Doggies Everywhere

My "Puff Chair"

I like the comfort of my "Puff Chair".  It is very comfortable.  But, after about two years I get tired of the fabric and the fabric gets tired of me (it shows wear).   Now here is the hard part, finding the right fabric to cover the original cushions.  I bought this fabric several years ago, I bought about two other fabrics for the same purpose also.  I bought fabric for my future "re-fabricing". Then I brought it home and spread it on the chair and leave it there for about a day.  Fortunately I get to purchase these choices at FIDM because each choice has to be 3 yards of 60" wide fabric.  It gets to be pricey if I purchased anywhere else.

This is the fabric that won the contest.  It is a cotton with a diagonal thread running through every 1/4".  It doesn't hold a wrinkle and is very comfortable.  The other fabrics will go to GoodWill.  It is hard to hold onto a large bulk of fabric.

I sewed the new fabric onto the original cushion cover.  I also put an additional piece of foam into to two parts of the chair.


I made the foot stool first.  I made it first to see if I liked the finished looks.  I did enjoy how it looked and then tackled the chair.

Making the cover is a small job compared to stuffing the cushion into the cover.  The last time I did this it took me about 1 hour to stuff the foam into the cushion.  I was sweating and calling to the sewing gods to help me.  I won a favor because when I made a workout cushion for a friend, the man at the shop told me of a trick.  I asked him for a tip and he told me to cover the foam in a plastic bag.  Well, I used the large garbage bag and the cushions went in so much faster.


P.S.  The cats took ownership of the chair before I could even try it out!

The Challenge of an Apron

Who would have thought that an apron could be so hard to make?  I didn't when a friend said that she would like me to make her an apron.  I thought, hey, a couple of hours at the most.  This woman likes her kitchen decorated with fruit.  So, I asked her if she wanted the apron with fruit.  Of course, she said yes. I was not going out to look for fruit fabric.  What was the likelihood of finding this "fruit" fabric except by chance.  I went to my favorite store, ebay!  I found lots of fabric and this looked especially wonderful.  When I received the fabric I was very pleased, it was just what I wanted.  I was going to give it to her for Christmas.  But she is a "big bosomed" lady and I did not really know how to compensate for this.  The first time I tried it on her I found that it looked horrible.  It took me a while to get the idea for tucks in the front but now it looks lovely on her.  I was just going to take the bib off of it and give it to her with the waist band.  Now she is very happy with her "company" apron.

Positive Re-Inforcement

This is going to be used to hold treats for dog training.  I used a Blue Ribbon and took it completely apart and used the pieces.  I made it to go on belt. 
Positive reinforcement is a new way of dog training.  Training use to require that a strong forceful voice would reprimand the poor dog.  Now, when the dog just indicates that he is behaving correctly and he is given a treat.  The dog learns much faster and now every one is on better terms with each other.
The doggie bags that are available in the catalogs are very boring and since I like to improve on the "ugly", I did this.    But I did think that every one who might want me to make one for them will want Blue Ribbons.  And yet there are so many other beautiful colors, but with Dog Training, there is only BLUE.

Revue and Renew Viewpoints

When I made this purse I had the concept of wearing a fancy purse on one's waist.  That way dancing would be worry free.  There would be no clutching a purse in your hand or leaving at the table (if anyone would do that) or leaving your purse with a friend.  I spent a lot of time on the internet trying to find the right belt.  I was never pleased with the belts that I found.  By the time that I received the first acceptable belt, it was a cotton belt.  I had four other belts sitting on my desk.  Well,  after the purse was in another hands (I should say waist?), I became very dissatisfied with the purse and started the process of finding a belt that would please me.
Now, I am pleased.  The belt is a Lizard Skin belt and the light glancing off the belt picks up the light glancing off the Green Malachite and African Jade.
It is now a cohesive whole in my mind.
I just thought I would share this.

The Afghan Lives On

I was completely charmed by the felted afghan that I found a  thrift store.  I was so charmed that I couldn't stop myself from using it again.  This is the second purse that I have made of it.  The body of the purse is a leather mini skirt that I found at FIDM about three years ago.  The mini skirt was made of pieces of leather. I find that the patched pattern of the leather gives a more dynamic feel to the purse.
I made this little change purse for the purse.  The ribbon on the leather is GrosGrain.  I haven't decide whether to attach the change purse to the inside of the main purse.  
When I was a child, I remember my grandmother had a purse with a chain holding a little change purse.  I  would watch her pull this little purse out and it seemed so perfect.
I lined the purse with the beautiful orange satin that I lined the other purse with and made the orange robe.  The orange satin seems like the cup that never empties.

Lady Gaga of LA

Here is Lady Gaga of LA.  Lucy and I went to see my Darling Niece.  Annie and Lucy are good friends and they love to play.  They were playing Lady Gaga, each one switching off the blonde wig.  I was so amazed by Lucy.  She just fell into the "mode" of being Lady Gaga.  
My Darling Niece took the picture and I finally decided that the world needed to see the new talent.