Blog - Page 16 of 107 - Slipcovers by Shelley

16′ Sectional and Belize tips

February 12, 2015 by Shelley

My client picked up these used sectionals from KSL.com (online classifieds) for next to nothing. They came out of a Marriott hotel. She originally only bought 2 pieces, then got the fabulous idea to buy 2 more pieces months later and was lucky enough to find the exact same ones (mirror image) that someone else bought and changed their minds to make this massive sectional for her long, narrow family room. Essentially it’s a 4 piece sectional. 1 armed piece on each end and two armless loveseats in the middle. Sectional–BEFORE Sectional–AFTER This couch was massive! It ended up being 16′ long with 20 cushions and it needed 50 yds of fabric (I was scrimping at the end, but it all worked out) She already had some throw pillows on hand that pulled it all together for now. I love getting to meet other girls that are a lot like me…love to decorate, save money, and shop second hand–After I put the sectional on, my client showed me her room she just finished! HOLY MOLY!!! It was beautiful–here are a few pics! How beautiful is that Chandelier?? She picked it up for $25 with a few other light fixtures! It makes the room! She had a great story about the card catalogue! She won the bid on an online auction after the first bidder fell through. Her awesome husband flew to LA walked to the U-haul store, rented a truck and drove halfway through the night to get it home to Utah. It’s pretty amazing and makes for a great story!

SIDE NOTE–MY trip to BELIZE!

Well you all know by now I love to plan and go on trips! I love the game of trying to figure out how to do it for a great price. Our favorite tours were the Mayan Ruins, fishing, and riding bikes into town. Total trip for Heber and I cost $1850! This included airfare, car rental, gas, tours, food, souvenirs, etc.

How we saved $

-We flew into Cancun and drove to Belize (9 hours with border crossing). Saved $900 on flights. Flights to Belize were $8-900. Flight to Cancun were about $430-$460.

-We booked flights with our Chase Sapphire miles. When you book through their travel site you use 20% less miles than normal. We had enough miles to book both our flights for free! Saved $920!

-We traveled with 2 other couples–so we split the rental car, gas, and 1 night in Tuluum

-Booked the Jaquar reef resort on a Living Social deal–so it only cost $480 for six nights including the $100 resort tax. Normally their rooms are $275/night. Saved $1,170

-Packed a suitcase with snacks and granola bars for breakfast and also some PB&J. We only had to buy bread when we got to the resort. This was the plan –take a suitcase of food and eat breakfast and lunch on our own then go out for dinner. We stuck to the plan most of the days. Then we’d have an empty suitcase for souvenirs for the way home.

Here’s my rundown of the costs

$0-flights

$345–rental car/airport parking/room in Tuluum-

We rented a car in Cancun, drove 2 hours to Tuluum and stayed the night in a house we found on TripAdvisor. Then woke up early and headed to the Tuluum ruins before we embarked on our 7 hour drive to Belize. There are only 2 car rental companies that let you take their cars over the border to Belize. We went with http://www.america-carrental.com . Our flights were direct from SLC to Cancun (4-5 hour flights) with no layovers. If we would have flown directly to Belize instead, with layovers we were only about an hour longer driving. My thoughts–I’d rather see the country side for 7 hours than sit in an airport. The drive was amazing–so cool to drive through all the villages and see the culture.

$150-kitty for gas and tips (all the couples chipped into the kitty–then we used it for gas, parking, tour tips,etc)

$90–exit taxes- we had to pay exit taxes to leave Mexico on our drive to Belize, then exit taxes to leave Belize

$400–tours (fishing, cave tubing, Mayan ruins). This price was total for both of us! I was most proud of the Mayan ruin tour–at the resort they offered this tour for $120/person. We all wanted to do it, so we were planning on it. Then I started thinking about it. The Tuluum ruins only cost $8 for entrance. So I researched to see if we got ourselves there how much it cost to get in? $5!!!! The reason it was so much was it’s 2.5hrs from the resort–well we had our own rental car, no reason we couldn’t drive ourselves there and save $220/ couple after we all chipped in for gas.

$480–Jaquar reef lodge 6 nights

$385–food, souvenirs, and fruit punch poolside.

$1850 total Here are all of us at the Xunantunich mayan ruins–these were AMAZING! There were only 3 other people there when we arrived in the late afternoon. It was crazy quiet, and they allow you to climb on them (only allowed at these ruins). Here’s another shot of the ruins. To get to the ruins you have to drive your car onto a hand cranked ferry to cross the river. Minivans are the way to go with 3 couples! Plenty of room! We all packed light in one carry on bag each–we learned after our trip to Costa Rica last year… when we had to strap two large bags on the roof and we had no where to sit because of all the suitcases. The drive was crazy–lots of speed bumps throughout the whole country. We did feel safe the whole way, even though the police men stationed at check points carry large guns strapped over the backs. My favorite was riding bikes into down and seeing the culture. We were staying in Hopkins Village. The resort had complimentary bikes and kayaks! Got to go fishing for my first time ever! It was pretty cool. Between the six of us we caught 20 fish! The guide brought us back and cut them up for us and put them in a large baggie to take to the resort kitchen. They cooked them for dinner for us! Fishing tour only cost $100 each–totally worth it! Here are the 20 fish we caught! We kept about 8 and let the guide give the rest away. The fish platter was amazing with flowers and all. They served it family style!

Linen Couch and Chair

January 10, 2015 by Shelley

My designer client wanted to have me slipcover this couch for her clients master bedroom. She wanted a tan linen couch and chair done. It was a chocolate velour fabric and had finials screwed in on the top back corners. We removed the fancy finials and filled holes with batting. She also wanted batting to cover the nailhead trim on the arms. I simply staple gunned batting in those areas before putting slipcover on.

Couch–BEFORE

Couch–AFTER! She chose a heavyweight linen look fabric that had a backing on it. She wanted to add some extra detail, hence the extra skirt pleat. We also made all the pillows with pleat ruffle detail. The pillow in the very center was a double flange mitered pillow–she saw a pic of one at some fancy hotel and took a pic of it to show me. I thought about it for a few days and figured out how to make one.

Here’s a close up of the double flange mitered pillow! I love the way it turned out! Definitely time consuming, but kind of fun to do something different that I hadn’t done before. I am thinking of possibly doing a video tutorial for it, if I have enough interest to warrant the effort. Let me know if you are interested.

In the same master bedroom my client wanted to slipcover this traditional dark chenille fancy chair to make it more casual. We used the same cream linen as the pillows on the couch. She wanted to make it super feminine with ties closures and a box pleat skirt.

SIDE NOTES— I took the second half of December off with my family. We skied a few times and spent a few nights at the cabin for Christmas. The kids were so excited—it finally snowed on Christmas day, so they had some fresh powder on the driveway to snowboard down. Then the day after Christmas we drove from Utah to LA to catch flights to Oahu!

Carter helped me make a homemade gift for his auntie Sarah out of his Great Grandmas old table cloth linens. It was super easy. Curved out the top by the arm pits, added ties and a pocket out of ticking stripe fabric.

Luke was all about getting a tree set up at the cabin and had it decorated in 3 min. flat before anyone else could help him! I love spending Christmas at the cabin! It’s a bit of an adventure hiking up the driveway with sleds of food and snow clothes, and it was 20 degrees inside when we got there. It takes a few hours to get the fire going and warm the place up. Then it took another day to get the kitchen sink to work (space heaters trying to warm up the pipes). No worries I just filled pots of water from the shower to dump in the sink to wash dishes. I love an adventure and a good story!

My sisters came up Christmas eve for some driveway sledding! The cousins loved it!

Next we headed to OAHU!! or as Luke says it…AWAHOO!

This pic was taken on the top of Chinaman’s hat!

We boogie boarded/waded to Chinaman’s hat (small island right of the coast) then hiked to the top! That was my favorite adventure for the trip. It took us 25 minutes to paddle over.

We found a turtle as big as Luke!

We also love our beach time!

Here’s how we kept our trip affordable—cause you know I am all about traveling for cheap!

1.Bought tickets on Allegiant Air for $440 roundtrip out of LAX and only paid for 1 checked bag.

Allegiant charges for carry on bags –but personal items are free. All the boys packed in a drawstring backpack (personal item) saving us $240! Tickets out of SLC, UT (where we live) were $900 each! We decided to drive to LAX to catch flights and save $2250. Since gas prices took a huge drop in the past month it only cost us $100 in gas to get to LA and back. We drove Hebers subaru impreza instead of my pilot. Less space, but better gas mileage.

2.Used Chase Sapphire credit card miles to book our rental car in Oahu–saving us $200!

3. Used Chase Sapphire credit card miles to pay for our Condo stay–saving us $750!

I had just gotten a new credit card offer in the mail 4months before our trip offering me 70,000 miles if I spent $5,000 in the first 3 months. WE put all our expenses on this card for 3 months, then used the cash back option and paid for the condo we f0und on VRBO.

4. Used Chase Sapphire credit card miles to book one hotel night in Barstow, Ca for the way home–saving us $100

Our flight came in at 8pm and we knew we wouldn’t want to drive 10 hours to get home that night. We opted for a 2 hour drive, and a quick hotel stay that included free breakfast.

5. I packed food for the drive to LA and made sandwiches for the plane ride. No way I wanted to pay $12/sandwich for 5 of us! Heber thought my hard vintage suitcase packed to the brim with bread, PB, honey, crackers, oranges, etc for the drive was hilarious–but he put up with my crazy idea anyhow! What a great man!

6. We shopped at Costco in Oahu for our groceries. We spent $200 for the week. We made all our meals in the condo, except for the buffet dinner we had at the Polynesian Cultural Center (which ended up being free–our friends parents volunteer there and hooked us up!)

7.We got discount tickets to the Polynesian cultural center from our friends parents that work there one night a week. —saving us $425!

8. We borrowed boogie boards and snorkeling gear from my friends parents in Oahu–saving us $150 in rentals

8. I shopped around for airport parking before we left and paid online–saving us $50! Parking our car for the week only cost $52 instead of over $100!

9. We made an approximate spending budget before we left and brought cash in an envelope–that way we could monitor more easily where we were at. From the time we left our house to the time we returned we spent $800 total! This included gas to LA, groceries, food, activities, souvenirs, etc.), which was way less than I thought we would. I had brought $1200.

10. Total for trip to Oahu for a family of five was $3,100!

Red and White Buffalo Check Slipcovers

November 26, 2014 by Shelley

First off I know it’s BLACK FRIDAY this week! Use Promo code “BLACKFRIDAY” to receive 25% off any or all of my products! This includes the following

1. How to Slipcover DVD

2. Get it Covered Advanced Slipcover guide

3. Whole 9 yards–Starting and Running a Successful Slipcover Business

4. Pillow Talk–sew pillows with piping and a zipper!

5. Styling Cents–Reuse, Repurpose, and Revive your space!

I know I haven’t been blogging as much as I used to. If you want to see updates every few days..follow me on instagram (search slipcovershelley) or follow me on my Facebook Page !

Onto my slipcover post….My designer client gave me 12 yards to make 8 red and white buffalo check slipcovers for a set of dining chairs that were out of state. Luckily the clients sister lives in town and has the same chairs! She kindly let me borrow one to make a pattern.

Chair–BEFORE

Chair–AFTER

I am not going to lie–these were a bit challenging! The back posts stuck out quite a bit, so I couldn’t get the seat plus button extender section all in one piece. I ended up facing the back notched out parts and topstitched them–so they’d look nicer when they got washed. Then I had to time it so the white button ended up on a red square! No point in doing a cute button if no one can see it.

White button on red square–I know not many people think about these things. I dissect furniture with my eyes everywhere I go…doctors office, friends houses, church, etc. I even stare at peoples shirts when I am sitting behind them and notice how the fabric is cut on the bias or how it is matched it up.

Here you can see the extender piece I had to add–of course I had to match up the pattern. On the pleat ruffle I wanted the white to be hidden so it looks more grounded and kind of like a ribbon band.

These were quite labor intensive–but I am very pleased with how they turned out. Just enough of a challenge to feel accomplished when they were done without making myself crazy.

Side Notes

1. Taking Dec. 15-Jan 3rd off! Please email me to get on my list for January.

2. Excited for Thanksgiving this week! 3 of my siblings and I rented a large cabin in Park City and are spending Thanksgiving there! Hot tub, tubing, food, and 14 kid cousins, it’s going to be a PARTY! Too bad Heber has to work!

3. Use PROMO code “BLACKFRIDAY” for 25% off any or all of my products!

4. Funny memory that’s been playing in my memory lately…Back in the day when I was attending college, I had decided to major in Business. As a business major I had to choose an emphasis–Organizational Behavior, Marketing, Entrepreneur, etc.

I used to always talk about opening a shop of some sorts that would sell old jeans, white t-shirts, and chapstick (my 3 favorite things at the time hahaha!). My dad would always talk about it with me. When we drove by abandoned rundown buildings, we would dream together about how I could buy the building and open my shop. I grew up in Southern California and in the early 90’s old 501 levis were pretty cool paired with a white men’s v neck T-shirt. My friends and I would regularly head down to Melrose Ave. in Los Angeles and peruse all the cool shops selling old 501’s.

So going off of this dream, I made my emphasis Entrepreneur. Then after a semester, I kind of freaked out! Ummm, I want a JOB when I graduate! Holy Crap, what am I thinking?!! I need to make $ when I am done with school…I need someone to hire me! I immediately looked at my options and switched my emphasis to Organizational Behavior (Human Resources). Then I graduated and interviewed a ton and couldn’t get a job. I ended up taking a job at Eddie Bauer as a Sales Associate for $7.25/hr until they had a management position open up…after 6 months of promises, I was still making $7.25/hr and waiting tables on the side at a nice restaurant. When I ran into people I knew while working, I let them assume I was still going to school. I was too embarrassed to correct them and tell them that I graduated and was still waiting tables. Eventually I ended up managing a Sandwich/smoothie shop and a Bath and Body Works until I had my first baby–which is when I started sewing slipcovers professionally.

Crazy how after all that, I came back full circle to being an Entrepreneur and running my own slipcover business (14 yrs)–funny how life works out! Maybe we should listen to our guts more and realize what we are meant to do and be.