We were up at 5.30 a.m. this morning to get ready to go to the last car boot sale of the year. It was largely a waste of time since the items we really wanted to find homes for (the most expensive ones!) take up space as well, and they came home with us so will go into auction now. Ah well, that's the way it goes sometimes and at least we were able to pack up early and be home by lunchtime, and we found a couple of odds and ends which were useful to us. My husband pounced on a spike which is driven into the inglenook to hold a crane and an idle-back, and an old blacksmith-made cast iron hinge. I blew a pound on a 1929 copy of "Housecraft, Principles and Practice" which was once owned by A. Eluned Jarvis of West Hampstead . . . who added various notes in the margins, so I imagine she must have been doing a course in something similar. Oh and £2 on a heavy wool full-length cardigan/coat for eldest daughter who swears she has ice in her veins!So now I have several hours I didn't expect to have, so it looks as if the ironing will be beckoning now! Although I could get started on my next upholstery project:
It's a tad saggy-bottomed, and I shall have to very carefully wash the Berlin-work seat before re-applying it. I need to test a little out-of-sight bit with soapy water first, to make sure the colours don't run . . .Here are the two things I've just re-covered:
The revolving piano stool with solid oak base.
A pretty little bedroom/nursing chair which was originally quite a mess. The pattern on the original material was once deep emerald green and a fuschia pink so in its heyday it would have been so pretty.
Stripped back to basics for a new cover.
The pretty colours had bleached to a rather hideous khaki/mustard . . .I find as I get back into the swing of things again, I am remembering the "how to" once more, though I'd never done a back-rest like on the little chair above, so that was a bit fiddly. I have my husband's sprawling comfortable Victorian armchair to do a.s.a.p. though and THAT will be a different kettle of fish altogether . . .
Lovely neat work! You were lucky the underneath was in good condition, so you did not have to re-uphoster the nursing chair, just recover it.You must be very pleased with your handiwork. Kath
ReplyDeleteThanks Kath - I was VERY pleased that I could just put new material on. The chair with the needlepoint seat which I've just stripped down today is a start-from-scratch jobby, but it's for our eldest daughter, so I don't feel I have a sword of damocles hanging over me as I work. It's been so long since I went to classes, it's nearly as bad as starting all over again.
ReplyDeleteJust looking at these again and admiring your tidy work. I can do the simple sort of chair seat that lifts out, once decided to make a loose cover for a wing-back sofa--what a horror that turned out to be--good thing the fabric was only $1 per yard!
ReplyDeleteI do like to see old pieces refurbished and used--dignity restored.