Adventures in Sewing

We had a bit of a sleepy start today so we haven't gotten anymore painting done in the nursery yet. It'll probably have to wait until the weekend. However, I still feel like I need to be making forward progress with the whole thing, so I've started a couple of sewing projects.

Last night while the boys were watching Battlestar, I went down and raided my little fabric stash to see what I had on hand that would work for the baby's room. (Nothing against Battlestar, but I find I really have to be in the mood to watch it. And after watching it once with Patrick, and then listening to him re-watch it again before starting it over with Trevor--I don't think I'll be in the mood to watch it for myself for several years.)

I found about 5 yards of white eyelet that I decided to make into a dust ruffle for the crib. So I measured and cut out the pieces and finished doing rolled hems along the sides last night before I went to bed. I decided as I was going along that I wanted to serge the eyelet to the muslin piece that will lie under the mattress--so that will also have to wait for the weekend when I can go to Chrissy's and borrow the use of her serger. But I still had a fire lit under me when I woke up this morning and wanted to keep going...

So I began the epic undertaking (to me, at least) of slip covering The Awful Chair.

I am doing my best to take pictures of the process as I go along, but--once again--I am unable to post them yet for technical reasons. (I need to just find out which stupid cord I need to hook my camera to the computer so I can post the dang pictures...Remind me to look into that when we get our next paycheck...After all, I know I'm going to be posting pictures more regularly once the baby arrives, so I may as well sort it out now, right?) Anyway--

I watched a bunch of different slipcover tutorials this afternoon and then I decided to just jump in with both feet and cut out the fabric. Most of the tutorials say you should make a pattern template out of muslin, bed sheets or butcher paper, but I don't have extras of those things lying around. And, quite frankly, it sounds like an absolute drag to complete a "practice" slipcover when you could just make the actual slipcover and enjoy your achievement that much sooner.

I had a bit of a panic attack before cutting into my fabric and had to call my sister--whom I consider to be an  expert in all things sewing, despite the fact that she's never made a slipcover either--in order to calm my nerves. That being said, I think I made a pretty good job of cutting everything out and making sure the fabric would line up correctly and still have adequate seam allowance. Now I am very patiently and cautiously pin-fitting the pieces together wrong side out--just like the tutorials say. I don't know how long this particular part of the process will take, but I am doing my best to stay calm and not allow myself to get overly frustrated and start cursing. Maybe I'll have something to show you all when the weekend rolls around!

In the meantime, I'm going to get the most work I can done today, since I'll be working three long shifts in a row again. Wish me luck!