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Saturday, December 3, 2011

Chesterfield....

Not the kind you smoke....The kind that you sit upon.

When Walter and I were first married, we had a house so small that a regular sofa wouldn't fit in the living room. I am talking about 12' by12'.

I coerced him into at tufted Chesterfield Sofa. It was actually more of a love seat. It was cream colored and very comfortable...Too small to stretch out on.

It stayed with us for almost 20 years....It finally bit the dust. I always liked that style.

I made the mistake of showing one of the same style, in a magazine, to Tessie. They never seem to go out of style.

Anyway, as soon as she saw it, she demanded, "Make me that!" No please in front or thank you behind. Just the three words.

I made one in mini years ago. It was a pewter colored velvet. Looked pretty good. I think that I finally sold it, because it never found a home in any of my mini scenes.

Tessie's demand put me in the mood for making one again. If you want to follow along, the directions will be in the next two or three entries.

And please note. I am actually working in the workroom today! It's fun when it's clean.

The first step is to cut the forms for it from balsa. I don't use balsa for anything but overstuffed furniture. It is too soft for wood that is going to show. Anyway, I cut two 2" by 6" pieces of 1/2" thick balsa for the seat. Then in quarter inch balsa, I cut one back 2 1/2" by 6" and two arms that are 2" by 2 1/4". That's all the wood that you need.


I test fitted those and pinned them together. Tessie tried it out for size as soon as the pins were in place. She approved of the size.

Did I mention that I put bun feet underneath? I did. Between those and the padding on the seat, they will be the right height.

We will carry on with the building tomorrow. Now for the hard part. Fabric selection....


Open the closet door and jump back quickly. I have the distinct feeling that before fabric selection, comes closet straightening.

This is going to take some time! Hang in there. More to come.

"Now where did I put that ankle rope?
Hang on Tessie! I'm coming!"

See you tomorrow!

3 comments:

Kathi said...

This looks interesting... Can't wait to see more. :D

See you tomorrow!

Sandra said...

I love Chesterfields - they are classic beauties! They immediately bring to mind scenes of wood panelling, books etc to me. I will follow with interest as you choose your fabric and make this one for Tessie.
Sandie

Lucille said...

My Grandmother had a chesterfield and matching chair. I'm looking forward to this tutorial. Hers was what they called wine red back then and the fabric was sort of velvety.