The Great Couch Renovation

(Check out tons of other fun renovations at Kimba's site, on DIY Tuesday!)

Here is our couch. Pretty, at least pretty back in 1960. Yet it is a hide-a-bed, which provides us with guest space, and it is definitely serviceable and fits our little apartment well.
However, it doesn't match the rest of the room and so my first idea was to get a King size flat sheet, put that over it, tuck it in, and make it work.

Ugh. So tacky.

So the flat sheet sat dormant, in a little corner, for 6 months.

Two days ago I decided that enough was enough and I was going to use the sheet one way or another. Months of mulling over how to cover the massive floral velvety print and keep the hide-a-bed accessible led to a big culmination. It took 12(+/-) hours, 3 days, some sewing, some furniture tacks, some brainpower, lots of patience, hiding the rough edges, but it completely paid off! Here's what went down over in Apartment 101:

I cut off the end of the sheet, and tacked it to the front, complete with pleat (which adds a nice touch I think).

It was a little tricky to pin it up far enough but give clearance to pull out the bed. As I found out, this was the easiest part.

The cushions were pretty easy...not necessarily pretty underneath, especially to fit around the end sticking out. I had no idea what I was doing, so I patched together a pocket for the end, and then made basic pocket corners. An elastic gather holds it in place.
Next were the sides. Looking back, I could have attached them to the removable part of this, but I chose not to. This will lead to figuring out a way to nicely cover the arms.
One square of fabric, tucked, tacked and hemmed.
I needed one King sheet for the cushions, arms, and front, and I used another for the back of the couch.
This was tricky. It involved tugging, folding, pinning, more tugging, straightening, more pinning, and then carefully pulling the whole thing off to stitch seams. They worked on the first try! *Huge sigh of relief*

Up next, after the back was in place, was to attach decorative ties. I like decorative, and I wanted that cute extra touch. It also helps keep things in place.
This is probably my favorite part of the entire couch.
The back is completely covered.

And...*gasp*...you can see where we hide our speaker cords!

Now, drumroll please! After all that process, it was completely worth it! I took our steam iron to it to get out the majority of the creases. (No, I don't wash or iron before I sew, and I know that's probably naughty of me.)

Anyway...

TADA!

I love it.

Cost:
2 King size flat sheets, Mainstays from Walmart: $28.00
2 pkg. furniture tacks from Walmart: $2.34
Elastic cording from Walmart: $1.17
Grand Total: $34.41

(I'll be expecting my promo check from Walmart in the mail...)