Palette Cleansing Project

There have been three main topics of conversation so far this year and I'm tired of them all. Our house has sold and we've moved. Dealing with my health was stressful and it's done. The renovations are mostly complete with a few things left to do and I'm ignoring them. Enough is enough. It's time to move on to something different. We'll be living here for a while and those things will settle out eventually.

In the interest of minimizing what needs to be stored, I'm making an effort to use what I have. This denim fabric is in that less than flattering Mom shade of blue jean. I had intended to over-dye and stamp and embellish it into a fabric suitable for creative wearables except that when faced with whether to store it or not, it suddenly seemed the perfect fabric for new cushion covers for the front porch chairs.

I've covered cushions for these chairs before so the pattern had already been developed and pretested making cushions the perfect palette cleansing project to move me from not sewing at all to sewing more creatively. We hope.

When we had the couches recovered, I saved the original foam and had it trimmed to shape. It's 4" thick which is over double the thickness of the previous cushions. The jury is still out as to whether that's a good idea or not BUT... it certainly saved me both the cost of new foam and the storage space for these pieces. There are two more cut and ready for the wicker chairs on the back porch.

Along with the foam, I rescued the zippers from the couch cushions as well but the fabric was trashed. If it hadn't frayed and pilled so badly, we'd have kept the couches a few more years. Oh well.

The denim was stretch. In retrospect, that's not a good idea for cushions. Even though I took a larger seam allowance in an effort to work with the stretch factor, the top stitching bagged out the fabric further. It drives me crazy so these covers are not going to last long HOWEVER....

... for now... the cushions are covered, the chairs are comfy, and we can curl up with our books and enjoy the sunshine... when it arrives. Good and enough. I'll recover the cushions again when I have more time. Right now, I'm deciding what to use for the back porch cushions. Maybe I'll recycle a quilt.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - that I've learned to think outside the box, see beyond the obvious, and re-purpose what's useful.