AN OCCASIONAL CHAIR UPDATE

This small, occasional chair was in need of a make-over.  There was nothing really wrong with the upholstery; it just was tired, and my client wanted more color in the room.

The solution?  A blue and white ticking stripe.  My client ordered this fabric from fabric.com.  It was a great weight and it washed very nicely.

As with any barrel chair, it is always more challenging to do a slipcover.  There has to be lots of darts and seams that a less rounded chair would not require.  Still, the stripe helps hide those seams and darts.

In this case, the buttons were a necessity to get the slipcover on and off the chair.  We kept the skirt short so as to not weigh down the look. 

(I also made arm covers out of the same fabric for a chair in the bedroom of my client's son, though I did not take a picture of that.)  

A HIGH RISE RE-DO

Here in Coronado we have high rise buildings just to the south of the Hotel Del, called the Shores.

Part of my job was to make new covers for the sofa throw pillows.  

I came very close to making the pillows and the new seat cushions with the wrong side of the fabric.  Luckily, I was out walking and ran into the designer on this job and asked, in passing, if the blue side of the fabric was the right side.  She said, no, the black side.  That could have been a disaster had I not asked! The funny thing is either side would have worked.

The 'new' bar stools.

This job was more of an upholstery job, and even though I am NOT an upholsterer, they turned out really well.

The 4 chairs around the glass-top table.

From the back

The renovation is still in progress, but the new pillows and cushions have gone along way to make the condo look fresher and more up-to-date.  Of course, the view of the Pacific Ocean never gets old!

AN OUTDOOR SEATING OASIS

I delivered these large, very large, cushions to my client's home in Rancho Santa Fe the day before Thanksgiving.  We were having temperatures in the eighties at that time, so they needed to be done so my client and her family could take advantage of the gorgeous weather.

When I say they were large, I'm talking the two side cushions were 94" long!  It's not so much that making cushion covers that long is the problem.  No, it's more that when you have batting wrapped foam that long, it gets unruly, to say the least.

My client chose a brown Sunbrella to more or less blend in with the brown wood of the trellis that covers the seating area.  We used a light aqua for contrast welting and throw pillows to mimic the color of the pool water.

I apologize that the pictures are not better.  I was shooting in the middle of the day, with not a cloud in the sky and bright sunshine.  The shadows were quite challenging.

A close-up of the welting and throw pillow in aqua Sunbrella.

HAPPY 2015 TO ME

I never make anything for myself.  That is partly because I don't pay myself to make things for me, but mostly it's because I sew most every day, for most of the day.  So when I don't have to work, I simply cannot sew.  I was sick at the end of 2014/ beginning of 2015 and decided that I was going to make myself a present.

I got this adorable hot pink polka dot fabric at Home Fabrics for just $8 per yard.  I washed it to pre-shrink it so that I can just throw it in the washing machine when it gets dirty.  

I have had this Parsons chair for, well, ever, and had never taken the time to make a slipcover for it.  Since it is upholstered in white duck cloth, it has gotten really grubby.  I got tired of looking at it and decided to, finally, do something about it.

The slipcover has a button-back, though it is really difficult to see.  The buttons are solid pink.

Now, when I walk into my sewing room/office each morning and throughout the day,  I am greeted with a bright, pretty new gift to myself.  

And I deserved it!

LEE JOFA SLIPCOVER

This slipcover was a hurry-up-and-get-it-finished-before-Christmas job.  The fabric is from Lee Jofa and the pattern is Jacobean Tree.

I made it from the existing slipcover, which style was exactly what my client wanted.  Besides, the day I went to measure and cut, my client was talking to me and I could not concentrate, so I chose to take apart the current one to use as the pattern.

Whoever made the one I took apart did not do it like I do...that is, I cut half and flip it over since it is a mirror image.  This one, not so much.  I had to cut it exactly as the taken apart pieces were so it would go back together properly.

My client insisted I take this shot as it shows the other two pieces I've done in the room, the white denim chair and ottoman in the center and the light blue denim chair at the top of the picture.

I got a little nervous that the slipcover might not fit even though I was using the slipcover I took off, so I pinned the entire thing together and took it over to make sure.  It seemed to fit fine, but the original slipcover had just a 1/2" turned up hem and the new one looked like it might be just a tad short.  The solution was to add a 2" ruffle at the bottom, which, in the end, was the icing on the cake, so to speak.

My client loved it!  She kept saying it looked it should be in an English cottage with a low-beamed ceiling.  I was also very happy with how it turned out.