Winging it: A White Slipcover With a Twist

I finished my thrift store wing chair slipcover!

I can't tell you what a feeling of accomplishment this is. I have read books and blogs

on how to make a slipcover for a wing chair but just never started.  It's pretty scary

but once I started it went pretty quickly.

I started with a pretty ugly thrift store chair.  Originally I was going to try my hand

at upholstery but quickly changed my mind and opted to try a slipcover, instead.

When you have four cats who love to lounge on anything upholstered it makes more sense

to slip instead of permanent upholstery.  The chair was poorly recovered in the pink/green floral which my husband quickly removed.

Since the fabric was dark I covered it in cheap muslin so it wouldn't

show through the slipcover.

With a staple air gun and two people working, this was a quick job.

Already the chair looks better.

I traveled to Singapore last month and was lucky to find some great, cheap fabrics there. This is a 60" wide white cotton with a linen texture to it.  It was $4.10 a meter!  Couldn't go wrong with this!  I started making my slipcover by draping the fabric over the chair, pinning and cutting.  Here you see the fold in the back which

will be the button/velcro opening.

Here is the back piece pinned to front pieces. 

more fitting and pinning pieces.

  After pinning most of the pieces I added the piping into the seams then basted them together with embroidery cotton. It really held the pieces together more securely than pins and gave me a good sewing guide.

more basting

  

  basted gathers at the arm. 

 

I sewed the main pieces together and made a muslin cushion cover

to hold the feathers I had to add to it.

I then made a made a ruffle and more piping to edge it with.

For the back I made burlap piping and burlap

covered buttons to match. 

Actually, I tried to make burlap covered

buttons but they were too flimsy and it didn't work. I went to

my local upholsterer who made them for me for 50 cents apiece. Can't beat that!

The do-it-yourself buttons were $2.79 for THREE and they just collapsed when I 

tried to cover them in burlap.

I couldn't be happier with how this turned out and how much I learned doing it.

My new Burlap "Paris" Pillow that I made looks pretty good on it!

  

Oliver can't wait to get on it!  It's his favorite chair.

Care to join me for tea?

Victoria Magazine: The Early Days

Victoria Magazine 1990

Rose Vine Covered English Cottage

I was chatting with a fellow blogger

Michella Marie

today about the Victoria magazine of the late 1980s and  1990s.  If you haven't visited Michella, you owe it to yourself to take a look at her beautiful style.  I'm sure we'll see lots more great things from her. Victoria folded in 2004 and was then republished beginning in 2007.  I had no idea it was back on the stands!  Shows you how often I go magazine shopping.

 Remember all of the dreamy whites?

the lace and hydrangeas?

the architectural salvage

who could forget all the lace?

and silk and satin?

  of course the roses...

the lavender

the silver

the ephemera

the wicker

Victorian influenced jewelery

never too much white!

I subscribed to this magazine for several years (20 years ago!) and waited each month

for the latest issue to devour.  Maybe I'll have to go pick up a new issue!

xox

Nancy

From Another Viewpoint

A view from my house

Last week I had a visitor from out of state...an old friend I hadn't seen in 28 years!  We used to work together as flight attendants...back when flying was still fun.  Phyllis took some photos and just sent them to me. It's interesting to see what caught her eye. 

The road less traveled?  My driveway.

My attempt at a "white village" in Spain.  Too bad you can't see all that is actually blooming here now.

   

A "little" visitor we had one morning!

  What would a trip to California be without a short drive to the coast?

Thanks for the great photos, Phyllis.  It was good to see you!

Linked to:

A Southern Day Dreamer 

Architectural Salvage: Make Some, Buy Some

My living room/dining room is one big, boring rectangle with no architectural interest whatsoever. When remodeling this room recently we thought about putting in some columns with shelves but that just wouldn't work as it would have cramped the living room.  The next best thing would be to have the "illusion" that the two rooms were separated without losing the views from both sides or losing precious space.  That's when I started looking for a pair of antique corbels.

I won bought a pair on eBay. Couldn't live without them.  You know how that goes!  I wanted to hang them between the two rooms.  But normally corbels are attached to a beam.

Beam?  What Beam?

 
Not a problem when you have a junk heap corporation yard like we do.
There's some nice aged redwood in there.  Just enough for a beam! 

We made a trial beam.  Thumbs up!

Gerry and my husband (The Professor) building the beam.

Supports are up.

Beam is up.  Time to nail it in place.

  Oops.  Poor baby. Not a good thing to hammer your finger instead of the beam :(

I love my new beam!

Once that finger isn't so sore we'll put the corbels up.

For now the corbels look nice on the sideboard.  Can you see the beam in the mirror?

Linked to:

Simply Designing The Shabby NestBetween Naps on the Porch It's so Very Cheri Tip Junkie 

Crates: Tins, Trivets and a Planter

I have always loved old crates and wooden boxes.  This one was in my laundry

room for years and has now been upgraded to a place in our breakfast room. It sits in 

a sunny corner and makes me smile everytime I look at it.

The colors on this starch crate are very vivid and the corner fingerjointing is a nice detail.  Isn't

it amazing how much work went into one box of starch?

Don't you love the picture of the washer women?

My "Apple Crate"

This crate I found in my mother's barn.  I call it my "apple crate" but it obviously wasn't built for produce.  It was built with square nails and it has hinges (on the right side) indicating it once had a lid. It was probably  hung horizontally. It has a double letter tray (on the bottom right side). Maybe a home built wall unit that hung above a desk? I use it to store my tin collection and trivets.

Some tins are old and some are not.

Even a tin from an airline I worked for many years ago!

Perfect place for my trivets on the side

My favorite corner of my breakfast room!