So, the dining chair cover.
SEAMSTRESSES AND OTHER PEOPLE WHO KNOW HOW TO SEW, LOOK AWAY NOW!
This is a post about my sewing. I can’t sew. Or rather, I lack the patience to sew. I never learned how to sew, but I know you should draw a pattern first, iron your fabric, transfer pattern, place pins on seams and iron those, sew while taking the pins out.
Of all the above steps, I think I did eh… wait, there’s got to be something.. Ah there! I sort of drew a sketch of a pattern and placed pins on seams! So you now know the sewing won’t be straight or even… you’re warned!
When we bought a new dining table + chairset a few years ago, (Bjurstra or Bjursta from IKEA), we were in doubt of the chairs. I first liked the darkbrown/black chairs with white covers, but later on preferred the multicoloured chairs with a lower back. My partner still preferred the black ones with the white cover. I was in doubt – we had a child, would white be wise? But then I read the covers were washable, so we went ahead and bought them. The covers are indeed washable but it’s a PITA to get them on again – off is no problem, but on? Two tore up a bit. Besides that, I didn’t get all the stains out. So I was thinking about making chaircovers.
Then me and my sister went to Ikea for someting else. I looked around in the discount corner and found these teatowels for €1,50 each – perfect to try for sewing, and the colour was good too.
One of the towels – there are two varieties, the other one has a print on the short side.
I did draw the “pattern” out a bit, but then just started sewing. First one was too tight, second one was good!
The chair on the left is as the other chair was too – with the stains and all. (Hagelslag, vlokken, chocoladepasta, spaghettisaus etc…)
See the ribbon on the other chair – it’s tied different then on next pictures, and the fabric is folding in quite a bit.
The cover didn’t hang nicely though, as I hadn’t thought it through where to attach the ribbons. You can see inthe above picture I attached them to the corner – when tying it around the leg of the chair it folds the fabric inward too much.
I did get thej loose and reattached them, this time not at the corner, but higher up so the fabric would hang straight.
Some experimenting with tying the ribbon, and voila, done! It is not perfect, but it was quite ok to make. (I still have to do the other 5, guess I’m more of a prototype person – stop after 1 result, with recommendations for the next). Oh and I didn’t need to cut into the towel! That saved me from making sure the towel wouldn’t tear up further, and trim the cut edges and sew a seam to them etc.
Looks good from the front, right? And these are much easier to take off and wash! I know the back part isn’t completely covered (see some picture up) but I hardly notice this.
Next post should be about cards again, I made a few for some challenges, and should post them soon. On that note, I won a challenge! Oh I completely forgot. I was a random winner for the WeLoveVintage challenge blog with the vintage autumn card. Do you believe in coïncidence? I think I believe in Karma.
Let me explain. A few weeks ago I decided I wanted to go ahead and start a tiny little webshop of my own, selling stamps from several designers / brands which aren’t easily available here in the Netherlands. I start really small. I still need to register at the Chamber of Commerce, which costs €50,-.
Last week I found €50,- on the street during lunchbreak – I suspected it was from one of the two ladies who had just stood there chatting on their bicycles. One was out of sight, and the other too far away to hear me. I didn’t get a good look of them. I felt bad for finding that money, as I know it can be needed much, or maybe they worked hard for it. Others said: they should have put it away properly, and not in a place where it could fall out like that. Still, I rather find €20,-. I spend some on buying treats for my new collegues (€15,-)(it was my first day at my new job/project), donated €25,- to the Ronald McDonaldhouse as my sister made much use of it and will make much use of it still. Only this morning, when I read I won at WLVC, something in my head tingled.
Why? Well, one of the effects of starting my own webshop is that I have to save up some money to buy stock first. I usually spend a large amount – or all of my monthly spare money on craftstuff – I’m bad at saving. But I really want to start that shop, so I told myself I really can’t buy anymore for a while, and if I wanted new stuff I’d just have to participate in challenges and win some. I wanted to participate in the Art Journey challenge, but didn’t have their stamps. The price for the WLVC was a sheet of stamps from Art Journey. And I won that.
So I find the fee for the Chamer of Commerce, I win a sheet of stamps I was hoping to win in order to be able to participate somewhere else too – Destiny telling me I should go ahead with that store? It sure does make me feel I made the right decision!
One other challenge for me, besides not buying crafting stuff, is to not craft but delve into the webshop software and entrepreneurship things. Once everything is up and running, it’s easy. It’s the start that is hard. I don’t expect to make a living with that shop, it mainly started because of being disappointed that some brands can’t be bought here in the Netherlands. USA, UK, Canada… It’s all overseas and can take weeks to arrive, if it arrives at all. I figured I’m not the only one with that annoyance. Instead of opening a big shop with lots of brands, I start small. I start. Get things moving. That’s it, and the most important thing.
And now, dear readers, I get my butt moving, off to bed with me as it will be a busy and early day tomorrow! night all!
DaqaDoodles 