Why Did I Bother?

Remember all of the cleaning that I did yesterday? It was for naught. The closet is still not perfect, but it is much better than it was when I started. I will fine tune after Christmas.

Why did I do it though? I think that it was a ruse on Tessie's part, just to see what was in there.

You see, right after I got the last piece of fabric folded and put away, she announced that she didn't want fabric.

We have been watching the English series on Netflix called "The Black Books". Very funny if you are looking for something make you laugh. In the first season there is a wonderful Chesterfield sofa right in the middle of the store in some of the episodes. Very old, worn and well used. It is brown leather. That's what Tessie wants now.

So... we all know the routine. Don't argue, just go with it....It's easier that way.


The closest thing I had in my stash was some camel colored suede, from a shirt that April wore out a long time ago. It is thin and wonderfully soft. And Tessie approved right away.

This morning I glued the couch frame together and covered the front bottom with leather. The seat cushion will go on last.

Anyway, while the glue dries, Tessie and I started working on the tufting.

I made the dots twice as close together as I had them in the first draft. They are more like the real thing. I went and put in "Chesterfield sofas" on Bing Images and got a LOT of photos. Most of the photos on there had the button tufting closer together, so I went with the trend.

I always start in the center of the panel and work outwards in a spiral. That gives me more control and works out much better than starting at an edge.

As you can see, I put two thicknesses of a thin, fluffy batting between the index card and the leather. Oh and I pre-punched all of the holes for the tufting. It can sometimes be hard to get the needle through if you don't do this.

I clipped the edges so that they wouldn't shift. Starting on the back with a knot, I went straight down through all of the layers.


Then the whole thing is turned over and going straight down again, I put the needle through the three layers again. I go through the leather or fabric a bit away from the original hole. If you don't take that step, you will just get a hole and no tufting. For the leather, I go about 1/16" away. For fabric, it is only necessary to go a few threads over from the original hole.

Then the thread is pulled down firmly on the back side. You can either anchor it by tieing a knot around the original thread or simply pull it up tight and take a stitch in the next hole. It takes a bit fo practice, but I prefer the second method. That way I can tighten any stitches later by looping through the back threads.

Now you know how to tuft. Next I will continue putting things together. I still have laundry to finish and more house cleaning to do, since I was conned into doing that closet yesterday.

See you tomorrow.