My Life in Knots

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

When I was almost finished

Ok so the story on my living room furniture

I had a vintage 6ft long yellow, down filled, sofa that I loved and came home to one day out on the curb with all the down filled cushions taken already. My mother lived with me at the time and bought a nasty, dog smell infested, sante fe covered, small sofa from a friend of hers so wanted mine out to put hers in. So one day I come home to find she had someone help her heft my sofa to the curb to bring hers in and by the time I discovered this the cushions were all gone, thanks to garbage pickers, and the deed was done.

A few months later she needed to leave my home, never to move in again, but, I was left with no furniture as she was taking her sofa but had thrown mine out.

About that time my friend Lauren was moving to Florida and had a sofa, chair and a half and ottoman in her family room she wasn't taking with her. I took these off her hand years ago as she's now been back from Florida for two years...so this was all maybe 3 years ago or a little more.

You've probably seen this chair and sofa set in many images on my blog, white background with large blue stripes on the sofa and a denim blue chair and ottoman. Well it matched nothing in my house, had a few issues and i decided to recover them, 3 years ago.

Here's the chair, missing it's back cushion after a fight between some new pets in the house. The bottom cushion was worn and needed to be replaced.
The ottoman had a few holes and ware spots in the material that just got worse in my house with kids and pets.

So left uncovered this is how bad this chair would now look. I think even the cheapest of the cheap would pass this up on a curb!

Now I purchased a fabulous ultra suede in my favorite color to recover this chair. I started the cover when the back cushion was still attached and got to the point where I only had to add the skirt when that back cushion was destroyed. I was upset and didn't want to deal with it so it sat for 2 years with no back cushion, no skirt, and an over sized slip cover that now was too large for the chair. Well now it's all fixed. I had to repin the whole thing and took off 2-20x8inch sections on each side of the back. I added the skirt and closures and washed the whole set. The only issue left to tackle was the back cushion as you can't sit comfortably on the chair without something behind your back or you're hitting the bar in the structure tright on your lower back.
So I made a back cushion I thought would be large enough but by the time I stuffed it enough to fill it out to where it was comfortable to lean back on it was now to small width wise. I'll have to work on this portion again sometime and then make a matching cover for it as I still have plenty of fabric left even with the ottoman covered.


So for now I am still using the pillow I covered the other night, but, theres now a skirt to the floor, the blue is all cover and it looks finished. This pillow could pass for the back cushion and only I, and anyone reading my blog, would know it's suppose to be other wise.

Now I only have the sofa left to slip cover in the living room and I will once again have a matching set.

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Sunday, September 28, 2008

Spinning to Knit

I have been learning to spin, as many people know, and am finally getting better at it! This is a Cascade spindle given to me in a swap last year if you see my 12 days of Christmas postings from December of 2007. Well I finally started using this spindle in September of '08 lol yeah I was scared I was going to screw things up.

This is a wonderful roving given to me by Mardi in exchange for a bag I am making her. It's 50% cormo wool, 30% finn wool, 15% angora and 5% mohair.
I was able to spin the singles to about a lace weight and then do a 2-ply yarn that came out to be 16-17 WPI or fingering weight, baby yarn etc.
Here's everything together, starting on the top left the roving, next the skeined 2-ply yarn, then top right is the balled up working yarn and bottom right is the 1st project I have made really from my own hand spun yarn, a fingerless mitten.

Here is one completed mitten so far and the 2nd is in progress. Its a simple 1 day item on the weekend you could make called Merletto Mitts by Jody at Javajem.

They are so soft, warm and the colors came out wonderfully. I'm seriously impressing myself knitting these because the yarn is knitting up so much nicer then I could have ever imagined. I think this means I'm officially a spinner.

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How to Pay your Lawyer


Ok kidding! It's a joke between my friend Lauren and I as she does represent me in court when needed but is also one of my best friends. She dragged me to the fabric store one day, a foreign land to her, so she could have some help picking out fabric I could use to make her a bag but that she liked as we have very different tastes.

Well I finally finished her purse for her last night. It came out really cute!

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Upholstering

I have several projects around the house that have needed to be completed for quite some time. One of which is finishing slip covering my living room furniture that I have had the material for for almost 3 years now. So I finally got sick of looking at this green chair that was getting worse and worse as the weeks rolled on and one night, at about 3am, decided to start recovering it.
Here is an in progress. You can see the dark olive green of the original chair here.

And, to even my own family's astonishment, later that day I finished the whole slip cover and the chair was finally rejuvenated! I decided not to go with a full skirt to the floor on this piece because I liked the look of the wood legs showing. I do plan on eventually sanding and staining the legs though.

Then a quicky last night. I had a 26x26in throw pillow form I will admit I threw on the chair in its white splendor and have been using it uncovered...I know ghetto!

This material I have only had a few months and amazingly was upholstery material I found on the Walmart $1 table. I made the piping to give it a more finished look and inserted a zipper so the cover can be cleaned without destroying the form.

The living room is finally coming together now to just finish a skirt on another chair and slip cover the sofa...and not take 4 more years to do so.

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