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Friday, 4 March 2011
Wednesday, 2 March 2011
Eye spy
At Upholstery School there are very strict rules about wearing safety glasses whilst stapling or nailing - those mothers really punch out the sharp flying things, and while you can always grow skin over a cut or a hole, you can't grow another eyeball.
Needless to say, the safety glasses sit in our toolboxes, and get all scratched and greasy. So... today I made three pouches for the three amigos (me, Caroline and Natalie):
Insides:
Outsides:
And that, Gentle Readers, is the news of the day for me. I now have to dress respectably (out of the yoga pants, into something guaranteed not to frighten the children) and away, away to the supermarket. Can't wait!
Ciao!
Needless to say, the safety glasses sit in our toolboxes, and get all scratched and greasy. So... today I made three pouches for the three amigos (me, Caroline and Natalie):
Insides:
Outsides:
And the glasses fit in very nicely, thank you:
and so do the safety glasses:
And yes, we all look like Fearless Fly. But we're safe!
Anyway, I'm going to put these into the shop... they work just as well as other cases, they're lined with quality fabrics, made squishy and protective with quilt batting, and they look a lot nicer than the brown vinyl one you've got now, come on, admit it!
And in the fabric purchasing department, I bought a metre and a half of this:
And yes, that is my hand, so you see the scale of the print - my favourite chair, which we inherited from Mr Golightly's lovely parents waaaaaaaaaaaaay back when we were newly married and very poor, is covered in a gorgeous wool from KA Fabrics - way back when we were very spoilt and had three or four KA stores to choose from - which is blue, cream and brown, and although it may sound pretty foul, it's gorgeous:
And, of course because KA no longer graces our shores, there's no more to be had - that and the fact that it was nearly 10 years since we had the chair redone! So, I wanted something that would go with the chair, and could be used to recover the lounges if & when I ever get round to it ... I think they kind of go together... and I will use this to cover my skirted footstool, which we have to do at Upholstery school.
I had a lovely time at Bargain Upholstery Fabrics at Seaforth - they don't have a website, but what they do have is six (yep, six) shops full of amazing fabrics. Despite the huge choice, it didn't take me long to find the cream, and it was only $16/metre. That's a massive bargain, when you consider that quilting cottons can cost as much as $25 per metre - is it any wonder that we get our quilting stuff direct from the US???. I got 1.5 metres, which should be enough to do my laura ashley cream wool footstool as well, which is looking a bit grubby and old.
And that, Gentle Readers, is the news of the day for me. I now have to dress respectably (out of the yoga pants, into something guaranteed not to frighten the children) and away, away to the supermarket. Can't wait!
Ciao!
Tuesday, 1 March 2011
Sandflies, mosquitos and other minor irritants
So, Gentle Readers, last weekend we had some social stuff - I had to go & suffer through a free facial on Saturday, (oh, so difficult!), and on Sunday we all celebrated Miss Alex's birthday - she's a teenager now. Her Aunty Cathy (Mr Golightly's sister) lives in Collaroy Plateau, just round the corner from where Mr Golightly and his sisters all grew up, and we rolled up on Sunday with my wonderful MIL in tow (always good for a quick getaway, bringing the MIL with you!)... but the sandflies! OMG.
I counted 15 bites on Sunday night, including one or two of which are the size of of a 50c piece - that's about 1 1/2 inches across, for those of you in other countries... they are so itchy that I was nearly driven out of my mind at School yesterday, combining itchy arms and legs with dust and hessian... not good.
Anyway, I stopped at the chemist/pharmacy yesterday on the way home & have been slathering cortisone cream all over myself, which, for the most part, has been quite effective , but... there is one on my wrist and one on my elbow which are huge, and are pressing on various nerves under the skin, making me ache. Ow. I want sympathy. Although, I am sleeping better, because I'm taking two Polaramine before I go to bed, and they keep me out cold until about 3.30am, when I go to the loo, then go back to bed & sleep like the dead until 5.30am. Bliss.
In other more cheerful news, my chair fabric arrived from here:
Most of yesterday was spent wrestling with the calico at the corners at the bottom of the inside back, learning how to slice the fabric so you get a nice finish underneath. Then we put the final fabric on the back, making nice pleats so it sits smoothly.
The we started building the seat - webbing (itchy!), hessian (itchier!), black plastic edging, foam, wadding, bigger foam... which is where I'm up to. Thursday we're going to put the biggest layer of foam on the chair, which holds it all down, then the calico. then the fabric. Then we do the border & border piping. Then we do the back. Then I have a drink!
Anyway, more progress shots as we go along.
What else have I learnt so far? Some people don't work well in teams - it wouldn't occur to some people to get off their arses and help out by doing things we need to do before we can go home, like sweeping the floor, cleaning off the benchtops, taking somebody else's tools to the storeroom, turning off the lights, fetching, carrying, ... Surprisingly, there's only one of these people, and interestingly, she's the youngest person on the course. Co-incidence? Hmmm.
I counted 15 bites on Sunday night, including one or two of which are the size of of a 50c piece - that's about 1 1/2 inches across, for those of you in other countries... they are so itchy that I was nearly driven out of my mind at School yesterday, combining itchy arms and legs with dust and hessian... not good.
Anyway, I stopped at the chemist/pharmacy yesterday on the way home & have been slathering cortisone cream all over myself, which, for the most part, has been quite effective , but... there is one on my wrist and one on my elbow which are huge, and are pressing on various nerves under the skin, making me ache. Ow. I want sympathy. Although, I am sleeping better, because I'm taking two Polaramine before I go to bed, and they keep me out cold until about 3.30am, when I go to the loo, then go back to bed & sleep like the dead until 5.30am. Bliss.
In other more cheerful news, my chair fabric arrived from here:
And this:
and this:
So I'm thinking that I should be able to make something fantastic out of these after the chair is done - maybe a cushion?
Upholstery school continues to delight me, and here for your edification is the progress on the child's chair:
Most of yesterday was spent wrestling with the calico at the corners at the bottom of the inside back, learning how to slice the fabric so you get a nice finish underneath. Then we put the final fabric on the back, making nice pleats so it sits smoothly.
The we started building the seat - webbing (itchy!), hessian (itchier!), black plastic edging, foam, wadding, bigger foam... which is where I'm up to. Thursday we're going to put the biggest layer of foam on the chair, which holds it all down, then the calico. then the fabric. Then we do the border & border piping. Then we do the back. Then I have a drink!
Anyway, more progress shots as we go along.
What else have I learnt so far? Some people don't work well in teams - it wouldn't occur to some people to get off their arses and help out by doing things we need to do before we can go home, like sweeping the floor, cleaning off the benchtops, taking somebody else's tools to the storeroom, turning off the lights, fetching, carrying, ... Surprisingly, there's only one of these people, and interestingly, she's the youngest person on the course. Co-incidence? Hmmm.
Anyway, Gentle Readers, I am going to put my lovely new fabric into the washing machine, then hang out some of Mr Golightly's socks. Such excitement. Enjoy your day!
Ciao!
5.04pm Edited to say: I can't believe nobody noticed I'd spelt 'sandflies' wrong. Ouch!
Saturday, 26 February 2011
Piping, selvedges, staple guns and spelling
Well, Gentle Readers, it's a bit depressing that the new blogging schedule of every other day, or thereabouts, has well and truly fallen into the bin since Upholstery School started. I have spent the last two Tuesdays & Wednesdays socialising, and then by the time Saturday & Sunday roll around, I've either got things on, or I'm too tired. Last Saturday we had a lunch, then a 50th Birthday to go to, and by the time we got home (admittedly it was only 8.00pm), I fell down in front of the TV, watched three episodes of Battlestar Galactica then crawled into bed at midnight. Do you think I could face writing a blog post on Sunday? Nope.
This week wasn't much better. Tuesday I went with Mr Golightly to the bank, and Wednesday I had lunch with my lovely MIL, then went up to see My Best Friend and helped Miss Nelly with her spelling. I think it's pretty impressive that an 11yo knows how to spell 'expeditiously', don't you? Also, 'belligerence', 'narcissistic' and 'kaleidoscope'. I couldn't get that one right! She did have a bit of trouble with 'crevice', but I gave her the trick - it's just like 'de-vice', but with a 'cr' at the front. Easy.
Upholstery school continues to make me grin like a loon - yesterday I had to go to the storeroom to get the right colour thread to sew my piping onto my chair front, and I was smiling at the thought of what I was going to do next. This makes me so happy, I feel like I've fallen into something I was always meant to do. I'm not a fatalist, or anything, I've always solidly believed you are purely responsible for your own life, but this just feels so right.
Anyway, this week we:
... finished our footstools. I had to use fabric from the school storeroom, having completely forgotten to take my Joel Dewberry with me. D'oh.. but I found a nice sapphire blue chenille-y type fabric in the fabric store.
All they need now is feet. I'm going up to the local hardware megastore today to find something a bit nicer than the plastic monstrosities offered by School (for free, to be fair) - if I'm going to have this thing in my house, I want nice feet. .
... drew up what's called a Cover Plan, in Upholstery-speak, but what the sewers amongst you would recognise as a cutting layout. It's done in 1:10 scale, but with the actual measurements written on the pattern pieces. The fabric width is also written on the Cover Plan. They don't assume that fabric is all the same width, of course, because it isn't.
... found fabric in the storeroom I could live with for this child's chair - this one is the one I'm not keeping - the fabric I ordered for MGF Kaz hasn't arrived yet, but as we get to make another chair, I will use the good fabric for that one.
This fabric is woven, it's sort of browny-orange, with a green leaf & yellow dots, which sounds foul, but it isn't really. It's just not what most people would have chosen for a child's chair:
but you know what? Because it has such a distinctive repeat pattern, cutting it out straight is easy. You just pick the spot, such as the every top row of the little yellow dit, and cut along the line, making sure you get each of the yellow dits.
... cut it all out, and then we got to make piping. Easy for those of us who've done it before (I made an eight-gore skirt once with each gore piped... what was I thinking?, and then there was Mr Golightly's bean bag... ), a bit more trying for people who've never done it. I must say, though, that the people who were struggling with the sewing machines found the piping easier to make than they'd expected, probably because they had the discipline of following a line.
... Got to attach the piping to our OB (that's upholstery-talk for 'Outside back', or, the back of the chair :-)), just along the top, then it's secret squirrel until next week, when we will learn how to attach the back to the frame. I've always wondered how that was done, now I get to find out!!
In other news of interest, the Head Teacher was quite interested in the concept of using a Rotary Cutter and quilting ruler to cut out - they currently use scissors, and blackboard chalk to mark it up - because it doesn't leave a mark, unlike tailor's chalk, which is almost impossible to get off, apparently - so I'm taking in a cutting board, centimetre ruler and rotary cutter for them to look at.
Madam Late turned up at 9.10 on Thursday, but managed 8.30am on Friday. She's so far behind (in week two!) she's already having to take catch-up classes. Ah dear.
And finally, I promised MGF Kaz I would post this picture & brag a little about it:
My lovely Ma and I made this whilst I was in Perth in early February; lots of the fabrics were donated by ladies from the Parkerville Craft Group and Good Works Society, and I did the piecing. The creative genius, though, with the large cowboy and his lasso, came from my lovely Ma - she photocopied and enlarged the material, then cut out individual pieces for the fence, hat, scarf, pants, shirt, face, hands and feet, then raw-edge appliqued it together - genius.
This week wasn't much better. Tuesday I went with Mr Golightly to the bank, and Wednesday I had lunch with my lovely MIL, then went up to see My Best Friend and helped Miss Nelly with her spelling. I think it's pretty impressive that an 11yo knows how to spell 'expeditiously', don't you? Also, 'belligerence', 'narcissistic' and 'kaleidoscope'. I couldn't get that one right! She did have a bit of trouble with 'crevice', but I gave her the trick - it's just like 'de-vice', but with a 'cr' at the front. Easy.
Upholstery school continues to make me grin like a loon - yesterday I had to go to the storeroom to get the right colour thread to sew my piping onto my chair front, and I was smiling at the thought of what I was going to do next. This makes me so happy, I feel like I've fallen into something I was always meant to do. I'm not a fatalist, or anything, I've always solidly believed you are purely responsible for your own life, but this just feels so right.
Anyway, this week we:
... finished our footstools. I had to use fabric from the school storeroom, having completely forgotten to take my Joel Dewberry with me. D'oh.. but I found a nice sapphire blue chenille-y type fabric in the fabric store.
All they need now is feet. I'm going up to the local hardware megastore today to find something a bit nicer than the plastic monstrosities offered by School (for free, to be fair) - if I'm going to have this thing in my house, I want nice feet. .
... drew up what's called a Cover Plan, in Upholstery-speak, but what the sewers amongst you would recognise as a cutting layout. It's done in 1:10 scale, but with the actual measurements written on the pattern pieces. The fabric width is also written on the Cover Plan. They don't assume that fabric is all the same width, of course, because it isn't.
... found fabric in the storeroom I could live with for this child's chair - this one is the one I'm not keeping - the fabric I ordered for MGF Kaz hasn't arrived yet, but as we get to make another chair, I will use the good fabric for that one.
This fabric is woven, it's sort of browny-orange, with a green leaf & yellow dots, which sounds foul, but it isn't really. It's just not what most people would have chosen for a child's chair:
but you know what? Because it has such a distinctive repeat pattern, cutting it out straight is easy. You just pick the spot, such as the every top row of the little yellow dit, and cut along the line, making sure you get each of the yellow dits.
... cut it all out, and then we got to make piping. Easy for those of us who've done it before (I made an eight-gore skirt once with each gore piped... what was I thinking?, and then there was Mr Golightly's bean bag... ), a bit more trying for people who've never done it. I must say, though, that the people who were struggling with the sewing machines found the piping easier to make than they'd expected, probably because they had the discipline of following a line.
... Got to attach the piping to our OB (that's upholstery-talk for 'Outside back', or, the back of the chair :-)), just along the top, then it's secret squirrel until next week, when we will learn how to attach the back to the frame. I've always wondered how that was done, now I get to find out!!
In other news of interest, the Head Teacher was quite interested in the concept of using a Rotary Cutter and quilting ruler to cut out - they currently use scissors, and blackboard chalk to mark it up - because it doesn't leave a mark, unlike tailor's chalk, which is almost impossible to get off, apparently - so I'm taking in a cutting board, centimetre ruler and rotary cutter for them to look at.
Madam Late turned up at 9.10 on Thursday, but managed 8.30am on Friday. She's so far behind (in week two!) she's already having to take catch-up classes. Ah dear.
And finally, I promised MGF Kaz I would post this picture & brag a little about it:
My lovely Ma and I made this whilst I was in Perth in early February; lots of the fabrics were donated by ladies from the Parkerville Craft Group and Good Works Society, and I did the piecing. The creative genius, though, with the large cowboy and his lasso, came from my lovely Ma - she photocopied and enlarged the material, then cut out individual pieces for the fence, hat, scarf, pants, shirt, face, hands and feet, then raw-edge appliqued it together - genius.
You may remember the fabric from 2009, when I made toy bags for Kerry, the beautician. Mum just substituted the lasso for the gun & bingo! Bob's your uncle. Or somebody is!
And now, Gentle Readers, I have to go & do... stuff. Actually, I'm thinking about a nap. Yesterday was a busy busy day, and I'm up, but not dressed, so I'm thinking... why not? Ciao!
Wednesday, 23 February 2011
Snoring's boring
Why am I up at this ungodly hour? Mr Golightly is under the weather. When I lived in England in the 1980's, probably before some of you lovely Gentle Readers were born, there was a columnist in one of the papers, called Jeffrey Bernard, who lived an interesting life, and his column was occasionally replaced by the line "Jeffrey Bernard is unwell".
So, Mr Golightly is unwell, but not quite the same unwell as Jeffrey. He has a cold (or maybe even a chest infection?), and, incredibly, came home from work early yesterday. This is almost unheard of, but there he was, on the bus with me at 2.30pm. I'd been into town to meet up with him at our bank, to talk about the effects of me not working (currently) on our finances, and to put some plans into place so we don't have to work until we're 80 . Then I went off to have lunch, being unable to persuade Mr G to have a sandwich with me, and he went back to work. At 2.00pm he was ready to go home, and BAM! There we were on the bus, and once we got home, he went straight to bed.
However, tonight he is snoring. This too is almost unheard of, because usually I check at least once a night to make sure he's still alive, he sleeps so quietly. Not like me. I'm all snuffles and snorts, lots of talking to the aliens in the ceiling and the light fitting. I toss and turn, I need to flip my pillow over to the cool side. I occasionally wake up laughing. That's pretty weird, especially when it's a great joke but you can't remember it once you've woken up...
So, Gentle Readers, here I am at 5.15am, tired and wishing he would just shut up before I get that cool pillow and hold it down over his face. Poor soul.
In other slightly more cheerful and less mariticidal news, Mr Golightly's lovely niece, The Bride, has her birthday today, and I have yummy gifts for her:
So, Mr Golightly is unwell, but not quite the same unwell as Jeffrey. He has a cold (or maybe even a chest infection?), and, incredibly, came home from work early yesterday. This is almost unheard of, but there he was, on the bus with me at 2.30pm. I'd been into town to meet up with him at our bank, to talk about the effects of me not working (currently) on our finances, and to put some plans into place so we don't have to work until we're 80 . Then I went off to have lunch, being unable to persuade Mr G to have a sandwich with me, and he went back to work. At 2.00pm he was ready to go home, and BAM! There we were on the bus, and once we got home, he went straight to bed.
However, tonight he is snoring. This too is almost unheard of, because usually I check at least once a night to make sure he's still alive, he sleeps so quietly. Not like me. I'm all snuffles and snorts, lots of talking to the aliens in the ceiling and the light fitting. I toss and turn, I need to flip my pillow over to the cool side. I occasionally wake up laughing. That's pretty weird, especially when it's a great joke but you can't remember it once you've woken up...
So, Gentle Readers, here I am at 5.15am, tired and wishing he would just shut up before I get that cool pillow and hold it down over his face. Poor soul.
In other slightly more cheerful and less mariticidal news, Mr Golightly's lovely niece, The Bride, has her birthday today, and I have yummy gifts for her:
She has a small orange fetish (hah!), so when I saw these, I thought, well, why not?
They are gorgeous, and hopefully she'll love them. They came from here, and Kathryn was absolutely delightful to deal with - the packaging they came in was so nice I can just pop the entire box in the post with a birthday card & it's all done. Can't ask for more than. Except for some sleep! Now, back to bed!
Sonno felice!
Tuesday, 22 February 2011
News from nowhere
So, Gentle Readers, what have I been doing?
Learning to use an industrial sewing machine:
Learning to use an industrial sewing machine:
Did you know these things go like the clappers? 3,000 stitches/minute. That's 50 a second. Fifty stitches a second. OMG. That'll go right through your finger before you can say 'Ouch'.
Learning to make a webbed footstool, and these are the same techniques we'll apply to our child's chair:
Images copyright Lora Jones*
Watching with amazement as Madam Late turns up variously at 8.45, 8.45 and 8.50, when the rest of us manage to get there for 8.00am;
Wondering how my back is going to cope with all the standing up, and find that it's actually not so bad as long as I sit down between bouts of working and the demonstrations...
Discovering that Stanley knives are really sharp and will slice your finger open at the drop of hat (it was just a shallow cut, more of a scratch really. What a baby!)
Wondering how the canteen can display one price for toast and vegemite, then charge an extra 20c to actually toast the bread. Hmm. Still trying to work that one out.
Enjoying myself mightily. It's so nice to spend the whole day using my hands to make something!
Finding out I can bear the feel of Hessian as long as I don't have to rub it on my skin. Yuck.
In other news, 'm going to start taking my compact camera to school with me, so I can document all the stages of the footrest - webbing, hessian, foam, wadding, foam, foam, calico, fabric.
I'm going to cover my child's chair in this:
which has a dark brown background & MGF Kaz is going to buy it from me for her niece, who is currently expecting her second bub. I think it'll be spectacular!
The footrest? Haven't decided yet. Maybe some of my Joel Dewberry blue & brown stuff, so maybe this:
And now, I must away to visit My Best Friend and the Kidlets, one of whom is, like Mr Golightly,a bit under the weather.
Ciao for now!
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
Oh my aching feet...
Well, Gentle Readers, I am happy to report that my first day of Upholstery School went very well, with one or two small exceptions.
Getting up at 0530 was not so pleasant, especially as my brain had been churning all night to ensure I didn't forget to get up and I felt like a big bucket of dren when I got up, but the trip took exactly an hour (have no fear, I'm sure when the Universities go back, it will take longer!). Imagine my horror when I got there and discovered that not only is there no ATM/cash point/teller machine, but even worse, the espresso machine wasn't working, and I couldn't have coffee. Oh dear.
Anyway, most of the people are lovely, except of course for the other exception - Missy Badhair and attitude who turned up late for the information day also managed to be half an hour late on the first day (if people can't make it on time on the first day, what's the rest of the year going to be like?) - but the winner was a person who turned up 45 minutes late, then sat in the back whispering to Missy Badhair - hadn't enrolled, couldn't fill in the form (apparently she forgot her phone (so?) and her glasses..) but she did manage to bond almost instantly with Missy Badhair, and impart the very important news that she lived in Balmain, she went to lots of bands, and they should go out some time. All this whilst the teacher was telling us lots of unimportant stuff like... timetable, safety info, equipment needs. You know. The useless stuff.
Then, to top it all, when we were making our first thingy (oh, did I forget to mention we made something? Well! We did!!), she was so busy talking over the top of the teacher she missed the instructions and had to ask people what to do. I hate hate hate people like that. When I was a trainer, I would let that go once, then I'd jump on them. It's not fair on the other students, because then they miss out on what you're saying whilst answering the non-listener's questions.
Anyway, my Instant New Best Friend, N, leant over at this point and whispered to me "I'm going to kill her...". Hah. I love it when somebody else gets it. Then when we got back into the workshop, she managed to use everybody else's equipment because she hadn't been listening when the equipment list was given out & hadn't picked up everything she needed, she dropped a 1.5 metre ruler on the floor & left it there, she picked up my safety goggles from my desk & put them on because they were closer than hers (yep, a whole 60cm/2 feet away, that's a long way when you're a rude inconsiderate jerk), she didn't put anything away, she didn't sweep any benches... I'll give her a month. And you can bet your bottom dollar she'll quit because the teachers don't like her. It won't be her fault, oh no.
Anyway, now that I've got that out of my system, I will show you pictures of the magnificent upholstered article we made:
Confused yet? What was yesterday? Valentine's Day, of course. Whoever said Upholstery teachers don't have a sense of humour was completely wrong. They got us to cover a wooden heart. Two different fabrics so you can learn how to deal with different levels of flexibility and grain, lessons on how to mark out fabric using blackboard chalk & cut it out using scissors, (almost quaint, really), and the most scary part, a compressed-air powered staple gun to put it all together. Man, those babies pump it out.
Anyway, I now know that the stuff round the edges is called gimp, and it hides a multitude of sins, and it's used to finish off the two ugly rows of staples that hold this baby together, along with my burnt finger's new best friend - the hot glue gun. See, who said upholstery was a skill? Bring me your chaise lounge, your chesterfield, your wing chair. Bring me a valium.
And now, I must get in the shower, because I'm going into town for a social event. And did I mention it's going to be 21°C today & dampish? Yeehaw. Love it.
Ciao!
Getting up at 0530 was not so pleasant, especially as my brain had been churning all night to ensure I didn't forget to get up and I felt like a big bucket of dren when I got up, but the trip took exactly an hour (have no fear, I'm sure when the Universities go back, it will take longer!). Imagine my horror when I got there and discovered that not only is there no ATM/cash point/teller machine, but even worse, the espresso machine wasn't working, and I couldn't have coffee. Oh dear.
Anyway, most of the people are lovely, except of course for the other exception - Missy Badhair and attitude who turned up late for the information day also managed to be half an hour late on the first day (if people can't make it on time on the first day, what's the rest of the year going to be like?) - but the winner was a person who turned up 45 minutes late, then sat in the back whispering to Missy Badhair - hadn't enrolled, couldn't fill in the form (apparently she forgot her phone (so?) and her glasses..) but she did manage to bond almost instantly with Missy Badhair, and impart the very important news that she lived in Balmain, she went to lots of bands, and they should go out some time. All this whilst the teacher was telling us lots of unimportant stuff like... timetable, safety info, equipment needs. You know. The useless stuff.
Then, to top it all, when we were making our first thingy (oh, did I forget to mention we made something? Well! We did!!), she was so busy talking over the top of the teacher she missed the instructions and had to ask people what to do. I hate hate hate people like that. When I was a trainer, I would let that go once, then I'd jump on them. It's not fair on the other students, because then they miss out on what you're saying whilst answering the non-listener's questions.
Anyway, my Instant New Best Friend, N, leant over at this point and whispered to me "I'm going to kill her...". Hah. I love it when somebody else gets it. Then when we got back into the workshop, she managed to use everybody else's equipment because she hadn't been listening when the equipment list was given out & hadn't picked up everything she needed, she dropped a 1.5 metre ruler on the floor & left it there, she picked up my safety goggles from my desk & put them on because they were closer than hers (yep, a whole 60cm/2 feet away, that's a long way when you're a rude inconsiderate jerk), she didn't put anything away, she didn't sweep any benches... I'll give her a month. And you can bet your bottom dollar she'll quit because the teachers don't like her. It won't be her fault, oh no.
Anyway, now that I've got that out of my system, I will show you pictures of the magnificent upholstered article we made:
Confused yet? What was yesterday? Valentine's Day, of course. Whoever said Upholstery teachers don't have a sense of humour was completely wrong. They got us to cover a wooden heart. Two different fabrics so you can learn how to deal with different levels of flexibility and grain, lessons on how to mark out fabric using blackboard chalk & cut it out using scissors, (almost quaint, really), and the most scary part, a compressed-air powered staple gun to put it all together. Man, those babies pump it out.
Anyway, I now know that the stuff round the edges is called gimp, and it hides a multitude of sins, and it's used to finish off the two ugly rows of staples that hold this baby together, along with my burnt finger's new best friend - the hot glue gun. See, who said upholstery was a skill? Bring me your chaise lounge, your chesterfield, your wing chair. Bring me a valium.
And now, I must get in the shower, because I'm going into town for a social event. And did I mention it's going to be 21°C today & dampish? Yeehaw. Love it.
Ciao!
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