The project that (almost) never ended.

There are some projects that I start around here that just never get done... and end up in the Goodwill or trash pile after I get too frustrated or unmotivated to finish. This one came this close to that sad fate.

Remember this red chair?

It has inhabited our former sunroom-turned-sewing room.

And also our former sewing-room-turned-nursery.
And even our living room in Chicago.
It was actually handed down from a family I nannied for in Chicago, so it's had many lives already.

When we turned the tiny room off of our bedroom into Baby L's room, it got booted out into our room - but the red didn't really jive with all the blues and neutrals we already had. So I decided to make a slipcover for it out of painter's drop cloth (the canvas kind you find for super cheap at Lowe's).

Having never slipcovered something - or made piping - I found out really quickly that I bit off a little more than I could chew. But with $40 worth of drop cloth and piping, and a chair that desperately needed help if it was going to stay in our house - I couldn't quit. So the chair sat half finished for... oh... 3 months? Maybe even longer. It sat there in our bedroom, staring me down day after day, making me feel like a very inadequate DIY-er.

Well, this morning I woke up motivated. Motivated to finish the chair! I did, and I'm so thankful it's done. And that it turned out!

Because I am no expert (seriously!) and did not measure one thing as I went, I'm not the best one to teach anyone how to do this. But I will tell you that this series by Honeybear Lane was definitely the most helpful information I found on the process. I read through it before I started, and it gave me a great idea on how to approach each step.

All in all, though, it's just a lot of trial and error: laying the fabric onto the arms of the chair (for example), cutting the fabric, pinning it, sewing it, flipping it over to see how it fits, making adjustments, pinning again, sewing again... and over and over. The cushions were by far the easiest part of the project. And I'm pretty sure I won't be slipcovering anything else for a loooong time.

But hey, here's to actually finishing projects even when they seem nearly impossible! And here's to one more thing off my to-do list before Baby L gets here. He can officially come anytime now. :)