A Totally Self-Serving Tuesday

At some point during our recent move I lost the charger for the battery to my camera and therefore had to use Kyle's camera to document my goings on.  But then he got tired of me misplacing using his camera and I was forced to seek alternative photo options.

But good news! I found my camera battery charger, (which was actually not lost at at all, I just was too lazy to look for it) and I used it to take self-gratifying photos of things I've been doing.  So here is where I gloat a little about the things that have made me ever so happy-slash-busy the last month or two. (Consider yourselves warned)

Um, I've been working on this little clutch for Anna The Great for a few weeks here and there and I finally finished it!  Glory!  How I do love those fabrics...

Anna The Great sent me the tutorial from here and was brave enough to let me whip it up for her!  It's the first handbag sort of thing I've ever made and I have to say, I kinda wanted to keep it for myself.  But I didn't, because I'm nice like that.

Behold the kitchen!  You know, the kitchen I painted "all by myself."  (But okay so Kyle helped me).  Quite honestly, it is a little more "baby blue" and a lot less "aqua" than I had wanted, but I'm getting over it. I rearranged some of our household accessories and now I pretty much love it.

I relocated this print from K2 Imaging to the kitchen.

And this one too.  I like the added red. 

Probably the best part about painting the kitchen blue is now Kyle is almost equally as excited as I am to paint our cabinets white!  And then there will need to be something done about those laminate countertops...

Have you been wondering lately about The Chair?  Well, here he is in all his reupholstered glory!  Not too shabby, if I must say so myself (and I really must).

Just a reminder, this is what he was before.  Ew.

And now! 

(Insert public applause and bow of gratitude)  (This is, after all, a totally self-serving Tuesday)

Ahh, and remember the lamp I won on ebay??  I finally found a shade for her at a garage sale (for one dollar!).  Now she lives by my bedside.  I love my milk glass lamp, really I do.  And that mirrored thing behind it?  That will soon be painted white.

I firmly believe that anything ugly or kind-of-ugly can become very much attractive when painted white.  But don't you think?

An Upholstered Update of Sorts

How do you get your husband excited about your sewing projects?

Make a huge mess in the family room.

And by excited I mean a visible display of joy that a project is finally completed.

Or in my case, close to completed.

Enter: The Chair

And here is where I tell you that over the course of several hours, perhaps days even, I disassembled the entire cushion cover I had previously made and cut a new one. 

(My Bachelor's Degree in Apparel Design & Construction may just as well be in DEconstruction) 

(As in, I could have majored in seam-ripping, if that was an option) 

So the new cushion more closely follows the pattern of the original orange cushion and was
THE BIGGEST pain to construct.  Seriously.

So now the cushion is done. 
(Except for the one slightly bulgy corner that I may never decide to fix)

And I settled on no tufting for the back.

And then I ran out of staples.

So I couldn't finish the back.

But I will.

Very soon.

All in all, The Chair looks practically usable (although I recommend not leaning back as you will fall through the frame) and therefore he is on display in our family room until further notice.

Give me one more weekend and I might just have this thing finished.

And then on to another project...

Like the $2 chair I picked up at the D.I. on Saturday!  I am rather excited about this new chair project because it doesn't have an upholstered back.  In fact, I will not need to sew one piece of it.  Just cut and staple!

I know, you are just as excited as I am.  It's okay to show it.

In Which Pride Is Oozing From My Fingertips

Ok ok ok so just as I was about to feel lazy about The Chair, I found THIS:

http://nh.craigslist.org/fuo/1730929949.html

IT'S MY CHAIR!!  Only it's someone else's.  But it's the same.  I found it reading this article on Apartment Therapy.  

So basically my gleeful pride is oozing from my fingertips because of two things:

1.  My chair is famous.  You know, since it's on craigslist and all and was in some way featured on Apartment Therapy.  Famous, I tell you!

2.  The writer of this article not only liked, but purchased "my" chair for $195 a pair! 

(But after further consideration, it doesn't actually say that they purchased them...  regardless, I know they wanted to) (How could they not?) 

Okay so to put it in perspective for you, this is much like the feeling of pride you have when someone tells you that your boyfriend/husband/lover-person is hot.  It's like a virtual pat on the back and a "good choice!" from a fellow lover of nice things.  You follow?  Only my chair is a family heirloom of sorts and I have stood by him while many thought him to be ugly and dated.  Let this be a lesson to you all: stand by your chair... er, man.

Stand by your [chair]
Give him two arms to cling to
And something warm to come to
When nights are cold and lonely

Well said, Tammy.  Well said. 

The Chair: Part Deux

So you wanted to see pictures of The Chair?  Here you go:

The Chair minus its guts, prior to painting.

After one coat of primer, 1.25 cans of black spray paint and two coats of clear gloss.

On the subject of spray paint, I much prefer the cans of Krylon to the Valspar.  The nozzles on the Valspar paint I used were so hard to squeeze that I had to use two hands and every tiny muscle in my fingers are still sore.  Krylon, you win.

I thought making the cushion cover would be the easiest part.  Wrong!  I spent three episodes of That 70s Show just making the continuous bias strip to cover the welting.  One Reese Witherspoon movie later, I had finally attached the welting to the entirety of the cushion only to find out that the cushion I made was a bit too big for the foam pad.  *sigh*  I attempted to stuff in more foam hoping to just fill it out, but now the cushion is too big for the chair.  SO.  This week I will be removing a layer of welting and adjusting the size of the cover so I can get it just-so.  Can anyone say migraine?

I would have the back of the chair done, but I realized that it is quite necessary to tuft it.  So after I fix the cushion, I will be giving myself a tufting lesson via Google.

All in all I'm quite happy with how it's turning out.  But ask me again after this week is over.

fin.

Of Genes, Chairs, and New Best Friends

photo by me

 Somewhere in my DNA I have been programmed to believe I can and should do everything on my own.  (stubborn, maybe?)  Thanks to the internet wonder Google, I've come to think I can do-it-myself through just about anything. (Thanks Google!) Everything from homemade ganache to reupholstering furniture. 

Ah, yes.  The chair.

 

Have you not heard enough about the chair yet?  No?  Okay.  We can talk some more about the chair.

The chair who's bits and pieces are scattered all over the family room (yes I have a sewing room but how can I focus my creative energy without the TV in the background?). 

The chair for which I bought exactly 3 yards too much fabric. 

The chair which once seemed so cheap and easy to reupholster myself but is turning into a why-didn't-I-just-pay-someone-else-to-do-this-for-me experience. 

But it's all about the experience though, isn't it? 

And all those things I've learned along the way? 

And the girlish squeal that escaped my lips whilst gallivanting through the fabric store? 

Yes, that's what it's all about.

It's also about the Kyle reminding me three times in a one hour period to be sure there are no leftover chair staples hiding in the carpet.  To which I respond, "Duh!  I'm not an idiot."  And then a few minutes later I kneel on a staple.

It's also about the sense of personal satisfaction and internal roaring of feminine power that one experiences when one successfully sews a 40 year-old zipper into a new seat cushion.  And let me tell you, it is beautiful.  One of my proudest moments, I might add.

At any rate, my house may be in shambles, my laundry neglected, and my husband hungry, but by golly I'm going to finish this chair, so help me!
(But does anyone ever say "by golly" anymore?) 

image

On a somewhat unrelated note, I had the happiest dream last night that I was remodeling an old house with Claire, you know the blonde from Modern Family?  (I love her TV house)  We were the best of friends and she shopped with me as I scored a few dozen vintage tablecloths at my favorite local thrift store.  After all, what are dreams good for if you can't dream about thrifting with your best friend TV star?

A Grinning Wife

The best thing ever happened: I finally made it to Home Fabrics before they closed for the night.

However, I had just 30 minutes of shopping time and therefore ran from bolt to bolt looking for that certain something for my Handsome Chair.  I'm pretty sure I rearranged half the store before I left.  I kept picking up a bolt of fabric I'd decided on and then leaving it next to another bolt that was seemingly better.  And then back to the first.  And then another.  I finally settled on a blue and white chevron weave for $6.99 a yard!!  Can you believe it?? 

Okay so I realize that not everyone is as nuts about fabric as I am, but seriously, let me just tell you that a similar fabric at Jo-Ann's would've cost me AT LEAST $19.99 a yard.  Can you imagine my gleeful excitement?  It was pretty intense.  I also picked up a staple gun (finally) and returned home, a grinning wife. 

Kyle was happy for me, but I could tell he didn't fully appreciate the good fortune of my fabric find.  When I asked him (for the third time) if he liked it he explained, "It's good.  I mean, fabric is either crappy or good, and it is good."

So... he likes it?

I decided to forego fixing dinner and changing out of my work clothes for some work on the Handsome Chair.  I recovered the seat and called it a night.  I then had nightmares of running out of fabric and having to piece mismatching fabrics together to finish the chair. 

I think I have a problem.

Handsome Chair

I have been saying for years about how I'm going to reupholster the old orange chair. 

Sometime during American Idol I decided to just check out the underneath parts of the chair to see just how it's put together.  Two hours later I had completely dismantled the upholstery, removed approximately 872 staples, and blistered two-fifths of my fingers. 

I would've kept going but it was getting dark outside on the patio and Parenthood was on.  I'll be sanding him tonight.  He really is a rather handsome chair. 

During the ripping-out-of-the-staples part I learned to love my needlenose pliers.  They are so much better for ripping out staples than regular pliers.  I probably could've spared myself a few blisters had I called Kyle from the patio much sooner to bring me the needlenoses. 

I was so excited about my handsome chair that I couldn't fall asleep.  Dancing around my mind were images of all the endless possibilities for his new life: Black frame?  Brown?  A crazy mustard yellow?  (Perhaps not, Kyle hates mustard) 

And what of the cushions?  A low-pile velvet?  Damask?  Linen?  How could I ever choose?!? 

I think I may have found my calling in life because I am loving this chair more than ever. 

Kyle things I just like to destroy things.  He is probably right.