Matching set

Not much to report this time, as a lot of the week has been taken up with things festive. But I did finish my little home furnishings project.

This pouffe came from my grandparents' house, many many years ago. I had made a basic cover for it, but that was also a long time and a couple of houses ago. Not only was it now looking very sad, but it didn't go with any of my current décor. So I used the leftovers of the chair cover fabric to make a new one.

The pouffe without any cover

It's very simple; just a wide tube elasticated at the bottom, and topped with a circle of fabric which was backed/strengthened with some more scrap cotton. I sewed a cord trim round the edge just to liven it up a bit. So now my cosy mid-century winter corner is complete.

Now I can, literally, put my feet up

It's a net-zero project as far as the stashometer is concerned, but I've added it for completeness.

Well in the red

Now I'm wondering if I can squeeze in a final stash project before the end of the year, just to bring that figure down to below 20 metres!

Home improvements

Does anyone else find that they use their home differently at different time of the year? No? Just me then. In the summer I like to sit in a big armchair in my living room next to the patio door, so that I can make the most of the light. In the winter months however that location, even though the door is double glazed, becomes a little chilly, and the light is less good as the sun doesn't rise above the neighbouring buildings. Then, I prefer to sit by the radiator at the other end of the room!

The armchair doesn't really fit in that space, so instead I use this mid-century chair which I bought absurdly cheaply at auction. Among other things, it's perfect for winter knitting - because chair arms plus long actual arms plus short torso is a messy combination!

Front view

From the side

Like most mid-century furniture it is well made and still sound, but the fabric is a bit worn and has acquired some mysterious stains, and the seat could use a little more padding. Last winter I just put a fleece throw over it. I had intended to reupholster it over the summer, but that was one of many projects which somehow just didn't happen. So as an interim solution I bought a foam pad to boost the seat, and a suitable remnant, and set about making a plain loose cover.

I've done this before, albeit over 30 years ago. Plus, I can remember watching Mum make loose covers when I was small, so I knew the basic principles. Obviously, it helped that the chair is a simple shape. I measured the various parts of the chair and cut out fabric pieces with very generous seam allowances. First I sewed the front back and the seat together, and pinned this onto the chair wrong side out so that I could pin on the base section. Once this was sewn on, I could pin on the back.

Pinning the back section on

And seen from the back

Because the back narrows slightly from the top, I had to insert a zip down one side.

Super-exciting zip shot

Once I was happy with the fit, I could trim off the excess seam allowances and neaten the edges. This gave me the basic cover.

Starting to look like a cover

Next I needed to do cut-out sections around the legs, so that the excess fabric could be pulled tight underneath. Originally I was planning to just turn the edges under, but the fabric is quite loosely woven and I felt that it needed reinforcement. So instead, I went for a dressmaking approach and added facings made from scrap cotton. (Actually a discarded toile which had in turn been made from an old bedsheet - serious recycling!)

The facing sewn on and trimmed to shape

Turned to the wrong side and sewn down

The right side (with bonus mystery stain on the chair)

And here is the completed chair.

Lacking decorative detail, but clean

And well-padded - result!

The underside does need a little work to tidy it up, but I'm very pleased with result. Plus, there's just enough of the remnant left to re-cover an old pouffe to match, which is now my next project.

Practical sewing

A new dressmaking project is on hold for a bit, while I attend to practical matters. As part of a New Year's resolution to get healthier, I have started doing online yoga classes, and a side effect of this has been the discovery that my living room is really, really cold at floor level. The cause wasn't hard to find; it turns out there is a good 1/2" gap at the bottom of the door into the kitchen, and the door into the hall isn't much better.

So, I’m making draught excluders. As with dressmaking, one big advantage of made over bought is that they can be made to measure. Another plus is that not only has this been a 'zero-buy' project, it has also used up a lot of waste fabric.

All this has now gone

Around the start of the first lockdown (March 2020, for those who have lost count), for a reason which I can't now remember, I started saving all my fabric scraps in a big bag. Possibly I was planning to make a Closet Core Patterns pouf - although given that I've already got two inherited poufs, this seems a bit unnecessary. Anyway, almost two years' worth of sewing scraps, plus any toiles which I no longer needed, went in there.

Because the door into the kitchen is a double door, I made two separate excluders so that I didn't have to move the whole thing when opening one door. (The doors open into the kitchen, and the reality is that I've quickly got used to just stepping over the excluder rather than moving it every time.) The basic excluders were made from leftover curtain lining; I made mine 8cm/3⅛" thick. The shape is shown below. I prefer the square shape to a simple tube with tapered ends, because it can be wedged in place and no draughts can sneak through the gaps at each end.

Shown without seam allowances (click to enlarge)

I folded the cut-out shape along the green diagonal line, right sides together, and sewed 'a' to 'a'. Next I sewed 'b' to 'b' and 'c' to 'c', and part way (less than halfway) along 'd' to 'd'. I repeated all this at the other end, and turned the excluder right way out through the gap in the centre of 'd'.

Then it was time to start stuffing. Because the draught excluders have corners, and because I am fussy, I decided to chop my scraps up a bit rather than just push them in. Cue an evening with wine, a favourite film on the laptop (seen here balanced on one of my poufs), and my fabric scissors.

Yes, Friday nights at Tulip Mansions really are this wild!

Once stuffed, I sewed up the openings.

The (almost) completed articles

These would be perfectly functional as they are, but I had already decided to make separate covers which can be replaced/washed as necessary. In my stash I had a length of furnishing velvet which had come in the same lot of 'mixed textiles' as my pink Viyella. Judging from the colours, it was the same era as the Viyella, as well! I actually quite liked the jaunty stripes, but couldn't imagine making anything from it - plus it was only a short piece. There was just enough to cover the three excluders (the one for the hall door isn't quite finished), with the scraps going into the bag for a future project!

The fabric actually goes with the carpet and wood

Finally, I'm aware that this blog post might not be what some readers were expecting. All last week on Instagram there was a collaboration between SewOver50 and Simplicity McCalls UK, and one of the featured sewists was - me! Specifically, me in the Holly dress, which was based on Butterick 5748. This came as a complete surprise, and I was thrilled, and very flattered (and a teensy bit embarrassed, as I'm quite a private person IRL!). But for anyone coming to my blog for more vintage dressmaking then I realise that draught excluders, even ones made from vintage fabric, may be a bit of a disappointment. Normal service will be resumed next week, but I hope that this post goes to show that being able to sew has more benefits than just making pretty dresses; fun though that undoubtedly is. I now have a warmer living room, am saving on heating, and can do my yoga without the risk of frostbite; and all it cost me was a few hours of my sewing time - result!.

Peacocks and pussycats

New Look 6643 is finished. It took a while, because I’d somehow completely messed up the centre back seam adjustment for my sway back. Fortunately there was too much fabric in the dress rather than too little, but it did mean that once I’d corrected it, my careful pattern matching at the bottom of the seam was completely lost. Ah well.

It’s an odd fabric. When looked at closely, it becomes obvious that the pattern repeats are not as frequent as I initially thought. At first glance, certain feathers appear to be repeated.

The same motifs appear both sides of the centre back seam

However at second glance, the surrounding areas are very different, and the motif placement is not quite the same.

But other parts are not remotely the same

So it’s quite possible that the pattern would not have matched after all.

Once I’d fixed the centre back seam, all that was required was the teal band at the bottom of the skirt. Because the skirt is straight at that point, the teal section could be cut out as a single piece, rather than a front and two backs. Then, because the teal fabric is much thinner than the craft cotton main fabric, I decided to make the band a double thickness, folded at the bottom edge. This also meant that there was no hem stitching to try to hide, so it was win-win.

I’m really pleased with the end result. The front neckline gaped a little bit, but a running stitch along the facing, plus careful pressing, fixed that. The wide neckline and the cap sleeve effect of the bodice give the dress a nicely balanced look. And the contrast band and neckline trim work well.

The finished dress

It was a bit tricky taking photos as the weather this weekend has been, at best, mixed. One benefit of all the (warm) rain was that it made the honeysuckle in my garden smell wonderful, so as everyone must be sick of seeing the same wall in my yard by now, I thought I’d take some pictures in a different spot. You’ll just have to imagine the honeysuckle scent!

No side seams in the bottom section

Plus, here’s a bonus, taken-very-quickly-before-it-absolutely-pelts-down, shot of view D of the same pattern, which I made a couple of years ago. Also from a craft cotton remnant. By this stage it was so dark that the flash went off, which gives the photograph a slightly weird effect.

View D of the same pattern

Finally, something which I’ve meant to post about for ages. After a very difficult time, my cat-mad friend F moved into a lovely new home a couple of months ago. I knew exactly what I wanted to make for a house-warming present, and when I went to the quilt show in Malvern I was on the lookout for some suitably feline fabric to make up into cushions.

Kitty-cat cushions

Not only did I find fabric, I found buttons as well.

With kitty-cat buttons

I must confess that I couldn’t face sewing ten buttonholes, so the buttons and contrast strip are just for show. Instead I made envelope openings on the back, using the contrast and piping fabrics.

And flowery/marbled backs

F loved them. Teddy (her own, black and white, cat) declined to comment.

Curtains, part 2

Having cut the curtain pieces out, it was time to start making them up. The first thing to do was hem both the curtain fabric and the lining. The lining had a 7cm / 2¾" double hem, and the curtain itself a 10cm / 4" hem. I machine stitched the lining hem, but blind hemmed the curtain hem by hand, leaving about 10cm of the curtain unstitched at each end.

Note: It's important, especially with a fabric like this which doesn't have an obvious right way up but does have an obvious directional pattern, to check, double-check and even triple-check that the hem is at the same end on both pieces. Ask me how I know!

Curtain and lining hemmed

It was while doing these checks that I noticed something strange in the fabric. Either by accident or design, the pattern is not printed horizontally across the fabric, but moves upwards slightly as it goes from left to right. To explain what I mean, here is a completed curtain, folded into a tube. The curtain was cut exactly on the cross grain of the fabric, and the hems are entirely even, but there is a difference in the pattern of 3cm / 1¼".

Showing the mismatch in the fabric printing

Fortunately I had cut the curtains far too long anyway, to take account of the pattern repeat, so I was able to shorten one of them at the bottom so that the pattern matches up in the centre. It does mean that I now have a definite right curtain and left curtain, though.

Once the pieces were hemmed, the next job was to sew the lining and main curtain together. I did this first along long the edges which will meet when the curtain is closed. I pinned the curtain and lining right sides together with selvedges aligned, and sewed them with my overlocker (serger), cutting off a tiny amount as I stitched. The selvedges of curtain fabric are often so tightly woven that they cause the fabric to pucker slightly; trimming off the very edge with the overlocker takes this puckering out.

The lining on the completed curtain should be slightly narrower than the curtain itself, and the fabric should wrap round to the back of the curtain, like a facing on a garment.

To work out how much lining to take off, I laid the curtains face down, side by side, stitched edges together, and adjusted the widths until the pattern matched. Then I pinned this edge, smoothed the two fabrics across to the other selvedge, and pinned and overlocked this edge.

Curtain and lining, second side, showing the excess lining width

Then I turned the curtains right way out, and pressed the sides. Finally I mitred the corners of the curtain fabric so that the edge fitted under the lining, and finished hand sewing the hem.

The completed hems, with the pattern matching at the centre

To work out the curtain length, I held one up against the track, and pinned where I would want the curtain hook to be. The hook would go in the bottom set of loops on the curtain tape, I laid the tape against the curtain, and marked 3mm / ⅛" above the top. This would be the top of the curtain. I folded down the excess and pressed along the fold, but didn't cut any fabric off at this stage.

Top of curtain, folded and pressed

I cut the curtain tape longer than the width of the curtain, and turned under the raw ends. Then I pinned the tape 3mm / ⅛" below the top edge of the curtain, and sewed along the top edge of the tape only, sewing through the tape and two layers of the curtain and lining. Once this was done, I cut off the excess curtain fabric so that the raw edge would be under the curtain tape.

I made cord pockets out of the cut off lining fabric. These are a tube of fabric with one end sewn up, then turned right way out and folded in two, with one side longer that the other. The sides are sewn to form the pocket, and the raw edge is slipped under the bottom edge of the curtain tape. When the cords of the tape are pulled up to gather it, the excess cord is then put in the pocket to keep it out of the way. I decided to put my pockets at the ends of the curtains, rather than in the centre.

Finally I sewed down one short edge of the tape, along the bottom, and up the other side. The top and bottom of the tape must always be sewn in the same direction, to prevent it from puckering.

Completed curtain top with cord pocket

Unfortunately the room itself is a very long way from complete, so here is just one curtain, ungathered, to show what it looks like. Something more exciting next week, I promise!

Ungathered curtain in position

Curtains, part 1

Do you ever find yourself wishing that you’d never started a project?

The spare bedroom is the sunniest room in this house, and Mr Tulip frequently used it as a sitting room. Most days that was where I’d find him when I got in from work, and as a result I hate to go in there now. So I decided to ring the changes a bit, and redecorate.

It all seemed so simple (which, in retrospect, is never a good sign). The walls are painted a pale green, and the lower part is covered with textured wallpaper, with a border along the top. The plan was to strip off the wallpaper and border, paint over the green, and make some new curtains. Easy.

The room, before I started

When I started I soon discovered that unlike pretty much every other room in the house, the walls are covered in lining paper. And between the lining paper and the textured wallpaper there is at least one other paper and with another border on top of it; five layers in all. Thank goodness a friend lent me a wallpaper steamer!

I was able to keep the upper section intact, but the lower section will need covering with fresh lining paper before it can be painted; and I’ve never hung wallpaper in my life. Eeek.

On the plus side, the room is now a couple of millimetres wider in each direction, plus all that steam means that my pores have never been so deeply cleaned! Oh, and that frizz-ease which I dutifully apply to my hair, despite suspecting that it doesn’t do a blind bit of good? Let’s just say that I now know that I was wrong. Very wrong.

Anyway, back to the curtains. This is one area where I do know what I’m doing. However I had thought that it would be a bit boring to post about making curtains. But then a friend asked me a few questions about curtain-making, because she couldn’t understand some of the instructions in the book she’d got, so I decided that a post might be helpful to anyone who normally sticks to dressmaking.

First of all, dimensions and fabric allowances. I am keeping the existing curtain track, but I were replacing it I’d go for something a bit longer, so that the opened curtains didn’t cover so much of the window.

The length of the track, and the length that I want the curtains to be, are as shown.

Track and curtain length

The fabric is 140cm / 55⅛” wide, excluding the plain white selvedges. Curtains should normally be at least twice the width of the window they cover, so in this case I should make each curtain out of 1½ widths of the fabric. However, as I mentioned above, the track does not extend much beyond the width of the window. Then as well as the attached lining, these curtains are going to have a separate blackout lining behind them, which will make them bulkier when pulled back. As I prefer good light to aesthetic appearance, I’m going to stick to a single width of fabric per curtain.

The curtain length should be the length that you want the finished curtain to be, plus 30cm / 11¾” for the hem and heading. So for my curtains, the length should be 175cm / 69”. If you are using a plain fabric, those are the only calculations you need to make. But my fabric has a pattern.

If you are using patterned fabric, you want the two curtains to line up and be easy on the eye, like this.

Matched

And not jarring, like this.

Mismatched

To do this you need to know the length of the pattern repeat. Lay the fabric out, and find a distinctive point in the design. Then find the repeat of that point, and measure between the two.

Measuring the pattern repeat

In my case, the distance between the tops of the dark purple leaf shapes is 63cm /24¾”.

Divide the length of the full curtain piece by the length of the repeat, and round the result up to the next whole number. For me that is 175 divided by 63, which comes to 2.78, which is rounded up to three. Therefore each curtain length needs to be three repeats long, which is 189cm / 74½“. The curtains will be shortened to the correct length during the making-up process.

If the curtains are to have a lining, cut the lining fabric to the same dimensions as the curtain lengths.

Well, that’s as much as I’m going to do now. I’m off to start filling holes in the plasterwork!

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