With all the cleaning that has been going on I'd washed the cushion covers in my sitting room, to reduce the odour'd'dog that permeates any ones house that has such a creature lurking around. In so washing them, a couple of them ripped..... so that's what my project would be, shopping, making and then enjoying my labours.
So Thursday found me pouring over fabric, I knew what sort of fabric I wanted, just not what colour. Decision made home I went home jiggity jog......
This has meant that yesterday and today I've almost done nothing else except make cushions by hand. I don't have a sewing machine, and even if I did I wouldn't use it. My memories of Mrs Taylor trying to teach me to use one at school still bring me out in a cold sweat. I was utterly useless at sewing, in fact I was so bad, that back in the day, our school exams were GCSEs and CSEs. The CSEs were for not so bright kids, and if you got grade 1 it was equivalent to a GCSE. In needlework I got grade 5!!!! And you really couldn't get any more stupid than that. In fact I probably got grade 5 cause I showed up, rather than any awful work I did.
What is strange though is the dress I attempted to make, had a skirt to it that is still a firm favourite with me. I love skirts that are fitted on the waist and then the panels flair out, so there is a lot of material in the skirt for twirling in.
But I did learn to sew by hand courtesy of my Mum. And nowadays it's a skill that I'm proud of. One of the things about having a mastectomy, is that I don't generally like the special underwear available, so I buy a lot of the same bra in different colours when I visit America and go to Victoria's Secret, cause they are pretty and do the job of covering me up properly. Then I sew with extremely tiny stitches a pocket on the back so my prosthesis can go in.The material I use is part of an old and soft bed sheet in lilac, which I think if you've got to have a pocket, is as good as it gets.
So placing the fabric out on the floor, Trix decided several times to help by sitting in the middle of it. Unfortunately there is no pic of this cause all it did was make me cross. But she continued to want to help so sat either on the cushions piled on the floor awaiting sewing or on top of my feet whilst I sewed.
The cushions I've made have come in three sorts, deep dark purple corduroy as in the little ones here on my antique Lloyd Loom chair. This is where I sit to have breakfast in the conservatory window. And probably all other meals if I'm alone as it is a good place to sit. And allows me to concentrate on eating and enjoying my food rather than mindlessly sitting in front of the box.
Purple corduroy and lilac silk compliment my Grandmothers garden chairs, that never go in the garden anymore! They are fragile and I live in dread of the bottoms splitting, so the cushions take up so much space that no one will think of sitting on them!!!
And finally to my Great Grandmothers sofa, that when I was a child lived in my Grandma's house in the nursery. Apparently my Dad used to do his courting on it, and it is only luck that I wasn't conceived on it!!! I've owned this sofa now for thirty years. Every move I ever made it's come along. I've had it recovered twice, it really needs doing again, but I don't have a spare £1000 to spend on getting it sorted. So instead it now has a collection of sea green and lilac silk cushions. All of which are placed just so. Problem is it all looks so beautiful in my eyes, will I be able to bring myself to sit on it and make a mess of the cushions!!!!!
So now I've finished being a domestic goddess I've got to get back to being nursemaid, Alex has returned with a tattoo and flu!!! One I can help with and the other just makes me sigh!
All of which means that I'll be eating my roast beef all my myself in amongst my new cushions as he languishes upstairs and I can enjoy looking at them whilst tucking in. As he's not eating, so there's food to spare if you can get round here by 3pm.
