Old News

Eons ago (or perhaps last spring) I made a skirt for my sister's wedding.  I didn't have anything on hand that went with her color scheme, so I decided to have fun with a bright yellow skirt.  I made it while I was still pregnant so I had to guess the size--consequently I have it pinned in the back until I redo the waistband as I was a little off.  It's a bit crazy to some probably, but I love it. 

Also, I ran across another mid-century enameled bowl.  I love the bold heart pattern.  Maybe someday I'll sell it (I sold the blue crockpot--which I now somewhat regret), but for now it's happily displayed in my kitchen.

New hobbies

Over Christmas my super fun mother-in-law decided to donate some beading supplies to me.  I've been practicing on a few small things and I finally made a new necklace.  I couldn't find beads the exact same color, so I chose a happy minty green to go with the vintage blue beads.

The green beads were so tiny!  They were about the size of a mustard seed.  Luckily they came strung, so I could pinch off a half inch of them at a time to thread onto the new string.  I have some pretty coral beads that will become a necklace as soon as I can figure out what design to do.

I also finally made my first wood project!  I've been wanting to make something for ages.  We got some tools recently so it was finally more feasible to do.  I made a new frame for my cheap full length mirror.

 Here's a closeup of the frame.  Very basic frame, but I was happy with my first try.  Much better than the plastic frame before.  Next up, mitered corners?!

Mending

Either my girls are hard on thier clothes, or clothes just aren't as sturdy as they were once made.  Or both.  I'm often finding holes in their clothes and I could easily throw them out and get new ones for cheap--but there's something fun about patching little clothes.  You can have fun with it.  I can't get away with this on Corey's jeans.

I did a little honeycomb patch on these jeans.

 And one more to cover another hole!

These got hearts.

 And I decided to have fun and try wool felt stars on these.  I'm hoping the felt holds up.

Only one knee needed mending, but stars on both knees are double the fun.

Ketchup

Just kidding.  I meant catching up.  

I have yet to take pictures of my latest projects, but last night I finally got to a project I've been meaning to tackle for a while.  An ironing board cover!  Not very exciting to most, but I haven't had a full size ironing board since high school.  I picked up the ironing board for a few bucks at an estate sale.

It came together super fast.  I didn't have a wide enough piece of fabric to create a casing for my elastic so after I cut the fabric + one layer of cotton batting to size (with 3-4 inches added all around the board) I just took a long piece of 3 inch wide fabric, folded it in half, and sewed it around the edges to create a casing.  

I did this a few months ago but forgot to document.  I love retro school things and this chair was perfect for my computer desk.  It was in rough shape but after cleaning, lightly sanding, a few coats of Penetrol, and some new feet and it was ready to enjoy.  

Another Halloween

I'm into making halloween costumes.  This year was no different.  Ellie is a huge fan of Pixar movies.  One of her favorites is The Incredibles.  So this year I decided to make an Elastigirl outfit for Ellie and her baby sister was Jack-Jack to keep the theme running.

Ellie absolutely loved her costume.  The first time I had her try it on she was bouncing off the walls.

I used old red footie pajamas as a starting point.  I left the feet open so she could wear shoes, but I plan to add non-slip fabric to the bottom later so she can wear them as pajamas.  The baby onesie was a last minute addition before our Halloween party.

Cheerio, Darling!

I added a few new things to my wall this week.  I enjoy looking at the old LIFE magazines I see at my local Bookmans.  During the last visit I found Queen Elizabeth and immediately adopted her.  Who better to tell me to stay calm than the Queen herself?

It was fun thumbing through the magazine.  In this issue Elizabeth was just made Queen, a budding actress just started her new show ("I Love Lucy"), and the ads make me giggle.  I may even frame an ad or two for fun.

Just today I randomly ran into a 1937 British newspaper announcing King George's coronation at the thrift store.  I got it, of course.  It's a big ragged but fun to look at.  I think perchance I need to get an American flag hung on my walls to balance out the British monarchs.  Go America!

Chair Upgrade

So a month or two ago one I came across a free chair.  The chair was correctly categorized as trash (just click on the below picture to see how bad it looked)--but I thought it would be a fun project to work on while Ellie played outside.  I was inspired by the woven upholstery webbing on this chair.

This was one of those work on for a few minutes here and there so it took a while.  I had a great idea to use leather straps as an accent (okay, really they are the only thing holding the chair together).

There's more wood filler than I care to admit to.  I don't own a staple gun and wanted to keep costs down for a trash chair makeover, so I used upholstery tacks.

I had fun trying new painting/distressing techniques.

I still plan to make a seat cushion for it (I only kept the wood and springs from the original chair--the porous materials were icky).

All in all it took some time, but it was a fun experiment.