If you have kids in your house, or pets, or heck, husbands, you know how hard it can be to keep the furniture clean, especially light colored furniture. Slipcovers can make life easier in this regard but at the same time you are often confined to what is available, and unless you are willing to pay for something custom, what is available is often very plain. But it doesn’t have to stay that way. Turning simple, inexpensive and plain slipcovers into something unique and outstanding is really just a freezer paper stencil away. For my slipcover I was inspired by a print from my favorite purse, but you can do anything that strikes your fancy. You could even create different prints for different seasons!
Things you need:
Slipcover in a natural fiber fabric (here I used a plain white twill cover)
Fabric paint
Foam paintbrushes
Freezer paper
Scissors
Pencil
Iron
Sewing pins
Things to do:
1. Decide where on the slipcover you want your pattern and how big the pattern should be. Mark this out with pins while the cover in on the piece of furniture.
2. Trace or draw your images onto freezer paper and very carefully cut the image out. Anything that is cut out will show up on the fabric so be careful!
3. Remove the slipcover from the chair and spread over your ironing board. (Don’t fold or layer your fabric here, make sure only the layer you are printing in on the surface of the board)
4. Using the pins as a guideline up the freezer paper templates onto the fabric and press carefully with a dry, well heated iron. Get the edges as smooth as possible so that paint doesn’t seep under the edges. * If you are doing a large area you’ll need to work in sections, ironing on, painting, allowing to dry with each section before moving to the nest. Also, if the fabric is thin, slip scrap paper under each of the template areas before you paint.
5. Working from the edges in, apply paint to the open areas of the template. Give the paint a moment to soak in and check to see if a second coat is needed.
6. Peel the template off and discard. Allow the paint to dry and heat set according to the directions on the label.
