Years ago I was walking through Nordstrom when I spied a very cool skirt made from mens ties. It was in Brass Plum and it was $275.00. I thought my daughter would love it...but not for $275.00. If it had been $27.50 I might have sprung for it. On the way home I thought about the skirt, how easy it would be to make - if only one had a basket full of mens ties...well one did! And I had been saving them for just the right project and a skirt for my daughter was it!
Cute, no? It's made from all silk ties, looks exactly like the one I saw at Nordstrom and I was so excited to give it to my daughter and she loved it. Fast forward about 8 years...on a recent visit to my daughter's home I found this skirt in a heap in her GARAGE! She said it no longer fit (it's a size 4, she's now a 6) and she didn't want to give it away (thank heavens!) and she didn't know what to do with it so it was in her garage with a bunch of other crap. Well, that was that. I took it back, told her I would find someone to give it to or do something with it - I just couldn't let it sit in her garage!
This hideous little mushroom ottoman was a garage sale find - I have been letting it "age" while trying to decide how to recover it. When I got home from SLC with the tie skirt I casually tossed it on top of the mushroom, which was sitting in my workroom. Every day I would see the skirt on top of the mushroom and yet nothing sparked...and then one day...I thought...what if...what if I put the entire skirt, without taking it apart at all, over the mushroom for a slip-cover?
That's what I did! I took a needle and carpet thread and gathered up the top of the skirt, about 2-inches down from the waistband (which made it the perfect length to cover the ottoman) and folded it under to form a nice circle. Now all I needed was another piece of silk, a piece for backing and some batting...presto-chango, my mushroom ottoman would have a "Dresden quilt block kind of look" for a cover!
The center of the ottoman kind of sinks in a bit so I stuffed the cover piece with batting. It looks like a bubble in the pic above but only half of it had been sewn down. I sewed it on by hand and after it was all attached, it looked great and wasn't all that "bubbly."
It's more than an ottoman...it's a conversation piece! And look! It's working! We're already having a conversation about it! I love how it turned out - love that I could rescue the skirt into something fun! I tried the ottoman out in our little sitting room...but it didn't speak to me. So I tried it in the living room...nothing heard there either. When I took it into our family room, it had found it's home!
This might be one of those projects that will have some people thinking I've lost my mind...but I love it SO much! I love that it reminds me of my daughter (I'm trying to block out seeing it in her garage!) and I love that I know there's a brown velvet mushroom underneath and no one else does - well, except you - let's just keep it as our little secret.
My little tie ottoman fits in perfectly in a room full of conversation pieces. A friend once told me my entire house was a conversation piece...I was all, "Stop, I'm blushing!" as she was rolling her eyes and snickering...whatever...the next time she comes I'm going to show her my mens-ties-skirt-ottoman and watch her turn green with envy...or puke...either way a conversation will ensue!
