Today's progress on the slipcover involved three wide pieces of fabric to cover the front sections of the sofa-bed mechanism. My daughter and her husband left for the East Coast this morning for five days, and it is understood the project must be completed before they return to San Francisco.
I discovered an earlier layer of upholstery than I had known about before. It now appears to me that this piece of furniture was manufactured in the 1950s and covered originally in a sensible charcoal/slate/cocoa tweed. Actually not a bad-looking fabric. But there are only vestiges of it in hidden places on the existing sofa. Because in the 1970s it was redone by a professional in a burnt-orange textured corduroy. This color ruled the decade, alongside harvest gold and avocado green. Now in the year 2008 arrives a third layer, a post-millennial print in shiny cotton.
Most of the attachments today were made not with sewing but with rows of brass tacks. I felt like leather-loving Stella on Season 5 of Project Runway. She was always bang, bang, banging with her mallet on grommets and snaps, to the obvious annoyance of the other designers who worked more quietly. Luckily, no neighbors seem to be home in the Sutter Street building during the day, or at least nobody who has complained yet.
I had to go back to Cliff's on the way home tonight in order to get several more packages of these excellent small Escutcheon Pins.
As I was leaving for the evening, with the light fading, I took a last picture of the empty apartment as it prepared for an unaccustomed spell of silence.