Annie Lee the Argosy Update No. 009

Let's pretty up, y'all!

 Here's the thing [and I know I say this A LOT] -

I can sew, but I don't necessarily like to sew -  

I've been known to get so frustrated with it that I cut the entire piece up to bits. 

[Where'd THAT temper come from, sister?!] 

But I'm happy to say that in my old age I've learned to just WALK AWAY for a bit. ha. 

I've shared earlier that we had finally settled on a color scheme of greys, greens, and dark yellows... This is actually the fabric that I bought for the [Buttercup] Shasta we'd bought to re-do, but she's for sale now that we have #AnnieLeetheArgosy 

And I love this fabric, so I am happy to use it!

Where to start?

The couch is actually two pieces [seat and back] that are sewn together so that when it folds out into a bed there's no space to fall into...so I took it out [well Craig did] and cleaned it well then used newspaper to make a pattern. 

I measured and measured AND MEASURED before cutting.

[Brought my sewing machine down to the dining room table so I'd have plenty of room -]

Then I sewed a little and fitted it on, using pins to secure it tightly

[inside out, of course.]

I wanted a good tight fit.

The fabric is actually quilted comforters from Walmart that were on sale. 

I just don't think I could have found fabric for this same price. 

It took some time, and it was cumbersome sewing something THAT BIG - 

[so much different than the Raggedy Anne clothes I made when I first learned to sew!] 

I used sticky velcro to close up the backs... 

I sewed it down securely - this is good and bad -  

Good, because it stayed where I needed it to without having to pin it - 

Bad, because it made the sewing machine needle so sticky and gunky that I had to clean it every three minutes or so... But I got 'er done. lol

A little before... 

during ...

[just keeping it real, folks]

and after..

You can see that the section across the front and the arm section to the right is upholstered as well - Craig helped me stretch the fabric around and we used a staple gun to hold it tight.

I have a piece to tuck in just above the drawers so that it looks a little more like a real sofa during open house - 

 After the sofa was complete it was time to turn my attention to the curtains.

And, honestly? These scared me a bit.

I've been reading stories for the last six months about how hard it was to find new hook / fasteners / sliders due to the originals being broken. And I sooo wanted ours to fit snugly in the tracks on both top and bottom...

So let's see... I had thought I might use the origianls as a sort of backing for the new curtains, but after Craig helped me get the originals off the track [had to take some rivets out to do this -] I realized this just couldn't work. 

1. THEY WERE FILTHY and

2. I'm pretty sure they are fiberglass and I will never, ever wash fiberglass curtains due to an unfortunate incident I had when my mother put some of my clothes in the wash with [unknown to her] fiberglass curtains when I was six years old.

So I measured them and made my own.

I love that our dining table has these grooves that easily work to help me cut the fabric straight! [You can see the nasty old curtain to the left...

Next I measured and pinned each pleat in place...

then stitched them down... what seemed like about 300 hundred [both top and bottom] by the time I was finished. [I might be exaggerating by 75 or so - ha.] 

See? Still pleating...

 I've never made a pleat before and I kept thinking how I would LOVE to share this with my mama because she was an excellent seamstress... 
Funny how grief can just punch you out of no where, isn't it?

Next, it was time to sew the little tabs on with bits of elastic...
I cut the tabs off the old curtains [see them in the bowl by the elastic pieces.
They all seem to be in good shape!

One tab went between each pleat...
Again, this was a much bigger project than I'm used to doing...
Those curtains on the front are only two [HUGE] pieces...

They will slide open on either end of the couch so you can see out those gorgeous wrap around windows. And they are thick enough to give some privacy.
I love the campy feel of the 'arrow' pattern of this green fabric... and I REALLY love how it contrasts with the dark yellows and greys...
But I mostly love that it's all clean and no longer covered in 47 years of someone else's dirt. Ha. We're going to love camping in #AnnieLeetheArgsoy !