Once upon a time my friend Sarah & I discovered my favorite antiques shop. It should be the setting for a children's story. (A future project, perhaps.) It's owner could be the English Mr. Rogers, tidy cardigans and woollen trousers. He's quiet and lets me explore as long as I want...and he constantly undercuts his own prices. I've walked out of there feeling guilty about how little he has charged me for vintage linens, dishes, and antique books. He also always sends me home with something that I never expressed interest in & usually didn't even know was in the shop. The first time it was an enormous hiking backpack, the kind that will hold your tent, sleeping bag, and a week's worth of food. He gave it to me to get an antique mirror home. Since I was traveling by train, it was quite handy. On a subsequent visit, the proprietor sent me home with a wooden lamp with an atrocious shade. That afternoon I stripped the 70s brocade off the shade & had its nude frame haunting odd nooks of my house.
Rather than leave the frame naked forever, I gave it a shirt.
It looks pretty dapper, doesn't it?
The process takes a couple of hours, so this was my watching-Sherlock-with-Jason activity. I'm pleased that I could recycle Graham's stained school shirts by using large swatches of unmarked material (usually the back and upper arms) and hand stitching them to frame. I did find a unmarked button placket, so that inspired three columns of three buttons around the shade.
This is actually the second frame I've covered using shirting fabric. The first time I stitched the bottom & gathered the fabric before stitching the top. This time I reversed the process & it makes the fabric tauter.
I'll paint that lamp base someday, but it works for now. And that mirror behind the lamp -- it came home with me in a backpack.
This is awesome!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sharilyn!
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