Needlepoint Repair: Family Crest

Technorati Tags: needlework repair,needlepoint repair,needlepoint family crest,needlework doctor

My client had a small, framed needlepoint family crest that he wanted repaired. When I received it, I could tell that there had been some damage over the years from heat or sun—the two usual culprits. Much of the wool on the front of the piece had become sparse, especially where the piece folded over at the edges for framing:

The background was a dark green. I happened to have a good-sized hank of the color. Still had to purchase another hank, plus use yet another that I owned. It took a LOT of stitching all over the background to get it to looking full again. Plus, I wanted to fill in well on the edges, in case the client wanted to frame a slightly larger amount of it:

Before shots, family crest VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Once I had the background filled in, however, I was able to return the jocket atop the crest to its original color and also to reinforce all the other crest details with new matching threads. The only thing I didn’t touch was the red, as I didn’t have that color and could not find it. The color was still vibrant and in good shape, too. Here is the finished product:

and here are some other shots of finished work:

       

Things I made over Christmas 2011

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I managed to make one ornament. I usually knit or crochet something for the tree. This year, I made one from a shared online freebie pattern:

Pine cone! I love how it turned out. I would say it was easy, but it wasn’t! Oh, well. It also hurt my hands, making it with the thread and a small hook. I think it was a size 7 hook, and 10 cotton. This cotton was given to me by a nice customer, Gayle. Thanks!

Then I made my friend a sewing basket. Well, I thrifted the basket. I wanted on that had handles so she could tote it around her house. We often do Friday sewing days, and she carries her sewing from the basement up to the kitchen. Everything was made from free online tutorials, etc,… However, I had a *bear* of a time with the basket liner, so it’s more of an “on my own” thing. I followed two tutorials, and they didn’t work for my shape of basket, so ended up taking little tucks in the sides and it fit just right. Third time was a charm! Whew!

Sewing Basket VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

What I Do in My Free Time

Technorati Tags: needlework repair,upholstery,reupholstering ottoman,reupholstery,home projects,home organization

I learn something new! Upholstery class is my latest lesson. Yep, that’s what I do for fun and to save money (but lose blood)--I work on my own furniture. In typical fashion, I began my upholstering odyssey with THE hardest thing for even seasoned craftsmen to do: tufting.  And not just any tufting, but a tufted double ottoman with 18 buttons. sigh

Before I even show you the piece, let me tell you, this is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I have some arthritis setting in that I refuse to acknowledge, and removing hundreds of staples from this very well-made piece in order to “break it down” was killer on my hands. I also, at one point, sported 4 Band-Aids. Yes, there IS a reason why you usually see male upholsterers. And how much did my husband help? Well…he puts the ottoman in the car for me, if he’s home. He never took out one staple. He never even offered. Not that I blame him, but there *is* a husband in our class, helping his wife every single week.

Anyway, here is the ottoman “before,” while it has doggie hair and dirt on it and where you can see my Australian cattle dog bit some buttons off, back when he was a pup. What you can’t see from my photo is that this is forest green, burgundy and cream. I’m trying to do a more updated color. As the story continues, just about everything went wrong with finding my fabric!

So, the fabric I chose was this (below) but you can’t tell it’s more of a light gold with, again, the green and burgundy:

I LOVED this fabric and it was $15/yd from the discount place. Got 5 yards. Began breaking down my ottoman:

Upholstery Class VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I don’t have photos of the stripped-down piece, but to continue my sad story, once I took it to class, we figured out the fabric wasn’t wide enough (ottoman is longer than 54” fabric width) AND the pattern ran in one direction, like wallpaper. That meant that if I “railroad” the pattern top to bottom all around like I’m supposed to, the pattern would be upside-down in the back. Now, for some people, that might work, if the piece goes up against a bed’s footboard or something. However, this is extra seating for my den, so it sorta needed to be correct.

Solution: use that fabric on my 2nd upholstery project, which is another really difficult piece, a chair with channeled back and piping!

By the way, each class is 3 hours, takes 4 classes and costs $195 total. Fabric was sort of purchased twice. I don’t think I’m saving much money, do you? LOL

I think a good part of why it’s hard is because I’m not that good at workshops. The course is done “round robin” style, which means you have to wait until the instructor comes back around to you for further instruction. I’m not very good at waiting. I’m always ready to move on. Anyway, here are some photos of the piece as I work on it. I have the welt cord (piping) on now, so the only remaining step is to replace the padding and stapling of the bottom. I cannot WAIT to finish. I do this on Sundays from 3-6PM, which I probably already said was a hard time of the day for me. I’m always tired by 5, and by 6 I’m pretty worthless! (which makes crock pot dinners great for me!)

Replacing fabric, placing buttons, stapling pleats VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

And here are a few final photos of the class and my piece, which lacks only the very bottom.

		The final touches VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Baby on My Doorstep!

Technorati Tags: doll repair,doll restoration,doll eye repair,doll doctor

One day in December, I came home from church to find this on my doorstep:

A baby in a basket, with a Band-Aid on her eye! The note with her was from a dad, and it said I’d spoken with his wife about fixing his daughter’s doll.

Indeed, the girl’s mom had phoned me earlier to ask if I could fix her “Jackie.” Her daughter had accidentally poked the doll’s eyes in, and now she thought she looked a little scary. You be the judge:

So I set about seeing what we had to work with here. First I had to remove the head to see how the eyes were set. I had already old my customer that I wasn’t sure I could do this repair, as I hadn’t set eyes in a vinyl head before. Have only set rocker eyes in antique (bisque) dolls, which is done with plaster. The customer was willing to let me give it a try, though. As I removed the head, this is what I found:

Removing doll head VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

There was a cloth bag inside (see large photo above) with plastic pellets in it giving the doll some weight. I removed that and then removed the head from the neck piece. With a flashlight, I could see that the eyes were set into sturdy vinyl sockets. Now what to do? Cut them open and take out the eyes, fix and then re-pour plastic/vinyl/silicone?

After doing a little research, I discovered one technique used with dolls like this is to heat the eyes with a hair dryer, then pop them out from the front. Worth a try, and here is the result:

         

The eyes were set into a metal rim that rested inside a black plastic “socket.” The eyes were actually broken when the owner pushed them into the doll’s head. Tiny“rocker” notches sitting into holes in the black socket cup had been snapped off. No choice for me, then, but to re-set the eyes in a stationery position. No more rocking open and closed for her.

One eyes went back together all right, as it wasn’t as broken. But the other one would not stay *up* in position, and fell down into the socket cup. So I came up with the idea of propping it up with a fabric-and-epoxy composite:

       

I shredded this monk’s cloth to make my mixture, and then stuffed the socket cup and reassembled the eye. It worked!

Once I had both eyes fixed, after they dried a while I used the hair dryer to heat up the doll’s eye holes again. Then I popped them back into her head. After a little positioning (two attempts on one eye) Jackie was looking good! I put her pellet weights and stuffing back in, gave her a new string tether for her neck (the cloth body is tied on at the neck) and took stitches at her neck where I’d loosened the body. After washing and brightening her layette and outfit, she was ready to go home, not looking a bit scary. Mission accomplished!

 

Upholstery Update

Well, this class is HARD! I think a good part of why it’s hard is because I’m not that good at workshops. The course is done “round robin” style, which means you have to wait until the instructor comes back around to you for further instruction. I’m not very good at waiting. I’m always ready to move on. Anyway, here are some photos of the piece as I work on it. I have the welt cord (piping) on now, so the only remaining step is to replace the padding and stapling of the bottom. I cannot WAIT to finish. I do this on Sundays from 3-6PM, which I probably already said was a hard time of the day for me. I’m always tired by 5, and by 6 I’m pretty worthless! (which makes crock pot dinners great for me!)

Replacing fabric, placing buttons, stapling pleats VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL