A plan comes unzipped

It is hot here today!  It was hot yesterday but since I had already started the garage before I realized how hot it would get, I kept on keepin' on.

Today?  Not on your life!

So I tackled another project I have had on the back burner for ever:  Recovering the cushions of the swing the boys gave me for Mothers Day years ago.

Here she is with the cover she came with:

That is not a pattern I would choose in a million- bajillion years.  But what are you gonna' do, it was what D could find.  So I've ignored it, until this year.  I just can not ignore it any longer.

I bought some fabric at Joannes when they had outdoor fabric on sale.  This is a Tommy Bahama fabric. For the parts that do not show I used the trusty drop cloth fabric.

That took all day.  Have I mentioned I am not a seamstress?  I can sew, but I usually make it up as I go along, which is generally problematic.  This was exceptionally so and ended up causing me to pull my hair out, say a few choice words, and redo things about 3 times.  And that was just the seat cushion cover.

I was trying to be a smarty pants and use the zipper that existed.  I was trying to take the whole bottom apart, except for the section with the zipper.  I was going to then use the sections I removed as a pattern to remake it, only with the right fabric.  Sure the part with the zipper would not have matched, but it is at the back of the cushion, no one would see it.  And it would have a ZIPPER!

It was all humming along nicely until I removed the zipper pull thingamabob.  Ooops.

I scrapped that whole idea after spending about 30 minutes trying to get the zipper pull thingamabob back onto the teeth.   I am wondering if that is even possible.

So, I just finished taking it all apart, and I hemmed where the zipper would have been and will add velcro when I can get to Joannes and get some.  Velcro I can do, zippers not so much.

Realizing that my ambition was/is greater than my skill, I started chanting 'Keep it simple.  Keep it simple' and made the cover for the back cushion as a large-ish pillowcase, open at both ends.  Basically a large sleeve.   Pillowcases, apparently are the limit of my sewing ability.  And now sleeves.  You would be amazed what you can make that is really and truly just a pillowcase.  Or a sleeve.  Or maybe you wouldn't.

SIGH

Anyway, the end result looks good, right?  It looks better than it did!  Right?

I'll take it.

This baby has a top as well, a large 'awning' that goes over the whole contraption.  My 'plan' was to remove the edge that is in the palm pattern and attach the Tommy Bahama fabric, thus reusing the main portion of the awning.  I'm not sure about that plan anymore, but I AM certain that the palm can not stay, so I will have to figure something out.

I also wanted to use the Tommy Bahama fabric on the chaise that we usually have on the deck as well.  That definitely CAN be made as a large pillowcase.  I know cause I did it a few years ago when we were at the house we rented that had a pool.  I'm not sure I have enough fabric to do the Chaise AND the awning though.  Regardless, I am tackling those projects another day.

And that brings me to what I found in the dresser I cleaned up yesterday.

The dresser has a sticky drawer, and once I wrangled it open, there was all kinds of junk in there- incl. the owner manual to the motorcycle my dad bought my sister when she was 12.

And these:

I know nothing about stamps, but I know old when I see it and these are.

So I guess I'm going to learn a little about stamps sooner or later.

If it was not so hot out I would now go relax on my swing.  Maybe later.