Save me from having to fix my couch every half hour?

April 18, 2011 5:46 AM

How can I make this cover stay on my couch?

My partner and I have a hand-me-down couch and loveseat that are a bit worse for wear. We are on a budget and can't really afford to get them re-upholstered, so this got two of these to cover them (and keep my cats from destroying them further). It works like a charm and even looks respectable... until we sit on them, which causes the cover to crumple and shift and generally look like we've covered the couches haphazardly with a tarp.

Is there any way of somewhat reliably keeping this on the couch and neatly in place?

posted by torisaur to home & garden (10 answers total)

My grandma used to have these (last image on the page) corkscrew-like pins that you just twist through the cover and upholstery and I think they worked pretty well.
posted by raccoon409 at 6:05 AM on April 18, 2011

Velcro
posted by lobstah at 6:07 AM on April 18, 2011

Upholstery pins are going to be the only no-sew way to make it stay in place. However, making or buying a slipcover that's designed for your couch or couches like yours will be much more effective. (In fact, even if you get a slipcover, you might want to use a few upholstery pins anyway.)
posted by mchorn at 6:07 AM on April 18, 2011

A few stitches here and there is pretty simple and cheap to do. Pins and kitties may not mix.
posted by JJ86 at 6:11 AM on April 18, 2011

Push down rolled up magazines tied with rubber bands into the crevices, to keep everything tucked. See here.
posted by Fairchild at 6:54 AM on April 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

My great-aunts used to use tightly rolled up newspapers and those cork-screw pins. I never saw a pin come out unless it was deliberately removed. (And I was a fidgety kid lol)
posted by tar0tgr1 at 7:12 AM on April 18, 2011

Brilliant! Thanks, all
posted by torisaur at 7:22 AM on April 18, 2011

If you use the rolled-up magazines (they do work), please use TAPE instead of RUBBER BANDS to secure them. Rubber bands + kitties = very sick kitties + BIG vet bills. Your cats will find it a delightful game to dig their little paws down there in the nooks, find that nice stretchy-stringy mouse-tail sort of thing and pull it out and chew it. You'll never know it until it shows up on the xray at the vet's office, as a "dietary indiscretion."

In a household with cats, rubber bands should be kept under lock and key, if at all, and used with the greatest caution. And remember that they dry out and snap on their own over time, and then they slither off and jump right down your cat's throat. Or so it seems.

I tried those clever corkscrew pins, til I started finding them lying around the house. The cats had hours of fun taking them out of the upholstery and chasing them around.

There's a fortune to be made if someone ever devises an easy and cat-safe way to secure and adjust slipcovers.
posted by Corvid at 1:07 PM on April 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

It doesn't look like you are going to, but don't bother with velcro. I tried that and no matter how many pieces I used and where I attached them, it came off pretty fast. It just took a day or two for the couch to look rumpled instead of ten minutes.
posted by lollusc at 4:48 PM on April 18, 2011

We use clips that are attached to each end of a short length (4/5/6 inches) of elastic. They work well, until the cats decide to work their way under the covers and unclip them. Wee bastards. I think my husband got them at Zellers.
posted by deborah at 11:40 PM on April 18, 2011