When I was a young girl living in Dalhousie, New Brunswick I had two dreams.
I wanted to be an artist like my Grandfather, and I wanted to be a princess and live in a castle (specifically Chateau Frontenac because I had seen a photograph of it).
Oh, the dreams of youth...
What am I saying? I still want to be a princess and live in a castle!!!
The second one I am still working on.
I have found my Prince, which is definitely half the battle. Now, all I have to do is find the castle. I guess I'll have to contact my real estate agent next week!
Moving on...
In my adult years a third dream arose.
I wanted to have a sectional sofa.
I know...you're probably thinking, WOW, this girl really knows how to dream BIG doesn't she?
For some reason I always thought a sectional was the best set up for a living space, especially the ones that don't have those ugly clips on the sides that you can only set up one way.
Well, two weeks ago I accomplished my third dream!!!!!
I was searching on KIJIJI for used furniture in the Halifax area and I found this ad for a 4 piece sectional with ottoman for, GET THIS, only $125.
Here is a photo of it from the ad.
There was only one thing wrong with it... because we all know that there had to be something, right! It had a few rips in the fabric.
I asked the sellers to forward me some photos of the rips so that I could see if it was possible to fix them. Take a look.
As you can see, the rips are right on the seams. That can be a bit tricky to repair, because it's a pressure area and it might re-rip.
Well, it wasn't going to break the bank at $125 so I wanted to give it a try.
Here is a photo of one of the rips repaired. It was the best I could do with fabric since it was partially frayed.
From a distance, you don't notice it at all.
The best tip I can give on a fabric repair is to match up your thread as perfectly as possible.
For those who don't know how to do that, this next bit is for you.
Because my sofa is two-tone (greenish yellow - taupe), and the rips where in such a visible location, I wanted to be absolutely certain that the repairs weren't going to be too obvious.
Luckily, during my initial inspection of the sofa I discovered a few loose fibers inside the cushion zipper that I could use as a reference to purchase my thread.
I purchased two spools of thread that looked the closest to my sample.
The final test for a perfect match is to unravel about 12 inches of the thread from the spool and lay it on the surface of the fabric you want to sew. If the thread seems to disappear into the fabric, YOU HAVE FOUND THE RIGHT ONE.
You may have noticed that this particular sectional isn't the most feminine looking, so I decided to add some flare to it with cushions.
A few months ago, I was doing my rounds of all the second hand shops in the area and I came across some fabulous fabric at Value Village. It turns out that it had the perfect combination of browns, taupe and white to go with my sofa and the brown cushions I already had.
Here is a photo of the beautiful fabric.
I hand stitched four pillows out of this fabric for the sectional.
Here is a photo of one of the pillows finished.
The one thing I hadn't realized about the sectional from the initial photos was the SIZE...the ottoman is HUGE. Once we had it set up in our tiny apartment, I realized that I no longer had room for a table to paint on.
WHAT A DILEMMA!!!!!!!!
All of a sudden, something happened!
I started measuring the ottoman and then measuring my square dining table... meanwhile, Trevor is watching me like I'm some sort of nut.
Here is a photo of my table
I removed the legs and the skirt trim from the base and placed it over the ottoman. I have to say, it's the perfect size.
Ideally, I want to purchase some 19" to 20" tall table legs with built in corner brackets that enable me to screw them directly into the underside corners of the coffee table. This way, I can treat the ottoman and table as a type of nesting table set when the ottoman isn't needed.
Here are some photos of the finished arrangement.
Oh Yeah, I can't forget these pictures! Slamb got a new pillow too.
All I can say is...
If you have a dream of being a beautiful Princess living in a dream castle...maybe you should settle for a sectional too.
Until next time, have a great day and happy crafting!
