no sheep were hurt…

Tags

chair, cushions, diy, sewing, sheepskin, thrifting

… I needed to get a yellow fever vaccination for Ghana, early morning appointment at the hospital, the route to the metro station to get to work afterwards almost passed by Berger fabrics, I decided I could make a quick detour…

… I was looking for fabric to cover my thrifted chair. I didn’t find anything, I did fall in love with some fake fur that had just come in, but decided that there was no way I could carry a bag of that discreetly into the office, so I picked up a piece of viscose for another Renfrew, and decided to come back at the weekend.

… a couple of weeks passed, I hadn’t made it back to Berger which is only open Saturday morning at the weekend, I had a few errands to run, so I took the afternoon off work. I was in the neighbourhood of Berger, I decided to have a quick look to see if they had anything new to cover my chair, before I went to the Stoffenspektakel fabric fair on the Sunday. I walked in to the shop, there was a small piece of the fur I had been dreaming of left, I picked that up and started looking for chair fabric, nothing in the decorating textiles caught my eye, there was nothing in the heavy weight cottons and canvases downstairs in the right colour, I was ready to give up…

… I decided to have a look at the fake furs. I have been wondering what I could make with the fake cows hide for years… then I spotted some fake sheepskin: fuzzy on one side and a cream “suede” on the other, it was soft, sturdy, pale and neutral – exactly what I was looking for.

… I sewed the cushion covers up a couple of weeks ago. I had bought the foam from the same shop I went to for T’s dog bed. I couldn’t find cream zips, so I went for lime green. Who would guess it was a 20€ chair!

early morning thrifting…

Tags

apartment, brocante, flea market, furniture, lights, thrifting

… soon after I moved to my new place I spotted signs for a “brocante”, a flea market, in my new neighbourhood one Sunday morning…

… I thought about booking a stall as I was trying to take advantage of the move to de-clutter, but decided I wasn’t going to be ready for that, and knew with the amount of work that needed doing in the apartment, sitting on the edge of the street all day watching people drift by eyeing my cast off possessions disdainfully was going to be more frustration than fun…

… the Sunday came and I was up early and off out dog walking. I remembered the flea market, so slipped some cash in my pocket along side my plastic bags…

… people were arriving, unloading cars, defining territory, not even thinking about selling as we walked by. I quickly spotted an orange pendant light fitting I liked. It didn’t belong to the girl guarding the pile of belongings, her friend was just looking for somewhere to park the car…

… as we waited I spotted a side lamp base I liked too… it was also his. We waited some more. Eventually car must have been parked and orange light owner arrived, told me his price, I offered him 40€ for the two pieces, he accepted, then I asked if I could come and pick them up on my way back from the forest…

… an hour or so later, walking back through the market, heading towards my lights, I noticed a wooden chair, cushion-less, in need of a little TLC, but with beautiful lines… 20€ later and it was mine. I asked the guy to look after it while I went and got my lights, left the dog at home and came back with 2 hands to pick it up!

… the lights had been packed into a box, they were taken home, then I rushed back out and went to pick up my chair, hoping he hadn’t sold it a second time to anyone else!

… a not bad haul for before breakfast!