THIS OLD COUCH

I have an old couch. We-as a nation-were celebrating our bicentennial when this couch was new. This Old Couch originally belonged to my Uncle Harold and Aunt Trudy. When my cousin, Eric, and I moved to Nashville TOC moved with us. For many the picture at left off 3-year-old me old holding Eric, The Bicentennial Baby, in my arms while I sat on TOC sat on the side table next to it. It really is a great couch-still. It has a pull out sofa and it's held up well. They don't make 'em like TOC anymore, my friends.
A few years ago my great aunt, Myra, moved into a retirement home. While cleaning out Aunt Myra’s basement my mom found a huge roll of canvas beneath the stairs. Yards and yards (don’t ask me how many-I’m bad with numbers) of canvas! I have been attempting to get around to making a slip cover for TOC for longer than I care to admit. Two years ago I was going to use my long Labor Day weekend to work on a slip cover. Then I hurt my back that weekend and ended up with 2 herniated discs and a bad case of sciatica (and the pain...oh the pain). Needless to say the canvas remained in a box in my closest. Then I got into knitting and didn’t even take the cover off my sewing machine (also courtesy of Aunt Myra) until last night. (It’s a really heavy sewing machine so, in CSHBG’s absence Knitter Katie got it out of my closest for me so that I wouldn’t herniate the rest of my discs).

This week I got the wild hare and a renewed interest in giving TOC a make-over. So I pulled out some of the canvas and bought a few packages of Rit Dye. Red. I wanted a red sofa. I filled the kitchen sink with enough hot water and three boxes of Rit Dye in Scarlet to cover the canvas. After washing and drying it it’s kind of a pinky orangey red. See picture...which kind of looks like something from a Matthew Barney installation. The pinky orangey red was not what I was going for. I found the “recipe” for the color I had in mind on Rit’s website. Paprika!!! I need another box of Scarlet and a box of Sunshine Orange and then I think I’ll achieve a color worthy of TOC and all its history.