Doily-gate

Now I know I claim to be North Leeds foremost Wombler and Skip Rat but even this project challenged Clever Doris's resourcefulness. This was Stealth Wombling on an industrial scale.
Often I would scour the whole of West Yorkshires charity outlets in the search of the illusive cotton crochet doily whilst trying to head off the bands of old ladies armed with crochet hooks and knitting needles, who were trying to reclaim their crocheted handiwork. One thing I did learn was that when you're not looking for the pesky doily blighters they're everywhere. Sadly the reverse was true also.

The reason for needing so many doilies? Friends of mine were embarking on their first of a series of pop-up restaurant /Loft Party ventures based here in Leeds. The concept was the brainchild of 2 local people: an award-winning chef and equally eminent DJ. The doilies were going to be used to create a number of lightshades to decorate the 3000msq. restaurant and party space. It was an idea we saw on Pinterest (have a look at the site - it's full of ideas across all categories, not just crafty stuff).
Anyway looking at the lightshade instructions we thought "how hard can it be?"
 
Hmmm...
Now it wasn't so much hard as 'challenging', particularly as time went on we soon reallised that in order for them to have impact upon the space then we needed to produce far more than originally expected. After a quick tally and within the time remaining we concluded that we needed to average 1.5 shades per week. The aim was to produce 6 shades each of large, medium and small, the largest being approx 80cm diameter down to approx 40cm.
 
Due to the differing size of the doilies it was impossible to estimate how many of them we'd need. My prime wombling skills would therefore come into play...we just had to keep going. Womble, make, womble, make, womble and so on...

 

 

The starting point was to purchase a number of large round punch balloons, inflate, clip at the top (so it can be reused) and coat it in vaseline (it'll all become clear!) The balloon was then rested on a bucket for stablilty.
Each doily was soaked in a thick wallpaper paste mixture and firmly slapped and smoothed onto the balloon. Basically it was then a case completing round the balloon, overlapping each doily slightly until it was covered, leaving a gap at the top.
All straightforward? Well, yes, but for a numbers of factors:

• If you try to put too many wet doilies on at once then they have a habit of sliding south. We therefore did the bottom half 1st, left to dry, flipped the balloon over and covered the top half.
• If you don't clip the balloon firmly (we ended up using 3 ikea bag clips) then the balloon deflates leaving a soggy doily mess on the floor.
• The doilies take approx 5 days to dry properly, meaning that in reality it takes 10 days to complete one.
• If you try to speed up the drying process, i.e. place it too close to a radiator or use a hairdryer, then the air within expands, causing a big tumourous lump, resulting in a doily 'egg'. So it must just be left to dry at room temp.

Once all obstacles were overcome the balloon was deflated, leaving a solid doily orb. The vaseline coating means the balloon peels away from the outer doily crust much more easily.

 

 

Although this one was complete it wasn't until deflated we noticed a few dents. Back in went the balloon/quick vigorous pump/area resoaked with paste and left to dry.

 

 

 

 

One of each - not bad eh?

 

After weeks of wombling, making, phone calls, texts, emails and lots and lots of swearing we finally reached the end of the road, with just one left to dry. Phew, we were finally there. The only issue was where to store them; our houses resembling the opening scenes of 'Prisoner' with big doily balls everywhere!

 

The last doily: despite my previous advice of not using a hairdryer I just had to wing it and hope for the best...

 

T minus 48 hours and the last balloon inside the last shade burst, creating balloon/doily/wallpaper paste carnage. After a lot of slippy sliding and with no time to order a replacement balloon, we landed upon the brilliant idea of using a gym ball (which also doubles up as a spare seat at dinner parties). A quick clean up operation had to commence as this was last chance saloon. And double challenge due to the length of time they take to dry. Talk about flying by the seat of your pants...

D-Day: the final shade was not quite dry so it had to be rammed into a binliner and transported with hairdryer to the venue, where it would be completed.
Cue me in passenger seat surrounded by 18 doily shades in bag bags.

 

CSI Leeds: like body parts waiting to be taken to the morgue...

 

 

 

 

The tables were postioned and the shades placed in their desired postions, hung by lengths of ribbon. The light soources came in the form of fairy lights powered by batteries

 

 

 

 

Lights tested, tables set. Sorted.

 

 

 

 

 

The night: a rip-roaring success.

And no, I did not wear a crochet cardigan that night, nor will I be hanging wallpaper for a very long time...

Check out  www.facebook.com/beatfood 

 https://twitter.com/beatfood for the next event to be held 17/18 May, Munro House, Leeds.

  

Wombling Wednesday - A Dilemma

Take a look at these beauties. They're pewter drawer pulls found for £1.50.

But oh Clever Doris is now in a dilemma:
My desire to use them as an ebay money-making opportunity is at odds with my need to faff and create something fun and useful (I don't actually need them for their intended drawer-handle useage).

What's a Doris to do? x

Oilcloth projects - not just for tabletops

Oilcloth really is a wonderful thing (you know, that vinyl/plasticky coated cotton fabric stuff)
I actually underestimated my love for it until I scoured the house for  'things what I have made from oilcloth'. I was quite astounded by the amount of stuff  I've done across a range of different surfaces and for a variety of different purposes.
And the best thing is you can wipe sticky 'kid marks' off the stuff. Kid marks by the way, not Skid marks although I'm sure it's perfect for that too.
For example there's lined cupboards and umpteen lined drawers (essential for an old Doris), 1 roller blind, 1 shoe pocket thingy, 2 tray bases and bags of varying shapes and sizes as well as 2 stool coverings (it always goes back to poo doesn't it?!)
Over time I've sourced the cloth from a variety of places including Ebay, Cath Kidston and of course the predictable charity shop, whereby some creations started life as an apron or random remnant, languishing in the box next to the embroidered tablecloths. All bought, as usual, with no immediate purpose in mind but for the fact I rather liked it at the time and thought "it'll come in..."

1. Stools - doggy style: now I'm not a lover of dogs per se, however I quite like a dog in a coat so I thought I'd recover these old bland, black, otherwise-perfectly-fine-and-functional bar stools. One quick look at the underside revealed a few easily removeable screws. I therefore knew I could simply stretch the oilcloth over the top of the existing covering of the removed seat pad, stapling all around underneath.
Time taken = approx 1 hour. Simps!

2. Bags - doggy style: not one to let a scrap go to waste, I ran up a couple of little bags  with the leftover bits to put my bathroom unmentionables in.

3. Tabletops (I lied, I did use them for tabletops as well): I bought shed loads of this original 60s vinyl covering from a vintage fair, again with no idea what to do with it. This stuff is slightly less pliable than its modern equivalent, so required a bit of perseverance and brute force when stapling to the underside. PVA glue first smeared over the top of the table surface helps enomously.

4. Cupboard and drawer linings: I like a tidy inner as well as exterior. This was a refurbished cupboard which I thought would benefit from a bit of internal oilcloth treatment. I treated the inside drawer bases to an oilcloth coating. PVA'd into place of course.

 

5. Shelf coverings: now when we had a major kitchen renovation done last year I said to Mr Doris "I want open shelves and I want them now" Being the doormat he is (!) he granted my wish and built me a set a fine set of shelves with required openness. I then went to work with scissors and PVA glue. A most useful addition to the Doris household.

 

 

 

6. Peg bag: of course there were bits left over from demanding Doris's shelf project - so I made a peg bag. I used to scoff at pegs bags but now think they're  'very useful'. Is finding things 'very useful' a sure reflection of getting old?!

 

 

 

7. Rollerblind: after years of enduring a grimy and bent venetian blind, when we finally renovated our bathroom 2 years ago I decided to make my own blind out of oilcloth. I saw this fabric on Ebay and loved the berry colours/feather pattern combo. I was determined to have a colourful bathroom (I really don't do neutrals or fish themes) so this rather fitted the bill a treat. Basically it's just an ikea rollerblind with the cheap fabric removed and replaced with chosen oilcloth. Rule of thumb: if the blind is cheaply manufactured in the first place then it should be easy to dismantle in order to 'hack'. And if it all goes horribly wrong then no big deal eh..?

 

 

8. Shoe pockets: now any busy household full of kids running in and out needs some kind of back door organisation. It drove me up the wall, what with dozens of shoes in varying states of cleanliness tossed asunder; causing a myriad of health and safety issues. So I thought "right you lot, enough's enough. Put your shoes in this" I can't say it's entirely effective as they still kick them off, instead leaving them next to the shoe recepticle (by the way I don't take responsiblity for the green crocs). Anyway there was a bit left over so I made a tray lining. Which made me happy.

 

 

9. A lunch bag: made from an old 'Walls sausages' apron!

 

 10. An old apron: ooh what to make...?

 

Velvet Respite - A Rejuvenated Pouffe

Velvet Respite. Not a terrible name for a 1980s all-girl rock group, but another offering from Clever Doris.

This project began with the cries - "why the blazes are you changing that, there's nowt wrong with it?" and "son, if you sit still long enough you'll get covered in fabric too".

Mr Doris had a point. I did actually make this particular item only 1 year ago. However not being the obedient wife, I thought "knickers to you...I know best"
Thing is, the top of the pouffe had gone a bit bobbly. And I don't like a bobbly pouffe so I set about making the change...
Now the original idea came from the Liberty Book of Home Sewing. I highly recommend it for beginners and advanced folk alike, as its full of really lovely non-twee and quirky things of crafty beauty. The concept of the book is based upon sewing projects using Liberty fabrics. However in this instance I followed it for the instructions only.

 

Before: plain with a bobbly top - most displeasing.

 

 

Above: cover removed, revealing the inner bag filled with polystyrene beans. Below: outer cover deconstructed into 3 main pieces. My intention was to replace the light grey top and bottom pieces only and reuse the dark velvet section (despite the fact I cack-handledly tore this piece during deconstruction process).

 

 

 

New fabric selected for the top and bottom sections. It's a beautiful piece of Indian hand stitched wool cloth which cost, embarrassingly, probably less than £1 at a charity shop - bit of an insult to the poor soul that must've spent weeks handworking this. I had to have it though as I just knew I'd give it a new sense of purpose.

 

 

I needed to do a bit of cutting & patching in order to make the fabric wide enough for the new top and bottom pieces.

 

 

 

The top and bottom sections were cut out using the old bobbly pieces as a pattern.

 

 

Now to rectify the cack-handed tear in the dark velvet section. A spot of zig-zag should hold it together temporarily while I think of a more permanent solution...

 

Aha! - time for a spot of lateral thinking. The permanent solution to Clever Doris's cack-handedness (in the form of a box marked 'ribbon').

Two lengths of 2" wide ribbon (cut to the height of the velvet side) was laid on top of the side seams and machine stitched into place. The width of the ribbon effectively covered the rip.

 

 

Left: the new top section was pinned and then machine stitched to the top of the velvet side section (right sides facing). Right: the zip was inserted between the 2 new semicircular sections which form the base. Once the zipped base section was completed it was attached to the opposite end of the velvet side section.

 

 

 

Above: the seam allowance was clipped perpendicular to the curved stitching line. Below: the whole bag turned to the right side. The circular seams were then pressed on the right side towards the top to reduce bulk.

 

 

 

Finally, after a wrestle, a struggle and rather a lot of swearing I managed to get the cover back onto its beany inner bag. Stuffing a bean bag into a close fitting cover is not for the faint hearted, but do persevere as it will go in eventually (little tip: double stitch all seams to avoid the inevitable heart stopping 'riiiiippppp').

 

Its not unlike pushing blancmange up a hill.

 

 

 

 

 

Craft Test Mummy: An Ikea Chair Hack

Hello folks,

Todays project is an update to a chair belonging Clever Maurice aged 12. Now there wasn't really a lot wrong with it apart from the fact it was just a bit dated and tired

(I know that feeling). I therefore just wanted to demonstrate how easy it is to update an otherwise perfectly good item and, billy bonus, it'll only take a couple of hours!

It's an old Ikea office chair I remember swivelling baby Clever Maurice to sleep on a hundred years ago. In fact this is its 2nd update (it was originally covered in black fabric). For the full Ikea hack experience I even had some of their fabric left over from a pair of curtains I'd previously made for his room. I'm not generally a person of mitchy-matchy persuasion but I thought this little project would be ideal for a 12 year olds room (and it's not my room so I don't care!). Also in a small way it goes somewhere to refreshing a foisty boys domain.

 

There are only so many boy-trumps a chair seat can take.

 

Before: not bad, but in need of a facelift. I already knew that recovering the chair would be a quick process as I'd previously done this one years ago.
Note the toolbox of Clever Norris (made by Dad - Mr Doris). Ear defenders not required.

 

 

I just needed to remove the chair back and seat sections which were held in place by only 6 screws, meaning they were easy enough to remove.

 

Essential tools: screwdrivers, pliers, scissors, staplegun (+ tons of extra staples), hammer.

 

After removing the chair back section from the frame I prised the upholstered front foamy/white plastic bit of it away from its outer black plastic casing, revealing the raw stapled edge. In order to remove the old fabric I pulled the staples out using a screwdriver and pliers. Safety goggles an option of course.

 

 

The old covering removed with the foam exposed.

 

 

The old covering was then laid on top of the new fabric (face to face). I then drew around the edges and cut out the new fabric.

 

 

The stripped foamy back section was then laid on top of the new fabric with the 'wrong side' facing the foam.

 

 

 

I then proceeded to staple the fabric to the reverse of the chair back, opposite side at a time (top, bottom, left, right etc) whilst pulling tautly over the edges to smooth the fabric, ensuring there are no bumps or creases. Because the reverse of the seat back is plastic the staples didn't always go all the way in, meaning I had to give some of them a good old wallop with a hammer!

 

 

The excess fabric was then trimmed close to the staples.

 

 

Chair back all ready to pop back into its black outer casing.

 

 

After removing the seat section from the frame I continued to repeat the same process as I did with the back. Both reupholstered seat and back sections were finally re-screwed back into place...

 

 

The finished article, as met with a grunt from Clever Maurice. I thinks that means he likes it.

Fresh bottoms only if you please...