Design for Coffee Table (& Side Tables)

Recently I moved all my possessions from my parents' house to my rented accommodation. All my books, notes, clothes, perfume, fabric, pens, art equipment... everything!

And today, I took out my cutting mat and blade and made a model of an idea I have for a coffee table.

The idea started like this

• I like to have "coffee table books" on a coffee table and to have them visible, but not in the way of day-to-day use [glass top with shelf below]
  
• Coffee tables are for eating dinner in front of tv and cups of tea and putting the remote control and tv guide (we're old school, we still use printed tv guides)

And a second idea that influenced this finished design, comes into play especially when guests are seated

• side tables for drinks and nibbles

Third design aim:

• Often, at a large gathering the coffee table is in the way and must be moved to a bedroom to make enough space in the sitting room

So, hey presto:Two side tables. When not in use, they lie on their sides on the ground and a sheet of glass is placed on top and another slightly smaller-sized sheet material rests on them. I haven't decided on materials - possibly perspex (or glass) for the top with the side-tables/ "legs" and sheet material in metal or wood.
It's lovely to be designing again! Made possible when all the bits and things I need are to hand.

The measurements are approx L800 x W800 x H400.

Sewing - absolute - Basics

This may seem overly idiotically simplistic. Two recent sewing projects of mine have failed because of some very basic things that I overlooked.

The Fabric
Most fabrics are woven. The terms for the threads going in different directions are "weft" and "warp"
Cutting fabric
In terms of cutting a fabric, I get the idea of cutting "on the bias" - that is diagonal to the threads (both the warp and the weft).
It's ordinary cutting that I'm not so clear about. For example, should the waistline of my garment be parallel to the weft or to the warp? Or if the question is easier phrased thus: "should the waistline be perpindular to the weft or to the warp?" It seems so simple, so basic, but I'm stumped.

(And this is to say nothing of the fabrics inside and out-side.)

Another term - "selvage" - that's the edges as seen on the right and left in the images above.

Window Dressing
I did pick up a nice tip about cutting a fabric "on the straight of the grain". Make a snip through the selvage, pull a weft thread and it will cause a puckering effect through the weft line of the fabric (if loosely woven enough). The fabric can then be cut squarely along this line. So certainly with window dressing, I am confident that the fabric must hang as it was woven, eg the top of the window is parallel to the weft.*

Dress-making
Now for dressmaking... aha! often the pattern will have arrows# - these arrows indicate the direction of the grain (direction of the warp, me-presumes). Therefore... I will take it that my skirt is to hang like a curtain and its waistband is to be perpendicular to the warp, parallel to the weft. I understand this now. Will it still make sense if I need to re-teach myself six months down the line?

*This tip was picked up on: www.seweasywindows.com
#Learnt on www.startsewing.co.uk

Another spoon

I love spoons!

My friend bought me this spoon after a visit to a Silver exhibition in Limerick's Hunt Museum.

I'm not really sure what it's for. It's the size of a teaspoon but the head is very flat so I think perhaps it's useful for serving marmalade from a little dish onto your plate or morning toast.

At the moment I'm using it for my loose teas to measure and place them into the teapot.

Honey or Jam Spoon

This spoon is like a teaspoon but with a kink in the arm.

The kink enables the spoon to sit on the edge of a jar. So for serving honey or jam, the contents can drip back into the jar after being used.

It doesn't work so well though when the jar is full!

Spoons - Olive spoon

This spoon is the length of an ice-cream or dessert spoon with the head of a teaspoon and a hole through it! The hole lets the brine drip through when removing olives from a jar.

Spoons - Sugar Sifter

In Cardiff at the weekend, we followed signs for a "Vintage Fair" and found ourselves in a church hall with tables set up in typical fashion.

One sweet little stall sold silverware and cutlery. And I found it hard to choose between two beautiful silver-plated "sugar sifters"

I chose this one because of the dainty edging:
Haven't used it yet!

And isn't the label beautiful?! Every item on the stall had a similar label, tied to the item by its little ribbon.

Sewing a purse

My flatmate wanted a purse that was slim enough to fit in her back pocket. But also had dividers for coins / notes / cards.

It was her birthday. I headed into town.

There are so many basic purses in the shops. €4, €5, €7, €8 and onwards and upwards for a zip attached to a pretty-patterned fabric; no dividers!

I popped in to the trimmings shop and bought a 4" zip for €1.50 and with some black satin fabric I had at home, proceeded to piece together the purse.

Here's the design:

• 4x rectangles of fabric, same size + zip
  
• turn down the long edge one of the rectangles and sew an edge - do this with two of the rectangles
• sew the zip onto a long edge of the other two rectangles
• place all four pieces of fabric on top of each other (placing the edged pieces and the zip on the same side) and sew the three edges
• voilá