Spot the difference

Before

After

I’ve been meaning to do this for ages. Every time I posted a photograph of something on the dress form, I winced slightly at the messy, door-infested backdrop. So, a few weeks ago I got a pole put up, and now have a curtain to provide a suitable neutral background to my creations.

Normally when I make curtains, I make them far fuller than this. However because the main purpose of this one is as a backdrop, I didn’t want it heavily pleated. Plus, most of the time it will be pulled back while I’m working, and I didn’t want a bulky curtain taking up a lot of space.

I did add a lining however, I just couldn’t bring myself to omit it! I used a thin cotton instead of normal curtain lining, so it looks neat on the back and adds a bit of body, but not too much.

The curtain opened, it tucks away nicely

Backdrop curtain done, I turned my attention to the rest of the room. The chair I use for my overlocker table had a red/pink seat which was totally out of synch with the colour scheme of the rest of the room.

The original chair

This chair is one I acquired when my parents replaced their old dining suite. When I unscrewed the seat and turned it over, I discovered that Mum had already recovered the seat at least once, because I recognized the black fabric covering the raw edges. It was cut from a dress that I had made in the 1980s; a Vogue pattern with two deep inverted pleats down the front, a tie belt, and a large, square collar - Mum always referred to it as my "gymslip dress"!

Fabric blast from the past!

I had found the perfect remnant in my local fabric shop, and prepared to get busy with the staple gun. I had to be careful with the initial positioning, to get the stripes running straight front to back, but after that it was straightforward.

The transformed chair

The chair is just a little too low, so is padded out with a couple of cushions, also red/pink. I had hoped to make new covers for them as well this weekend, but ran out of time.

Cushions - a future project