How To Recover an IKEA Poang Chair

Before our first baby was born, we purchased an IKEA Poang chair for the nursery. You've probably seen these chairs - definitely a little plain. At first glance I thought they were pretty strange looking, but they are surprisingly comfortable and come with a really great price tag!

The nursery is grey, so we opted for a black frame with the off-whiteish cushion.

Well, after 2 years and baby #2 was born, I decided that I was tired of the plain chair. Not to mention that it really didn't look that great in the nursery, especially with the monogrammed pillow given to Anna by some sweet friends! 

I found some pink & grey twill zigzag fabric on Fabric.com that I thought would work. The fabric was on sale at the time, so it was a really cheap way to update the nursery. 

Since the fabric is 56" wide, I only needed 2 yards to cover the chair. I loosely based my project on this tutorial found on Stickelberry, but since my fabric was a different width I modified it slightly.

First, I laid out the whole piece, marked the middle, and cut it in half. Then, I put one piece face up, laid the cushion on top, then put the other piece of fabric face down. I marked the top piece of fabric near the velcro on the cushion and cut that. 

So, I then had 3 pieces of fabric: one really long piece on the front, and two smaller pieces for the back. I folded the two back pieces down twice and hemmed. (I know this isn't very detailed, but really, the tutorial I referenced is very thorough on these steps.

Next, I pinned & sewed the longer of the back fabrics to the front fabric. Then, I laid it on the floor again, laid the cushion inside, and pinned the top of the back fabrics to the front fabric. I wanted the seams to be at the ends of the cushion. I also sewed the velcro strip at this time.

Once I had a big piece of fabric, I just needed to sew up the side seams. I like things to be pretty exact, so I measured the cushion width to be 24.5" wide. This would provide a snug fit for the cushion. I pinned, measured, and marked the fabric to be 24.5" wide on the bottom half of the cover. After sewing that, I stuffed the cushion inside just to verify the width. (It would have been much easier to rip it then if I had to - but I didn't - it was a great fit!) I then pinned, measured, and marked the top part.

I sewed diagonally across the corners since they're rounded, trimmed the edges down to a smaller seam allowance, flipped it, then stuffed the cushion inside. And - TA-DA! A brand new looking chair with a removable cover!

{Note: I'm not claiming this to be a tutorial since the one at Stickelberry is already excellent. I realize that pictures and my description are not as thorough as they could be. However, if you have any questions at all please contact me & I'll do my best to help!}

Linking up at C.R.A.F.T., Skip To My Lou, Sew Can Do, and i should be mopping the floor.

WIP Wednesday: Grannies Galore

Hello and happy Wednesday!

My Christmas quilt finish has really motivated me to work on some old works-in-progress. This week I managed to finish two more blocks for my scrappy granny square quilt, bringing the total block count up to 7! Woohoo - only two more to go!

And I finished the first block of my Vintage quilt from Simply Retro. Guess I wasn't really thinking that I was already in the middle of one granny square quilt when I decided to start this one... oh well! 

First block out of Kona Pool

I'm having a few doubts about this quilt already and I've barely started out. First off, this is one HUGE block! It finishes at 20" square, which I know is big, but it looks so much bigger actually sewn up. I'm also questioning my plan to make it out of all solids. I think I'll like it - it's just a little different for me!

What have you been working on this week? Head on over to Freshly Pieced to see some more works-in-progress!

Next Up

These lovely solids arrived in the mail last week & I can't wait to cut into them! I'm planning to make the Vintage quilt from Camille Roskelley's book, Simply Retro. (I LOVE this book, by the way!) Guess I can't get enough of granny squares. 

In order from left to right, these are Kona colors: Oasis, Sage, Caribbean, Aqua, Turquoise, Pomegranate, and Pool. I don't have a Kona color card, so I was scanning different websites, trying to find good shades of blue-green, and unfortunately ended up with three that look awfully similar:

The finished quilt has 12 blocks, so my plan is to make 11 of the blocks in the blues, with one block of Pomegranate. Right now I'm thinking I'll pull out the Oasis and hunt down one more shade of blue - maybe a really dark turquoise. So, the colors I *think* I'm using are these: 

Excited to start this next project - I'll keep you posted on progress! Oh, and if you want to see some lovely examples of finished Vintage quilts, check out this link party hosted by Jana.

Christmas in... August

So excited to share a finish with you! It may be August, but I finally finished my Christmas quilt!!

This Christmas quilt has been in the works for a ridiculously long time... I don't actually remember how long. Two years? Three? I decided last Christmas that I wanted to finish it in the middle of the year sometime... not even remotely close to Christmas. There's always enough going on at Christmas without trying to squeeze in one more project.

The fabric came from Connecting Threads several years ago, and the pattern is Small Plates from Elizabeth Hartman's book The Practical Guide to Patchwork.

This was my first "big" quilt finish. I've only completed baby quilts thus far... although I have a couple other big quilts in progress. Finishing this has definitely motivated me to work on the others, though! I was a little intimidated by a bigger-than-baby quilt, but it was fine.

I quilted it with straight lines 1/4" on either side of the main seams. I'm pretty partial to straight line quilting - I just really like how it looks. Also, I spray basted it (with Mom's help). It was the first time either of us had ever spray basted (and Mom has made TONS of quilts), and I'm a big fan now. I thought the spray basting was much easier than pin basting, plus it was SOO nice to quilt it without worrying about removing all those pins. And, I'm super pleased with how it turned out - there are a few small puckers after quilting, but I think it would have been worse with pin basting (for me, at least).

One quick note about the backing - when I ordered this fabric from Connecting Threads, it was on clearance. I couldn't find coordinating fabrics with enough yardage to make the backing, so I just got two completely different Christmas fabrics. Soo, when I picked this project back up this summer I was no longer thrilled with my backing choice, but I decided to go with it anyway since I already had the fabric. I ended up being okay with it once it was quilted, though. My tastes in fabric have changed quite a bit, and I'm learning so much about sewing and quilting that I'm content to consider this just another learning experience.

Oh, and a name...I'm {obviously} new to this naming-your-quilt thing, but for now I believe I'll call it A Square Christmas. Feel free to leave more creative ideas in the comments!

Looking forward to snuggling with this quilt in December!

Linking up with Needle & Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation and Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Quick Hello

I'm finally getting into a bit of a routine with baby girl and have had lots of ideas floating around lately. This cutie is a huge part of the reason I've been absent - you can't blame me, can you?

I'm looking forward to sharing some of what I've been up to with you! And since I have more ideas than I'd ever have time to actually complete myself, I may see if I can convince any of you to try them instead! I've come to realize that I enjoy dreaming up projects, even when I don't complete them myself. (Mom, you know this better than anyone. Glad you let me share ideas with you!)

So, stay tuned... a good many crafty posts coming soon, along with some other topics, like some books I've enjoyed lately and perhaps a few recipes.