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08.07.2000

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other recent LOUNGE articles:
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10 Tips for Furniture Foraging
o the Incredibly True Confessions of a First-time Homeowner
o crafty crafty: Make a Throw Pillow Cover

o On Weeding: School Stuff

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the Dining CHAIR Slipcover Debacle, 
a cautionary tale |
  1 2 3 4
continued from page 3

The conclusion
Upon first inspection, everything looked fine – no heinous bumps or inadvertent gathers in evidence, a form that looked more or less like the chair it should fit. But when I wiggled the slipcover onto my actual chair, creases and folds and lumps and bubbles were suddenly in ubiquitous evidence. I tugged and pulled, but no amount of fussing was going to get that cover to lie down smoothly. Eventually, I realized that the problem could be traced directly to one of those pesky four-fabric intersections. After pacing around and around, and trying to convince myself that I could live with the imperfections, I promptly plopped down next to my chair to examine the problem junction. (Ahh, perfectionism rears it’s ugly head).
And yet I just could not, for the life of me, figure out why these pieces weren’t joining together properly. And damned if I could figure out why the other side – which joined together in precisely the same fashion – looked absolutely perfect in comparison. So I did the only thing I could think of to do: cursed furiously and threw a little hissyfit.

And then I started ripping and snipping the seams near the problem spot. I gathered the bits of fabric together again, then hand-sewed the area shut. When the first try failed to smooth things out, I ripped the seams apart again; repeated the gathering process, then hand-sewed it again. Magically, the second time did the trick. My slipcover now slid into place fairly smoothly.

Still, there’s something that’s just not quite right about the slipcover. Granted, I haven’t yet sewn in the velcro strips that will attach the two back flaps together, and I’m still hoping that that’ll help the slipcover from sliding around and wrinkling. But the real problem, I think, is that the slipcover just doesn’t look as tailored as I’d imagined it looking. Maybe it’s just that I’m a complete hack of a seamstress. But maybe, just maybe, this is just a problem inherent in slipcovers – no matter what you do, they look like an afterthought, a makeshift method of masking an eyesore of a furniture piece. The final verdict? I’m thinking the slipcover’s probably going in the closet; I’ll be re-upholstering those 6 chairs instead. No way am I repeating this process five more times.

o

check out these related articles: 
the furniture facelift fiasco, part i: re-finishing 
the furniture facelift fiasco, part ii: re-upholstering  

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