Tufting...Headboard

So here we go again... 

Today's project was three or four months in the making. A headboard which was supposed to be tufted and it is shaped to fit into a frame, it's very custom, extremely ornate and altogether quite exciting. Except for the fabric being backordered, flawed and then backordered. Then throw in the most hectic production schedule we've ever experienced along with my wonderful client (she might be reading this) who very gently reminds me every so often that I am months overdue....

Tufting really is an art, but part science too, and maybe part mathematics but definitely ALL frustration!!! One of the benefits of being bald is that you don't have much hair to pull out...

Nevertheless, the first part of this exercise was patterning and calculating. I used a cheap cotton, drew out the pattern and played with the tufting. Once I came to a fullness I was happy with I set about marking and working on the fabric. In this case it was a remarkable antique velvet, well it looks antique anyways. It was made last month, woven by someone, for me!

Anna was very frustrated here, you can see it on her face. Probably because this is not her favourite colour, fuchsia, nor is it drinkable and white, like Gewurtztraminer, or maybe because she's fed up with me telling her what to do. Anyhow, she is marking and pushing the buttons through the headboard.

You can't see me, but I am under the headboard pulling the buttons through, you can see a familiar patter forming, the familiar pattern that is tufting.

Here is Anna using her jazz hands to form the pleats, look at the difference from the top half of the headboard to the part closer to the bottom edge, you can see what a difference it makes to pleat out and organize the tufting.

The headboard is finished, and waiting to be shipped off to Monte Carlo... a long way for a headboard to go.

And I leave you with... I am tufting, hear me ROAR!!!!!