HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY (WEEKEND)

"We have much to do together. Let us do it in wisdom and LOVE and joy. Let us make this the human experience."

~Gary Zukav~

Wishing everyone love and joy this Valentine's Day!!!

SOFA SLIPCOVER- BEFORE AND AFTER

This is the before, which you may have ascertained. I try really hard to not give my clients dirty slipcovers! Though many have been delivered with my blood from pins sticking my fingers or catching on my leg and gouging my skin. I bet you never realized how dangerous sewing can be!

After--Not a lot different, just a whole lot cleaner!

This is actually a sofa sleeper. I didn't take a picture of the deck, but what I do, so that you don't have to take the entire slipcover off to get the bed out, is put a zipper in the deck. It is a real challenge to make a zipper turn 90 degrees (I may have said this before.) not once, but twice. I got smarter this time though and sewed the zipper in before sewing the back on. Less bulk that way.

The room put back together.

The people renting this house (a vacation rental here in Coronado) asked how a slipcover could be done so quickly here when it takes 3 months in Montana. I told them it was a rush job because the owners wanted them to have a nice looking sofa for their stay. I don't know if they bought it, but it does look way better, if I do say so myself.

A BIRTHDAY PARTY

We had a birthday party on Saturday night. My cousin Grace is turning 10 tomorrow (9 Feb.)

The lovely table before the party started!

Lots of presents and balloons.

Flowers from her beautiful birthday bouquet, which I will, of course, be altering and manipulating in PhotoShop!

The amazing ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins!

Me with the birthday girl!

BACK TO SLIPCOVERS

A light stone denim with contrasting sea glass green welting brightens up this chair.

No skirt and the bun feet showing.

Button- back.

This sofa presented a challenge. First of all, it lies flat for sleeping. Secondly, there is no way to make a real slipcover for it because of the way the arms are connected to the side pieces. Short of reupholstering it, there weren't a lot of options. Really, all my client wanted was a clean looking sofa. We are calling it a sofa coverlet.

We aren't trying to hide the fact that it is a cover. The ties help hold it in place. And, yes, the underneath fabric shows on the sides, but that's okay.

This house is a beach house in Pacific Beach. My clients live for 8 months of the year in Rhode Island and spend the remaining time here. Last year I did some work for them towards the very end of their stay, so they had only about a week to enjoy the new slipcovers before heading back East. This year, as soon as they arrived, I got a call. Now they can live with the 'new' furniture for the next 4 months!

CUPCAKES

Someone at Paper Tales (Michelle)is having a birthday today!!!

So I made some pink and green cupcakes to celebrate. Those of you with eagle eyes may notice there are 4 missing from the backside, eaten by customers and/or employes. All I can say is this cupcake holder kept me from accidently eating who knows how many cupcakes before I ever left my house. Since it holds 24, I couldn't get away with it. Just as well.

BANDANA DUVET COVER

The truth is I have no idea how to make the One World One Heart post stay at the top of my blog. Anyone care to enlighten me?

Also, I apologize to the blogs I normally read on a daily basis for not getting to you lately. I am doing my best to visit all the blogs involved in the One World One Heart event and that is proving VERY time-consuming! Fun, but a real commitment to get to them all.

I made this duvet cover (8 years ago now) from bandanas. As bandanas are not a very substantial fabric, I knew I had to line each one. When I mentioned this to a friend at the time, she said something to the effect that if she were making it for herself, she wouldn't bother. I thought, wow, if I'm doing it for myself, then I'd do an even better job than if it was for someone else. I always do the very best I can when making things for others and why would I deserve anything less? So I lined them. The back side is a pink print. I'd take a picture of it right now except my exchange student is asleep under it and I am not going to wake him up just to get a picture. I always thought I'd make another using more 'boy' colors, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

PRINCESS SLIPCOVER

Wooden, ladder-back chair + tissue linen + full, gathered skirt

+ big bow = Princess Slipcover

GOING WAY BACK IN TIME

Just a bit of a departure for today's post!

Yes, I was born with black hair!

It never fell out, it just grew in blonde. My mother said I looked like a ferret, with black tips on my blonde hair.

Until eventually, it was all blonde. This was our dog, Gesundheit. My mother got her about 6 months before she had me. Nothing like having a puppy, a brand new baby and being in college, all at the same time!

Perhaps this is when my love of short skirts began. Twirly is good, too!

This was the day my mother graduated from med school. I was 6, Pepper was 5 and Brian was about a year old. My brother Michael is not pictured.

RAINY DAYS AND ROSES

We are having a rainy week here in California, which, of course, we need. I leaned out my back door yesterday to get a shot of the pink sky at sunset.

I wondered if the rain would show up in the photo. Well, it did, but not in the way I thought it would. I guess you can figure out that the spots you see are actually rain drops.

And because it was raining, I sat the entire day and made roses from yellow linen. They look kind of orangy here, but they are really a light lemon yellow. I am going to be putting these on the backs of white denim slipcovers for folding chairs.

WINDOW TREATMENTS

This is what I call a fancy, ruffly curtain. The challenge with this window is it's a dormer and the ceiling makes it impossible to mount the rod any higher than just above the frame. Plus figuring out how to make a ruffle and welting with a rod pocket gave me fits.

The roman shade on the the window has a shaped bottom edge. It was the first, and last, time I'd ever done that. My client was going to hang a tassel on the center point, but when the shade is closed, the tassel would lay on the window sill. So, she chose to leave it bare.

In the hallway nook, she found a floor sample panel for sale at Calico Corner's. The deal there was there was just the one and it wasn't long enough for this window. The fabric was still available so we ordered more for the bottom and enough to make another panel to match.

Since I had to add fabric to the bottom of the first panel and there was no way to hide that fact, we got the gold check and I made banding which I then sewed over the seam and since just one row would have looked odd, I did 3 rows. Once they were up, there was no way to tell that one had been added on to and the other was made to match.

As I've said several times, it is never easy to correct someone else's mistakes. Neither is it easy to copy someone else's work. It worked out here because my client understood the challenges and was willing to allow me to do what was necessary to get the desired result.

A FABULOUS GIVEAWAY

Enchanted Revelry is having an amazing giveaway. Tristan is celebrating 300+ followers, his 200th post and over 40,000 hits! Go see what all the fuss is about and be sure to leave a comment for your chance to win all the loot!

CROWNS AND CHANDELIERS, OH MY

I got two each of the chandeliers and crowns made for the Farmers Market on Sunday. These are linen and I have to say that I prefer the denim. The linen, though pretty, is a bit too slippery for my taste. I will be selling them for $45 each or 2/$80.

WHITE DUCK CLOTH SLIPCOVERS

Duck cloth is not quite as heavy as denim, but it is just as durable. This is the home of a local La Jolla artist and she liked the look of all the furniture being neutral so that her art work took center stage.

A Victorian sofa gets a new life.

Back view with buttons. Is there any other way for me to do it?

An unexpected pop of color on the back of this wing chair.

By slipcovering all pieces in a room in the same fabric, it unifies the room.

JUST TOO CUTE

I decided that the back of this slipcover was just too boring and plain, so I made these roses out of linen. (I thought the denim would be too stiff.)

I am really happy with how it turned out. This slipcover is for a metal folding chair and as it is a standard size, there is a pattern for it. I've never made a slipcover from a purchased pattern. It wasn't hard but wasn't as easy as you might think. Because I am used to actually cutting the fabric on the chair, as I am cutting, I figure out the best way to do it and know how I am going to have to sew it together. That step was eliminated here and so made it just a little challenging sewing it together.

I hemmed it higher than normal since this is my chair for the Farmers Market and I really don't want it getting filthy every week. I made the flowers to snap on and off, so I don't have to wash them along with the cover. Smart, huh?

The front looks positively plain after the cute back. I am not sure there is really anything to be done about it though. Any ideas?

This chair was my practice slipcover. I am going to be making these to sell at the Point Loma Farmers Market. I got crowns and chandeliers printed on white linen and they will be available on Sunday. I will probably post them in my Market Place, as well. Unless, of course, I sell them all on Sunday. Which could well happen, as it did last Sunday. Someone bought most of my pillows and the B&W toile slipcovered bench!

EMBELLISHED JEANS

These fabulous jeans are the work of Deb Hodge and are available here.

This is the girl version of the boyfriend jeans. Instead of being the large, over-sized, loose fitting jeans, these are a more snug fit.

(Or I need a bigger size!)

Love the jeweled sea horse!

And the jeweled scallop shell.

Lace and silk and velvet ribbon.

You will definitely have the prettiest jeans in town!