Can anyone give me any tips on making a loose cover for my sofa?  Also, do you need to wash the fabric before sewing to prevent shrinkage after the first wash?

I made loose covers for our furniture, and although the fabric said it was pre-shrunk I'd certainly recommend washing it again to make sure, because mine shrank at the first wash. It'd be a pain to iron, though.

I made a pattern by carefully unpicking the old cover and pinning it directly to the new material and just went for it. It's not a bad job for a beginner (still holding up after 5 years) and saved about £800.

Good luck!

Thanks for that JG!  Mine has no cover on it at the moment so I would have to make it from cutting a paper pattern from the existing sofa!!  I am wondering whether to just go to Ikea and buy one of the sofas with washable covers but it seems such a shame to just dump a perfectly good sofa just 'cos it is shabby!  :)  Call me stupid if you like , but I never know whether 'pre shrunk' means that it has already been washed and therefore 'shrunk' or that it is 'pre' being washed if you know what I mean!!

Have you tried cloth dust sheets?  If you're a member of Costco (or know someone who is you can pick up a pack of 2 for about £15 I think)  they're  pretty big and fit in a normal washing machine.  i use them on my sofas keeping a spare pair.  I havn't dyed mine as I rather like the neutral colour but as they are cotton I would imagine they would take dye quite easily. 

I have had 'throws' on it before and found them to be a bit of a pain in that they were all over the place as soon as someone sat on them!  I have only just noticed that the existing cushion covers have zips on them,(Silly Me!!) so I am going to try to wash them and hope that they don't fall apart!!  :)  Thanks anyway!