Save the Cat Slipcover Project – Part 5 – Inside Arm

Now it’s the INSIDE ARM’s turn. I cut a rectangle the size of the inside arm and pin and trim up the piece until it is molded into shape.

I clip the curves, especially this deep arm curve. On the left side of the chair I am outlining the Outside Arm and the Inside Arm at the same time. On the right side of the chair I didn’t do this and ran into some trouble…but I’ll tell you about that a little bit later in this post.

So anyway, I did both pieces at once and made marks across the arms at three points in order to make sure I have a ‘marker’ to match up the pieces when they get sewn together. There is a third piece that goes across the flat side of the arm down the length of the chair.

I cut out this last piece roughly two inches wider than the width of the arm.

I pin the welting to the pencil outlines of both pieces, sew the welting and then pin and sew the Outside Arm piece to ONE side of the strip.

I check the fit and mark an appropriate width across the arm and then sew the INSIDE ARM to this piece.

Just as a side note, I have not trimmed or graded the seems just yet. I want to wait until I’m satisfied with the fit and then trim, grade and either use the pinking shears or the Serger to finish the raw edges.

On the right side you can see here that I was a little unsure about how far down I’m supposed to go. Remember everyone…this is the Cathy Steiner Making-it-up-as-I-go-along method…so there’s going to be some of this.

So here we are with all three pieces sewn together. I slip this over the arm and check the fit.

Yes. The cat showed up to check it all out. Little does she realize the scissors can turn deadly!

The INSIDE BACK piece was cut out originally thinking this was what I needed to attach after the OUTSIDE BACK. This came in handy as I used it to go onto the next step of attaching the INSIDE BACK to the Arms.

I’ll post some instructions on that in the next post, but while I have you here I’ll go ahead and show you the merging together at the top of the chair. I’m a little wonky at the top and at the arm rest. THIS was why on the left side I decided to do these pieces at once instead of separate. I have yet to sew the left side complete yet but I have a hunch that it will come out a lot better than the right.

I have to do a little ‘Taking IN’ to re-align the front and then it should lay flat and smooth. This project is moving right along! Next is the INSIDE BACK and then the DECK. Once I ‘HIT THE DECK’ (ha ha!) I know I’ll be home free!