Do-it-yourself covers for a corner sofa: step-by-step instructions, description, photos. How to sew a sofa cover with your own hands: step-by-step instructions for making Do-it-yourself sofa covers

Furniture is the main component of the interior of a room. When choosing it, we are guided not only by the design, but also by the convenience of this item. However, holidays, children, and pets can ruin the furniture and make it ugly. At such moments, you seriously think about purchasing removable covers for an armchair or sofa. They can be changed and washed, they cost much less than a whole sofa. But often such cases cost exorbitant amounts of money in the store, while the cost of such assistants is several times less than the amount stated by the seller. That is why many housewives know how to sew a beautiful and stylish cover for a spacious sofa with their own hands. We will be happy to reveal their secrets especially for you.

How to sew a sofa cover with your own hands quickly and easily

The sofa cover is very easy to sew. To complete it you will need a minimum of sewing tools: sewing machine, tape centimeter, thread and needle, safety pins, scissors, a piece of chalk or dry soap, and, of course, thick fabric. The fabric for sofa covers can be anything you like, but it must certainly be durable and sufficiently wear-resistant. In addition, it should be easy to wash, since you will often wash the covers.

So, once you have everything at hand necessary tools, you can start working. First we need to measure our sofa. We measure everything - seat, back, armrests. Important: measure the sofa components as if they were rectangular, without paying attention to their shape. After you measure everything, you need to write down the results on a piece of paper so you don’t forget. Also remember to add 8cm to your measurements for seams.

Next we move on to working with fabric. Before you start sewing, you need to wash and dry the fabric so that it does not shrink after the next wash. After this, spread the fabric on a flat surface and apply the resulting measurements to it. You should have 6 rectangles. Housewives advise starting cutting from the back of the sofa. After cutting the elements, they must be attached to the sofa, specific detail to a certain part of the sofa. All parts are laid out on the wrong side. After you have laid out the elements of the future case, you need to fasten them with pins.

Important: before stitching on a machine, you must sweep all parts of the cover by hand. You can do this right on the couch. After basting, you can cut off unnecessary pieces of fabric from the future cover and sew the seams on a machine. At the same time, you should not forget about the allowances - approximately 2-2.5 cm.

The case is almost ready. We try it on the sofa, looking for unevenness and imperfections that can be corrected. After we have finalized final version cover, remove the basting, turn the cover right side out and put it back on the sofa to see if everything is in order. If the edges of the cover are visible from under it, they can be folded on the wrong side and sewn on a machine. All threads must be cut.

If you want to give your sofa a cozy and slightly romantic look, you can decorate the cover with ruffles along the bottom edge. You simply fold the same fabric into neat folds and sew them on the machine, not forgetting to make allowances and finish the edges of the product.

Some wise advice for beginners:

Buy material in reserve. After taking measurements and choosing fabric for the future cover, take fabric with a margin of 1.5-2 meters. Even if you don't need it, you can make the same covers for sofa cushions.
If you are a beginner, you should not buy expensive fabric. After all, if something doesn’t work out for you, it will be very annoying to throw away expensive material. Start with cotton fabrics, and if you succeed, you can move on to more expensive materials.
Even if you have been sewing for a long time and consider yourself a professional, preliminary estimation is required.
If you still make a mistake with the sizes, do not rush to take the case to the landfill. Using simple planks, you can adjust the cover to the size of the sofa, if, of course, you made it too large.
Sewing a cover for a corner sofa is as easy as for a regular one. The only caveat is to correctly calculate the amount of fabric needed. It can be obtained as follows: add the length and width of the sofa, and multiply the resulting amount by two. The resulting number will be the amount of fabric required for the corner sofa.

It remains to say that sewing covers for sofas is an easy, affordable and exciting activity. You will get brand new sofas at a very, very low price. This will help refresh your interior and update the look of your furniture. Moreover, when your girlfriends find out that you yourself have created such a masterpiece, they will urgently want to learn how to do the same.

The fabric upholstery of sofas and armchairs experiences daily stress, it wears out, gets dirty and becomes deformed. Removable covers for upholstered furniture will help you update your interior quickly and inexpensively. They will protect sofas from animal claws and children's sticky hands. You can sew such covers yourself, spending a little time and effort on transforming your home. In this article you will learn step-by-step instructions on how to sew a cover for a sofa, so you can realize this tempting idea.

Materials and tools

To sew a sofa cover with your own hands, you will need:

suitable fabric;
sewing machine;
scissors;
threads, needles and others;
measuring tape or tape measure;
material for pattern;

Armed with the tools and the desire to transform your upholstered furniture, you can get to work.

Fabric selection

When choosing a fabric, first of all pay attention to the strength of the material, and then to the design and color. The fabric must be dense and wear-resistant. In the presence of animals, the resistance of matter to claws is important. Fabrics with water-repellent impregnation are ideal; they are not afraid of moisture and dirt, and are easy to wash.

The most suitable options for the case are:

Velor - perfect option. It is soft (like velvet) but more affordable. There are varieties of velor with stretch fibers. This material stretches perfectly.
Flock - very durable material and gentle. This fabric contains natural and synthetic fibers. Teflon flock is impregnated with liquid Teflon, repels dirt, does not absorb liquid, and does not absorb dust. This type of flock is easy to wash and dries quickly. This is also an ideal option for a sofa cover.
Jacquard is one of the most durable fabrics, strong and resistant to deformation. Jacquard contains natural and synthetic fibers, which makes it pleasant and wear-resistant in quality.
Microfiber is considered by many as a substitute for suede. This fabric is also ideal for a cover (due to its strength and wear resistance). There is a type of microfiber impregnated with Teflon.
Cotton attracts with its naturalness, is environmentally friendly and breathable. Easy dyeing of this fabric allows you to get many color options. Cotton is very pleasant, but short-lived. The material quickly wears out and burns out. For a children's room cotton - the best option because it is completely safe.
Shinil looks very noble, it is pleasant to sit on it, and it is very pleasant to touch it. Shinil is dense, but at the same time quite light (thanks to acrylic fibers).

There are plenty of varieties of fabrics suitable for sewing a cover. The result largely depends on the fabric, so be careful in this matter. Choose the color and style to your taste and depending on the interior.

Methods of taking measurements

To cut a cover to fit your sofa, you need to take the measurements correctly. The final result of the work depends on the quality of the pattern. What and how should you measure? It depends on the design of the cover and the model of the sofa, but it is better to measure everything: the seat, armrests, sides, pillows.

To make a high-quality pattern, you can use several options:

Rip open the old cover (if you have one) and cut a new one exactly according to it.
Buy cheap fabric and carefully cut it to the size of the sofa, and then transfer the patterns to the fabric for the cover.
Make a pattern from paper (tracing paper, newspaper), covering the sofa and cutting out along the contours.
Take measurements with a centimeter tape.

If you chose the last point, then measure the length at the longest point of the furniture, and the width at the widest point. Measure the armrests and headboards along the most protruding parts.

To any measurements, add 10 cm for seam and hem allowances, and 20 cm for the edges that will be turned inward. To make the cover easy to remove, it is better to provide a fastener in the center of the product, for this you also need to add additional allowances.

Open the cover

When the pattern is ready, it can be transferred to the fabric. If you have little experience in sewing, then choose fabric without a pattern. Its presence only complicates cutting and requires more material. Large parts of the pattern should be in the center of the parts, and the fabric may also involve connecting the pattern on different parts.

Cut on a flat surface using chalk. A paper or fabric pattern should be secured with pins and carefully outlined with chalk.

Remember the Russian proverb: “Measure twice, cut once.” If everything is correct, feel free to cut out the details of the case.

Sewing a cover

When you have cut out the details of the cover, you can start sewing. How to sew a cover for a sofa? Step-by-step instructions are presented below:

First, connect the parts with a running stitch.
Try the product on the sofa.
Check the dimensions of the cover and, if necessary, reduce or increase the seam allowances. Repeat this procedure until the cover fits perfectly on the furniture.
Sew the parts on a sewing machine.
Finish the inner seams with an overlocker or zigzag.
Cut and sew the lining part (if any) according to the size of the product, and sew it to the finished cover.
Treat the fasteners and edges of the product.
Decorate the case with decor (if necessary).

When all the work is over and the case is ready, rejoice at your result!

An easy way to sew a sofa cover

You can simplify the task and sew a new thing for the sofa from one piece of fabric. To do this, you need a piece of material large enough to completely envelop the furniture, going around all the protruding parts. With this method, the hanging parts are trimmed or pulled together under the sofa, and the excess volume is draped and secured with neat folds.

For this method, use a fabric that has good stretch. This will help to accurately repeat all the details without a complex cut.

To prevent the fabric from deforming or moving, wooden slats or sections of metal-plastic pipe are placed in the recesses between the parts of the sofa on top of the cover.

Look at the example in the photo. How to sew a sofa cover with your own hands without patterns and a sewing machine? It's very simple!

Cover for corner sofa

Sofa covers are much cheaper than furniture reupholstery. And if you intend to sew a cover with your own hands, the only costs required are for the material. Many housewives are wondering how to sew a cover for corner sofa, what does that require.

This will require the same procedure as when sewing on a straight sofa. The number of details will only increase.

A corner sofa can be considered as two straight ones, the covers of which must be connected. You can simplify the task by sewing two separate elements. This cover is easier to care for and the parts can be washed separately. It's just as easy to sew as a straight sofa.

Secrets of quality tailoring

How to sew a sofa cover with your own hands so that it turns out beautiful and comfortable? The secrets of experienced housewives will tell you:

Choose a dense, but not very stiff (not upholstery) fabric.
Make the pattern a little bigger the right size so that during operation it can be adjusted to the size of the sofa.
Decorate bad places with decor - bows, ribbons, lacing, etc.
To ensure that the cover is not afraid of animal claws, seal the fabric with 10-15 mm foam rubber.
If the pattern is very tight, sew the seams twice so that they can withstand the load.
Carefully make a pattern, draw it on paper, carefully plan the sewing and joining of parts.
A looser cover will last longer because it will not be subject to tension stress.
For the first sewing, take inexpensive fabric. The features of each sofa are individual, so there is no absolute advice. Your cover will definitely turn out better the second time, so you can sew it from more expensive fabric.

Original ideas

Such an inexpensive and easy-to-maintain way to update the interior, like sewing sofa covers with your own hands, is in demand. You are limited only by your own imagination in choosing the fabric and style of your new look. upholstered furniture. To be truly original, check out these DIY case ideas:

A cover made from a combination of several fabrics looks original; one can hang from under the other, contrast or complement.
A quilted cover looks more voluminous and richer; it can be made from one piece of fabric or from a combination of several, stitched along given lines (check, stripe).
A patchwork technique, when fabric is sewn together from small pieces of different fabrics, and then the product is cut.
You can not only sew a cover with your own hands, but also knit it. You can also tie the parts and then sew them together. Hand-knitted covers are a highlight of the interior, which is unlikely to be repeated by anyone.

Knitting and sewing the sofa covers, the photos of which you see, is quite simple. The main thing here is desire!

A sofa cover increases its service life and makes it possible to update furniture and interiors simply and inexpensively. Such a task as sewing a cover for a sofa is within the power of any housewife. To be sure of this, watch the video.

Many people dream of a replacement sofa cover to easily maintain order and cleanliness in the house. The cover perfectly protects the furniture upholstery from dirt and animal claws. It is easy to remove, and after each wash the sofa is like new.

Recently, covers for sofas and other upholstered furniture have become popular again. You can purchase or sew a universal sofa cover yourself, because it is not only beautiful, but also very practical. In the future, having several types of fabric, original sofa covers created according to your design can be alternated, thereby avoiding monotony in the interior of the room.

There is nothing complicated in this matter, so anyone can sew a universal sofa cover with their own hands. The main thing is to have a great desire and a little time to decorate your home, as well as to have basic skills in using a sewing machine.

Materials and tools

So, to sew standard covers for a sofa and armchairs, you will need:

fabric and accessories for its processing;
sewing manual or electric machine;
needles, threads of 2 colors (for basic sewing and for basting), pins;
large tailor's scissors;
tape measure or roulette;
chalk or small piece of soap;
pattern? a pattern from a regular newspaper or copy paper.

Sewing steps

Before you start sewing homemade covers for sofas and armchairs, you need to decide on the choice of material.

Firstly, it would be good to choose a fabric that is dense and not stretchy. You should also not purchase overly thick upholstery material and satin, as they are very difficult to work with.

Secondly, when the material is selected, it is necessary to decide on its quantity. In this regard, you need to focus on several main areas:

A seat with a backrest (either one solid zone, or two separate ones, but connected at the seam).
Armrests (two symmetrically identical parts).
Front and back walls armrests, in total number four pieces.
Sides of the headrest.

Thirdly, when sewing, be sure to leave 50-70 mm for allowance along the entire perimeter of the makers.

Fourthly, so that the material does not shrink after washing, it must be processed along the edges with an overlock or zigzag stitch.

The next important stages of sewing universal case on the sofa are:

Pattern (about 6 rectangles) and cutting (on the wrong side) of the fabric into blanks.
Actually sewing the cover itself.

Secrets of quality results

General Tips for sewing covers for sofas:

You can hide unsuccessful places and refresh the interior of the room using a variety of decorative bows, ribbons and belts sewn onto the cover. Numerous decorative pads sewn to match the cover will also hide defects in a self-sewn case.
Foam rubber 10-15 mm thick placed inside the cover will save you from the claws of pets.
The threads should be strong and reinforced, but not very thick.
Various types ribbons and laces can be used to tie the legs and tighten the hem at the bottom, Velcro? to arrange the elements of the cover into a single whole, and elastic in the seams to enhance tension.
If the pattern is very tight, the seams in narrow places can be stitched twice, since the cover will experience greater load precisely at the places of such joints.
It is necessary to carefully measure all the details of the product and sections of the sofa, draw them in a reduced form on paper, then make a layout taking into account the direction of the material pattern and the grain line.

Each sofa or chair has its own characteristics, so it is impossible to give precise instructions on how to make a universal pattern for a cover. In this regard, we can only advise you to take into account some nuances when sewing, which can help avoid basic errors.

Thus, it is advisable to provide a pattern with large allowances, so that after fitting, inaccuracies can be corrected, and if not necessary, cut them off with scissors. Do not try to recreate the exact shape of the sofa using a pattern. Even at the enterprise, the upholstery of the sofa is done after it is manufactured, as if covering the finished furniture with film, securing the stretched edges with staplers.

A tighter and more accurate pattern can be made using carbon paper or newspaper, gluing parts of the sofa parts.

Don't be afraid to make your sofa cover looser, as its purpose is to protect against dirt and change appearance, and not just reupholstering the existing fabric upholstery of furniture.

And lastly, do not rush to make a sofa cover from expensive material. Because not everyone succeeds in cutting it on the first try. It’s better to buy something cheaper first and learn from something simple, but no less beautiful material.

Conclusion

In the process of using upholstered furniture every day, the upholstery quickly wears out. The fabric fades over time, and in places of intensive use it is wiped out and becomes covered with stains, puffs and other marks that are not pleasing to the eye. These problems can be partially solved (hidden) with the help of blankets or capes. However, they tend to bunch up, slide down and cover only the front part of the sofa, leaving its side and rear areas open.

In this regard, covers for sofas and armchairs are the most proven and the best option to protect, renew and give upholstered furniture a second life. Moreover, financial costs and efforts will be minimal. Good luck!

Photo gallery

Below are 29 more original photo ideas for a sofa cover.

My Sweet Home offers you a selection of materials on how to sew a sofa cover with your own hands. In the master classes below you will learn how to sew unique practical sofa covers.

Your furniture will be reliably protected from dust and grime. It will retain the natural color of the upholstery for a long time and will not be damaged by the claws of pets.

General information and methods of taking measurements

This magazine page will help you get general information about how to take measurements from a sofa, how to prepare a pattern for sewing.

Sofa cover pattern

A cover for a sofa is really convenient both in practical terms and in terms of changing the surroundings. After all, having several fabric solutions, you can alternate capes, thereby avoiding monotony in the interiors.

In the picture above you can see how the pattern of the future cover is cut, and what measurements need to be made.

Sewing a sofa cover with your own hands

I found the master class on the Mom’s Secret website very interesting, where they presented a guide on sewing a sofa deck for furniture from Ikea. The Ikea sofa was purchased for a children's room, which meant that there was a high probability that the material would be stained, so the decision was made to sew a beautiful cover.

Option for a stretch sofa cover made from a single piece of fabric

Simple DIY sofa cover

If you don’t want to bother with cutting and sewing, but still need to cover the sofa, then try doing it as shown in the picture above. You will get a wonderful cover for furniture - quickly and easily. Also see detailed guide on sofa covers on page

The second master class will be this simple sofa cover. After all, not everyone wants sophistication, but enough practical option. For example, for a dacha, the practical aspect will come first. Just such a master class can be found on the page:

And this sofa found its cover thanks to the efforts of a user of the website Country of Mothers. I wanted to include this case in the selection, even despite the lack of drawings and patterns on the page. In the comments on the page you can find out details of the work from the craftswoman herself, look through the remarks:

A wonderful master class on making a sofa cover with your own hands was published on the website of Irina Voroshilova, who calls herself Baba Irisha. A good site where, in addition to this master class, you can find a lot of interesting tutorials for yourself. Yes, and also, video instructions are attached to the material on the case, and this is doubly valuable! See the work on the page:

Materials and tools

Let's consider making the simplest type of cover - a cape. In this model, you will need to sew a sofa cover that is continuous for the back and seat. Separately cut and sew the armrests, connect the parts into a single whole and decorate ready product. Everything is done simply.

To work you will need the following:

fabric, footage is calculated based on the size of the sofa;
tape measure;
tailor's chalk;
sewing pins and needles;
wooden ruler;
thread (preferably with lavsan for a sewing machine);
scissors;
pattern paper

When everything is prepared, you need to cut out the cover. How to sew sofa covers with your own hands is written below.

Cutting out parts

Using a centimeter, measure the backs and armrests of the sofa. Draw on paper according to the dimensions obtained. There is no need to rush to do everything on the fabric at once. The proverb that it is better to measure seven times and cut only once is very true in this case. A lot of fabric is used for the cover, and an incorrectly cut piece will spoil all the work. Therefore, it is more practical to first cut everything out on paper and attach it to the sofa to see if the size fits.

The pattern must first be applied to paper.

When everything is checked that the drawing fits perfectly, you can start cutting on the fabric:

Iron the fabric through damp gauze. It is better to wash cotton or wool fabrics in warm water. This must be done so that the material shrinks, and subsequently, the finished product does not become smaller in size;
Fold the fabric right side inward. Pin the drawings with safety pins;
Use tailor's chalk to trace the outline of the paper. After 1.5-2 cm, draw a second line;
cut along the second line.

The parts are cut, you can start sewing.

Sewing

Work begins with outline. The video in the article shows all stages of the work.

fold the patterns right side inward;
sweep away with temporary screeds;
Immediately try on the received cover on the sofa.

If the result is satisfactory, then all seams are ground down. Fold all the edges, baste again, check the bottom for evenness, then stitch. It will take literally half an hour or an hour to stitch. The only difficulty in sewing is that the parts are voluminous and it is difficult to move the fabric under the needle. If you are interested in how to sew a cover for the armrest of a sofa, then you need to look at the photo on the left. The working methods are the same as for a regular cape.

When everything is sewn, all that remains is to decorate the resulting product. Ribbons and pockets will be used. You need to think in advance what kind of ties and fasteners there will be. All this should be outlined when cutting.

After decorating, put the product on your sofa. DIY sewn sofa cover, ready. You can invite your loved ones to watch and sit on everyone’s favorite, but now new, sofa.

Fabric pattern is cut inside out on the sofa

All cuts are swept away

Allowances are trimmed

The cover is turned inside out and tried on for adjustments.

The author of this master class is tired of regularly cleaning his Eurobook sofa. Therefore, the man decided to sew a practical cover for the sofa with his own hands. It turned out pretty good! Read the manual and watch step by step photos process on the page:

Let's go further and invite you to check out Brittany Bailey's post. This post also contains video instructions. This is not a master class, but a guide to putting a cover on a sofa. Also important information for those who bought a ready-made cover and don’t know how to put it on their soft one. The author's page is in English, but there are a lot of detailed photos and the video is also detailed, so you can figure it out. See instructions on the page:

The next motivational master class tells us how a girl updated her sofa on her own. The post contains many photographs illustrating the process of sewing covers. In this case, each pillow has a separate cover. See the manual on the page.

Covers for upholstered furniture extend the life of its use or allow you to breathe new life to the old one, without resorting to a rather complex and expensive restoration. Any housewife with a sewing machine can sew a decent sofa cover with her own hands. For example, how to sew a sofa cover in one evening, see video tutorial:

However, depending on the design of the sofa, its purpose and how it is used in the house, covers may be the best for a given sofa different types. Finally, the most in-depth lesson concerns one specific piece of furniture, and what to do if your sofa is just like that? Or do you want a completely different case for exactly the same thing? This article discusses how to design and sew a cover for a sofa of any type yourself, as long as you imagine how you want to see your favorite rookery.

Without pattern

It is believed that a cover for a sofa is sewn in the same way as for an armchair. This is true when it comes to a cut case. But if you make a cover for a chair without a pattern, it will always get confused: the area of adhesion between the fabric of the cover and the seat and back is small. But it is quite possible to sew a sofa cover without a pattern. And it can look amazing. Just don’t be fooled: firstly, it will take a lot of fabric. The cut will need a width of approx. 5 seat widths and 2.5-2.7 sofa lengths. Secondly, the work will be quite painstaking; for an everyday case it would probably be easier to develop a pattern (see below). But let us emphasize: sewing the same luxurious case with cutting will be much more difficult. And if a sofa has a camber of armrests and a curved/inclined backrest, then without solid sewing experience it is hardly possible. And without a pattern - without significant problems. At the cost of increased fabric consumption.

How to sew a sofa cover without a pattern is shown in the figure:

Let us give some key explanations. At pos. 3 shows the reinforcement of the seams at the border of the seat with the back and armrests (see below); a cover without reinforced seams will constantly come off. After marking for the reinforced seams, the cover blank is removed, the seams are sewn with reinforcement, the blank is put back on, the reinforced seams are straightened along the contour of the seat, secured with pins (not safety pins) on the sofa and work continues.

Note: at the stage according to pos. The 4 folds on the front overhang of the seat must be assembled so that the fabric of the cover lies flat along the curb line, but without noticeable tension. Why - see below.

Now comes the hard part. The fact is that a cover of this type is always made with an elastic band so that it can be removed for washing or, conversely, put on on special occasions - such covers are mostly ceremonial in middle-income homes. The elastic is inserted along the line of the sofa border (see below), but try to achieve a neat gathering of its sleeve if you sew it (from the inside out, of course) onto a blank removed from the sofa! And without this, the whole look is lost. Here you will have to work with your hands or, perhaps, with a manual mini sewing machine. In this case, the sleeve (drawstring) stripe under the elastic band is done as follows. way:

We push the folds on the sidewalls along the border line to the back corners and sweep them onto a living thread;
If the sofa has a camber of armrests and/or a tilt/bend of the back, measure its overall dimensions, i.e. dimensions of the projection of the sofa on the floor (see, for example, item 6);
We cut out 2 strips of fabric with a width of 5 cm for the drawstrings, the same as for the cover. One drawstring - U-shaped, on the front and sides. The second is straight to the rear;
We apply a U-shaped drawstring, secured with pins, along the line overall dimensions so that the tails at the back are of equal length, and mark the front corners on the drawstring;
Remove the workpiece and turn it inside out (be careful not to rip off the back corners!);
We sew the P-drawstring from the inside out: first along the front corners, then we sew it along the front, then we sew the sides;
We also sew on the back straight drawstring;
We thread the elastic through and sew its edges together with an overlap of approx. 5 cm. Elastic length – approx. 15% less than the length of the perimeter of the sofa along the border line;
Remove the basting of folds on the back corners;
We turn the workpiece onto the face and manually evenly gather the folds over the elastic band. Or unevenly, that’s up to your taste;
We fix the resulting decorative folds with stitching (do not grab the elastic!) on the front and sides separately. Previously formed monumental folds on the armrests are not stitched! To tighten the cover if necessary, just stretch the back drawstring and the unstitched front corners;
We put the cover on the sofa (item 6) and admire it. Or we quarrel, tear everything apart and do it again.

Note: the work of sewing drawstrings and gathering folds over the elastic band is greatly simplified if you have a mini sewing machine for hanging sewing - then you don’t have to remove the workpiece from the sofa.

About reinforced seams

Reinforcing the seams in a sofa cover may, firstly, be necessary not only along the contour of the seat. Secondly, reinforced seams can also serve as decorative edgings.

The first method of strengthening a seam is illustrated by pos. 1-5 fig. It is applicable for cut covers made of fairly dense fabrics. So that the insert sleeve with the cord does not wrinkle, it is stitched by slightly pulling it towards itself and bending it on the edge of the machine table (pos. 3): let it pull itself, and the sleeve folds itself. Fold only its very end with your fingers, pos. 4.

If the fabric of the cover is thin or it is sewn without a pattern, use a seam reinforcement scheme according to pos. 6. Hem allowance 2x30 mm. In the case of sewing a cover without a pattern, the allowance must be pinned together with safety pins already when laying out the fabric on the seat (item 3 in the figure with the stages of sewing without a pattern). There is a nuance here: the reinforced seam along the contour of the seat is always turned on the wrong side: this way it does not feel like what you are sitting on, and the cover collects less dust and requires cleaning less often. Therefore, stages 1-3 in Fig. with sewing stages without a pattern, it is made with the fabric inside out, and turned face up for stages 4-6.

We will reveal it locally

Cutting a sofa cover locally is technologically simpler than sewing a dress cover without a pattern, and developing patterns for the cover, and is also quite economical: up to 25% of the cutting area is wasted, depending on the thickness of the seat and backrest. This method is suitable for simple shaped sofas.

With the opening in place, the trace is sewn. sofa covers:

Covers for geometrically simple non-folding sofas without armrests, common in interiors modern styles, and on book sofas, see below.
Linings (case covers) made of technical fabric for dress covers sewn without a pattern, so as not to bother with the pattern of the cover case.
Everyday saving covers (item 3 in the figure), incl. on the sofa in a formal cover.

How to sew a sofa cover with cutting in place is shown in pos. 1 and 2 pictures:

Recommendations to reinforce seams with wooden inserts are most likely either an unqualified translation of the original source, or simply an intuitive guess. In fact, using suitable pieces of wood, folds are formed to reinforce the seams with a turn, see above. If the pieces of wood are left in the seams, they will soon rub through both the cover and the upholstery of the sofa. At pos. 4 gives examples of how to decoratively decorate the covers of the wings of the cover on the armrests; Of course, your own solutions are also possible. If covers are required only for armrests, they are designed in a similar way; In this case, fabric waste is zero or almost zero.

Note: It is advisable to sew separate covers for the armrests and, possibly, the back of the sofa if it is in a public place or, say, in a frequently visited hallway or on the veranda of a private house.

About the role of the case cover

The undercover, firstly, improves the adhesion of the cover made of beautiful but slippery fabric to the sofa. In this case, it is sewn from thin cotton fabric, for example, linen. Old yellowed sheets are perfect; a slipcover made from them holds the satin cover on the faux leather sofa as if sewn on.

Another purpose of the cover is to protect the sofa itself from dirt and grease. If the sofa is leather, this is very important. In this case, the undercover is sewn in 3 layers: a fairly dense technical fabric (linen canvas, matting, or propylene from bags) is placed on the upholstery of the sofa, followed by a layer of padding polyester or, better yet, holofiber, and the cover holds the canvas, as in the previous one. case.

For a book

Thanks to Ikea, everyone now knows what a Eurobook sofa is, see figure:

It is not said as a reproach: book sofas are indeed very comfortable, and in small one- or two-room apartments they are sometimes irreplaceable. It is only necessary to note that sofa beds of exactly the same design were produced in the USSR back when not every average person in Europe had heard of the embryo of the EU in the form of Benelux. True, in furniture stores“Soviet book” sofas came in single copies, which had a small factory defect. Conditional ones were distributed at the top according to orders or were bought up through connections by those admitted to the hairy hands of the Ivan Ivanovichs. According to rumors, just such a sofa bed stood in the Dnepropetrovsk (in his hometown) apartment of the most Ivan Ivanovich of all Ivan Ivanovichs - the unforgettable Leonid Ilyich. Quite plausible: he was a simple and good man, only weak for his post. This is probably why they chose him when the bald clown in power turned out to be no better than the mustachioed monster. But let's get back to the topic.

You need at least 2 separate covers for a sofa book, or 3 if you want the folded back to not stand out in color. You may also need to cover the armrests; then you will need 4 or 5 separate covers. Covers for the armrests of a book sofa are cut in place, as described above, but with one condition: at the bottom, under the underside of the armrests, they must be tightly fastened with a zipper with large teeth, otherwise the mechanism will always be tighten and soon break; The option with a rubber band does not help with this. In fact, covers for the armrests of book sofas are their sore spot, which, as far as we know, has not yet been cured by anyone.

There are no problems with covers for the mattresses of the sofa-book. The pattern is given on the left in Fig. with sizes for popular models:

How the corners are stitched is shown in the center. The cover of the sofa-book is tightened with an elastic band (on the right in the figure), but first you need to mark the armhole in place along the mechanism. It is a simple straight cut for the boss that fits into the cutout of the lever and is edged with trouser braid; Bias tape wears out soon. The armhole is pulled together from the bottom with an elastic band. To put on or take off the cover, you will first need to remove the linkage; this is done simply by hand without tools, see the instructions for the sofas.

According to the pattern

A sofa cover, sewn according to a self-made pattern, first, makes the most complete use of the cutting area. Considering that fabrics for beautiful case required somewhere around $30-$50, this is important. Second, only by homemade pattern You can sew a truly original and unique product.

Note: the sofa border line is located either 10-25 cm above the floor, or at the transition height vertical surfaces inclined armrests.

Learning how to make patterns for upholstered furniture covers is not that difficult; much easier than for clothes. To get started, you can watch a video course on designing covers for upholstered furniture:

Video: lesson on cutting furniture covers

When starting to create patterns without experience or with initial experience in sewing, there are one more things to consider. To create a pattern for a sewing piece according to size, you will have to, firstly, remove at least a dozen of them from the sofa (see on the left in the figure), but this does not solve the matter.

For example, for the same sample, you will also need to remove the length of the generatrix (curvilinear part) of the backrest and the length of the curves of the armrests. If the sofa is of an extremely simple shape, the pattern can be made from rectangles (on the right in the figure), but in both cases you need to take into account the tightening of the fabric, and here you can’t do without experience. Professional seamstresses in production have a saying: “You can tighten everything, but how will it wear?” A cover made of stretched fabric will not look good, and will soon fall apart.

For beginners, it is better to create patterns for a cover for a sofa or other upholstered furniture and sew it using a 3-stage method. By the way, famous couturiers willingly use it, only they buy special paper. In general, the same as described below, but in rolls and not printed. The procedure is:

Glue newspapers into panels of the required size;
Having placed the cloth on the surface to be worked on, for example, a seat, smoothly smooth it from the middle to the edges. If you can’t get rid of the wrinkles on newsprint, stop! Here is the edge of the current part and the beginning of the next one;
A paper pattern is cut out along the marked edges of the part;
Using newspaper patterns, the cover is cut with double or triple the seam allowance;
Sweep and adjust the parts of the cover in place, achieving an even fit;
Using the fitted parts of the cover, cut out patterns for the parts of the cover from thick glued paper (for example, drawing paper);
Sew and put on the cover, and then the cover.

The essence of this method is that thin, unglued paper stretches until it breaks or wrinkles in much the same way as rigid fabric. That is, if the newspaper was able to be flattened in situ, then the fabric will cover it evenly, but without constriction. You just need to glue the newspapers into sheets so that the glue seam does not prevent the paper from stretching. Once upon a time, for this purpose, tailors glued newspapers with gum arabic, which gave an elastic seam, and in our time its full-fledged replacement is an office adhesive pencil. It is advisable to glue it “poke”, like the tailors of old: we press the pencil to the paper, turn it, apply the glued one. The next poke is after 5-7 cm.

What to do with the angle

The most difficult thing is to sew a cover for a corner sofa. It is always sewn in parts, and here there are 2 options. The first is an attached corner section, on the left to the next. rice. You need to sew 5 covers: for the main section, the side section, the back, the armrests, and sew them with a reinforced seam.

The second is an insertable corner section (on the right in the figure) or a one-piece sofa (in the center). In this case, the covers are cut and sewn separately onto the wings and corner of the sofa and stitched together from the inside out. The main thing here is to hide the seams between the wings and the corner, because... they will fit on the seat and back. The best way for this purpose - pleated, in the center in the figure, but this is a complex matter, and it is not much easier to work with factory-pleated fabrics. Another is to choose the color of the cover fabric so that the seam is lost in it, on the right in Fig. And there is one more trick.