OH BROTHER!

Well, I made it home safely from the land of techno-confusion (I never did figure out how to upload a photo on my parents pretty mac computers!) and after the Delta jet gingerly touched down on the rain-swept tarmac at JFK, I hopped in my car and drove the winding, lonely trek back up to our home in the woods. When I arrived in a cloud of fog, deer chomping away at the plants in our front yard and not a sole awake (even Canyon, our fearless protector, was passed out in front of a fan upstairs) the only thing to greet me at 3AM was our new, pink Brother. Joe decided to use some of his birthday gift cards on a gift for the house that (hopefully) will keep on giving. Me and my tall cup of Joe have very similar taste and when it comes to furniture, we both love finding old, beautiful pieces most people would discard, and giving them new life. That love of old, deteriorating furniture means that our home looks like the waiting room for furniture hell or backstage at a makeover show. Our contestants have great potential but their current state is far from tailored. Finding inexpensive fabric to recover our pieces, as you've seen here (I find fabric online, at Ikea, use old shirts and sheets, etc.) isn't the hard part. Trying to secure a seamstress who charges reasonable prices is like finding a brand new Mercedes in Beverly Hills for the price of a Yugo. Even here, it aint gonna happen. So, enter our new friend (or enemy). I flipped through the "Sewing for Dummies" book and, to my surprise, it doesn't look terribly complicated. So, before I start to sew, I've decided to practice on a few old shirts and pillow cases before putting thread to new fabric. If this works...and check back to see if it does...I've got pillowcases, curtains and slip-covers on my list of projects. If you've got any pointers for me, please shoot me an email at paul@paulhechtdesigns.com. Heck, even send me a picture of your projects and I'll post them here for everyone else to see...just so you don't sew me, anything you send becomes the property of hechtips!! Happy sewing!!
TIME TO COMPLETE TASK: The Brother sewing machine arrived in two days from Amazon
COST: Joe chose the lovely Brother XL2610 (we don't exactly know what that means) for $85 on amazon.com with free shipping.
STRESS LEVEL: If I can pull this one off and save a TON of money on house projects: LOW