Our jackknife sofa in our Rockwood MiniLite was showing its age – the bonded leather was cracking and splitting from a few years of jumping at the hands of a couple kids and lots of lounging. A new sofa was well over $600 so I decided I’d give recovering it a shot. I had absolutely no experience with upholstery, but I know my way around a sewing machine just enough to be dangerous. So let’s be dangerous!
What you’ll need:
- Sewing machine
- Fabric
- Sharp scissors
- Tread
- Chalk
- Upholstery needle
- Pins
- Staple gun & staple
- Sewing measuring tape
- Yard stick
- Tools to disassemble sofa
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Picking a fabric
The first challenge was picking a fabric. I found myself at our local Hobby Lobby in the interior design section. Rows of flower-patterned fabrics destined for much nicer windows than mine sneered at me from their high shelf. At more than $30 per yard, I was starting to reconsider the purchase of a whole new sofa. But then I found the indoor/outdoor fabrics. This was the hardware department of the fabric store (can you hear my trying to regain some street cred here?). At $16 per yard, these fabrics were closer to budget and were designed to stand up to the rigor of the RV lifestyle. I have two recommendations here:
- Find a fabric with enough color variability to hide any small stains
- Don’t pick a pattern with straight lines that will highlight your inability to cut and sew in a straight line
For me, a solid grey fabric with darker and lighter grey threads was the perfect fit. I purchased 7 yards and headed home.
Measuring
On the sofa, you can clearly see where the seams sew together individual pieces of fabric. I used these seams and the existing fabric sections as a guide to how I would cut and sew the cover for the sofa. I decided to start on the seating portion of the sofa, being rectangular with straight lines I figured this was a good training ground. The seat was a single piece all the way across, but had stitching in two rows to simulate three separate cushions. I measured the total length of the fabric currently used on the sofa by finding the seams on each end then measuring the length with a sewing measuring tape. Then I added a half an inch to each side for the seams connecting it to the other sections, then two more inches for the seams I would sew to simulate the cushions the same way the sofa had previously.
Cutting
I used the full width of the fabric for the seat cushion so I only needed to cut the fabric once for the length of the sofa plus the additional fabric for the seams. I bought a new, sharp pair of scissors from the store when I purchased the fabric. Sharp scissors make cutting easier, safer, and straighter. I used a yard stick and the chalk to mark straight lines for cutting.
A sharp pair of scissors will make clean and straight cuts. 
We cleared the living room and used the floor to lay out, measure, and cut fabric to cover the TV sofa
Testing fit
I laid the cut piece of fabric on the sofa and used my chalk to mark the lines of the existing fake cushion seams. These were straight lines that didn’t need to be sewn to another piece of fabric, so there was no need to cut the fabric. I would simply fold the fabric and sew a half-inch seam. This would consume one inch of fabric for each “cushion line” (a half-inch on each side of the seam). After I sewed each seam, I laid the fabric on the sofa to make sure the fabric aligned with the other seams I would sew next. I bent pins and pushed them through the fabric and the sofa to help hold it while it tested the fit. For the last seam in any large piece, I would use my test fit to determine if I needed to make the seam a little larger (using up more fabric) to make the fit of the cover a little more tight.
Sewing
When sewing the lines for the cushion or sewing two pieces of fabric together, pinning the pieces together before I started sewing ensured that everything lined up as it was fed through the sewing machine. Where the fabric needed to bend around curves in the sofa, it was folded to form an arch. I used the existing sofa fabric as a guide for how, where, and how big these folds should be. Pins helped to keep these folds in place before they were sewed together.
Half-inch seams were used when sewing sections of the sofa cover together 
Pins were bent to help hold fabric in place when marking for cutting and sewing 
The seams and folds in the existing fabric on the sofa were used as a guide on where to cut, stitch, and fold the cover for the sofa 
We used pins to hold the fabric in place on the sofa to mark lines for seams and to test the size of the cut fabric. 
The fabric was folded to bend around curves in the sofa
Removing the arms
There were four screws that held the arms of the sofa onto the frame. The arms needed to be removed so that the cover for them could be slipped completely over the arm.
Stapling
In areas hidden from view, such as under the arms of the sofa, the cover is secured to the frame of the sofa by staples. I used a staple gun and 1/4” (very short) staples to secure the fabric to the wooden sofa frame under the arms.
Stitching the cover on
Where the fabric wrapped around the back of the sofa and the seat of the sofa, I made the cover large enough so that the fabric would reach all the way around. Where the two ends of the fabric met I used an upholstery needle to sew the fabric together by hand. These ares are located below and behind the sofa where they cannot be seen. As I sewed the cover closed, I passed the needle through the existing sofa fabric to help hold the cover in place and pull it close to the sofa frame.
Adjusting fit of the sofa
After the cover was installed on the sofa components, the arms of the sofa were re-attached. I loosened the bolts that held the sofa to the camper floor to make it easier to move the frame around when re-attaching the arms. Before tightening the bolts to the floor, I opened all the storage compartments around the sofa and adjusted the position to ensure that the sofa didn’t obstruct the function of drawers next to the sofa.
Just do it!
After a 30% discount, 7 yards of fabric cost $83. A yard stick, sewing measuring tape, chalk and scissors cost another $10. My old and cheap sewing machine died halfway through so I had to purchase another one for $72. Even with that set-back, I spent far less than I would on a new sofa, and the fabric is likely a higher quality that what I would have gotten on a new one. It took three partial days of work to finish and we’re very happy with the outcome!
