Alright, here’s the update on the futon project. The fabric arrived last Friday. I chose a Sunbrella fabric that will be weather-resistant. There were lots of places online that had a wide variety, but it’s hard to really make out the true color and texture of a fabric in a picture. Luckily, High Fashion Home carries a huge (ridiculous!) variety of Sunbrella amidst their four floors of furniture and fabric. I choose a neutral called Canvas Taupe. Ordinarily I would feel bad just looking at the store and then buying online, but this was an exception. The price in the store was just over double what I knew it cost at Outdoorfabrics.com. (And, during that trip we purchased a new bed. So it wasn’t like we walked out without spending anything!) I did some rough measurements of the futon and ordered 6 yards of fabric for around $100.
Yeah, rough measurements. Dumb! After the fabric arrived I carefully measured all of the pieces I would need and cut a pattern out of brown kraft paper, the kind you can use to wrap boxes for shipping. Then I started thinking about the best way to arrange them on my 216″x54″ of fabric. I used a program on my computer to lay it all out…
… which is when I realized I should have ordered at least 6.5 or 7 yards. The two pieces pictured in the bottom right are the ones I don’t think I’ll have enough fabric for right now. But maybe they were generous with their cut? At least I know I can go over to High Fashion Home and buy it without having to wait for shipping. It won’t be so bad paying the expensive price for a very small amount.
So I’ve cut out all of the 16 squares, 16 rectangles and 7 of the 10 edge pieces. I’m leaving the large back piece for last. I think I’ll need to take the current futon cover off totally and measure it flat, and then I have to figure out how I’ll put the zipper in.
So, that’s the latest. The next thing I need to do is go buy some matching thread and start sewing. I’m hoping to make some serious progress this weekend!
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