What is it with me and Home Improvement Projects?
I haven't even finished the GhettoCase and I already moved on to another project. Somehow my brain has been the recipient of some delusional messages that make me think I have Martha Stewart capabilities =-(. Definitely not the case. Although I have grand ideas, if I was in the artist world next to the likes of Van Gogh or Da Vinci, I would be the one visualizing the same brilliance (well, similar anyways), and then having it come out looking like a bad stick figure on paper. The GhettoCase wasn't even the first time I had this problem. A few months ago I decided to sew a dress, and mistakenly thought that when the word "EASY" was boldly stated on the pattern, that it actually would be simple. Definitely was not the case, but I did an extended rant on that at another site.
However, even with the knowledge that I am a mere doodler in the land of fine artists, I get the smashing idea to do something, and I never get the memo saying it will take a trillion times longer than I imagine. Nor do I receive the memo that informs me that when all is said and done, I will be frustrated beyond belief before I'm even finished =-(. And that is why I decided to proceed willingly into the land of chair reupholstering. Well, just the cover part, and just going over what was already there. Okay, so it's not reupholstering at all, but it's still a helluva lot of work!! I got this chair at the thrift store (same one as the GhettoCase, but a different day) for six bucks. Groovy price, but it was kinda carpety cushiony, so my first order of business was to buy some carpet cleaner. I drenched the damn thing and it took forever to dry. BUT, you just never know where that chair lived before you or what kind of life it lead! Anyways, the carpet cleaner didn't really get out what I hope was just a coffee stain, so I decided to listen to someone's suggestion and cover the thing with a different fabric. Cool - that won't be too hard, I thought. Ya. Once again, I was wrong. At first I was going to sew it on, but that wasn't going to work, so I listened to the advice of my Pop and decided to pin it. I had bought this cool fleece-like Vegas fabric at the fabric store, and bought some pins while I was there. Luckily I am a cheap skate and returned them the next day when I realized that whereas I had bought 200 pins for $2.50 at the Fabric Store, I could get a thousand for a buck at the Dollar Store =-). Little did I realize how important the amount would be.
I decided to start this project, that I knew would be a little daunting, at around 9:30 p.m. As the hours ticked away I exhausted the offerings on On Demand (a couple of shows, a couple of Comedy Specials, even the 11 O'Clock news is on On Demand here!). I finally went to real TV and found that at 3 a.m. there's sure a lot of paid programming. Since I didn't want to watch "Worship Videos" I ultimately ended up on some public access government channel. Weird. But I didn't want to watch a movie and be tempted to stop working. I finally called it quits for the night at 4 a.m. AND I WASN'T EVEN FINISHED!!!!!!! Seriously.
I must have used a few hundred pins as I carefully positioned and pulled the fabric for hours and hours. And I learned only too late that instead of going front, left, back, right, I should have gone front, left or right, back. Because I failed to do that, I ended up with a pooch I just couldn't get perfect. Not that any of this is perfect. But there's a part towards the front that is full of its own little ugliness. Ho hum. AND THAT WAS JUST THE BOTTOM!!!! I don't know if I have the heart to do the rest tonight, especially since I first have to finish the GhettoCase.
But even with the spot of ugliness it does look pretty darn cool with the new fabric. A friend of mine showed me a chair her mom had reupholstered and it looked amazing. I knew I would never be capable of that, but I didn't realize her mom was a magician either. Anyways, even though I used my thimble at times (yes, I have a thimble =-p), my "push finger" is sore. Martha Stewart would probably kick me in the head with her Ankle-Monitoring-Bracelet if she saw the bad name I'm giving to home improvement projects. Sorry Martha.
However, even with the knowledge that I am a mere doodler in the land of fine artists, I get the smashing idea to do something, and I never get the memo saying it will take a trillion times longer than I imagine. Nor do I receive the memo that informs me that when all is said and done, I will be frustrated beyond belief before I'm even finished =-(. And that is why I decided to proceed willingly into the land of chair reupholstering. Well, just the cover part, and just going over what was already there. Okay, so it's not reupholstering at all, but it's still a helluva lot of work!! I got this chair at the thrift store (same one as the GhettoCase, but a different day) for six bucks. Groovy price, but it was kinda carpety cushiony, so my first order of business was to buy some carpet cleaner. I drenched the damn thing and it took forever to dry. BUT, you just never know where that chair lived before you or what kind of life it lead! Anyways, the carpet cleaner didn't really get out what I hope was just a coffee stain, so I decided to listen to someone's suggestion and cover the thing with a different fabric. Cool - that won't be too hard, I thought. Ya. Once again, I was wrong. At first I was going to sew it on, but that wasn't going to work, so I listened to the advice of my Pop and decided to pin it. I had bought this cool fleece-like Vegas fabric at the fabric store, and bought some pins while I was there. Luckily I am a cheap skate and returned them the next day when I realized that whereas I had bought 200 pins for $2.50 at the Fabric Store, I could get a thousand for a buck at the Dollar Store =-). Little did I realize how important the amount would be.
I decided to start this project, that I knew would be a little daunting, at around 9:30 p.m. As the hours ticked away I exhausted the offerings on On Demand (a couple of shows, a couple of Comedy Specials, even the 11 O'Clock news is on On Demand here!). I finally went to real TV and found that at 3 a.m. there's sure a lot of paid programming. Since I didn't want to watch "Worship Videos" I ultimately ended up on some public access government channel. Weird. But I didn't want to watch a movie and be tempted to stop working. I finally called it quits for the night at 4 a.m. AND I WASN'T EVEN FINISHED!!!!!!! Seriously.
I must have used a few hundred pins as I carefully positioned and pulled the fabric for hours and hours. And I learned only too late that instead of going front, left, back, right, I should have gone front, left or right, back. Because I failed to do that, I ended up with a pooch I just couldn't get perfect. Not that any of this is perfect. But there's a part towards the front that is full of its own little ugliness. Ho hum. AND THAT WAS JUST THE BOTTOM!!!! I don't know if I have the heart to do the rest tonight, especially since I first have to finish the GhettoCase.
But even with the spot of ugliness it does look pretty darn cool with the new fabric. A friend of mine showed me a chair her mom had reupholstered and it looked amazing. I knew I would never be capable of that, but I didn't realize her mom was a magician either. Anyways, even though I used my thimble at times (yes, I have a thimble =-p), my "push finger" is sore. Martha Stewart would probably kick me in the head with her Ankle-Monitoring-Bracelet if she saw the bad name I'm giving to home improvement projects. Sorry Martha.
posted by The Shababbler at 12:41 PM
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