Re-covering the seating

The seating in our living/dining room is varied. A 3-seater sofa, a roller chair and three of our four dining chairs are all ready for a refresh. However, a temporary solution would suit us since we plan to replace carpet and curtains in about three years. 

I managed to reuse the existing sofa throw, a large rectangle of cream upholstery fabric, with a subtle dandelion head decoration. It's draped so the good bits show (back, skirt and arms), hiding the inkstains under the seat cushions. The extension, falling behind the seat back, is only sheeting but doesn't show. The side panels were pieced from remnants hoarded from the same cream fabric as the throw. 

Contrast fabric was cream, grey and brown on a soft green background. The retailer calls it Splash, but it reminds me more of rock. DH dislikes flower prints, and I feel plain shows every mark, so this is a compromise. The cream and brown are good matches for the carpet and fireplace, we have some grey blankets around, and although the green is cooler than our curtains, we're both OK with the colours. I've used almost all of the four yards by 60" found in a charity shop.

I made a single shaped box cover for the sofa seat cushions, to stop stuff falling between them. Three of our four dining chairs now have new seat covers held by the existing screws. Since I don't have a staple gun, the folded corners have been 'assisted' using the hot glue gun and we'll see how it goes. 

At my desk, the roller chair has a new shaped foam box cushion, which works better than the 'ergonomic' seat for my short legs. It's now covered in the contrast fabric. The rectangle cunningly arranged around the seat is similar in colour to the sofa throw, so was reshaped to fit better but not replaced. Years ago, I had made a slipcover for the back, so took a pattern from it, cut it out in the contrast fabric, and just refined the shape slightly.

What did I learn? 

To prototype in fabric not paper, even though furniture doesn't move, at least not much. 

That you need to allow for compression and movement of the foam cushions / padding. 

To recheck the traced and trued pattern before cutting. 

That box cushions take a lot more fabric than you'd think. The bands each took more than a full 58" width. 

That I still don't know how to push curved needles or safety pins into taut fabric. 

To find suitable clamps when stretching to fit.

That the search term for our sofa is T-cushion slipcover, and it will likely be similar in price to a me-made one in new fabric.

That my memory for colours isn't accurate.

Overall, I'm happy that I've managed to visually bring disparate furniture together, so the room feels more coordinated and restful. 

2025 April summary. Repairs, weaving, and sofa cover. .

 This April has been warmer and drier than usual. It feels like an early Me-Made-May, because I've done loads of assessment and care-and-repair. A round of stain treatment on clothes and bedding now there's enough light to see what's what*. A round of the usual minor fixes: restitching popped seams and missing buttons; adjusting waist elastics; adding a dart at shoulder blade height...

* Obviously, spills get dealt with as soon as possible. Spring cleaning round is for the cumulative tiny dots and spots that just make fabric look tired. 

We have two relatively new backpacks. It'd be a big job to add a waist strap to the weekending bag (transfer weight to the hips not shoulders). But I could reuse some reclaimed webbing and clips to add a chest strap (keeps the shoulder straps in place). Looked for some cord and a small cantilever clip to help the day bag straps stay in place, but have temporarily settled for a lanyard with a very sturdy swivel clip. Think an oversized necklace clasp. It's just knotted on for now, but if a success I can use the lanyard tape, the swivel clip, and a small o-ring for a more permanent fix. 

The big repair job started was the Finchdale jumper. I've hardly worn it despite all those knitting hours, due to discomfort at the armscyes. Same symptoms as the Talvi had - and since I adjusted that it has hardly been off my back except for laundry. Added height to the sleeve caps. Hmm, better. However sleeve caps and sleeve bodies both need a tad more wearing ease. Before setting them in again, did some experiments on a scrap square with sprang weaving. I was able to improve the sleeves without reknitting the whole lot. Ladder a column of stitches, double twist the rungs pairwise and secure with a crochet chain, and it'll look deliberate while gaining two stitches width, about ⅓". Enough to feel the difference. Not done done yet, I'm considering filling in the bodice lower scye a little, but haven't checked against shirts as opposed to tees underneath. 

And a bonus craft project over the Easter break. I have a small table loom for a few weeks, the kind that uses a notched stick to create a shed. There's been time to make a teapot stand, using up long thin fabric scraps as twine. Interesting as an experiment, but too many weights and qualities of scrap to make decent twine. Plus, in practical terms, the shuttles and shed weren't designed to take this thickness. 

Also a small mat from all those two foot lengths of yarn that we** hoard. Started as an experiment in colour grading from a roughly sorted pile of scraps, ended up a little picture of meadow lake and mountain. I enjoyed doing this as an afternoon workshop kind of project, but not enough to want to store the loom permanently.

** 'We' meaning the author and quite possibly the reader.

Not much knitting. Finished an Aran toddler hat. And started another winter hat. For me! The loaghtan hat is permanently lost, I think because it was slightly small in diameter, despite reknitting. Different yarn to the recommended and didn't grow in use. So I've cast on another using my usual pattern. Start at crown, increase to 22.5", one hand span diameter, in 8 sections. Then increase gradually just a tad more for the brow bone. I can decide on rib/brim later when the fit is confirmed - I did like the horizontal ridges on the old one.

Also started a larger project. I don't want to have our sofa professionally recovered for two or three years - until building works on our estate are finished. But as a stop gap, I've been experimenting with the old throw, with paper templates, and with a length of curtain fabric. The current preferred option is to drape the old throw over back and arms and skirt, and under the seat cushions to keep it in place, and to hide the ink stains. Then make a single temporary cover for the three seat cushions. I'm reluctant to cover tham individually because I constantly lose pens, phone, knitting, etc between them. A few days into May I have a prototype cut, the fitted edges sewn, but only draped at the centre till I see how much excess to leave as an expansion joint to cope with foam compression when we sit.

Attempt at visible mending

A much loved Patterns 4 Pirates Tulip Tee (2021? white long sleeves). Is looking sad. 

The round neck had stretched out, and there are a couple of stains I can't remove. Ah well, I don't particularly embrace visible mending, but will give it a go as a can't spoil um project. 

Cut off the neckband just above the decorative topstitching, to use as applique. (Yes, I did have a couple of scraps leftover, but they are now brighter and thicker than the much-washed tee)

Cut neckband into step pyramids, one large and central-ish over a few small stains, one small over a stray spill. Glue stick to hold temporarily, then machine darned to hold in place and to add texture*. 

I want to turn the neckline over. However there are a couple of neckband millimetres trapped in the top stitching, and I think they might literally come out in the wash. So do that later. 

I'm OK with this experiment - rustic rather than grungy - but it feels a bit young in style for me. Nevertheless, I'd rather wear this than something that looked unwashed. 

* Did I say that this year I'm leaning towards more texture than pattern or plain. Especially in the 'dribble zone'. 

Alterations - a slow process

DH's blue/black cotton shirt, textured with a raised diagonal, is beyond mending. The collar and cuffs have frayed, showing the white interfacing. No use making the cuffs an inch narrower, because the sleeves would be too short for him. And he dislikes grandad collars. I like both options and if I could do something with it, there'd be a partner in colour and weight for my blue/grey wool silk trousers.

First a very rough fitting. Will it fasten? With a size 16" collar it ought to. (It did.) And can I fit a yoked garment to my sloping shoulders? Pinned on the back yoke seam and similarly at the front yoke. Yes, that's ok, just adds a little fullness to the sleeve cap.

Then the battle begins, to narrow the shoulders and shorten the sleeves. If I take out the frayed section of the cuffs, that'll be one inch out of four or five needed. Taking off the 1.5" dropped shoulder looked odd - narrow caps and loads of ease at the cuffs. So took out one sleeve*, and initially marked the whole curve an inch lower. *Ripping two lines of black felled seam, it's a job for daylight.

Folded and pinned, the caps were disproportionately narrow. After a bit of experimentation, settled on 0.5" dropped shoulder, take 1" height from sleeve at armpit and shoulder point, but keep as much width as I can. That's better. Couldn't take more than an inch at underarm because the sleeves narrow downwards.

Why bother? Well mansize shoulders are much broader than mine, so the cap seam needed work anyway. For shortening, the standard procedure is to trim at the cuff, which is fine for an inch or so. For this job, on the one hand, the placket simply isn't long enough to take a 4" change. On the other hand, the placket would interfere with the drape if I cut and gathered the sleeves instead. 

Rant. This was a battle with a man's shirt that I chose to fight, rather than trying to get myself to a nearby city during a bus strike. Annoyingly, as rtw gets made for taller and taller people, I find myself battling both ends of a sleeve made for women. Even then, usually the maximum I can take out without ruining the whole thing is 3", and that's often not enough. Ever wondered why I prefer to sew rather than alter? 

Failed Experiment with sleeve tucks*.  

I'm playing, as a can't spoil it project. But I do expect to dismantle, cut nicely, and restitch. Instead of attacking the shoulder point as I thought I might, I tried putting one inch tucks in the untouched sleeve. 

It reminded me that:

• It helps to bring the cuff inside the sleeve (making a mountain fold) and press before stitching. 
• One inch tucks are too big with this taper. Maybe I used 3/4" or 1/2" last time. 
• Can't tuck the sleeve head (it's gotta be at least as big as the armscye) or the placket. The taper angle will be different on the tucked sections. 

Not at all a success. Lots of volume at bust height. I don't care enough to try shoulder pads to balance. I may photo for the gallery of shame. This attempt will be unpicked. 

* I got away with this technique a few years ago on a poplin floral ex-office shirt. Not one of the three relatives I visited, all better dressmakers than myself, noticed anything wrong. Phew! 

Can we get more fabric below back yoke?

Thinking I've been taking the right steps, but not necessarily in the right order. I unpicked the sloping shoulder adjustment, and patched in a ribbon under the yoke line for a round back adjustment. My estimate of one inch made a huge difference to comfort round the collar. 

Unfortunately, I  hadn't pinned my hair up in the before photo, so can't be completely objective. But from sensory feedback, I'm keeping this change! With the unpicker in my hand, removed the trial tucks in the sleeves, too. Looks like 3" to 4" reduction will be enough, but I'll wait until back, shoulders and the other cuff are correct before confirming. 

EDIT : Oops, I'd picked up a smidgeon of fabric near the cuff when stitching the lowest tuck. No wonder that sleeve looks short in the photo. The unhappy areas-of-volume comments from the other day stand. 

Making it permanent

Up till now, except for one cuff which had been cut and trimmed, all changes were reversible and have been reversed!

Firstly, the equivalent to adding ribbon under the back yoke is to raise the whole shirt an inch, everywhere except the centre back yoke. So stitched a horizontal tuck between the top and second buttons. And a long dart under the back yoke, straightening out for the middle 8" between my shoulder blades. 

The bonus for a small person is that the tuck and darts shrink the armscye by 2", which'll let me shorten the sleeves from the top. Using the grid on the cutting mat, worked out that with this particular sleeve taper, I can take 2.75". Together with the inch I get from cutting the frayed bit off the cuff, that's not quite as much shorter as I'd like, but good enough. 

Pinned the sleeves in. There's enough fabric, just. Notice that the sleeve cap is symmetrical, but the centre line is well to the back of the shoulder line. I managed to reduce the drop shoulder by 0.5", but it's still a lot of drop on me! 

The verdict

It's been a good can't-spoil-it project. The hours of fun have been notionally booked against the Continuing Education budget (grin). Overall, I'm pleased with the fit from the centre back adjustment. Might consider a smidgeon more another time. Less happy with the seam line just under the neck. Another time maybe unpick the collar and move the whole collar/front yoke seam down? Whilst I'll settle for the sleeve length I  achieved, I would prefer less volume as well. This is sounding like unpick everything except the placket, the front band and the hem, isn't it? 

Nevertheless, this'll give me something temporarily usable. It fills the wardrobe gaps labelled 'sleeves roll right up for medical appointments' and 'spring/autumn weight and goes with grey blue wool/silk trousers'. Or at least it will fill in until I get a women's shirt pattern Tried and Trusted.

And since DH has worn it many more than our target of 30 times, any additional wears from me are a bonus. 

    

Alterations. Quick wins to fill some wardrobe gaps.

The Me Made May project helped me get my clothes in good order, but gave me yet another reminder that I need fewer prints (shame) and more plain tops and trousers to fill my wardrobe gaps.

1/ When I found a pair of coral M&S chinos in a charity shop, UK size 16, it was an opportunity to try something different.  I have a 14 waist and low hip, but at high hip, I need every inch! I've had limited success in the past (understatement) altering the outseam or waist. Going back to basics, I compared with a successful basic pattern, a much modified descendant of New Look K6217. It's always harder to read the difference when a garment has darts. But it was clear that the entire back rise and the lower part of the front rise were the biggest differences. 

Safety pinned, tried, roughly stitched, retried, then took in the waist a bit. And it felt close enough for a short stroll. I'd an errand to drop something off at a neighbour's flat. That'd be a fair test.  Much better! Comfier than anything I can buy, but still needs a little more support. The mid part of the back rise provided some support, but I took in the upper part 1/4"×2 as well, above and beneath the bony  ridge. At front hip, pleated out 1/4"×2 each side, darting down to nothing a couple of inches below the band. Support above the tum was provided by darts in the waistband, 1/4"×2 at the top tapering to nothing at the base.

Shortened the legs by about two inches. To deal with the taper, unpicked the stitching line but not the serging above the hem fold. All changes were held together with long stitches until I'd walked into town the next day. All was well, so unpicked the old stitching and topstitching on the rise, then restitched it more tidily. Then I was confident to trim and zigzag (which gave me a fraction more ease to kneel comfortably as well as sit, stand and walk.) Not perfect, but perfectly wearable.

2/ As a can't-spoil-it project I did the same alteration to widen and scoop the rise of the size 14 M&S  navy chinos. They'd always a bottom-of-the-washing-pile choice. Wearable, sort of, but unsightly and uncomfortable for more than a few hours, you know the kind. And guess what? So much improved that I'd wear them to meet a friend. Comfy enough to sit all evening. I think this change might happen to at least one other pair of plain trousers.

Before

After

3/ A different gap.  I didn't possess a hot weather dress that I could wear in public. A couple of sleeved dresses. And some camisoles, whose pattern is Tried but not Trusted yet. When I found a cotton bias-cut sleeveless dress for a couple of pounds, size 18, a few days before the Saharan weather system returned to our parts, it had to come home with me. I love bias cut, it stretches vertically or horizontally to size, but doesn't walk around your body. On the other hand it needs TLC when altering. As I'd thought, the fit was good, but the shoulders were too long for a petite person. Without any effort, you could see the bottom my bra band at the underarm. I'd seen a tutorial on Mrs Mole's site (fit for a queen blog) a few days before, to raise a neckline in a lined dress. This was effectively the same problem, so followed the instructions, and the dress became respectable. Not only that, it was worn and washed nearly every day while the hot spell lasted.

I just need an overshirt which goes, now, for sun protection on my way out or home! 

4/ And finally, another charity shop indulgence. What mouselet wouldn't want a Swiss Cheese Plant top? This used to have a contrast hem band - making the top too long for me. And the sleeves were too tight, so I unpicked a few stitches at the lower curve. I'm not sure yet where I stand in wardrobe planning terms on short sleeves (protects overlayers from your skin) vs long sleeves (sun protection, good for many months of our year) vs sleeveless (I'd rarely wear in public). But I have enjoyed wearing this in our flat and on evening walks.

May distraction. A UFO moved on, but still not a success.

The plan, to concentrate on the Me Made May assessment, and do any minor fixes as I find them, continued. But I'm also trying to move Unfinished Objects (UFOs) to the Finished or Remodelled list. 

I'm counting the green French Terry jacket as a May project, although it was started last October,   remodelled starting in April, and finally assessed as a failed UFO. It had a miscut back neckline, a tendency to duck tail, and I simply felt swamped and uncomfortable in the boxy cut. I decided to unpick it and see if the fabric could be pieced and reused. A skirt wasn't going to work, but I'm still short of mild weather layers. Are these called overs or toppers nowadays?  I want something that can be fastened for warmth at centre front in the mornings and evenings, but can be opened up when warm with scurrying, or if the weather improves as the day moves on.

Unable to quickly* find a pattern with deep set in sleeves (there are plenty of raglan or drop shoulder around but I'm not yet working on fitting them), I decided to trace an old black pj top and add a front fastening.  Various adjustments for a first attempt. I've kept the nice detail of a small bodice extension before joining the sleeves, which have a wide and shallow sleeve cap, the kind I usually see in toddler knits. A few fitting changes at the shoulders, plus I've given myself an additional quarter inch at high hip, 1" total extra ease.

* Rant. Of course I've stumbled across two or three candidates since. But I'm rubbish at guessing search terms. 'Tops sew pattern' really doesn't help narrow down the options, set-in doesn't seem to be indexed on the search engines.

I pieced fabric big enough for the sleeves from the dismantled dropped shoulders version and some scraps, zigzagged in an arc at back neck. Unfortunately, the horizontal seam affects the drape - shame, cos I've been fantasising about lower waste layouts for the next version. Unhappy about both the the wider-than-anticipated-neckline and the backward shoulder creep, I tried a centre back/neck dart. And hey presto, fit and drape improved no end. I've added buttons but not buttonholes at the front. Will probably just add press-studs for now. Not a spectacular rescue, perhaps I'll replace the sleeves now I've found the missing remnant, but certainly better than its predecessor.

One extra thing happened towards the end of the month. If this is an indoor to outdoor layer, it needs pockets. I spent ages pinning rectangles in different proportions to try find a phone-friendly size. No luck since I simply don't have a flat front, or a large enough area that approximates a flat front. Keys, tickets and a few coins or a note will go in, but will have to take a bag for my phone. Since that functional requirement couldn't be met, I subbed in the pockets from Tilly and the Buttons Stella Hoodie. Well, divided the kangaroo pocket into two, then lined and stitched both on. Yet again, I need more practice to stop it looking amateurish. 

I've worn this a couple of times for coastal or woodland walks. It's much more comfy than RTW, and practical around the house and on the dunes. The bad news: it looks lumpy and miserable. It'll do temporarily. Next time (and I have another length of French terry in brown,) let's revise the high back and shoulder shaping, which is not far out. Try sleeves without piecing so I can assess where the excess is, and maybe add a smidge at high hip. Narrow the neckband: it doesn't have the tension of a continuous front to keep it tidy at the overlap. Raise the neckline to compensate, and maybe a bit more to cover the assorted tee shirts that show awkwardly (most of them). Or just continue refining my tee necklines outward and downwards, which is happening anyway..

Wish me luck!