Re-upholstery Project (2)

To prepare for this project I bought the following supplies:

1. the book Reupholstering At Home by Peter Nesovich

2. chalk to mark your fabric

3. welting cord

4. zipper-foot attachment for sewing machine

5. #16 sewing machine needles - jean/upholstery weight

6. zipper for the cushion - 45" long

7. 10 yards of upholstery fabric

8. upholstery strength thread to match your fabric

9. large sketch pad and pen - to draw a paper plan

10. 4" polyfoam to replace the old foam that the cat peed on

Now...please recall the planning fallacy concept that I explained in my last blog. Well I started on my project by marking the pieces for the cushion in chalk. I cut out the boxing (side pieces) and was preparing to sew in the zipper. I dug out my aunt's sewing machine, changed the needle, threaded the machine, wound the bobbin (20 minutes) then I got ready to switch the foot to the zipper foot. That didn't really go as planned. The regular foot attached with a screw that goes sideways through the leg. Well my zipperfoot needs to attach front and back through the leg so I had to get a screw driver and remove the cover to the sewing machine then loosen another screw that releases the leg so that it can be rotated and the hole will then run front to back instead of side to side. I turn the leg, tighten the screw, return the cover to the machine and tighten that screw and THEN find out that the leg isn't high enough to attach my zipper foot. Redo, loosen screw and remove cover, loosen leg screw, raise the leg up higher and retighten the screw, replace cover (I don't know why I hadn't yet figured out that I should leave the cover alone until everything was all set). At this point all I need to do is to attach the zipper foot attachment, but I can't because the screw isn't long enough!!!!!!!!

I had to get up and walk away from the table because I was soooo frustrated. After a few minutes I returned to the table and configured my aunts sewing machine back to it's original state and put it in the closet. New plan....go to Dana's house and use her newer sewing machine that would clearly work with my zipper foot attachment. 

Today I got up a bit earlier and went for a walk so that I could get to Dana's house early and work on the much anticipated cushion upholstery project. I got to her house and decided I would be smart and figure out the zipper foot attachment before anything else. Needless to say that my zipper foot again didn't fit her sewing machine!!!!!! To my amazement, Dana's machine has it's own zipper foot and I managed to get that to work properly. Once I had the foot all set I plugged the sewing machine in and threaded it. I then went to put the bobbin in the bobbin holder. Surprise, surprise, it didn't fit. I grabbed one of Dana's bobbins and used the thread off my already full bobbin to wind the new bobbin. I finished winding the bobbin and went to put it in the bobbin holder. Guess what!?! It didn't fit. 

At this point I am again frustrated with this project, so I took a break and calmed down. I then went through all of the empty bobbins until I found a bobbin that fit in the bobbin holder, then I wound the bobbin and then magically it fit in the bobbin holder! Hooray! At long, long last I could actually work on sewing. 

I spent the next few hours sewing. And probably 15 minutes later on in a match of Jess versus polyfoam, in which I tried with all my might to get the foam into the case. I can tell you that this was not only hilarious but it was quite a work out AAAANNNNNDDDD, as you probably guess I eventually overcame the polyfoam with my willpower and got the stupid stuff zipped into my cushion. Below is the final cushion for my couch. 

I am just saying that I will never get rid of this couch because of our history. (Love you couch)