Could anyone help me work out how much material I'll need?

[GinAndOnIt]

I've decided to tackle the job of recovering our sofa myself. I may be back with lovely pictures, or I may be on another thread asking for new sofa recommendations

If I give the measurements, would anyone have a rough idea how much material to start with? Between MIL and I, we have tons of material stashed away, but I don't want to start and then realise I don't have enough of one particular colour for example.

So, the sofa dimensions are roughly:

W - 190cm
H - 82cm
D - 100cm

Then there would be two seat cushions of similar width/depth of sofa, plus four back seat square cushions at about 45x45cm each.

Any advice would be handy! Thank you.

I have been looking into doing this too but I am getting my sewing machine serviced first. I am planning to us old bed sheets to make a sample. that should then to remake this.

Look online for tips, good luck. I'd be interested to hear how you get on.

That should read 'then remake this" ?

Aahhh that's a good idea. I thought of ripping off the original material on the sofa to try and cut fabric pieces the same size as original, but I think that might make the job a lot more complicated. I am going to remove the piping and recycle that though I think...

me too, but I am scared of destroying my existing covers, which are very good quality but wrong colour, before I have a replacement.

Tracing paper to measure it out or lining fabric and then measure that?

You could sketch all the pieces out with all the measurements on, make sure you add seam allowances and include all the pieces you'll need.

If you did this to scale, you could have a mini pattern that you can lay out as you would do if you were cutting it out which would mean you could measur how much fabric you'd need.

Personally I would wing it it and probably mess up!

Also depends if the fabric has a pattern which needs to be matched or go the "right" way up?
And if it's ok to have visible joins ie down the back or if this has to be one piece?

Definitely, definitely not using patterned fabric - I don't think I'd cope with the stress of keeping it lined up

Am also not intending for it to be a removable cover other than the seat cushions, as again, fixing a covering to the frame seems a hell of a lot simpler

I'm planning on doing this at some point this year and was going to make up a dummy run using muslin and then develop a pattern from them when I know it fits.

Good luck - please post pictures of progress.

And then using the pattern pieces to work out how much fabric I need.

I would take a stab at 20m x standard width then.

It will be much easier if you make a template of the cushions.

I would unpick the cushions if I were you, especially as you'll be reusing piping? Tbh I wouldn't bother doing this. It'll be much easier starting afresh then making it fit!

If the back cushions are all the same then you only need to take one apart, lightly press and use as a pattern piece, do the same for the seat cushions. Use calico to do a mock up/make pattern peice.

This might give you a rough idea?

www.countryliving.com/home-design/gmp3454/interior-design-charts/

Piping is only going on the arms - I prefer the look of seats without piping and I can't be arsed

Maybe I should just pile up all the material we have, and start draping it over to see what would be large enough. I'm changing the back cushions and the seat cushions from the original sofa design, so I don't need to try and match those up.

I'll have a look at that link, thank you mine

I recovered a small 2 seater sofa and needed 12m of fabric. I used cheap calico to pin to the sofa to make pattern pieces, and used those to cut the fabric. I would advise NOT using a striped fabric, it was a bugger to match the stripes.

To recovered an armchair with the help of a fantastic YouTube video.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=vR_rjW7Ro3c