Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Fabric

I've been sewing since I was a child, so I LOVE fabric.  I have met many women with this ailment, and there is no cure.  "She who dies with the most fabric wins!" 

The dinette cushions were looking a little worn - again the front part of them was pale blue!  Looking for replacement fabric, I checked out my favorite stores, but nothing had that right Retro-vation look.  So, I chanced going online, and found this beauty: 
You always risk the unexpected when you order online, but this turned out to be a nice heavy weight upholstery fabric which I hope will hold up for several years. 

Re-using zippers and cushions, the final result looks like the photo below. The wrinkles are in the original cushions, and give it a little
give without stretching the fabric.  I know it is wild and crazy and not for everyone - just for us wild and crazy types.








Of course we didn't stop there with fabric.  We needed new curtains.  I tried to be a little more subdued with these.  For the "great room", I choose this pretty blue pattern (below).  I bought the tool to put the snaps on so they would be firmly anchored.   And we re-installed the existing sliding rails - both top and bottom - but only ran them over the actual windows (no coffin curtains!).

The store where I purchased this fabric did not have enough for the bedroom curtains also, so it was back to the Internet.  This fabric is slightly heavier that I would have liked, but it is quite visually stunning.

The curtains have Roman Shade type folds instead of the pleats that were in the original curtains.  That means they can fold back into a smaller space.  Instead of the Velcro on the inside fold of the middle edges, they just overlap in the middle. 

A matching duvet cover completes the bedroom fabrics.



The final fabric was for the chairs. The couch was gone, the leather chairs were in our living room, and we coveted some Ikea chairs but they weren't in the budget. So, we settled for plastic Adirondack chairs from Lowes with new cushions.  They have a couple advantages.  Unexpectedly, they are lower than the old chairs, so there is more headroom.  Also, they weigh nothing, and thus any movement during travel won’t cause problems.  And, finally, we can easily take them outside – once we figure out the best way to get them through the door.  This is an interesting fabric from a local store, and is quite soft and comfy!