more barkcloth

This is the other barkcloth fabric that I am using to make the floor cushions. When we first moved to Seattle, I had no idea really of distance so when I saw interesting yard sales advertised on Craig's List I just thought, oh yeah, I'll go there. This took me to the residential back blocks of Edmonds, Renton, Kirkland, Redmond, all sorts of places. It was a learning experience.

Anyway, this particular yard sale I went to because they had advertised California King bedding (unusual bed size that we had just acquired). Unfortunately, the yard sale holder had sold the bedding already before the sale even started so I was completely out of luck on that note but I did buy these wonderful 1940s (I think she said) barkcloth curtains which we used in our Seattle house.

There's not really a window for them here in Melbourne and they are quite damaged in places so I have decided to make them into cushion covers instead. The covers are going to be about 85 centimetres square so the scale of the print will be retained.

I still have quite a lot of mending to do on them yet. It is curious that the damage appears to be caused by light as the worn-through sections are predominantly those areas printed in yellow and at the top of the curtains (the lower half that hung in front of the wall is in much better shape). I wonder what sort of photosensitive dyes were used? I'm just going to mend the affected areas by patching from beneath followed by some basic embroidery from a lovely array of floss that I have bought just for the purpose. And maybe some top stitching too (of course).