Saturday, December 29, 2012

I am BACK!

Well, its time to dust off the old blog...while i have enjoyed the last 6 weeks off playing with my kids and working on the basement I am happy to get back into my routine! The basement is almost done!! we just need to tile and carpet and finish some touch ups... I painted the cement floor in my sewing room and cant wait to show you the finished product! I just have to put the sealer down, have my cutting table made and boom! I'll feel normal again!
But just cause I had some time "off" does not mean I could not stay away from working. a little... I helped my sister-in-law with a pretty awesome couch she scored for $100!! She got a fun black and white print fabric for the re-do. the couch is a 3 piece sectional that curves. The 2 ends are the same and then the middle is curved and tufted. Take a look... I just have to put the backs on. I gave her homework..(my machines are under plastic and dust...) she is working on the cushions. I wish i had a before pic, but use your imagination. It was brown wood with gold velvet fabric.... so these pics are just a teaser...


there are 2 of these that mirror each other

this is the middle that has a curve and has black button tufting.
I cant wait to get it finished!!

I also redid a few chairs for christmas gifts this year. One for my grandma and one for my mom. Remember these bad boys?

I was originally going to keep them for myself... which I kind of wish that i did because they are all gone now. Boo!! but look how great they turned out. this blue floral one is for my grandma. My mom picked out the fabric and we left the wood alone.

she just loved it! and for my mom.. I painted the chair black and went with a cream geometric fabric.

Its amazing what paint and awesome fabric can do!!! Well, all my projects over the break were upholstery ones because my sewing machines were under plastic and dust..otherwise they would have gotten some slipcovered goodies instead.
Anyways, I hope that my 2 reader's Christmas was fantastic, I know we had a great one and check back next week, cause Ill be back in business!! Have a great New Year!

oh.. and for those of you I had to bump over my "break" Ill be contacting you next week to get you on the schedule. Thanks for being soo awesome!!!

Thursday, November 29, 2012

What happens in Vegas may end up in your living room...

I apologize to my 3 readers for the lack of posts. We are in the middle of finishing our basement and I have no "sweat shop" to work in at the moment. Its killing me!! Luckily I have the coolest clients ever who understand. Thank you!!! But i am super excited about getting a new work space once this is all finished.

I am happy to report that all my Christmas decor is up and i am now prepping for my son's 6th birthday on saturday. He is soo excited!

I do have some order of business to discuss...I randomly met this guy who owns UC Liquidators in Orem who wanted to enlist my slipcover skills to redo furniture that comes thru his store! He makes deals with Vegas hotels to get their furniture when they re-do their rooms. Now when i say hotels, i am not talking about the sketchy motel 8 off the strip... i am talking about the Venetian, The Wynn and other big named hotels! And when I say, they swap out furniture, its not one or 2 chairs, its EVERY SINGLE ROOM in the hotel with EVERY piece of furniture in the room!!! In the next while he'll be getting in a ton of great furniture. Here is just a little snippet of what he had when i stopped in. Here is one of the chairs and foot stools that came out of one of the hotels:

You can pick up these babies at $30 a pop!! These chairs would look so great in a new fresh and modern looking slipcover. He also had these cool foot stools:

Pretty cool huh. I think he said these were like $8 or $10! Its all gaudy fabrics that could use an attitude adjustment. But what I am most excited about are these bad boys I snagged for $10!!
I cant wait to rip these apart and make them fabulous!! They came out of an auction house and he's got about 10 more... I am super excited about it because its another source to find furniture to slipcover or redo for cheap!!

Also, my January is just about booked, so let me know if you are wanting to get on my list for February! I am itching to get stitching again!!!

Monday, November 19, 2012

Aloha!

So i am dusting off the blog...I think I have finally recovered from our trip to Hawaii. We had such a great time! We did absolutely nothing and it was marvelous! We basically rotated from beach to pool all week long. We stopped at Akaka Falls and roamed around Hilo for the day to get out of the sun. It was soo much fun and the kids had a blast!! Get ready for a picture overload....

and our reaction to being home...

BOO!!! But thanks to mom and dad for an awesome Christmas Gift! We had a blast!!! Now on to business...

An old friend form high school contacted me a while back and had a couch that needed some help and of course I was game to help! They had this couch that was made for slipcovers, but was "naked" for lack of a better word.. They wanted it to look upholstered, they were not big fans of slipcovers, hence the reason for the "naked" couch, but i knew I could change their minds! I actually had the slipcover finished before we left on our trip but scheduling conflicts made it hard to deliver. But alas, the couch became clothed today and it looks fabulous!!!
Here is the before...

Just a sad mess! They picked a great white upholstery fabric that had great texture> They are gonna love me when something spills on that couch because now they can just remove the slip and have it dry cleaned! We stuck to the clean lines of the couch and omitted the skirt. I love it when a client is happy with the result, even if it was not what they were expecting!! I just love the practicality of a slipcover!!

The fabric was beautiful and super great to work with. I love how it turned out! i have a few more projects left to tackle before my holiday break! In the mean time we are knee deep in finishing the basement! We are mudding, taping, texturing this week and hopefully painting this weekend. And when I say "we", I mean the contractor of course! LOL! we are soo excited! Hopefully i'll have a new and CLEAN studio before Christmas...
Also, I have a few spots open in January so let me know if you want on my list!! And yes, I am aware that I used an excessive amount of exclamation points in this post. I am just happy to be back to the norm, plus we watched Seinfeld last night...

Monday, October 29, 2012

Large Marge!

I love repeat clients. Especially when those repeat clients know the drill! She texted me and said, I have a chair that needs to be slipcovered and I have my fabric. you tell me when and where. Done! I can always squeeze people in when they are ready to go. And because we are heading out of town on saturday I did her chair over the weekend! Here is the before:

She was a beast! Large Marge was definitely in charge! She had 2 different kinds of fabric, just in case she was short. It was pretty similar. you really would not notice the difference unless you were comparing the two close and side by side. Luckily we had enough for the big pieces and then did the piping out of the extra fabric.
After

Now Large Marge is looking spiffy in her new wear! As for today...I am out doing fittings so that i can hopefully finish off the weeks work by wednesday. That way I can focus on packing for Paradise for a whole 8 days!!!

Sunday, October 28, 2012

And the winner is....

I want to say thanks to those who left comments for the give away! You guys are the bomb! I had my 3 year old draw the winner and the luck gal is..... Amy Jones!! Congrats! Stay tuned next week for a few more posts. I am on the mad dash to finish things up before we head out to Paradise for a 8 days!!!

Just a side note. I am feeling a little generous so this is what I am scheming. Once I get 100 followers on my blog I am going to be giving away FREE LABOR on a slipcover for a chair! So go tell your friends to follow my blog so we can get this great give away going! FREE People..FREE!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Paisley, please..

So this client came to me by referral from another client, who enjoys a good paisley fabric as well. She had just moved to utah a few weeks ago and I kid you not, these chairs were fresh off the moving truck! She got her fabric at Hancock's and paid a mere $4 a yard! Sales people!! Sales! I just scored some sweet fabric from Joanns that was normally $30 a yard, but right now all home decore fabric is 50% off plus I overheard one of the girls at the cut counter tell a girl about an addition 20% off total purchase, so of course I jumped on that! So I got 16 yards of fabric that would on a normal day cost me $480 for $195!! major score!! Don't be afraid to ask the gals about additional coupons!! it pays to be nosey... Anyway.. back to the point! She had a pair of green wing back chairs. they have seen much batter days, but thats fine. Just how I like them. Used and abused!


Boring, but great bones! Well after a little tender love and care these bad boys will continue on in life looking perdy in paisley! She is planning on painting the cool claw foot legs in black. um...yes!


It was hard to get a good shot of the actual color of the fabric. But it was cool. It had some black, grey and blues in there that you'd never expect. Much better than the hunter green!

Also you only have 2 days left to enter into my give away! and right now you have basically a 1 in 4 chance of winning something... check out this post for the deets.

Tomorrow I am starting a chair, fitting a couch and attempting to finish insulating the basement! Thats right, i am done waiting for my true love to do, so I am on it!

Saturday, October 20, 2012

GIVE AWAY

Its finally "that" time!! I first just want to show you a few things I finished up around the house.
Item #1 curtains in the master-

I love how it finishes off the room!
Item #2 kids head board

I still need to hang some pictures, but at least they have a headboard now...
Item #3 the barstools. Did I mention that my 3 year old has single handedly destroyed 3 of the 4 barstools we had? Boo! before:

Just your typical IKEA barstool. But not after I got ahold of them!

I love them! and the best part is I can throw them in the wash if my little mutts get them dirty!

Now down to the nitty gritty! Its a kind of a 2-fer give away...For those of you that are "local" I am doing a 15% off my labor pricing!! So what does "local" mean? Well i am in Orem, so how ever close or far you are willing to drive to bring me your item to be slipcovered. For those of you who may be out of state i am going to be giving you a pair of 26x26 pillow covers in this fabric:

So my dear readers, what you must do is leave me a comment with your email address and why you need either the discounted labor or the pillow covers. I will be picking my winners 1 week from today! Good luck, and for you blog-stalkers, now is a good time to make your presence known...Just saying!

oh and don't forget to like the sewing nerd on Facebook. So go. Now!

Friday, October 19, 2012

Linen lovin

So Lindy, my client hit the "Linen Lottery"! Remember this darling barely pink linen slipcover? Well she brought me another chair to do in grey linen. I am lovin this linen she has found! Its quite fabulous if you ask me!! I want to purchase some for me. it could get dangerous around here.... anyways, here is the before. It was a simple redo, 2 cushions and the seat of the chair.


Now check it out after some "Linen lovin"... amazing!



I used the left over batting from her last chair to fluff up the back cushion and to get rid of the tufting indents. It looks fab! I love the combo of the linen and lighter wood. It gives it a restoration hardware feel, which is "soo hot" right now!

On another note, check back tomorrow for my give away! I'll be posting about it and I think you are gonna enjoy it, especially if you are local... and I finally got the kids headboard done, my bedroom curtains made and my barstools redone!! I can't wait to just relax this weekend...

oh, one more little ditty.. i am trying to decide on some fabric for curtains in our family room and kitchen area and I am having a hard time deciding, so I'd love to hear your thoughts on my picks. The paint color in our house is killing me! (We did not build it or pick it out and I have been living with it for 4 years now..) We have rounded corners, the ceiling and walls are 1 color and we have walnut base boards. Too hard to do drastic painting (for me anyway..) but it makes a great canvas for pops of color!! I am wanting something loud and bright for the curtains, just incase you are doubting my choices...
#1 Richloom Kathranne Garden

#2 Richloom Lucy Eden

#3Robert Allen Grasslands

thoughts please....