Progress on My Reading Chair

For some reason I thought I would be able to make the back and seat covers for my reading chair in one day.  I don't know that it's possible to do an entire sewing project in one day, unless it's a very small project.  But I guess it makes me happy to think a project is a snap - if I thought at the outset it would take much longer than I'd like it to take, I'd get discouraged.  The extra making time isn't too bad, though, because it's just plain fun to sew.

I have the seat completely done, and the covering for the back is 95% done.  This is the back, all in a squirmy pile.

To build the two covers, I brought the cushions and the ottoman down into my sewing room.  Then I cut a bunch of strips and started arranging them until I found the order I wanted.  All of the strips came from fat quarters, which as you can see aren't wide enough to cover the cushion.

This is the 95%-completed piece for the chair back.  It's over 5 feet long.

You can see that I added cream muslin vertical borders to increase the width.  To make things a little different, I added some strips that overflowed into the side columns that the muslin was making.  Note the gold/purple near the top and in the center, and the pink at the bottom.  Some of the strips have a little muslin spliced in for unification.

Alas, it was still just a little too narrow, so I added a 2" strip of small pieces along both edges. 

Here's the fabric draped over the back cushion.  Once upon a time I made a different cover for this chair, and I used a zipper.  Ugh, ugh, and more ugh.  The cushion isn't a rectangle - it has a swoopy, arched top.  Even putting the zipper on that long end didn't work.

This time around I decided I'm going to make a "pillowcase" and just slip it over the top.  That's the 5% I have to do yet - hem the bottom and stitch the side seams.

For the seat, I debated using some large squares.  I didn't want more rectangles, because I thought that would look too busy right next to the ottoman (bottom of photo).  However, this fabric selection was rejected - still too busy.

While we're here - note that the seat cushion also has a swoopy arch, this time at the front, where your knees go.

What I chose for the seat was a large center panel of one fat quarter, uncut - that gold fabric on the left.  Then I bordered it with 1/2 yard of the dark navy.  When you see the finished product, you'll see what a good choice this turned out to be.  

Since I didn't have any more of those two fabrics, but still needed to make it larger in order to cover the bottom of the seat cushion, I added that dark teal / white herringbone around the edges.  Not because it looked wonderful together, but because I had 1/2 yard of it.  You're not going to be seeing this portion in the finished product anyway, so it's OK.

I don't always dress to match my sewing project, but maybe I should start doing so.

To handle the swoopy seat cushion, I wrapped it tightly, like a package, and used those screwy upholstery pins to hold everything tight.

I think after I put the "pillowcase" over the chair back, I'll use the screwy pins to hold the bottom edges pulled tight together.  But that's for another day.