sleepin in style

So I have refused to turn our AC on just yet...all the windows are open to welcome a nice breeze thru the house. No worries, it only reached 85 degrees inside the past couple afternoons... I can hold strong, I know it!! You see, I am an AC snob... I usually keep the house at a comfy 71 in the summer. So delightful! But I figure, if I hold off and get used to having 80's in the house, I'll appreciate a 75-76 degree AC house...right?? Pray for me! and my family.... I fitted my clients LARGE sofa sleeper in my garage, that is west facing.. 2 days ago and I was sweating!! I mean, dripping down my face, change your shirt a few times and then shower sweating!! I survived and boy was it worth it!!

My client wanted a "shabby chic" look for her couch. She bought her white heavy twill fabric form Home Fabrics in orem and a smashing $6.50 a yard! She also wanted to combine the 2 seat and 2 back cushions into 1 long seat and 1 long back cushion so give it that casual look. I sewed them together and then wrapped those suckers in batting to even out the cushion and give it more loft. We did a ruffled skirt to chic it up. She also had me make 2 ruffle pillows to go with the couch out of the same fabric. The results are quite amazing!!! Here is the before...

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nothing too exciting! It was definitely used!! But check it out now!!!


umm...pretty great! right??? My sister in law was here when I put it all together and she said this was one of favorites that i have done!! i think she is now looking for a couch to do this to. lol! Its amazing what a difference 1 long single cushion can do to the look of a couch. I am really thinking about doing this to our "not so comfy" couch... I love it!!!

On a side note..I am starting to get really busy! So if you are wanting stuff done contact me to get on my list. Right now i have 1 spot open in June and will be starting to book for July. I have a rock star client that dropped off 2 chairs and ottomans to be slipcovered and i am dying over her fabric!! Here is a little sneak peek...


What you cant see is that this stuff is in my kids old bedroom along with 4 chairs, 2 ottomans and chaise lounge, along with fabric and random cushions... Its a kids dream to have a room full of random furniture to make forts out of... Hey. at least it keeps them busy...right?

low.ride.er

I survived my first (out of state) horse show on a my young horse this past weekend!! We managed to pull in a 70.9% on our first ride! (Its a Dressage thing...google it.) She was fantastic! You see, I am used to having a young horse that gets anxiety when left alone...like, try to climb out of his stall anxiety! I could go on and on about all things I had to go through with my last horse, but we would be here forever... My mare was a champ!! Here is too the start of what I can hope is a great show season!

As for the "coon" update... well..lets just say the problem was "taken care of" while I was away and we shall leave it like that. Thanks for all the comments and advise!

Now on to business! My client had a pair of these little lowrider chairs on casters. I love these kinds of chairs! They are soo comfy and can fit just about anywhere! Plus they have super great lines for slipcovering. When i was fitting these chairs ZZ Top kept running thru my head! "All my friends love a lowrider", plus lets be honest.. How great are their beards??? AMAZING! Anyways...Here is the before pic. I like to call this upholstery "the carpet bag". Doesn't it remind you of Mary Poppins and her magic carpet bag?

I am not gonna lie..I half expected a lamp to come out when I removed the cushions.. She chose to have them slipcovered in a nice neutral stripe fabric that she score on the clearance rack at Home Fabrics for $3 a yard! It had a hint of a rubber backing to it which is great cause it acts like velcro agains the "carpet bag" upholstery. We kept the lines of the chair giving it a modern touch. Love it! It makes me want to sit nice and low in it and cruise slow pass the kitchen and down the hall.



She also had me make a bench cushion for her out of a red tweedish fabric.

I am starting to get super busy so If you are wanting something done hit me up to get on my schedule. Right now I am booked till about the middle of June.

We've got Coons!!!

Soo...our little street on the golf course has a new neighbor.. I am not sure how I feel about it either. Normally I am a huge animal lover, but this little guy really rubs me the wrong way!! here it is.....

you may be thinking to yourself.. aww. its just soo cute! right? Wrong!!! This little guy has been hanging around our street for a few days now. It is NOT scared of dogs or humans! Even worse. a few nights ago my bestie neighbor called to tell me there was a coon. and that she chucked legos at him from the back porch to scare it and it simply picked them up and played with them.

later that night I completely forgot about it and let the dog out to go potty. We have a lab/pit mix. He is the best dog ever! After I let him out he made an appearance... OH SH#@!!! My awesome dog is out with the "critter" and who knows if its aggressive or even worse.. has rabies! He clearly was not scared of me. he walked up on to the porch and picked up bubas' toy, which of all things, is stuffed raccoon...Go figure. Once buba locked on him I panicked! I was yelling "COON COON" to my husband and yelling at buba to stay and get inside! Lucky for me, my dog listened and came in without lunging at it. they were toe to toe! So now its midnight, i am screaming at the dog, screaming at my husband to get the bb gun and the dog is going nuts inside cause he wants a piece of it!

My husband shot at it and could not tell if he got him or not, but he stayed away (for all we know..). Well today, my neighbor across the street called and said, "that coon was in my house!" Her cousins are in the process of moving in for the summer while they are away. they were bringing stuff in the house and that coon followed them right in! they had to trap it in a laundry basket and get it out! Crazy! Now its just hanging around. it has GOT to go!!!!
On an unrelated note... i just finished a chair and ottoman for on of my designer clients' client... you follow? She picked a grey corduroy to give it a more modern look from the original chair. We kept a skirt on it just to cover the more traditional feet. this fabric was awesome but a little tricky to work with. It had a dacron backing to it so it was thick! but al in all it turned out great!
Before
after...

I also made some pillows too!
Well...I am headed out to Grand Junction, CO this morning for a horse show this weekend! I am really excited! I hope the weather stays nice. Every time we have visited this "lovely" place for a show it has either been a raining muddy windy mess or we have a demolition derby and motocross going on. Not a good combo with horses... When I get home I wont have a chance to breath! I have 2 chairs and a couch to tackle...So i am going to enjoy this weekend so I can take on next week.

Reunited

Remember when we "sold" our house last summer? And then it fell thru 2 days before we got earnest $$ and 2 weeks before closing... Boo! Remember how, when we thought our house was sold we had a huge yard sale and got rid of a ton of stuff we did not want to move? And finally, remember how my good friend talked us in to buying our super comfy and awesome sectional cause, again, we though our house was sold and we did not want to move and store it? Well...here is refresher picture for you to remember what the crap I am talking about.

This wonderful beast of a couch was amazing!! It always caressed you in the perfect spot and it allowed every one to sit and enjoy it! It was simply grand! It also was the first, yes, FIRST thing I ever slipcovered! This, my friends, is where it all started!

This was a huge undertaking for a first slipcover! it took me a month to do and all I had was my Bernina. Eh boy... imagine sewing over a hundred yards of piping...kill me now!!! I had 13 cushions, which I swear, none of them where the same size and the body was in 3 pieces!! Definitely a labor of love. And oh how we loved it!! It was sad to see it go, but I knew it was going to a great home.

Lets fast forward 1 year... Luckily we had some nice couched from Z Gallery that we could use to fill the void in our lives. But they are NOT nearly as comfy as the beast! We end up on the floor half the time. Oh How we miss those down cushions. Tear... We still curse our friends names every time sit on the couch! Anyways... enough of my sob story. My friend called cause she wanted to switch up the body of the couch and add some blue to compliment the blue in the cushions. She bought 22 yards of a really pretty blue gray canvas and put me to work. It was so great to see that our couch was be loved just as much as we loved it! We gave it more of a relaxed fit cause, its a comfy couch!! Her kids play all day on it and it would drive her nuts to have to keep adjusting it all the time. So.. here it is! I love how the blue just lightens thing up and adds that pop of color!

Sorry about the messy pillows! I had them all set up and then got bombarded by 4 kids! But doesn't it look fabulous!!
Things are starting to get crazy around here so if you are wanting something slipcovered, contact me to get on my waiting list!

So fresh and so clean, clean!

My good friend contacted me because she needed some stool covers made for her spa. You may of heard of it.. Amara!! They are pretty much the bees knees. A full service salon plus super chic clothing and accessory store all wrapped up into 1 amazing box! And, right now they have a ton of fun clothes and swimwear. I would have stopped to try on a few things after I dropped everything off, but i had my tiny entourage with me. They cause the wrong kind of damage...lol! Anyways..They needed 10 stools covered for their treatment rooms (they are the NILS stool from IKEA). They had covers on them, but they just were not cutting it. Cloth covers in that atmosphere are hard to keep clean, and who wants to be removing, washing and putting on 10 covers every day??? Um...not me!

Here is one of the stools before...Not bad, but not great. And if you have been to Amara, everything IS GREAT!!! So I grabbed some samples for her to try out. She picked a out a great neutral vinyl that looks like leather but can be wiped off and cleaned easily. I did not do any piping on these stools because of how much wear they will get. Instead I topstitched the seams in white. I think they look super chic now and totally fit in with the rest of the spa!

Here is the after!

I love them!!! Right now I am working on a sectional... so stay tuned!!!

Pleats anyone??

What weighs 30 lbs, is all white and has 25 yards of 4" pleats??? These 2 slipcovers for this sleeper sofa!!! You think i am exaggerating?? No joke people! I have a super awesome client that wanted 2 slipcovers made for her FREE sleeper sofa she got from a family member. Remember cute Lindsay? Well she has had quite an "adventure" for lack of a better word since december. She emailed me wanting these slips made but needed to schedule her drop off around her chemo schedule. Say what??? Chemo? She and her family found out a few day before christmas that she had cancer. BOO!!

This subject hits close to home for me. My mom had the same fight about 5 years ago. I was pregnant with my daughter. I can still remember where I was and the conversation with my mom when she told us. She had breast cancer. Luckily she had a great team of doctors behind her. They treated her cancer super aggressive because even thou they classified it as breast cancer they could not really find the point of origin. I remember sitting at IMC with her during her chemo sessions. Trying not to go into a shock induced labor. All I can say is anyone who has to endure that is AMAZING!!! She had 8 rounds of chemo followed by 6 weeks of radiation. My mom is truly my hero. When she found out about the caner I remember what she said, like it was yesterday... "I don't have time for this!!" She never once had a "poor me" attitude. In fact she continued going to work thru it all!!! She had to go thru all of the treatments, lose her hair, have to take 40 pills a day during treatment, some for the cancer and some to counteract the many side effects of the chemo and still, deal with many other cancer "issues" and now, almost 5 years later still deal with the "aftermath" of cancer. She never once complained! She IS amazing! She has been in remission now for almost 5 years and is doing great!

So when Lindsay said "cancer", I knew what she and her family were in for. But Lindsay reminds me of my mom in a lot of ways. She is a fighter! She doesn't have time for cancer! Life doesn't just stop because you have caner. Heck, she has 5 kids a husband to take care of.. But she does have an awesome support team and that is all that is important! When she showed up to drop off her couch she looked amazing! I just love her! She is amazing and I know she is gonna kick this cancer in the butt!!

To finish off this post here is what Lindsay wanted.. 2 slipcovers for her free couch that will go in the "home teacher's" room! Love it!
Before

She went with a white denim fabric that is super for slipcovers. She ordered and washed 40 yard!! Soo much fabric!! You better believe I used every last inch too! She wanted a box pleat skirt on both...thats 54 box pleats. per slipcover.. these slipcovers turned out great(x's 2)! I made the decking functional so that they did not have to remove the entire slipcover if they ever needed to use the "hide a bed".

after

So I have been up to my ears in sewing cushions! i have had a few clients need cushions sewn for chairs and couches! i was able to squeak out 8 cushions in the past 2 days.. On top of pinning 2 couches and sewing those 4 cushions. Whew!! So here is the reveal...

The cushions on these 2 chairs were coming apart. The inserts them selves were great. Down filled and comfy!!! but the seams were coming apart. So we made some new ones with a great paisley fabric. before

after

Ill post a pic after she gets them home and in place.
Here are the other set of cushions I made..My client called because she had recovered her old couches and started the cushions....but thats where is ended.. after all that hard work she ran out of steam, and her husband did not like the combo of fabric she came up for the cushions. Dang those husbands...i dont give mine a choice! I give him options and then ask him his opinion. But i end up always going with mine in the end.. sorry honey!! so here is what she started with..

this is the after ish...

and the cushions after I redid them. She kept them solid instead of the damask on top...
They go great with the pillows she made for them!
I still have a few spots left this month, so get your act and fabric together and hit me up!!!