Back in the 1980's, I loved the Victorian Era style of decorating. The dusty rose and cream colours, the curved legs of the furniture, the rich dark wood, the floral tapestry fabric, and the lacy, frilly accents. I believe it came from my intense love of all things British at that time: British pop music, British fashion, the British Royal Family, British history, British television programmes, and British afternoon tea. (And, British spelling, in case you hadn't noticed!) I read Victoria and Royalty Monthly magazines every month, and had planned on decorating my whole apartment like an English country estate. I picked up some floral hatboxes, a large tapestry featuring a hunting scene with two matching pillows, and a few other hunting/English-inspired accessories from Lerner, where I was working at the time, and eventually purchased my first piece of Victorian-style furniture: this lovely dusty rose ottoman. (Trust me, at one time it really was lovely!)

Eventually, the ottoman became more of a coffee table than a footstool, which lead to spills, stains on the top, and scratches on the legs. Even more eventually, my tastes changed, and I was no longer interested in the frilly, fancy Victorian furniture and decor (although I do still have the hatboxes and tapestries, because they actually go really well with my mom's living room furniture).

Personally, I'm into modern, now, in case you're interested, and today's "modern" is really 1970's modern, which I guess really makes it "retro", and . . . oh, whatever! The point is, I don't care for Victorian anymore, so I was more than ready to either get rid of, or fix up the old, pink ottoman. My mom has been itching to upholster it with new fabric, and so the quest for the perfect fabric began.

It wasn't easy! We really wanted a tapestry type of fabric, preferably something with books, or a library theme, since she's a former librarian, and already had two pillows and a throw that had an old fashion bookcase theme. We looked in all the fabric stores in the area, and didn't find anything we liked, or could afford! After coming up empty everywhere we went, we decided we'd just pick something and go with it, just to get the project done. Finally, several months ago, mom and I found The Perfect Fabric at a very unlikely place: Wal-mart. Yes. Wal-mart. It was the perfect style, the perfect colours, and best of all, the perfect price! No one was more surprised (or delighted) than I!

Sickness and the busy holiday season postponed our little craft project until this weekend, and we were both very excited to get started. The first thing was to decide whether to upholster the ottoman, or just make a slip cover. I was all for the slipcover, even though it involved sewing, which I haven't done in many, many years! Still, it seemed to be the easiest option, so we dug out my sewing machine, and spent a bit of time trying to remember how to use the darn thing! I was happily surprised that it pretty much came right back to me, although I did have to refer to the instruction manual to figure out how to thread the machine and get the bobbin in!

Once we got the machine set up, I tried a swatch of the fabric to see if I would need a stronger needle. Since it was a tapestry-style fabric, I thought it would be too thick and tough for a regular needle, but though it looks like a heavy fabric, it really isn't, and I had no problem stitching the hem and the seams.

The whole project took us about four hours, and the final product looks fantastic!

Today, mom made a slip cover for the seat cushion on the bench, and it came out great, too! You can see how perfectly this fabric went with the stuff we already had! It was definitely meant to be!

Cheers,
Hez

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Escape

Reading: You've Got to Read This ed. by Ron Hansen.

Classic Book: Animal Farm by George Orwell.

Listening to: Klife radio.

Writing: Mostly writing exercises, notes, and just trying to come up with something original for class.

Gratitude: The end of the week.

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