Linen Couch Slipcover

This is about the couch in the den. It's pretty old - maybe 20 years?  It replaced the 50+ year old couch that I inherited from my parents.  It's nothing fancy - we got it, gently used, from Aaron's Rents.  We didn't want a fancy one - the idea was that if we came in from outside, maybe from working in the yard, and wanted to sit down and rest for a moment before grabbing a shower and changing, we could.

So after years of that (and the usual houseful of cats) it got a bit grungy, the upholstery faded and snagged.  We didn't want the bother of a new couch - it would entail shopping, and dragging one in, and dragging one out, and it in turn would eventually get grungy.

I tried putting just a one-piece slipcover on it.  This failed.  The problem was that Bob liked to sit on the floor, with his back against the couch, whenever he ate or snacked while watching TV, sitting on a bean bag chair until the innards turned to styrofoam dust and the seams finally split (then we got a big fluffy pillow instead).  He and his knees were not always on speaking terms, so getting down was a problem solved by sitting on the couch and then sliding down - taking the slipcover with him.  3 or 4 or 5 times a day I would have to retuck the whole thing.

I gave up and sewed individual covers for the seat and back cushions, as well as a fitted cover for the rest of the frame.  Washing these was a bit of a bother - it all had to be unzipped and the cushions extricated, then wrestled back on again.  But it worked.  When those got grungy enough after a few years I made another set.

Finally, in 2021, I realized that it was yet again time to replace them, and I honestly just wasn't up to sewing all those fitted covers again.  Suddenly - and sadly - I realized that I didn't have to.  No one was sliding off the couch anymore.  I ordered a stretchy slipcover online.  Like most things, it looked better online than it did in real life.  But it was, well, functional.  It was also thin, and textured, which made it really good for catching on cat's claws.  I added to the elegance by throwing a ratty old bedsheet over it (nothing like protecting the slipcover, right?) 

I've mentioned before (especially when talking about my bed sheets) that I have an obsession with linen (any more and it might cross the line into fetish).  FaceBook apparently picked up on that, because I became inundated with adds for an organic linen couch cover.

Sigh.  Just looking at that lowers my blood pressure. (It also reminds me of movies where there is an abandoned house with sheets tossed over the furniture; I always liked the look of that).  But I don't like buying things unseen and untouched; you never know what you're getting.  And there was that $400 price tag . . .

I wanted it.

I do know what I'm getting, and what the quality is, from the online fabric store where I have often bought linen for sewing clothes (I use to get that luscious stuff by the bolt when I was the clothier for Mission San Luis a lifetime ago).  They often run sales - when the next one came around, my order went in.

In theory, it was an easy sewing job.  Cut the long length of the fabric in half crosswise, and sew it back together lengthwise to make a big square, and hem it.  But when you're dealing with a piece of fabric that's 15 feet long and 10 feet wide - it gets really cumbersome.  Like sewing a circus tent.  And I had to stop halfway through yesterday because the alerts on my phone kept going off; we were having a major thunderstorm and a tornado had been spotted out this way.  I love my cottage but I thought the house might be a little safer.

But I got it finished today, and on the couch with the help of the cats, and I friggin' love it.  Yes - it's rumpled, because Linen.  But I like the rumpled look; I'm the same way about a bed that hasn't been completely made.  Both seem inviting, beckoning you to snuggle down and relax.  If something is too crisp and neat and perfect I feel as though there is a sign on it saying "do not sit on the furniture."

The before and after.

Time for tea.