Smaller is Faster???

Wrong! I started doing some furniture for the gentleman's study trunk this morning. I am almost through making a chair and a love seat. I still have the piping to put on.

I started with some balsa wood forms that I keep in my box. I make a lot at once because they need to be cut out with Mr. Dremel(jigsaw). They are cut out of 1/4" balsa. As you can see from the first photo, the love seat is cut 1 1/4" long and the chair form is 1/2". They are all 1/2" from front to back. That's pretty much standard size in real time(2 feet).

The card stock shapes for the back and arms of both pieces are cut to fit around the base with a little ease to allow for fabric thickness. The curve on the bottom of the form allows the back to slant instead of being straight up and down. I cut two of each of these. The one for the inside is the smaller. Then I cut out another one that is about a sixteenth of an inch longer so that it will fit around the outside.

I cut a piece of the thinnest quilt batting that will fit the top back and sides of the inside piece. This starts 1/4" from the bottom of the card stock. I cut a piece of card stock the same size and shape as the seat form and put one thickness of the batting on that too. Next I cut out fabric to cover all of the pieces. I glue the fabric to the bottom edge of the card stock and then pull it up over the edge and glue it to the back of the card stock all around. I did the channeling on the pieces with one strand of sewing thread. I wrapped all of the other pieces with fabric and glued it on, clipping little Vs out where the fabric was too thick.

I let all of this dry a bit and then proceeded to assemble the chair and love seat. First glue the seat cushion to the base. Hold down with straight pins.

That's what's nice working with balsa. Great pincushion! Next wrap the inner back/sides around the base making the bottom edges and the front edges even. Pin the front edges of these. Then wrap the outer back/side piece around the outside of the piece and gently pull out the pins on the edges and put them back in to hold both the inner and outer sides to the base. That's as far as I got this morning. I still have to put some piping around the edges. I have to wait until they are all dry.

Unfortunately, the real world is raising it's ugly head. I have to get back there and clean up the real house and do the real laundry. Oh well. That makes more drying time.

See you tomorrow.