Parasol Refit

This is my parasol.  It started life as that same ubiquitous white parasol that's sold at wars and which everyone has - you might have one yourself.

Well, mine suffered a terrible fate:  as so many people do, I tried to paint mine, but I messed it up very badly.

So I took it apart and made a pattern from it, and used that to make what you see above.  I made the wide ends of each piece wider and longer, long enough to hang down like little awnings.  I regret not having a source for the design;  I saw it somewhere on someone's Italian renaissance costuming page but never could find it again.  Those little awnings sure are great for keeping the sun out of your face, though.

However, by now this cover was six years old.  The heavy cotton fabric (originally a RITVA curtain panel from Ikea) was badly stained by spills and some wet leather that got dropped on top of it.  Seams were coming apart.  Edges were frayed.  The hem had come undone on most of the awning edges.  The ribbon that tied it closed was positively shredded.  This thing's been through a lot.

The first thing I needed was new fabric.  It had to be lightweight, washable, light colored, strong enough to withstand the pressure it would be under when opened, and maybe something I could paint eventually. I ended up using a white cotton bedsheet that I had sitting around.

I removed one of the triangular panels from the old cover and used it as a template to cut out eight new ones.  Then I sewed them all together at the sides, leaving the last side seam open, hemmed the top opening and the bottom edge, then closed up the last side seam. The cover attaches to the frame by pushing the small center opening over the crown of the umbrella, then stretching the seams down to the buttons on the ends of the spokes and tacking them in place around the spoke buttons with sturdy button thread.  Done!

Tada!  All done.  I really like the cotton sheet fabric - it's SO lightweight!  This thing feels practically weightless compared to the heavy cotton curtain fabric that was on it before.

After I attached the cover to the frame, the whole thing got a heavy coat of Camp Dry spray to waterproof it.  I use that stuff on everything, it does a great job.  Great timing, too - it's supposed to rain at the event!

So What's Next? 

Valkyrfelt is this weekend! I'm so excited!  The weather should be cool and somewhat rainy - just right for camping on a beautiful little forested island in the middle of nowhere.  I can't wait.  

Rory helps mama with the sewing.  

Shelter From the Storm

I think everyone who's ever been to Gulf Wars in Gleann Abhann knows about the little white canvas parasols.  It seems every lady has one - they're affordable, pretty, not too modern-looking, and paintable.  I bought one a few years ago myself, and I painted it...and did a terrible job.  I knew I'd either need to replace it, or just re-cover it, but in the interim, I decided to see what it would look like if I spray-painted it to cover up the silliness that I had made:

WOW NO. 

Just...no. 

Since BAM was going to be rainy (scratch that: it's always rainy at BAm), I went ahead and stripped the cover off the frame, cut out one of the sections, and copied it.  I made two adjustments to the pattern:  I straightened out the curve in the panel edge (see the yellow arrows in the first picture?), and I lengthened each panel so that my new parasol would have a bit of an apron to hang down, like the one in this painting: 

Marchesa Elena Grimaldi Cataneo,
Sir Anthony van Dyck, 1623

And this is my finished parasol:  

Just the little bit of change in the shape of the panels makes the thing feel HUGE.  There are tension issues with two of the struts (center picture, arrow), which are easily fixed by undoing the little keeper at the end of the strut and loosening the fabric.  

I spray painted the finial gold, and tacked down a green velvet ribbon to cover the raw edges of the fabric at the top.  The fabric itself is from an Ikea RITVA curtain panel - cotton, with a linen-esque weave.  I bought a big pile of them from my old dance studio in town when it shut down last month, and have been using the fabric for many things, from tablecloths to bags to flags (which we'll talk about later this week, tee-hee). 

And did it keep the rain off me?  You bet your ass it did. I used an entire can of Camp-Dry on this thing before I left for the event:  seams, then panels, then the whole thing again once it was dry, inside and out.  100% waterproof.  Yay!  It'll wear off over time, and when it does, I might try painting my device on it.  Or stars.  We'll see. 

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