The Atelier and The Chair

Well, I accomplished two things over the last day or so.  Over the weekend I had purchased a six-foot long Ikea table-top and legs and another shelf unit. I moved the table so it makes an L with the table that I already had. That gives me a huge work-space, so I can cut fabrics, lay things out, photograph items for the Etsy shop, and really spread out. I need to work on the lighting situation for that room. There’s a ghastly center ceiling light, but I need more task lighting over the long table. I do have an old steel pendant lamp, which would really illuminate the space. I just have to figure out how to hang it. I also have a new chair (thanks Suzy!) for the workroom, but it just hasn’t made it upstairs yet. Since the floors and the house are so old, this room slopes downhill a bit, and I’ve almost missed the wheeled chair a few times as it’s rolled away! It’s a clear Louis Ghost Chair, and it will be perfect for the space! I tucked the second set of shelves onto the corner, and it fits perfectly. Things are kind of junked on there right now, until I get it into better order. I had to move a couple of the embroidery hoops to make room.

I finally finished the chair this evening. I am not wild about it, but it will do for now… you know, not Mr. Right, but Mr. Right Now!  I made a shorter skirt with box pleats at each of the front corners. I didn’t have enough fabric to do it at the back corners, and since it’s open at the back, it was a bit busy. The fabric needs to relax a little, and hopefully with time, it will! I like the legs painted cream rather than the dark brown that they were before. The hardest thing was matching up the print on each section of the chair and the skirt!

Here’s the chair in situ, along with the citrine silk curtains I hung in the guest room, and the ancient kilim rug. Not that you can tell, but the walls in the guest room are the same pale blue as the first floor in my house.

Two more things to cross off my even expanding list! Whew!

I’m Recovering…

…a chair, that is! I have a very comfortable arm chair, which is a bit sun-faded, so I thought I’d take things one step further from my recovered sofa and ottomen, and slipcover an arm-chair. What’s so challenging is that I picked a geometric print linen from Victoria Hagen’s collection. The print is Twilight Rhythm in indigo and periwinkle. Because of the pattern, I have to be especially careful about matching the lines.  I started pinning and cutting, with everything inside out. After I did that, I basted it all together to make sure it fit properly. I need to work on the front of the arms to make sure they look tailored, and then I need to decide a couple more things: should I paint the chair’s legs white or cream or leave them dark, and should I make the skirt more tailored than the last few pieces I’ve done, which have had box pleats or semi-ruffles. I thought about doing inverted pleats on the corners and in the center front. I would love your input!

In case you’re wondering what is on the walls, I found a number of embroidery hoops and then cut fabric to fit them, and then hung them on the wall in my workroom. I can swap out the fabrics when I get sick of them, or if I find a piece I especially love.

A Clothesline, at Last!

Before I moved to Wales, I had a tiny (10x15) back yard, that was part garden and part cement. But there was just enough room for a clothesline, which I loved! At my house in Pigtown, with its 12x12 back yard of 100% cement, and no sunlight, I wasn’t able to put up a clothesline because there was no place to anchor it on either end. When I wrote about clotheslines here, the post elicited a lot of responses. When I was looking at my new house, I noticed that there were the old iron T-bars at either end of the back garden for a clothesline. I was so excited to see that, and couldn’t wait to start using it.  I even bought some great wooden clothes pegs in anticipation. Today, a partly cloudy day, was the day I started with the clothesline. I washed some 100% cotton sheets and hung them out to dry. After about an hour, I checked to see whether they were dry, and they were. It would have taken about the same amount of time in the tumble drier, but it only used the sun and the breeze for drying. I don’t think it’s appropriate, especially where I live surrounded by neighbours, to hang everything out to dry. But sheets, towels, and linens are perfect.

I also have a little hanger with clothespins that I got at Muji in NYC last year. It’s very handy for hanging linen napkins. Click the image for the link.Do you have a clothesline?

Floors and Zebras

I finally picked up my camera this afternoon and got the pictures of the floors in their “before” state. I think that once they’re sanded and stained, they will look great. I am pretty sure that they’re the original 1900-era floors because of the shrinkage of the wood.

This is the guest room floor. This is the workroom/office floor.  Looks like someone was dragging furniture around!This is my bedroom floor. This floor is much darker than the other two floors.  Funnily, I think that all of the floors are different woods.

I took a break from meetings, signing more papers and packing to go to the Second Annual Trunk Show at McLain-Wiesand.  David’s staff used fabrics from the vendors - Donghia, Hines, Thibaut, Scalamandre, Schumacher and Zoffany – to make some fabulous fashions and put on a little fashion show (more when I get some pictures!).

One of the vendors, Scalamandre, had the MOST incredible tote bags, and I am giving one away to one of my readers. The bag has their iconic Zebra print and is made of a sturdy plastic/canvas material. Click the link for the story of the Zebra print. It’s a bright lipstick red and has classic black and white zebra print sides.   And you also get a great Scalamandre tape measure! Just leave a comment mentioning your favourite Scalamandre print, and we’ll choose the winner on Monday, May 30th.

Horses & Hermès

It’s Preakness Week here in Baltimore and the excitement is building. Animal Kingdom, the winner of the 2011 Kentucky Derby is a Maryland horse, stabled at the famed Fair Hill Equestrian Complex in northeast Maryland.

But the horse I am going to have my money on is Astrology, owned by my brother’s friend, George Bolton, who is Maryland born and bred.In fact, he grew up on his family’s farm about five miles up the road from the historic Pimlico Racecourse, where the Preakness is raced. George’s horse, Curlin, won the Preakness in 2007 and there was much celebration in our family. Here’s George and Bob Baffert congratulating one of Stonestreet Stables’ jockeys.George has been a partner with Jess Jackson, of the Kendall-Jackson wineries, who died earlier this spring. But the racing will go on with Jackson’s widow, with whom George is partnering in ownership of Astrology. George’s parents are two of my style idols, and his mother is always the most elegant woman in the room… 

Which is a perfect segue into Hermès… How about these kicks? Can you even imagine using one of your vintage Hermès scarves, or actually, three of your Hermès scarves, to make some Vans kicks? I think they’re amazing! Hmmmm… I do have an Hermès scarf that got nail polish all over it and I could use that… This is the second pair, which are brilliant! There is a third pair, but I think they’re not as good-looking, so you’ll have to go here and find them for yourself!

Wishing you all the luck in the world on Saturday, George!!!

Please Don’t Chop the Pillows!

I was recently looking at some images from a design house and noticed that every single pillow in the room was karate chopped to within an inch of its life! All you could see were pointy little ends sticking straight up – just like a flock herd of rabbits! It looked so funny and totally ridiculous. Of course, if you feel the need to chop your pillows, please follow this tutorial on e-how, and make sure you do it the right way.

Chop Chop!

Finished!

Whew! I finally finished the slipcover for my sofa this afternoon. It was a much more daunting endeavour than I thought it would be! The sofa measures 78 inches long and 38 inches deep, so there’s a lot to cover!I ended up making a knife pleat sort of ruffle, because I just couldn’t figure out how to figure out how many box pleats I’d need to make a center pleat and then ones on each corner.

For the back, I overlapped two flaps and will put old mother-of-pearl buttons along the seam. I think that will give it a nice finish.

Connor the stoner!

I swapped out the back pillows for some new down ones, and they seem to be working well.Although this was a lot of work – about 25+ hours total – I am glad I did it, because now I know that I can!

P.S. Don’t forget to check out what’s on offer over at Atelier Pigtown! I’ve added a link on the right sidebar so you can check out what’s new at the shop.

Knitted Pictures

I ran across these amazing pieces on The Guardian, and was so impressed by the talent of the group, The Materialistics. Starting with a Coat for a Boat last year, they scaled down a bit and knit copies of some famous paintings.

A very timely image, Hokusai: The Great Wave, with the original here, and the knitted copy here.

Edvard Munch’s The Scream: Van Gogh’s Sunflowers: As a some-time knitter, I really appreciate the effort that went into these works!

This and That

I’ve just posted information about April Food Day 2011 on the April Food Day blog. There is a copy of the 2011 logo, and a link to the donations page at Feeding America. I will be posting a links list on the April Food Day site so that you can add your post about the event. Connor’s favourite “baby” is a little stuffed pig with no arms, called Army. Connor has pulled all of the stuffing out of its head now, so I had to buy him a new one today. Of course, all this is a round-about way of saying I’ve finished the arms of the slipcover (and one of the three back pillows). The newest version of Army has gone on both of our walks with us this evening, and I anticipate it will be sleeping close to Connor tonight. Here’s the other arm, sans Army. I think I am going to make a pleated skirt, but can’t figure if I just want a few box pleats or a lot of knife pleats. I’ve also figured out that I am going to have to put a zipper down the back of the sofa so I can get the slipcover on and off with some ease.

Slipcover: A Setback

It is interesting making this slipcover for several reasons: First, my sofa is huge, more than 70 inches long, so the amount of fabric I am hefting around is massive. Second, who knew that there were so many bends and curves in such a seemingly straight-lined sofa? Third, I love figuring out how to do this without a pattern and am delighted when it works.

Connor’s already making himself at home on the new cushion covers. The interesting thing about this sofa, is that the covers on the cushions were removable, but the three pillow covers were not. So when I removed the three covers, luckily, I found that the pillows were encased in a light muslin cover. Unfortunately, when I tried to remove a little of the original fabric from the sofa, all I found was padding. No muslin.Even more unfortunately, you could see the pattern of the sofa through the fabric I am using. I had to go buy a bunch of muslin to line the sofa. Since my sewing skills aren’t too good, I decided to bond the muslin to the sofa with a heat n’bond type material. It worked really well, although it took hours. I did the back and front and the arms. In the image above, the slipcover fabric is just draped over the back.

The stupidest thing is that I know I could go out and buy a new sofa with a new cover, but I am already in for a penny on this one! It’s a good exercise in learning a new skill.

Slipcovers

My sofa needs to be slipcovered or re-upholstered. Much to my dismay, Connor loves to sleep on it, and while I am gone during the day, it’s his haven. Additionally, the pattern is dated and I wanted something I could take off and chuck in the laundry with a lot of bleach.After checking around, and realizing how incredibly expensive it would be, and how long it would take, I decided that I would make the slipcover for my sofa. It was a moment of complete insanity, fuelled by watching some videos on-line and reading a local blogger’s EZ instructions for making one. I mean, if Pam can do it, so can I! The first thing I did was head over to see my friends at DeBois Textiles, and check out what they had on hand. I already had an image in my mind, put there by Joni at Cote de Texas, who is the world’s leading proponent of white slipcovers, preferably in linen.  I have sewn with linen many times before, and find it to be difficult to work with, and at my amateur level, I need all of the simplicity I can possibly get.

As I poked around in the nether regions of DeBois, I happened upon the perfect fabric for the sofa. It’s a pale cream colour and is a nice weight cotton. To make it a little more interesting than just plain fabric, it’s got a diamond pattern woven into it.  The wonderful people at DeBois were kind enough to make a gift of the fabric and I appreciate it tremendously! The pattern’s small enough that I don’t have to worry about matching repeats and lining up edges.

After a lot of pondering and thinking, I realized that the first thing I needed to do was to make about a mile of cording or piping for the pillows and the edges of the sofa. I bought 20 yards of cord, but soon realized that that wouldn’t be nearly enough. I am sure I need at least double that amount. Actually, the first thing I did was have the fabric laundered in a commercial washer. It had to be cut in half to fit into the machine, and having it washed and dried before I start cutting and sewing ensures that it won’t shrink the first time I wash it. Next up, measuring the two T-cushions and the three pillows along the back! Stay tuned.

De-accessioning

Yep, it’s that time again. I am de-accessioning. I love that word… dee-ak-sesh-uhn - to sell from a collection, especially with a view to acquiring funds for the purchase of other works. Hmmm. Sounds exactly like what I am doing.Even though I’ve only lived in my house for a few short years, it’s filled with things I’ve collected, but no longer want or need. So, over the next four or five weeks, I am going to be adding a lot of things to my Etsy shop. There will be great bargains on books, china, silver, french ivory cutlery, fabrics, pillows and a lot more! Let me know if there’s anything you’ve seen in my posts that you’re interested in. Let’s make a deal!