Have You Ever Had One Of Those Days?

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Have you seen all the blogs where people make stuff out of drop cloths?

It’s amazing!

You can make drapes and pillows and cushions and even wreaths from home improvement store drop cloths.

Who would’ve thought??

About 25 years ago, I made slipcovers out of cotton duck for all our upholstered furniture.

We still have the sofa and 2 chairs.

We’re using them in this house because even though we’re in the middle of our reno and this room isn’t done, we need something to sit on. And I love how practical slipcovers are. Especially with all the dust we’re constantly dealing with.

And I of course I love them because… well… they’re white!

But our living room is huge and we needed another sofa.

And we have one that I never made a slipcover for. So I decided I needed to cover it.

And the first thing I thought was — hey! I’m gonna use a drop cloth!

My idea was to get a really big one and just drape it over the sofa. Then tuck it a little. Pleat it a little. And use some upholstery twist pins to hold it in place.

And in ten minutes, I’d be done.

So quick and easy right??

Well….

I headed to Lowe’s to get my drop cloth. I got the biggest one they had. 9 x 12.

I brought it home and opened it up.

The first thing I noticed was that it had this really strong chemical smell.

Oh well, it probably just needs to air out a little…

So I draped it over.

The second thing I noticed was that it was too small. It didn’t even come close to covering the length of the sofa. Hmmmmm… going to have to buy another one to make this work.

The third thing I noticed was — I can’t deal with the smell.

So I decided to wash it.

Surely that will take the smell away…

Into the washer it went. Then into the dryer.

The fourth thing I noticed was that I could’ve made a mattress out of all the lint it left behind in the lint trap. Seriously, it was about 5 inches thick loaded up on there….

The fifth thing I noticed was — washing and drying it didn’t get rid of the smell!

But I was determined…

Then I noticed that it was snowing lint in my living room.

I was covered in lint. And lint balls. And so was my sofa where I had put it back on there. Everything it touched was covered with lint balls.

Even the dog was sneezing!

Maybe I better rethink this…

Now I’m not someone who gives up easily.

And I really think I gave it my best shot.

But it was too short. It smelled bad. And it was really lint-y.

It was time to let it go.

Besides — the color didn’t go with the rest of the room. (It wasn’t white!)

So I went to the fabric store and bought 16 yards of white cotton duck, fired up my sewing machine and made a slipcover.