I recently finished a loveseat over at Studio Juno. Working in Leah’s studio was fantastic, since it is airy and has beautiful views of our neighborhood. The loveseat was a sweet yellow before the reupholstery, but parts were faded and the buttons were torn and rusted. Also, like many pieces older than 30 years, the [...]
Before:
I recently visited family for three weeks and during that time I worked on some slipper chairs for a friend. These two were in bad shape when I got hold of them, with one of the springs coming out of the bottom of one and constant dust and degrading batting falling through the torn cambric [...]
This has been a busy two months. Almost on the brink of too busy, it’s starting to lighten up. One of the projects that has been falling to the wayside amid all the paying gigs, time sensitive matters, and day to day necessities is my couch.
Here it was before I started.
It was poorly manufactured and [...]
Satin stitch has to be my favorite embroidery technique. Of course, it takes up the most floss and the most time, but I think the returns warrant the extra effort and supplies.
As I promised here, I would show you a thrifty project soon. I’m using one of the $1 pillow cases and “coloring in” the [...]
I was recently commissioned to make 13 table runners for a wedding coming up soon. Each 13 inch wide, 7-foot runner will go on a 5-foot round table, so it will drape 1 foot over each side.
Here are three draped over my banister.
The print is so pretty, she could probably get away with not having [...]
I know there are about a million tutorials out there about these little round fabric wonders, but I thought I’d put in my two cents too.
Making yo-yos, like all sewing skills, takes practice to get it down and get your own feel for it. But here are some starting points. First, you don’t need anything [...]
I have finally finished the bouquet for my friend’s wedding, with its flowers and experiments seen here and here. I am so excited for her to receive it (not to mention the wedding itself)!
Here is the bouquet partially finished, so you can see the architecture of the stems (which are wire coat hangers wrapped in [...]
Although the true goal of this week is to finish any works in progress, i.e. ones that have been started already, this skirt has been started in my head since January. I bought the fabrics in New York City; it was $1/yard for the solid orange I used as the lining and $2/yard for the [...]
A client commissioned me to reupholster and refinish the legs on this ottoman and chair set. I only sanded and repainted the legs, now knowing that the qualities of wood underneath the “stain” or paint from the manufacturer may be extremely difficult to restain (see here for the lesson I learned on that subject).
Here are [...]
Continuing with the row house doll carrier started here.
Once the walls were all connected, I sewed the “floor” on, so now the shape was like a bucket. Here’s a picture of the whole thing inside-out and upside-down (which is pretty much how you sew it).
Even though I started out with the felt matching the calico [...]