Sew good: upholstery is awesome

I can now add amateur upholstress to my repertoire. 

Starting this year off being productive and crafty I signed up for this ah-mazing class. Upholstery Coutour with Martina Voss at 1000 Parker Street. The intro class is making an ottoman- which gives you all the basics of upholstery and might sound small, but we used every last second to finish our pieces in this 6 week (18 hours total) class. Martina's background was originally fashion, and it shows. 

Here are the basic steps through photos:

We started out with a recycled frame- this one has a touch of local flair having come from the Westin Bayshore. 

We first had to attach our jute webbing with tacks and hammer

There are so many layers underneath, you have no idea

Then we had to attach this bumper to help structure our foam

And then sculpt some corners

The glue is crazy tacky and messy and needless to say I missed some pictures of that process. On to sculpting into the shape and level of pouf you want...

At this point you might already be pretty satisfied and happy. Hey, it looks like something I could sit on! It has corners! Restoration Hardware sells some stuff that looks like this! 

But don't stop. Now you get to choose the fabric. However...this is where things got hard for me. (Or I made them hard, it was a toss up) I love fabric. I went shopping no less than 7 times. I have dozens of swatches. The problem was the fabric I wanted was not upholstery fabric. In the end I added some expense and lots of time but it was pretty worth it in the end. The compromise was that I could use my fabric if I made it thicker. Cue the quilter in me. I actually made my fabric into a quilt before I turned around and cut it up to sew it again. 

Quilting diversion:

Pinning my fabric. It's maramekko 

Trusty machine

Then, a lot of math. Measure 18 million times, cut once. 

The plan:

I also had to make all my own piping. First time on an industrial machine. If my sewing machine is like driving on a bumpy country road, industrial is like being in the Indy 500. Fast.  

Slipping it on for fit. I had to take apart one side and tighten it up

Progress

Corners!

Attaching it to it's frame. For most everything else staple guns were used. 

Attaching my bottom piping and cardboard strips to clean up the edge. 

(Secret love note to myself)

We then attached a dust cover on the bottom to hide the inside/underneath. No one will ever really see this, but I loved the toad stool fabric for my toad stool!

TA DA! Done. Well, nearly done I still have  some hand sewing to do which will finish it up but I can do that in house. 

It was an amazing class. I don't think I've ever felt this exhilarated after going to school. 

       

       

Waimea

We have a childhood friend who now lives in Hawaii. I contacted him before we went and coordinated a surprize visit from him, for an early birthday present for my brother and a catch up- It's been too many years since street hockey and snow forts...

Since the surprize was had (and it went so good) we decided to make a day trip up to the north side of the island: reason being there was this huge surf competition on, the Billabong Pipemasters. 

The day we finally went, the competition was actually called OFF because the waves were too big!

But it was beautiful- stormy and wet and those waves were dramatic. We still stopped at 3 or 4 beaches along the coast. Warning signs everywhere not allowing swimming. There were still surfers out there but it was intense. 

(People taking risky selfies)

It was a great day out. Thanks GK for taking us to the 'country' for a beach day

in the heart of the volcano

Despite all of our trips and practically living in the shadow of Diamond Head, we finally decided to climb the crater. 

Once as kids we had gone on a drive to the inside of this defunct volcano- but I'm not sure that we even got out of the car!

This time my parents and I took the city bus to the base- and walked right in, and then up the hike to the look out. 

At the top there is what actually was a war time bunker/look out. And the view. Oh, the view. 

It was so freakin hot. And when we got to the top there wasn't wind, a breeze. Just still, and hot. 

As we passed some Aussie girls on that last flight of stairs- on their way down I overheard the best conversation I heard all week:

Q: "is THAT a breeze?"

A: " no, I think that's just us walking against the air..."

Exactly.