjoining pieces. Be very careful not to cut or interfere with any other stitch lines such as those holding piping in place. Once the piece is free, it can be measured or even used as a pattern in creating a new piece that will be a perfect fit. Gridded cutting mats are perfectly suited to this type of thing, but any large flat surface and sturdy yardstick could do the job just as well.

Once you have created your replacement piece, pin it in place in the exact manner as the original. Right sides will of course be together, and piping will be layered between the fabric pieces. Baste the seams, taking care to ease out any fullness or uneven places. And finally, carefully machine stitch the seams using a small stitch length and a strong thread. Once all of the seams are stitched, turn the cover right side out, replace the cushion form, and you're done.












Years ago, I found this fabric which coordinates with my furniture in - of all places- the Walmart fabric section. I made draperies and arm covers out of them at that time. This week I made some small throw pillows to freshen up the couch.. finished them up with dark red blanket stitching and they look right fine, or so my Grampa would've said.