projects with fabric – Malvena Pearl's Emporium

interior design project: custom pillow covers

We recently put in a request to the elusive batch of House Elves to do some overtime, assisting with the pillow covers for a client’s sofa. The client provided all of the materials and requested biased piping, using a cashmere blend that will match her sofa. It turns out that the House Elves were on sabbatical, so the Proprietor completed all the sewing, research and musical accompaniment selection, herself. Soon, the House Elves will return, but until then, I’m on my own. With some limited assistance from Hercule, who eats his dinner in the Malvena Pearl Studio and sometimes naps there, this project is now COMPLETE. And as my thesis mantra became, Done Is Good.

Any road, here are pictures that Mr. Acorn was kind enough to take for us.

NOTE: The musical accompaniment that assisted in the completion of two pillow covers are listed below the photographs. Happy New Year!

Music that helped me complete this project:

The Band (the brown record)

Mel Torme sings Songs of New York

Frank Sinatra Songs for Lovers

Robin Williamson Songs of Love and Parting

Bruce Springsteen Unplugged

Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown

Mr. Cinders (1983 revival original cast recording)

K.T. Tunstall Live in London 2010, in which KT does her impression of an audience member: “MORNING LOVE. I’M OFF TO WORK, NOW.” in her Biggest most Boring Voice, ever.

Quilt square embroidery

Here’s the latest work I’ve done on the quilt square: the teeth of the skull.

I’m thinking of different stitches I can use to outline it and then make the wreath of flowers and leaves around it.

And here’s another evening of work on it, now with more definition:

multi-tasking

The Dickens Fair is now done. I’ve completed sewing two more commissioned garments for holiday gifts. They are meant to be a surprise, so I didn’t take any photos of these two projects. But I am happy with each of them. I made some adjustments to a friends’ vintage hat for a gift. The To Do List (backlog and seasonal section) is shrinking, slowly.

I identified and measured many pieces of vintage fabric from my stash to post on the Etsy web site, so that’s coming along soon. And my pals at the dog and cat food store are looking for someone to work part-time. Which is where we get to multi-tasking.

I already have three part-time jobs, two of which are “on call.” I could consider the fourth one this web site and all costume-related work I’ve been doing. And the volunteering for Dickens was kind of related to that.

I really like doing fun projects for the folks at the pet food store. They asked me to judge a pet costume contest on Halloween that was a BLAST. Really fun people. High energy. So, when I heard that they may need some help, I called right away.