As most of you know, I volunteer for a thrift store that benefits the local area hospice. Several weeks ago, I told the store manager that I sew, and since then, I’ve been up to my elbows in different kinds of mending and restoration projects. I even bought a sewing machine to help the process along, although I sew by hand when mending quilts that are hand stitched.
A couple of weeks ago, the store manager showed me some chair cushions that she wanted me to re-cover, so we started with the ugliest ones. They are (or should I say, were) ugly in a kind of 1970s polyester way. At first, I tried replacing the material altogether, but then decided that it made more sense to sew new material onto what was already there. For the front and back of each cover, I used my sewing machine. For the side panels, which had to be sewn around a zippered opening, I sewed by hand. Here is a picture of the two covers. The one on the right is the original, and the one on the left is my beautification of it:
Yes, the border around the original was made of a kind of tinsel-like gold color that should simply be illegal to use in a home furnishing. It’s an affront to the senses. When I wasn’t working on the covers, I had to hide them under other material in my loft so that I couldn’t accidentally catch sight of them.
I brought the finished cushions into the store yesterday, and the manager was so happy with them that she brought the chair up right away to sell. When I went in today to take a picture of it, I learned that it had already been sold, but was being held for pickup downstairs. So I went down and took some photos of it. Here’s the best one:
I love doing this work, and the people at the store are nearly ecstatic about it. Everyone seems to have adjusted to my not talking or hearing, and they are very appreciative of what I do. They write me notes, show me what to do, and treat me with a lot of kindness. I’m getting less and less self-conscious about my headset and my silence, and more and more able to rest easy in the knowledge that I use them to work with my disability (in the same way that I would use a wheelchair if I couldn’t walk).
It’s good to feel part of something again. It’s been a long time coming.
© 2010 by Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg
I want that chair!! You have a real talent, it is beautiful. The “before” fabric looks like something out of James Lileks’ “Interior Desecrations”! (I grew up in the 70s and still have flashbacks.)
So glad you’re feeling part of something, on your terms. Mazel tov!
That’s a lovely chair — I’m glad the people at the thrift store appreciate your work!
i second the above. (!!!!!) also am glad to see this because i want to do volunteer work, am daunted by how much i “can’t do.” (ironic, coming from someone who hates to be told she can’t… i think it’s because i already have too many messages i put on myself.) again—it’s strengthening to see someone else in a similar (autie) boat just do it.
i think there’s something lovely too about the aesthetic of retrieving discarded things. have been falling in love with warhol lately (in part) for this reason. i know that’s kind of personal, maybe not all that relevant–but i’m obsessing.
have another alternative for volunteer work now. will think of thrift stores.
Go for it, bluedancer!
this is cool. i also get an inordinate amount of joy from repurposing, repairing and repainting my thrift store finds. but i can’t sew worth a damn
My mother is good at salvaging stuff. But I am all thumbs. Nice work.