Thursday, February 28, 2013

Wrist Strap Bag

I have been recycling.  This is the result.  I took a pair of jeans that were permanently damaged.  Here is the bag.

wrist strap, burgundy, brown,leather tooling, leather strap

I am pretty pleased with it.  I used this tutorial at My Spare Time for the recessed zipper.  It went quickly and was pretty easy.

recycled jeans, bag, wrist strap, hand tooled leather

Then I added some quilting around the top edge instead of machine sewing.  I thought the seams were too thick for that.

If you remember I blogged about the wrist strap that Alex made for me.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Slip Covers DONE

Yeah, me.  I am happy to report that with lots of encouragement from my dear sister - ok, she's in Texas and not actually here (so I couldn't actually see the finger wagging) - I have finished. Taa daa.


gold, slip cover, recovering,
I was right tho, the carcass cover was by far the hardest.  But I think worth the effort.

gold, slip cover, reupholster, recover, redo
As you can see it works great as my prime reading spot.  This is the first time I have done the cover with the wooden legs exposed.  My poor old Henredon couch is now showing its ankles....

Monday, February 25, 2013

More Slip Covers

Are you sick of hearing about this project??  I nearly am.  I'm down to the worst part.  That is covering the carcass of the couch itself.  It never seems to go that well... But here is the start...

napped gold fabric, couch, slip covers, patterns

First cutting all the pieces, making sure the nap runs the right way on both sides.

These old cut up sheets make a wonderful pattern.  I made them probably 20 years ago by just pinning the sheet on the original upholstery and marking it up with a sharpy marker.  My husband and I were reminiscing last night about the different colours this couch has been.  We think this is the 5th time I have done this.

Oh, well, should be done soon.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

More House Row Along

Still finishing up my row of houses for the Bee in My Bonnet Row along.



Just sewing the small sashes between the houses.


 

Another row done. Yeah!

Saturday, February 23, 2013

More Slip Cover Progress

The slip covers for my old couch are coming along.  The gold fabric is the new slip cover the plaid is the old.

Gold, yellow, piping, cushion, cover, slip cover

Looks good, huh?  The fabric is the nicest I have used for slip covering.  Mostly I use a woven cotton but this is more than 50 percent poly and its bonded.  Super easy.  Doesn't slip around and yet it has give - so far in all the right places.  Very forgiving.  Just the way I like it.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Austin, Texas

We just got home from a short trip to see our son in Texas.  What fun.  He knew all the best places to eat (and drink ) there and we spent lots of time catching up.

silver, bugs, leaves, cut-outs, covers

I saw these lovely covers for some kind of electric boxes along the sidewalk.  How wonderful.

And here's a pic of me beside an inspiring guitar.

guitar, rainbow colours, painted, Austin

Inspiring both in a colour/design way and a let's-dig-out-mine-and-strum-a-bit way.

Monday, February 18, 2013

I see a small bag in my future

A friend made me this lovely tooled wrist strap.  I can hardly wait to make a bag to go with it.  Alex did a lovely job.  Anyone interested in procuring a strap similar to this can leave me a comment and I will hook you up with Alex.


I took the pic with my wool wristers.  I just made up the pattern for them as I went along.  They are wool so nice and toasty.

Friday, February 15, 2013

More Couch Slip Covers

Then you need 5-6 metres of zipper...

These are much harder to do than they sound.  I had to strong arm the boys into using their, ahem, strong arms to remove enough teeth to get a zipper pull going...


But worth the effort I think.  One cushion covered = more to come.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Recovering my Couch

I bought this wonderful couch many years ago, and I still love it so I am trying to make a new slip cover (again- this will be round 4 I think)

To begin you make 30 metres of piping....


Then you start cutting up the cover fabric.  Every time I see that old sheet I used as a pattern I am taken back to the just married days.



Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Mittens for me

I finally got around to making something for me.  These are made with Royal Alpaca yarn from Gina Brown's.  The yarn was pricey but the mitts are really great.  So soft.  I use them as liners for my leather mitts.  Great for driving. (I still don't see why cars don't come with heated steering wheels as well as heated seats....)