Men of Skyros Preparation

I really, really loved Alison Snepp's Men of Skiros  director's chair in  Inspirations 78  and thought for  a while I would make one for my craft room. In the end I decided it wasn't the right chair for the room, so hatched an even more ambitious plan.

After a lot of thought, discussion and hesitation, I bought a chair at Ikea. The idea is for the men to be stitched around the inside back of the chair.
I bought the chair without a cover, thinking I would make panels to stitch over the chair itself. After measuring and cutting 3 toile panels in calico to try out inside the chair, I decided it would be better to buy a cream cover for the chair and stitch the panels to the cover. That way the panels can be laundered without unstitching, and I can also machine stitch the panels to the cover as opposed to handstitching them to the chair itself.


Once I had the bought the cover, it was also a lot easier to cut the calico toile panels more accurately - I could mark the curve rather than relying on a series of measurements around the chair.

I basted the calico toile panels together and tried them for size. Then I undid the the basting and used these as a pattern to cut the linen panels, allowing about an inch all around for seams.

My method of tracing the pattern is to photocopy the figures, then go over the outlines with felt pen and trace from these outlines using a light box. Black felt pen gives a nice dark line to trace from. I used brown archive pen on the linen.

I only traced on to the middle panel so far. I had to wait for the thread pack and didn't want to get too far ahead of stitching in case something doesn't work.

I then basted the centre linen panel to calico strips, and mounted it in the oval floor frame that I bought in Berima in about 1977. I used it when I bought it, to stitch, as I remember, tablecloths, but I have not used it in years. It is a great frame, and having a craft room now makes it much more practical to set it up and leave it in place for a large project.

It is also fitting to use it sitting in the chair for which I am working the cover!
Now for some stitching!