Last Call...

This is your last call folks! If you have been dreaming of getting that ugly, yet comfy couch or chair slipcovered, now is the time to book it!! Prices go up mañana! Even if you don't have fabric yet or an idea...its fine! I am now booking for October, so you will have plenty of time to fall in love with the perfect fabric! Remember, if you book before tomorrow you'll get my current pricing for any other needs down the road!

Get your book on!!

Listen up peeps!!! My prices are going up August 1st. Thats in like 2 DAYS! Hurry and book now to keep my current pricing! I am now booking for October....

Beaten with the FUGLY stick!

I really felt this title was appropriate for what you are about to see. Once you see it, you can't un-see it! These 2 chairs are that bad! Luckily they belong to a good friend of mine, and she had the vision! These 2 chairs have been thru a lot but hey, thats what I am here for...right? I have seen my fair share of "worn" furniture, but my friend..this one wins!

Are you scared yet? I was! Let me tell you how old these chairs are. They were made with tack nails, burlap and horse hair filling! Yikes! (Not to mention the crap that a came out of them from being used...I'll spare you that part) I had to gut them to the bones and start fresh. Once I cleaned them up they took shape beautifully! I am not gonna lie, I was a little scared of this one. I had to think about the construction for a day. But I got it! She picked out some awesome fabric to upholster them in and we kept as much as the original nail head trim as we could. Usually when removing them the nail bends, so it got a little trick trying to reuse them...

Amazing!! I love seeing the finished product, especially after all the time it took in my head to work it out! She wanted to leave the wood in its original state to give them that vintage look. I love the pairing of the wood and the fabric! On another note...we returned form our "white trash" vaca in Mesquite, NV. The kids had a blast, I did not win the progressive but I do have a fabulous tan and...our house SOLD while I was away!! YAY!! We are super excited, a cute family came thru and loved it! Bad news: I am booked all thru Aug and part of sept.. SO I am having to move clients around to accommodate the move. Luckily I have awesome clients who are willing to put up with me! SO if this is one of you, and you know who you are, THANK YOU!!! Now, does anyone have a place we can rent while we build.... LOL, Just though I would ask... So this means I will be running around like a crazy person for the next few weeks cause they only gave us 30 days! We will, however have a garage sale in the next few week and I have some good stuff to sell... just saying!

Ohhhh! Look at that body!!!

I thought I'd drop a line while I am melting in mesquite on my "white trash" vacation with my kids, mom and my aunts and cousins.... It's probably 110 here at the Casa Blaca! Yikes!! The people watching has just been phenomenal! Every July we pack up and stay for a few days and just swim! We actually stay in the bungalows... It's the only way you can get me and my mom down here! If you ever are feeling down about your looks.. Head here for a day or 2, you'll be feeling much better in about 2.5 seconds! Speaking of bodies...I got a call from a cute gal who needed 3 covers made for some body pillows. She wanted to put them on her sectional. Her fabric was amazing!!! I thinks that's one of my favorite parts of my job... Seeing what others bring me to create! So she had me do 1 pillow front/back in a black and cream raised velvet trellis pattern. The other 2 were a combo or a rust orange and rust red chevron on one side and the other side in the Schumacher Chiang Mai Dragon print. They turned out awesome!!

Color Pop

Brian Clark contacted me to make some pillow covers for the 2012 DIY Blogger House that will be in the Salt Lake Parade of Homes. Brian picked out some pretty awesome fabrics, which by the way...were all bought at local fabric stores! He left me speechless and a tid bit annoyed that he got a few of them from Home Fabrics...for $4.99 a yard!! And that he beat me to it! Haha. No hard felings, but i am teling you, Home Fabrics is treasure chest, you just have to be willing to dig! Back to the pillows... The fabrics are super fun and full of great pops of color. I cant wait to see how it will all come together! So I made 3, 20x20 pillows in each of these two prints:

We did 2, 20x20 of this fabric:

And 2. 26x26 of each of these prints:

Love them ALL! Now can you pick out the fabric that was so fabulously discovered at Home Fabrics??

Loungewear

I've decided that my next house needs to have a fabulous patio or pool for my lounge needs... Who doesn't want to lay around reading important books? (um... Not me... My lounge guests...). So until then, I'll help others make their lounge areas fabulous! Here are Trudy's very sad and very flat lounge cushions.

After:

As you can see, They received a much needed face lift!! I love how the piping pulls out the little bits of green in the fabric! I wrapped them all in batting to give them more loft and more comfort! They are now ready for endless amounts of lounging!! My next client dropped off this small winged settee on tusday. She brought 2 different fabrics with her incase the the fabric she did not have enough of the fabric she really wanted to use. She had 6.5 yards in the dot... Yikes!!! So i crossed my fingers and measured everything out... Now because it was a floral print I was able to runs the fabric lengthwise to eliminate any seams. And with enough luck, we had exactly the right amount if fabric!!! Here is what it looked like before:

Now check it out!

We were able to stretch the fabric because she did not want any skirt! (thanks for that;). The fabric is really soft and was just grand to work with! I think I shocked her when I told her it was ready to pick up yesterday. I actualy started it the same day that I finished it... Lol!! Next week i am working on about 10 or so pillows for the fabulous Brian Clark! He is the interior designer on the blogger house for the SL Parade of Homes! they are doing some super funs things!! All i can say is the fabrics he gave me are awesome and youll never guess where a few of them came from...Home Fabrics!! i about died! First off, he is soo lucky to have scored them. And second, those that he got from Home Fabrics were $4.99 yrd! AMAZING!! i also will be working on reupholstering a set of very cool, and very old chairs. i cant wait to see how they turn out!

How to Lose 5 Pounds in 2 Days...

Your probably wondering what my title has to do with sewing....Well its not a"magic" diet or work out plan at all. Its called "reupholstering 2 heavy as crap chairs in my west facing garage in what i sewar is 110 degree heat" work out plan! I worked on these babies over the weekend in the grarage, but because of the heat, I could only work out there early in the morning or late at night. And even then it was hot as hell!! But so worth it! sure I took like 3 showers a day to get thru it... I really think I shed 5 pounds just from sweating!! It gives a whole new meaning to "sweat shop" for me. Ha! Anyways, Without further a-do...here are the the little "big" devils tht made me work hard for the money!! Before, they were upholsted in a black leather with nail head trim. I think i removed about 2000 nail heads from the two chairs!

She wanted to give these guys a more feminine look...what do you think?

Pretty great! Right?! I really love how the dark wood looks with the color combo of this fabric! It really softens them up and gives them some much needed pizaz!! I am now booking for September! so get your spot now before i raise my prices!!

Ruffle Shuffle

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday! I know I did! And my sewing machines did too... Well let me tell you about this client that dropped off a settee to me a week or so ago.. She scored this RC Willey special on ksl for pennies! Sure the fabric is just horrendous (sorry to those of you that like that stuff..) but she had the vision. White linen slipcover with a long ruffle skirt. Just like the Restoration Hardware and Ballard Design catalogs, only about $1000 cheaper! I had to line the the ugly ducking because the fabric was just so loud! Before:

Now what I did not tell you was that her fabric came in 2 waves.. the store was out of white linen so we had to wait to put the skirt on till it came in. Well wouldn't you know that fabric came in this week and she decided to bring it over to me last night in her cute little "motorcycle/trike/car". It looked way fun to ride in, letting the wind blew thru your hair! Well the second she stepped into my house a typhoon decided to let loose! If you are in Utah County, you know what I am talking about... It poured for a good 10 minutes, horizontally! But she got the fabric delivered and here is the results! After:

It looks great!! I love all things linen, especially white linen... I am sure no one will be allowed to sit in that settee unless they are fresh out of the shower! Tuesday my mom came down to get a taste of what it is like to work in the "sweat shop". She had a few chairs for her office that were in need of LOTS of TLC... I mean, how can these be inviting...especially when you are the retail manager and buyer of the Emporium at Thanksgiving Point,

See what I mean...this has disgrace written all over it! We she had 4 of them! She she came over, rummaged thru my scraps and this is what we came up with! Keep in mind, this was her first attempt at slipcovers. She did great and Mo and Lou (my machines) took real good care of her! With my help of course..

So much more appropriate! There is one more to go along with the group but you won't see it till a later day...because its that kind of day today. I am now going to attempt to finish 2 more chairs before my procrastination gets the best of me...

Hold Up!

Some may call me a slacker for my lack of posts for June and thats fine. I accept it. But I will tell you I have been working.... For the most part. And because of this, you will be getting a flood of posts in the next few days. We have been playing hard and trying to enjoy the "lovely HOT" weather here in Utah... and because of the heat, and the fact that I have most of my current projects in the garage I can only work on them early in the morning or late at night. To avoid melting of course! So lets get down to the nitty gritty... This first chair came to me to be reupholstered. She had already refinished the wood which makes my life a ton earlier (thank you!). Her fabric choice was darling! We mixed and matched some fabric on the different elements of the chair. It looks amazing! If she did not know where I lived, Id keep it for myself.... Before:

After:

Its pretty spectacular if I do say so myself... Up next is a repeat client of mine. I slipcovered this little ditty for her last year. This time she has 4 chairs in need of some TLC. She is opening up a party business and whited to freshen up the look of these chairs. She picked a really fun fabric for both sets of chairs, but you only get to steal a peek at 1 set... I have yet to finish the the other set... Remember, its literally 500 degrees in my garage!! Before:

After!

Soo Fun!!! If you think those are great, wait till you see the other 2! I do have them stripped, its just a matter of putting them back together.... I have 1 spot open around the end of August. So hurry and book now, my prices will be going up soon!