MY DIY Weekend

The weekend I decided to tackle a problem that has been bothering me for a couple of months. The brown leather sofa we had bought second hand had started to “shed” off the leather. This is what one of the cushions looked like:

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I had tried patching it with tape but soon realized that I would end up taping the entire couch at the rate that it was falling apart. The leather was a thin layer over cloth and with just a little tumble by the kids, the leather was coming off rapidly. Still, the couch was otherwise very comfortable and there was no budget to replace it.

So I decided to make a cover for it and after about $35 in materials and 10 hours of sewing it was done.

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The main color is a dark purple and the arms and front of the cushions are a lighter purple. The cover consists of 3 separate pieces: the main cover that covers the back to front and the arms and the two cushion covers which zip on. I chose purple because it seemed to make the pillowcases (which I had knitted a while ago) to pop.

This is not my first stab at covering furniture. My love seat was the first one:

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That was particularly challenging because it opens up to a bed. Figuring out how to cover it around that took me a while. I made that cover about 4 years ago.

Two years ago I covered the rocking chair I like to sit in and crochet or knit:

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You can see that next to my son Marcos who is enjoying the couch cover.

Now I only have this green chair left to cover.

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In addition to covering the couch another project this weekend was easy to construct but quite a creative solution if I do say so myself. You see my porch is screened in and full of overflow storage. Last weekend I organized it and set up this small pool table we have:

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But I had two challenges: how to protect it from the weather and how to maximize the space in an already crowded porch. My solution? I measured the dimension of the top of the table, bought a piece of plywood and had it cut to the dimensions. On the bottom of the wood I stapled felt so it would not scratch the table. On the top of the wood I stapled a vinyl tablecloth with the edges overhanging.

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Here you see the top with the felt side out and the table cloth showing from the other side.

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The top fits perfectly on the pool table and turns it into a much needed craft table! I’m very pleased.

I ended the busy weekend with a yummy dinner of shrimp tacos which I marinated in lime, minced ginger, minced hot pepper (from my garden) and mango butter I had canned last year.

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Yummy!

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Eliza Alys Young, aka CreativEliza, is a free spirit, world traveler, creative expert, and part of multicultural family… Eliza shares her time between the US, Dominican Republic and beyond. When she is not caring for her high-energy kids, writing her poetry or for her blog, creating art or cooking up a storm, she is designing for her own company, Design Intense.

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