Couch Rescue – W3D5

Oct 3, 2015

To bring an end to the third week of the Adventure Semester, new groups got together for the first time to be together for a mere two days in which they would design a challenge designed completely by them. My group threw around a few options, but eventually settled on learning how to reupholster furniture both for the practicality of having such a skill and all the money it could save us in our lifetime, but also for the fun of the endeavor. Also because we wanted a new couch.
We began by trying to find something to give our makeover to. We found such a thing very quickly at a “Free Pile” a few miles from camp, in the form of an old and slightly torn love seat. It was not in horrible condition, but it was certainly in need of a facelift. Our supplies were gathered from a variety of sources. We found the fabrics that would cover the exterior or our couch at a wonderfully inviting thrift shop in “downtown” Paonia, gathered most of our tools from our home camp and few from our tech barn, and made a few trips back into town for extra tools and thread. All said and done, we had spent nothing on the couch and our supplies didn’t cost enough to put us over our $50 budget.
We then set about getting rid of the old fabric covering the couch. Many a staple saw a bitter end, and when things got difficult, the trusty old box cutters did the trick. We cut out our own replacement lengths of fabric from old thrift shop linens, using the old fabric as a guide. The last, and hardest step, was putting it all back together. This took excessive sowing in some areas, and a excessive amount of staples in others. Sometimes things fit wonderfully, and looked beautiful right away, and sometimes things took a lot of fidgeting, but after 5 hours of work, we arrived at our goal of a functionally refurbished couch.
We’d gained a new skill, had a day of labor, and, best of all, had a new couch for us all to enjoy.
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