Sophie James

Dumb Luck 
Couch


Titled “I’m so lucky to sit here with you”, this piece was a collaborative effort between my sister Haley James and I in the summer of 2024. “I’m so lucky to sit here with you” was a part of  group art show, called The Dumb Luck Show. The piece features an intricate pattern custom designed and hand stitched applique. Each icon represents a symbol of luck whether personally or known throughout culture.











Foam & Support


Starting with a vintage teak wood frame, we restored the seat’s support straps by tightening and re-sewing for ideal tension. New foam was cut to size for all three seat cushions.









Icons: Drawing, Planning, Placement



Next I brainstormed through sketching and illustrator drawings to create all of the “lucky” iconography. When drawings were finalized, the bulk of the design was laid out in a mirrored format over the two back cushions. The seat cushion featured 4 small accent icons while the back cushions each featured 21 separate drawings. Once the details of the layout and mock up were decided, each icon was cut out using a laser cutter. A double sided iron-on interfacing was pressed to the back of the cream linen fabric before it was cut to shape.  Then finally, the icons were laid out on the red base fabric and ironed into place.













Stitching.. Stitching & Stitching by Hand



Once ironing was done then we were on to hand stitching. Each icon was individually stitched and secured by hand to the base fabric using a variation of  blanket stitch. My sister and I both stitched one of the two back cushions and two of the four seat icons. This took each of us over 80 hours and was an extreme labor of love. It was powerful to work on this piece together so intimately. Each of us working on the mirrored version of each other’s piece helped us gain a lot of empathy and understanding for our counterpart’s creative practices, labors and time spent.








Creating the Cushions


When all the hand stitching was done we were able to sew our base fabric panels into box cushions. Before we stretched the fabric over the cushions, each piece of foam was batted with a thick fluffy cotton to ensure the couch would not only be beautiful but truly functional and comfortable too!












The Dumb Luck Show


Finally the piece was ready to be shown. The couch was then featured among 60 other artists’ works  in The Dumb Luck Show. This show was put on in June of 2024 and had over 450 attendees. After the show the piece was brought home and now lives in my living room.





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