Wing Back Chair Progress

I pulled the trigger today and bought fabric for my reupholstery project. It's a chocolate brown cotton blend with   

a burlap texture. Super score at $7 a yard! It's darker in person.   

 

 I also went to the next best shop to the fabric store, Home Depot. Woot. Except they don't rent wimpy pneumatic staple guns for wimpy upholstery projects. In fact they don't rent any staple guns that shoot anything smaller than 7/8ths of an inch. So. I'm going to have to figure out a deal with my hand held staple gun, which doesn't seem to be cutting it. Sigh. Aside from that I picked up a stain for the legs and happily (not) spent my afternoon sanding the legs. I'm sure you're uber jealous by now. The scheme is coffee bean brown fabric, "ebony stain (because they didn't have espresso, I must be tired... need caffeine...) and I'm thinking antiqued brass buttons and decorative nails in the arms. I've got all the pieces cut... except the 3 (little ones... and the piping)  that I found hiding during clean up.  Hopefully I'll have this *expletive* done next weekend. 

Reupholstery

 I'mma tired little blogger tonight. whew. Here's my little project.

I bought it off Craigslist for 25 smackaroos almost a year ago, it's been sitting under a throw/blanket ever since. It's just been waiting for me to wake up with a bug up my ass to tear it apart..... which was this morning. First I must recommend a pair of gloves and allergy meds. Needle-nose pliers help too. The idea is 1. remove the pieces (starting with the bottom and removing layers like an onion) 2. number pieces 3. use said pieces as a template. 4 put new pieces on in reverse order. 

Cozy looking, right?

After 6+ hours, 162 stud/tack/things and god knows how many staples, I think I may have underestimated things. Just a bit? oooooohhkay. 

Most of the original upholstery has been removed.

On the porch with a beer and some furniture. Living the Okie dream.

Next week: fabric and a high powered staple gun. Man I can't wait, some days the hot glue gun just won't cut it!

Scissors, Rambling.

My Patterns of Fashion finally came in. I feel like a real (historical) seamstress now! ... that doesn't read with the sarcastic Pinocchio voice it does in my head. I'll get into some disasters with it sometime soon I'm sure, but where to put it until then... it's a really awkward size. Anyway. The real excitement in my life has been scissors. I went to the flea market yesterday and scored a sweet pair of vintage Wiss pinking shears for 5 bucks. Unfortunately I whisked them off to be sharpened before getting any pictures. On the up side of things the place sharpening them is two blocks from my house. Every day for the last three years I have driven by this neat-looking hobby shop and have never found sufficient reason to stop in until it came up on my Google search. Go figure. I was dreaming of scissors last night, and woke up questioning my sanity. How many pairs does a girl need? Is functionality not enough?


I made a skirt yesterday, it was so adorable.... in my head. It was supposed to be one of those (almost) instantly gratifying one-hour projects....instead its just one ugly skirt. It's too poofy? It's unflattering. It make me look like a really awkward 12 year old girl. I shudder just thinking about it. So it was banished to the UFO purgatory, to await fiery death or possible reincarnation. It has pockets... it needs help, thoughts? Look at how disgustingly cute this fabric is!

In other news, after fiddling around with so many failed (I mean unfinished.... right) projects and so many *ahem* distractions. I've decided I can at least try to look good doing nothing. So I got to work organizing and found that there was indeed a desk under the rubble or should I say rubbish? TADA!

Really Useful Boxes. Really, that's what they're called.

 

 

Dreaming of warmer weather...

In my last post I was pretty hyped about making some Regency era clothing. I made a shirt, and half a tailcoat. Haha. After being ensnared in the epic battle of the sleevils I decided to set the coat aside for a while... just until I don't feel like pulling my hair out when I look at it. In the mean time I've been dreaming of warmer weather  (and easier projects) so I made a dress.

It's navy and white rayon. It still needs to be hemmed... not that exciting but super comfortable and uber flattering, I promise it fits me better than the dress form! I'm more excited about the bag on the dress form, lookit!

It's cotton corduroy with wooden buttons, and a flower from the same fabric as the lining. I found the tutorial here http://www.rufflesandstuff.com/2009/08/by-request-giveaway.html

I am sooooo in love with this fabric, even though it's a poly blend shhhhh! I bought enough to make a dress too since it was 2.50 a yard on clearance.... which makes me love it more. :) Oh and one last little project

Leftovers from the dress, braided, with a piece of elastic sewn to the ends. I can't remember where I saw this, but I can't take credit for the original thought. And lastly, I know that no blog is complete without cats... so I borrowed a pair. They provide very thorough supervision, I assure you. Cheers, and happy New Year!