100 Year Old Finish

I am skeptical - is is really 100 years old?

The Commissioned Pillow Covers are done.

I have made quilts and pillows for this client before.  She has a good eye for colors and combinations.  She gets the ideas and I sew.  This time is was pillow covers made from 100-year-old fabric from France.  Apparently there are just rolls and rolls of this kind of fabric sitting on shelves in Europe.  This particular kind was original used to make grain/flour/feed sacks. 

As historical as it may be it was a bugger to sew.  Maybe if I had sewn by hand it would have worked out better.  But as I worked with it I really felt for the women who HAD to sew by hand out of necessity, not desire for a beautiful home.


When I first started cutting I thought about our modern tools being used on this ancient fabric.  They were not designed for this rough fabric though.  I broke needles and desperately need a new rotary cutter blade now.


These were to be simple 20" x 20" pillows covers with an invisible zipper so they could be removed for washing.  The first attempt at a real invisible zipper was a complete disaster.  I got the zipper in, but it was not strong enough to operate against the heavy fabric and broke on the first try.

It will look amazing combined with her other pillows.

Envelope style closing was out because the fabric just couldn't make a nice edge.  So back to zipper.  A regular zipper.  Worked fine.  Since it will be placed on the down side on the couch it doesn't have to be 100% invisible.  Corners were tough with so much bulk even after trimming and trimming some more.  But the 2 covers are uniform in their "not crisp" corners and I think the client will be okay with that based on previous projects.


I think I am back to my hiatus from commissioned projects for another while.  I have to finish 2 baby quilts by mid March so they can be sent to Guatemala.

So I am ending this by hooking up with Crazy Mom Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Then I am heading back to the sewing machine to work on the blue & green quilt.