Vintage Finds - Redesigned

Vintage finds, redesigned. This is my catch phrase for my sammysgrammy etsy shop. This inclination has been a part of who I am for so long, I don't remember when it started. I just remember always remaking, repurposing, redesigning from my earliest childhood. As a 12 year old, I redesigned my grandmother's sewing machine cover to be a skirt for the vanity in my bedroom. Even the dressing table was a reuse of a maple desk. In my naivete, I thumbtacked the skirt to the table. It looked so "girlie" and that was exactly my intention. I was a very happy 12 year old about my room. I actually still am on the hunt for items I can repurpose. Quite some time ago, I came across a white chenille bedspread at an estate sale. I bought it. My intention was to make one of those maxi length swing coat/dusters from it but I could never bring myself cut into the fabric and desecrate it's beautiful purpose.

You may know about the kind of weather we've been having in the northeast of the U.S.A. this summer. Blistering temperatures and no rain. I desperately needed a lighter than air bedspread. I can't sleep without covers but this summer, I wanted those covers to be thin, light, cloudlike, a whisper. I thought of the stashed bedspread. It was exactly perfect. The backround for the chenille design was a very thin, sheetlike fabric. I laundered it and dried it on the clothesline in the backyard. It smelled beautiful - like the outdoors. Then brought it in and put it on my bed. Alas, it didn't fit and didn't look good. I have a queen size bed. When this bedspread was manufactured there was no such thing as a queen size bed. There were singles and doubles and baby cribs. That's it.

My vintage bedspread did not drop down on the sides long enough. And it was enormously long lengthwise. In circa 1940 the happy homemaker made her double bed by letting the bedspread edges all drop approximately the same length all around the bed. Therefore the sides and foot of the bed all looked uniform. The huge amount of fabric remaining at the head board was used to wrap around the pillows. Voila! the bed was made. In the 21st century, we dress beds totally different. We don't cover pillows with bedspread. We actually highlight pillows, covering them with shams, adding lots and lots of them to make the bed look a bit like the bed of the princess in "The Princess and the Pea" story book. Therefore I cut off the extra length of the bedspread. I will make a pillow sham from it one day. Next, I needed to add depth to the sides and bottom. After much design-think, I decided on tulle. I purchased double the length of the 3 sides I wanted to extend. I stretched out the entire 7 yards of tulle and folded the 54" width of it in half and pressed it with the iron. I then had 4 layers of tulle.

I used 2 packages of clear elastic to gather up the skirt, stretching the elastic and sewing with a zigzag stitch so that when I released the tension on the elastic, the tulle automatically gathered up. The final step was attaching this gigantic tutu to the sides and bottom edge of my vintage bedspread. Now it fit my bed in a manner that pleased my eye. It is perfect for these hot nights. I'm in love with it........