Grey.

A chilly grey day. We had a visit this morning from some roofing friends of Peter's to look at the leak in the loft. After inspecting the loft, with shouted directions from me standing on the loft ladder they went up on the roof. There they spotted a split in the lead flashing that covers the join between our house and the neighbours. I jokingly suggested to Peter that I offer them my tube of sealant but that is exactly what they did, with specific lead roofing sealant. They also climbed over to the other side of the roof and removed some of the faulty cement holding on a few of the roof tiles. We've been trying to get first one then another handyman/builder to go up and redo them for well over a year. It's only a 10 minute job to do but you have to take roof ladders in through our neighbour's house and access the roof from there and obviously they couldn't be bothered. Unfortunately she wasn't in this morning but the roofers have promised to come and complete the job when she's in.

The delivery man came yesterday evening with the rest of the loose covers, in one parcel so only one fee unfortunately. After much cogitating I've worked out a plan to make the single cover fit the armchair snuggly I hope, on the frame. The fabric is stretchy to a degree but the shape is a basic boxy design unlike our armchair and sofa. My first move was to stitch elastic to the bottom corners to hook around the wooden feet which works well. Luckily although the furniture looks chunky it's relatively light and easy to flip over.

While the seat and back cushions are removable the arm pads are not. My idea is to form darts to fit the sides better then use elastic to gather the fabric under the arm pads. My initial pinning was quite free form as the sides get bigger towards the back and the cover is already elasticated at the bottom. I can see why serious sewers have those pin cushions on wrist straps. I just poked the pins through the arm fabric of the top I was wearing and yes I did get stabbed a few times. To finish off today I tacked everything down with bright red thread. I like hand sewing but there are so many lines of top stitching to do I'll have to get the sewing machine out. But before I do that I'll reposition the dart above the tape and make the spacing more even. Only when I've sewn the darts and added channels for the elastic will I attempt the most scary part, cutting the fabric so that it covers the insides of the arms and adding some extra material on the seat which will be hidden when the seat cushion is in place.