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| Parasol as it stood when I bought it |
The handle and finial are bone and the rest of the frame is brass. The parasol is covered in a thin brown taffeta, lined in a cream china silk, and then covered with Chantilly lace. The whole confection is quite lovely.
Anyway, after I bought it, the silk split so I needed to recover the parasol. I bought some thin silk on Ebay that was only a shade darker than the original. It's a bit thinner than the original silk, but since it would be covered by the lace, I figured it really didn't matter.
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| Original cover on top of the new fabric |
I bought some off-white lining on Ebay, as well. It came in white, not off-white, but I used it anyway.
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| Original lining next to the fabric I used to line the parasol |
First, I took off the original lace, silks, as well as the handle (it comes apart in 2 pieces!) and finial. Here are all the pieces uncovered:
I used one of the brown silk panels to make a pattern. I used the same pattern for the cover and lining. Then I sewed the 8 pieces together for both the brown and white fabric. After that, I used some scalloped scrapbooking scissors (also from Ebay!) to cut scallops around the edges, just like the original.
I free handed these, and found I was much happier than when I chalked out the pattern.
The brass on the handle was quite dirty, so I mixed together some baking soda and lemon juice and rubbed it on with an old rag. Let me tell you, that mixture is amazing! I couldn't quite get a clear picture of it, but you can see the brightness and then the near blackness that the brass was:
After that, it was all downhill. I simply sewed on the lining, then the cover. Finally, I put the Chantilly on and screwed all the bone pieces back on.
