I was chosen as one of the top 12 in the “Sew You Think You Can Sew” Contest at Mommy by Day Crafter by Night Blog out of 175 projects!!! Voting starts Wednesday (Jan 4th) 8am EST and ends Thursday (Jan 5th) night at 8pm….so head on over and vote for your favorite project (bottom 3 get eliminated every week). One vote per computer, phone, or ipad.

Week One theme for the contest is for “the Home”. 

Here is the project I decided to share. My client Jenn picked up 8 Hendricksal Ikea parson chairs for her dining room. She also picked up some cream muslin and a couple sets of tan linen curtains from Ikea as well.

Here is the before….I loved the dark legs on the parson chairs.

Here is the after…..

Jenn wanted to use the muslin on the main body…but it was too thin. SoI doubled it up (lined it) to make it a better weight so you couldn’t see the pinkish hue from the underneath chair.

We used the 2 sets of tan linen curtains as the outside back of the chairs and the top ruffle of the skirt. The tan linen ruffle was 4″ tall and the muslin ruffle was 6″ tall.

I gathered on the two sets of ruffles separately to ensure a tighter gather.

The muslin 6″ finished ruffle is self lined, I cut 13″ strips and folded them in half….(6″+6″+.5″+.5″) (.5 is seam allowance at top).

To reduce bulk, the tan linen 4″ ruffle has a 1.5″ blind hem along the bottom edge. I cut strips 6″ tall (4″skirt +1.5″ for hem +.5″ seam allowance at top)

Of course I had Jenn prewash all her fabric, so that she can wash her slipcovers and they won’t shrink in the wash. Tip— Wash in hot with double liquid fabric softener to help with the wrinkles, and dry on High to ensure maximum shrinkage. Depending on your washer size, you can wash 7-10 yds in a load.

After the skirts were sewn on, they seemed a little “fluffy”, so I took a hot iron and steamed and ironed the ruffles flat. I also made sure to iron the edges good to make them look crisp…especially the cream muslin layer since it was self lined.

I loved the contrast of having the outside back in a different fabric.

Jenn is tons of fun and is awesome at decorating and does event planning in the Utah area…if you are interested in her services, her site is http://www.jpieperdesign.com/ .
Since September she has had me slipcover her wingbacks, ottoman, and oversized chair. Love this girl!

This was for a client’s son. She called me from Texas and shipped me the fabric. Her son lived locally, and she wanted to redo these chairs for his new place that he’d just bought a few months before.

Here are the chairs before….cream velvet from the seventies…. But they were comfortable, swiveled and rocked.

Here are the chairs after in a great blue paisley….manly enough for a bachelor pad right? Did I mention his mom is a designer?

Another after shot of the front of the chairs together. He also had this great modern oval shaped coffee table, I loved it with the chairs. I also did a little bit of matching along the front.

We raised the skirt height to update the chairs a bit.

Matching along the front cushion and skirt.

I also ran piping down the inside arms, just to polish it off a bit.

Side Note—-

Hope everyone had a great time this holiday season. I’ve enjoyed having the past two weeks off work. I cleaned out a junk room and turned it into a guest bedroom…I’ll post pics later. I ordered fabric to change things up in my bedroom…the fabric should be here tomorrow!!! I even ended up pulling off a Christmas card last minute with my sisters help…I literally mailed them off 2 days before Christmas.

Best part of all….Heber ended up getting Christmas off this year (a guy called him a week before Christmas and needed him to work a trade for him for the next day, and he said if he worked for him, he’d work Christmas for Heber!!!!). Heber is a fireman and has worked the last 3-4 years on Christmas day. So I was SUPER excited that he could have it off.

So with the change in plans….we decided to do CHRISTMAS at our Cabin! We wrapped up all the gifts and packed up the kids and headed to the cabin. It was the best Christmas ever…. we chopped down a tree and decorated it, watched Christmas movies, drank hot chocolate, ate cookies, sledded, and the boys were all so good and nice to eachother! We also surprised the boys…their main gift was a trip to Maui as a family….we leave Jan 5th! Despite the frozen drains and 15 degrees when we arrived and Luke’s huge bloody nose episode in the middle of the night…..WE had a great time at the cabin!

Here is the picture I used for our Christmas Card. Luke didn’t want his picture taken. No stress picture, I didn’t even pick outfits out….”lower my expectations” has been my theme for the past few months…trying to get through my busy peak season work time.

This client recieved this chair from her mother-in-law and loved the petite shape of it for a bedroom chair.

Before….a little bit dated.

She chose a red/white stripe for the slipcover….perfect for holiday time too.

Front of arm

Kiss pleat on the upper back.

Since the scale of the chair was smaller and petite, I kept the original skirt height…so that it stayed in scale with the size of the chair.

Front of chair.

Side note— I am pushing through my list and trying to finish all my work by the end of next week, then I can get ready for the holidays….or at least clean out my work room and organize it, and redo the guest bedroom.