Sewing Adventure

I am sure you have been wondering what I have been up to.  Well, I was asked to make a costume for a school play and I could not turn it down.  This is what I like about sewing – new challenges, new adventures.  Here is how it turned out.  Can you guess which princess this was?

If you guessed Rapunzel from the movie Tangled  you are right!

Don't you just love the bodice?

What about the sleeves?  They are my favorite.

Too much fun!

It Takes a Slipcover to Make a Slipcover!

A few weeks ago I was contacted by a lady in south Florida that had visited my Etsy store and wanted me to make a slipcover for her .  Her baby was due within a week and she was nesting.  I was so glad I was able to help.  She sent me her old slipcover which I used as a template to make the new slipcover.  I mailed it out last week and she sent me a picture of it.  I had to share it with you.  I do not have a before picture but suffice it to say the original slipcover was rough.  Here is the after on her chair.

Not bad for winging it.  I think it looks great and pray that as she rocks her baby God will speak and bless her.  What do you think?

For the Love of White Pumpkins

Have you seen all the pumpkins in “blog world?”  I have and I must say the white ones are my favorite.  While I was excited to decorate my dining room table for fall…

 I love the acorns…
 Aren’t they cute?



                                                                             

                                                                 And the birds… Love them too. 

What I really wanted was a white pumpkin.  I had seen them all over until I started looking for them.  My friend JN gave me a white pumpkin candle that I love but I was dying to make one myself.  I had leftover matelasse fabric and leftover stuffing.  Last Saturday my friend and crafting buddy came over and this is what I made.

White matelasse for the body and scrap fabric from this chair makes it a perfect white pumpkin.

I miss my friend Pam so having a little bit of her fabric keeps her with me this fall.  Happy Fall!

White Denim Wingback Chair Slipcover

There are some memories that tend to stay with you forever…  While it will never compare to the day I married my husband, the day my son was born, the day my daughter was born and the day I realized for the first time that I was the precious daughter of The King, I will always remember the first time I sat on a comfy slipcovered wingback chair.  I had gone into private practice part time and was using a co-worker’s office.  Oh how I loved going to work and sitting in that slipcovered wingback chair.  Fast forward now 12+ years to when I started making slipcovers…  Guess what I wanted?  Of course a wingback chair.  There were many to choose from but only one that was $20 on craigslist.   This is what it looked like when I got it.

                                                                              Before                                 

It was in excellent shape but way too mauve and velvet – it did not match my memory.  At first I considered making a lime green slipcover.  I thought it would look good with the blue walls.  I love blue and green these days.  I even bought the fabric (for almost nothing on ebay) but every time I thought about starting the slipcover I kept remembering that first chair… So armed with a 50% coupon to Joann’s I headed for the fabric store.  A couple of days later I had my chair.  Isn’t she pretty?    

                                                          After

I think she will only get better as she ages.  For now she is in my guest room.  I can’t wait until my mom see’s it.  She will love the newly painted guest room and the chair she can sit and talk with her friends back home.  You should have seen the room before…  On second thought you would not have wanted to see the room before the transformation.  It was more of a storage room than a guest room.  Do you want to see the finished room?  I thought you would never ask…



And yes, even the antique ironing board got a new slipcover…  However, I cannot take the credit for that one.

My Drop Cloth Adventure

Just got home from spending a wonderful day with my sister (best sister in the entire world), brother-in-law and 5 wonderful nieces who are well into becoming women of God (oh, how I love them).  But what does this have to do with slipcovering?  I am glad you asked. 

It was finally my sister’s turn to get a slipcover.  The chair is old.  I got it just before it was sent to Goodwill and upholstered it with denim fabric.  It was my first upholstery attempt and boy does it show.  I have learned so much since then...  That was over 6 years ago and to say the chair has been through the mill is an understatement.    My sister inherited it a few years ago and has gotten a lot of use from it.  Here is what it looked like this morning. 

Before

 I told you it was rough.  I had already started to take the cushion apart when I remembered we had not taken a before picture but you can get and idea of what it looked like.  My sister did not want to invest a lot in fabric for the chair is pretty rough.  I showed her a couple of "drop cloth" slipcovers I had seen online and she quickly agreed that this is what she wanted.  When I say "quickly" I mean quickly.  My sister asked me about slipcovering the chair a while back but she had not even started looking for fabric.  This week she asked me if I could go ahead and slipcover it.  She quickly, I mean quickly decided on drop cloth and bought the drop cloth.  I was soooo excited as I have never used  drop cloths, I have seen them used in a number of blogs , and have been dying to try them.  The day she bought the drop cloth her washer broke... (you need to wash the drop cloth before you sew it).  Isn't that like the devil to have her washer break when she most needed it?  But my precious sister was not deterred.  She bought a washer yesterday, washed the drop cloth and was ready for me first thing this morning as planned.   I do not know about anyone else but I think she might be a Zippy in the making.  Maybe I am starting to rub off on her.

We started at about 10:30 a.m.  I say we because she helped with the piping and the zigzagging.  We used a 9' x12' drop cloth 8 oz. weight.  There were some blemishes we had to work around  but I must say the drop cloth was wonderful to work with.  The 8oz drop cloth is not very thick but thick enough to cover over the denim without bleeding through.  After washing it the canvas was soft and beautiful.  My sister says it reminded her of silk...  About 9 hours later it is finished.  Only thing left to do is zigzag the edges (which my sister will do probably tomorrow).  The one negative about this drop cloth fabric is that it unravels easily so zigzagging or serging it is absolutely necessary.  .  Well,  are you ready for the after?

Without further ado ...  Here she is in her new clothes.

After

Isn't she pretty?  My sister thinks she looks a lot like a Pottery Barn chair.  I tend to agree.  Definitely not a chair salvaged from Goodwill 6-7 years ago.  What do you think? 

I have been working on a number of other projects that I hope to reveal as soon as I can get some decent pictures.  Until then consider using drop cloths for your fabric.  I highly recommend them.  More importantly, you cannot beat the price.  The 9' x 12' one my sister bought was only $20 at Lowes.  Not bad for about 8 yards of fabric.

What an adventure!  One chair in one day!