Upholstery - part three

One I'd finished the animal print sofa I mentioned to my father that I was looking for another project, and ended up with two. He would donate an Edwardian sofa bench he happened to have lying around if I would re-upholster a prie-dieu of his. Deal done. As he wanted to do some work on his item before letting me loose on it, I got to do the sofa first.

Starting to strip

The frame was sound but the wood needed to be cleaned and re-stained and some of the stringing replaced. Fortunately it had never been re-covered so there was only one set of tack holes to deal with.

Rusty tacks

Stripped & ready for staining

Because it had an old shellac finish I used methylated spirits to remove this and then an oak stain to even the colour out, followed by a quick French polish. Once this was done I was able to start webbing and building up the layers. Some of the webbing was quite tricky to do as the vertical struts were in the way plus the wood is curved.

Webbed, stained & polished

Ready for the fabric

Choosing the fabric for this piece was quite easy as I knew exactly the look I wanted and had fallen for this design. It's not my usual thing as it's quite feminine but perfect for the sofa.

Fabric choice

The downside was I had to make more double piping! I've only myself to blame as I find a lot of the ready made trims too shiny or if not extortionate prices. But after much battling with the sewing machine I'd finished. The sofa is now in our temporary bedroom and will be the focal point when the room is eventually decorated.

Finished

Of rhubarb & trifle

I'm not going to moan about the weather, honestly I'm not, but the cold spring has put a lot of things behind. Last year I'd made two batches of rhubarb jam by mid-May but  there has been such a severe shortage of rhubarb that none had been made. I mentioned this at our Sunday morning dog walking meet and the same afternoon Graham knocked on the door with two kilos, apparently no one in his family likes it (although they do like jam). So I have managed to make seven jars and have been promised more fruit.

Rhubarb jam -  2013 vintage

This week it has been sunny and warm and for some reason I had an overwhelming urge to make trifle. Now I know that every family has their own method for 'the best ever trifle' and that there are dozens of upmarket recipes out there, but mine has to be the same as the ones I had as a child.

There are few processed or ready made foods that I buy (Linda McCartney vegetarian sausages being one of the exceptions), preferring to make most things from scratch. But my trifle has me heading for the supermarket aisles. The sponge layer has to be a jam Swiss roll, laced with alcohol. Next is a tin of fruit cocktail and a layer of chopped bananas. At this point some of the jelly gets poured onto the sponge, the rest is reserved. Another tin of fruit, peaches, pears or apricots and the rest of the jelly. After it has set some strawberries go on before the custard (Bird's naturally) is added. Before it sets more strawberries are artistically arranged and it's left to cool. At this point Andrew tries to add his mother's finale of pouring the cream on top, but I usually win and the cream stays in the jug.

I know that this is a very unsophisticated trifle, for family and close friend only, but it is delicious!

Summer trifle