the "nerd" has moved..

Thats right folks! this blog is moving to a new address!! I figured it was time to put"slipcover" in the address cause lets be honest, that pretty much all I do and I love it!! Plus, it would be nice to pop up in peoples browser when they search slipcovers...

You can now find me at The Sewing Nerd Slipcovers Cute Carrie at Carrie Loves Design gave my blog an update and did an awesome job! I may have been a small (large) pain in her a$% but I love it! So to all of you that follow me (all 4 of you) you can find me there posting what I have been up to!! Peace!

Just a little ditty...

Remember this post??? Well my client picked up this little ditty of a chair

totally a "pre-loved" piece of furniture but its soo cute and petite! The chair is for her daughters room and is mostly for show. She picked a white cotton linen blend for the slipcover. She wanted to keep the ruffle skirt as well. It turned out pretty cute!

It turned out pretty great for not being lined.(white fabric is tricky... it almost always needs to be lined unless you are working with light colored furniture..) Every little girl needs little vanity chair for their room...

2 dragons....

have you seen Starsky and Hutch? if so... this makes perfect sense!

Great movie!! this moment between Will Ferrell and Owen Wilson kept playing thru my head while on worked on these 2 awesome chairs! You may be asking yourself "why?" or "this girl is nuts!" but stay with me! there is a reason. You see my client has been waiting and waiting to find the perfect fabric to cover her 2 chairs. after months of waiting, back order and changes she came up with the coolest fabric ever!! Schumacher's Chiang Mai Dragon Now this fabric is no joke and at the price it is per yard, I was shaking in my boots a little before I started cutting it! She ordered it from the UK and totally worth it if you ask me!! Here are her chairs before they became super fantastic:

They were in great shape and had fun modern lines. i had to take my time with this one because of the fabric.. It was a really nice linen, but linen moves a little when you work with it. So I had to whisper sweet nothings to it to make it cooperate! we are taking "2 dragons" here! But it was all worth it cause check them out now!!!

I am soo in love with how they turned out!! I was able to get the dragon on each cushion as well as the bigger parts of the chair. She was beyond thrilled with how they turned out! and they look great in her house too! I was also able to squeak out 4 24"x24" pillows as well.

I used up every last bit of her fabric! Dragons Rock! Now how to keep people from sitting on those chairs $$$!

Union Jack 2

So in the last post my client wanted a a few wing chairs that were done out of drop cloth so she could paint the Union Jack in the inside back. Well she dropped off this when she came for the finished one!

It was pretty close in shape to the one i just finished for her only it has different arms...the arm fronts recess back a little bit. It turned out pretty cute! She had me make some pillows as well to go with her chairs. Its crazy how great a painters drop cloth can look!

The drop cloth as became a hit again! I have another client who will be doing a pair of wing chairs in drop cloth only I convinced her to do a fun skirt! Stay tuned...

I also worked on a fun duvet with matching pillows and drapes last week too. Pics will come as soon as I drop off the goods! Today I am working on 2 cool little low arm chairs that will be covered in this fabulousness:

You can thank Schumacher for creating the Chiang Mai Dragon, but you may want to punch them in the throat for how much the price is per yard... seriously! we are talking $150+ A YARD. I said a small prayer before I started cutting...Just to be safe! These will be picked up saturday because me and the husband are headed to our annual Couples Lake Powell trip (could not come fast enough..) so check back saturday! or maybe tomorrow if you are lucky!

I have 1 opening left this month, so hit me up if you want to turn your "loved and tired" looking furniture into something fabulous!!

"Jack" of all trades

Remember when "painters drop cloths" were hot?! They're back!!! They are a great alternative to your typical fabric. They are super durable (its made to catch paint for heavens sakes!)and super cheap!! I forgot how much I love working with them, especially when they are freshly washed... Can you smell the clean laundry now??? It makes the fitting process soo much better. I feel like I am in a laundry detergent commercial and I am the guy sniffing the towels... anyways.. Its pretty great.

My client contacted me and had an idea... she asked me if I could slipcover several wing chairs in a durable fabric because she is wanting paint the good ol' Union Jack on the back rest. um...YA!!! She is in the middle of collecting these wing chairs and lucky for her, I had this! (remember how I am a procrastinator with my own stuff...)

So I grabbed some drop cloths, washed them and got to work! I am soo happy that "little blue" found a home!

I absolutely love the shape and size of this wing back chair, hence the reason why I bought it.. Its the perfect size! She did not want a skirt, she wanted a very tailored look so I finished off the bottom with piping. I cant wait to see how it turns out with the Union Jack! She is picking it up today and swapping it out with more. Love it!

I still have 2 spots open in September. Contact me to get on the list!

Blue Babe

School is back in session.. who is jumping for joy??? I have to admit... My oldest started 1st grade yesterday and I was a little sad... No more lunch outings with him or seeing him in the early afternoon. Since we moved he now gets to ride the bus. I had nightmares that he would take it to school and then not show up after school.. But I am happy to report, he made it!! Luckily for us we have some really good friends in the neighborhood and our boys can ride the bus together and are in the same class. boom! He had soo much fun at school and I can now rest easy... Oakley... on the other hand started her last year of preschool monday and is already having the boys eating out of her hands... I am scared for her teenage years.. But schedules are forming and I am feeling like things are getting back to normal!

My client had this love seat with cushions that did not originally belong to the couch...as you can see in the picture the cushions were not wide enough and just awkward fitting...It did not matter what way you turned them, they just did not want to cooperate! But dont you worry, I beefed them up real nice so they fit snug as a bug in a rug!

This couch is going in my client's master bedroom and she wanted it to have a beachy feel to it. She bought a blue twill fabric that had some good stretch.  She did not want a skirt, she wanted it to be very tailored looking.  I had to wrap the cushions in batting to get the size right. In the end the couch turned out great! Big blue babe! 

She mentioned on her way out that she was going to make pillows out of a blue ticking stripe to tie everything together.  We all know how much I love a good ticking stripe!!  

September is starting to fill up so contact me to get on the schedule!

the "beast" 2.0

I am happy to present to you my new cutting table. Which I built all by myself!! She is lighter than the original beast of a table, yet very durable and will be easier to move when the time comes..(kill me now!) I do miss my cute, bright and cheery sewing room in our old house, but hey, I have lots of room in the basement and its not super dark!! So thats a plus.. right?! Well, here it is..

It took me about 2 hours to build. I could not believe how sore i was the next day...seriously... a little pathetic!! But hey, I am a proud mama! Some of you may ask, "why didn't your husband do it or help you?". because.. if you know me at all, you know I hate waiting! and if I can figure out how to do it myself, i will. Plus my husband is crazy busy with his landscaping. He leaves the house at 7am and gets home at 9pm every day... i am sure the first thing he wants to do when he gets home is build more crap! lol! I have my machines in the "dining room" and the "living room" has become the catch all furniture fitting room.. sure I have to run up and down stairs to prep fabric, but hey, "if you don't take the elevators and only take the stairs like Cary Grant" you will be golden. right?
anyways, stay tuned tomorrow for a new post!

We survived. barely...

I am happy to report we are all tucked into our rental.. or as tucked in as one could be after 3 weeks of chaos!! We had two awesome, back to back family reunions. My husbands family was a blast! We stayed on a ranch in Altamont, UT. Which is in the middle of nowhere... but we had a huge lodge, pool, yard for games, climbing wall, paint ball, craw dads and ponds all for our enjoyment! It seriously was a blast and the kids were in HEAVEN!! Then, we were home to wash cloths, make a small dent in packing the house and then off to Park City with my family for the week. We golfed, ate and played. It was fun too, even if my son did crack his head open on the coffee table....Its cool, boys can have scars on their foreheads, right??? Then we returned home sunday to find out our closing date got moved up by 3 days...uh...ok. (remember how i still have not fully packed the house at this point??...) Luckily our buyers were amazing and gave us the week to get out! I am soo happy for them, I am glad we had the coolest couple in the world end up with our house. Oh ya...then I took off that friday afternoon to hang with the girls in the family for a girls trip to st. george and to see Mary Poppins. I am not gonna lie, the first morning there I slept in till 11...dont judge!! I crashed hard!!! It was nice to relax and have fun with no responsibilities....
Now that we are settled I need to get my sweat shop back in order. unfortunately I had to leave the "beast" (my awesome cutting table)... It was built in the basement and did not want to play!! So I need to come up with a replacement and fast!!! I am going back to working in the dungeon...tear...but its temporary... I am just excited to get back to work! So if you are in need of some super awesome slipcovers, I am now scheduling for September!! Hit me up folks! I am dying to get going!!

Pray for me!!!

Soo..The next 3 weeks are going to be some of the craziest weeks our little family has seen a long while. We sold our house and will be closing August 1st. I hesitated to post anything for a while, because the last time we had our house under contract it fell thru...so this time we were tight lipped. well today I got my confirmation to start the packing! Now some of you are probably thinking.. why is she begins soo dramatic? I have 3 weeks. Well, around here when it rains it pours! You see, next week we will be leaving for a the whole week for the Mortensen Family reunion. This reunion has been in the making for 3 years! All of my husbands family (parents, 10 siblings plus kids, 62 people in all) will be together! So fun, but we have to prepare all the food.. yikes! But luckily i got the shopping done for my part today. So I can check that off the list.. Then we leave the following wednesday for my family reunion for half the week... Are you flowing me? So as of right now that gives me a total of 9 packing days. but wait! there is more.. I am going to St George with the girls in my family to see Mary Poppins on Aug 1st.. Closing day. Again, has been in the works for a while and there is no turning back now! And to top it all off, the rental we were planning on may not work out, but we wont know until next week.. while we are gone.. So we may just end up pulling a "Cousin Eddie" living in "Old Besty" our tent trailer at an unsuspecting realtives front yard...

So there you have it! What are our plans?? we want to build, but first things first, we need to find a place to live in the mean time! AHHHH!

Ok, enough of my blabbering.. lets get down to business! One of my "horse" friends whom I have know since I was 13 sent me a chair in need of some TLC. YOu see, another one of my "horse" friends from the same barn is having me makes some sweet a%$ curtains and window benches for her new house and to my surprise brought a stow away with her when she dropped off her fabric.. Here is the culprit..

This chair and ottoman were pretty great! But you see my friend it belongs to has no business being in a fabric store..let alone picking fabric! She wanted something to go with her couches, which are a neutral brown with maroon throw pillows. But I refused to let her go with another neutral color...And since I was picking her fabric, she had no choice! I did find a print that hit all of her colors, but with more punch...

Pretty great!? I can't wait for her to see them in person! I also knocked out a few pillows for another clients. She picked a really great heavy stripe fabric. Love them!!

So It is safe to say that I will be taking a break till we have a place to live... Most likely mid August, unless we are seriously living out of a trailer...So please...PRAY FOR ME!!!!

But if y our lucky, I may document this chaos and post it here to keep me from the looney bin...

I just finished making some cushions for a cute couple. They have this wood bench for their cabin that is harder than a rock to sit on! I know some people like to rough it, but lets be honest, if you at a cabin, your like to be comfortable.. so you might as well have your cabin seating just that! Here is the bench before:

Now check it out!

Nice and comfy for the bum and some pillows to soften up the back rest too. Now they can sit in comfort while they enjoy their surroundings! I am sure their bum's will be thanking them!

I love it when my clients keep me busy with ksl finds. Remember these chairs? Well they now have a new friend sitting across from them.. This is what we started with.

she picked it up for $70 on ksl!! Not to shabby if you ask me. She went with a white denim with a ruffle skirt. She really wanted the ruffle skirt but was not sure how her husband would take it.. we did it anyways. And boy was she glad she did! It turned out great! I sewed the 3 back cushions and 3 seat cushions together to create 2 longer cushions (i love that look). She sent me these picks of the finished couch once she got her slipcover home. Here is the after:

Sure it could use a little batting between the existing cushions, but we had none at the time.. Anyways, she was thrilled!

On another note, I am finally getting to the little blue wing chair I bought a few months ago.

I am covering it in this great fabric!

Stay tuned!

**yes..I am aware that those pics are GINORMOUS!!! But my mind has melted from the heat wave and I am too lazy to fix it... so scoot back!**

Rocking right

So the Utah Valley Parade of Homes starts today and one of my very good friend's sister-in-laws' house is in it. House #19 by Millhaven. Um...I pretty much want to punch her in the face right now!!! My friend is an amazing photographer. She took pics and posted them on instagram and it made me want to cry!! The house is amazing! and its like 2 minutes from where I live. I cant wait to go and see it. On another note, my husband, along with that same friend's husband and about 8 more of their friends are off on a "boyfriend" trip... at least that is what I call them..

anyways they came up with a name for this "get-together".. A day, a night and a day. That same friend designed them t-shirts, they commissioned a chef, are staying at an amazing house on Osmond Lane (one of the guys in-laws who are out of town for the moment) and one of the guys flew in from Texas for this... Oh geeze! The first day consists of 36 holes of golf at 2 different courses, followed by a dinner, prepared by the chef. Pool games, ping pong, jam ball, poker other things 30-somthing year old men who act like 12 do when they are all together.. Then they will finish up the "event with another 36 holes of golf. Boo!! All I can say is he better put this much effort in to my 30th birthday as he did for this!!

Now down to the nitty gritty...One of my favorite designer clients surprised me with the info that they were going to be having another baby! They have 2 older kids. What a shock! But they are soo excited. He wanted to get his wife's glider recovered, because remember how wonderful rocker glider fabric is?? And when you are a designer, or have any sense of style you cannot, and mean CANNOT let that glider stay the same after 10+ years of use! I forgot to take a pic of the before, but this is what I was dealing with...

Look! They even give you a choice of fabric...How lovely is that!! He had a bolt of fabric the he got on a discount because it was "flawed".. People..Buy that stuff up!! Flawed can mean anything to a color that is off from the original to the smallest detail you may not even notice! You really cant go wrong! Plus you can work around those areas if they are that noticeable. He did not want to do just the cushions, he wanted to do the whole chair! And give it a more tailored look. He was thinking box pleats for the skirt and a ties in the back. Well people, this is how it turned out!


Now they can rock this new baby in the right style!!!

Not yo Grand-mama's chair!

So my cute client that had me do this slipcover for her sofa sleeper was given a super awesome retro chair in PERFECT condition from her grandma. Wait until you see this beauty.. I think it was preserved under plastic from the moment it left the factory... Seriously! It is such a cool little chair...but it clashes with her new slipcover.. So we we made them match! Sorry grandma! Here is the chair before:



I feel like this chair belongs in Napoleon Dynomite's grandmas' house...

I am just saying...

Anyways, here it is! I kept the lines of the chair the same but added a full ruffle skirt to match her couch. I think it brings this little gem into this decade...but i secretly still love it in its original form...
Soo great!