Antique Child's Rocking Chair

Say hello to the newest member of our household:

It came to me from a co-worker (who lives in an awesome plantation home) like this:

She said she got it in Carmel in the early 1990's. She always wanted to re-furbish it, but never did. I looked online for some type of database that would tell me when it was from, but could find nothing like it anywhere! 

Her daughter, Emily, is my student and etched me a great little keepsake in the arm rest:

No worries, though, cause I sanded it down and primed it with Kilz. 

Then I painted it Benjamin Moore's gorgeous "Hollingsworth Green." 

One coat in:

I had great plans for its new cushion. It came with part of one, but it was ripped and falling apart. I found a mud-nest thing in it, so I decided not to salvage it.

First I measured out the cushion area and the fabric and tacked on white pom pom trim and XL rick-rack:

Next I cut out foam from an old bed foam cushion thingy and made a pillow insert. I wanted the structure of the foam, combined with the cushion of the pillow. I made the pillow insert out of an old towel so it wouldn't slip around inside. It's filled with just basic pillow filler. 

It's got great quirky lines, doesn't it?

Ivy is obsessed with it. So am I.

I put a few new springs in it, just cause it was missing some and the old ones were really oily and dirty. 

Ivy loves to rock on it. I've caught her singing "Rock-a-bye-baby" quite a few times while holding her Sissy doll. 

 I had those two colors of XL rick-rack left over from the photo-booth backdrop I created in January. (See post here.)

Aloha,

Becca and Ivy

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Special Order - Cailin's Pillows

Cailin called me last week and said she's got company coming! They have a downstairs studio in their home, and she wants to have it in full working order by the time her guests arrive! So, she needed 3 throw pillow covers. And she wanted me to make them. 

Criteria:

1. grey

2. yellow

3. dark blue

My starting off point was these fabrics....

 But if you notice, they do not contain any dark blue, hah. 

You see, I could not envision how dark blue would go with yellow and grey. 

Then I took out my latest obsession: 

the $1 pillow case I got at Salvation Army (which I used on my bandana see post here).

I remembered it had blue and mustard in it. 

But still, not enough dark blue. 

So I went to Sew Special and picked up a reverse version of my 

light grey/navy pinwheel style fabric from their Asian section, 

that I used on my fabric-covered tins (see post here).

And, I remembered I bought Cailin a yellow/grey stripe fabric, 

but had never done anything with it for her yet.

So the collection up to this point was this:

I needed grey, and Cailin said she really loved the yellow/grey paisley... I did too. 

So this is what made the cut (literally):

I cut them at 18", sewed at 17", so they'd fit pillows about 15-16".

 I did an overlapping back

And had to hem one side, but used the end of the fabric on the other side.

 Here's what the back ended up looking like:

I used two complimentary strips of fabric for the fronts of the pillows (back view):

Sewed them together.

Cut off the edges

Best tip ever: for corners, snip them close so they lay better when you turn them inside out. So basic, but makes it so nice. 

Here's #1:

(Ooh! Just noticed that you can see the reverse version 

of the dark blue fabric in the little bunting in the front of the pillow!)

Here's #2:

And #3:

Sorry, Cailin: the little bunting in front of it is not included... 

it's for staging purposes only.

You may recognize it from my "Cord Cover" in this post. 

I love how the 3 colors turned out: grey, yellow and dark blue. 

Great vision Cailin!

Shipping out tomorrow, right after my surprise root canal, in a recycled urban outfitters bag 

(safe to say, UO is our favorite place to make some online purchases... :))

Enjoy!

aloha, 

--becca

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Pure Indulgence... No place for the Aqua Birdie Pillow

I bought a cute aqua birdie fabric from Sew Special here on Maui a few weeks back. (I also got 1/4 yard of an adorable matching squirrel print... sounds weird, i know, but it is ADORABLE). 

I love aqua. All my dishes are aqua. But for some reason, it took me a long time to figure out what project was just perfect for this aqua birdie fabric! Well, yesterday I finished Cailin's pillows she requested, and I loved the grey I used in them. Pillows take no time at all to make, so I gave in and used the aqua birdie fabric... and some white... and the leftover grey... to make a teeny little pillow. I already had a random pillow insert floating around, naked without a pillow case. 

A few seams later-- tada!

And this black vinyl chair... I had plans for this chair... but I kind of like it as is.

It was $5 @ Salvation Army. Marked down from $13. 

The metal legs have a hint of rust, but like I said, I kind of like it.

And by the way, my pic of this Urban Outfitters rug under the chair from this post, was reposted a million (exaggerating) times on pinterest. It was my first pin to go viral... !

Back to the aqua birdie pillow:

So, I have my cute pillow... but it really doesn't go anywhere in our house. I think it's because grey is not really one of our home colors... Kit wants more black in our home, so maybe that will help... but for now, I don't care that it doesn't match anything. The pillow is cute. 

Aloha,
--becca

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