In Which I Make a Trendy Wreath

The primary reason for making a trendy wreath is this bizarre need I have to create things with my hands.  It's not pretty when I go for long spells without making anything.  Oh, sure, I make meals every day and bake all the time, but that just doesn't do it for me.  I need instant visual gratification.

So I made one of those deals with the yarn wrapped around and around and around a straw wreath.  The whole thing cost me about $4 since I had the fabric and buttons already.  I like to think of it as autumn with a touch of elegance (work with me here, okay?).

I found that it was a relatively easy project, but I did originally use a muted yellow for the "flowers" and found that to be too much color.  I also found that the glue gun was the best thing I ever bought and that along with Google Earth, winding yarn around a wreath gives me vertigo.

Made by me, inspired HERE by Homemade Ginger. 

Since this cost me all of $4 (hint: Joann Fabrics takes multiple, competitor coupons), I'm linking up with Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways #46!

Reclaimed Projects

Since we put hardwood floors in the back of the house in April, our renovation has been somewhat on hold.  I won't bore you with the details as to why, but if you've ever worked on your own home renovation, you probably understand.  Because by the way, this isn't exactly Sarah's House.  Sarah gets to hire contractors and go shopping for cool fabrics.  We do most of the dirty work ourselves and scrounge for deals to fit a very tight budget, so it's east to get burnt out.

Lately, however, we've reclaimed some of our projects.  And I don't use the word "reclaimed" lightly:



A reclaimed mantle we bought a couple years ago, and repaired and painted last week.  To be installed in Akea's room.

The new dining room table.  This was Byron's brainchild, after he struggled with what to do with the leftover heart pine flooring that had been original to the house. 

If you're new to the blog, we had to rip up the flooring in the hall, parlor, and dining room in order to repair some serious termite damage.  We were able to reuse the flooring in the hallway and parlor, but because of the termites, we didn't have enough for the dining room.  So we've been tripping over the extra flooring for two years, until Byron had this fabulous idea.  Why not use it for a 9' long dining room table?  So we contacted a carpenter we'd randomly met a couple years ago, and he used reclaimed walnut legs, an old walnut beam, and our flooring to make us the ultimate farmhouse dining table!  I just put the first coat of Waterlox finish on it yesterday, so more photos to come.

Reclaimed walnut legs.

On one side of the table, we'll place this church pew from the early 1800s.  Originally almost 10' long, the carpenter cut it down so it would fit the table.  The seat will be Waterloxed (hey, I made a new verb!) and we'll paint the sides and back.  Byron wants brown and I want an accent color.

Another view of the bench.

Remember my re-upholstery project??  Here's the chair I finished.  I never managed to get to the matching chair or the sofa.  But there's always next year...

Don't Blink: A Brief Re-upholstery Update

This weekend I ditched cleaning the house and got in a couple good hours of re-upholstering the first of our two vintage wingback chairs.  I knew I was going to start forgetting how, exactly, the pieces went together if I didn't continue the project soon.

I had cut out the fabric the previous week, using the old pieces as templates.  I left myself a bit more of a seam allowance, and the process has worked out pretty well...especially since I got the fabric on clearance and knew I'd be cutting it close (pun intended) as to having enough for the project.  The only thing not pictured here is the cushion, which is also complete; that was a mini-project in itself and took me an entire afternoon.

Original and new fabric

These inside pieces were fairly easy to install.  Thus far, everything has been stapled.

Welting along the outside of the wing. 

And this is where I am now: attempting to attach the fabric to the exterior of the wing.  It's beyond tricky and I've removed the staples twice already to try to smooth the fabric out to my satisfaction.  Going to give it one last shot this morning...

Click here to read my previous post on this project!

Re-upholstery: What the Chair Reveals

This weekend I coaxed my seam ripper out of hiding and began the arduous task of re-upholstering one of the wingback chairs we purchased a while back.  Between ripping out staples and carefully labelling the pieces of old fabric that will serve as my template, I learned a few things.

First, I am not much of a planner (okay, maybe I knew this already).  When faced with a project, I like to get a few important details lined up; in this case, new fabric, a re-upholstery book I can refer to, a good pair of pliers, and a Sharpie.  I tried reading the entire re-upholstery book a couple months ago and I got a couple pages into it and gave up.  It meant very little without actually working on the project.

Secondly, the chair had been re-upholstered before, and some of the original fabric had been left intact.  Here's the spooky part: the original fabric looks almost exactly like the fabric we chose to re-upholster the chairs!  This means we're either old-fashioned or cool in a vintage sort of way.  I'm going to go ahead and say it's the latter.  Yup, that's it.  (Just humor me, okay?)

Revealing what's underneath.  I'm still unsure as to how much of the batting will need to be replaced.

A closer look at the original fabric.  Click here to see what we picked out.  It's downright freaky, I tell you.

You know how old furniture sometimes bulges out?  That's because the webbing (those brownish strips in the photo) have stretched out from the tension of the the springs and years of use.  These need to be re-stretched, though I'm hoping not replaced.

The first rule of re-upholstery seems to be to keep all the pieces you remove, so they can serve as your templates as you cut out the new fabric.  Here I've labelled one of the panels, and I am also keeping track of the order in which I remove the panels (hence, the "2nd" in the circle).  I admit that I sometimes have to force myself to do things like this, but I'm sure I will be glad I did!

I really, really, hope to complete this chair within the next week and a half, but that may be a somewhat optimistic outlook.  I do promise, however, to post the results (and any mishaps) when I am done!

My Winter Projects

Ah, winter.  A time to sit in front of the woodstove with a cup of cocoa and a good book.  Or if you're me, you should probably leave the cocoa in the kitchen because you might spill it all over the furniture you're re-upholstering.  And the book?  You haven't finished it yet, though you've renewed it from the library twenty times. 

Welcome to my winter project.

I will be attempting to re-upholster three pieces of furniture, starting the moment I coax my seam ripper out of hiding.  First up: Two wing-back chairs that were time-machined from 1965 straight to our parlor.  No.  Really, Byron made a low offer on them at an antique store, and after the clerk complained in her cigarette-stained voice, she finally called the owner.  And the owner accepted his offer. 

Lots of potential, right?

And they have cool legs!

I will attempt the chairs first since I don't think they bite and they're less intimidating than this:

I know - it looks and smells like something from Grandma's house.  But keep reading!

I picked up this bad boy at a consignment furniture store. I also made a low offer, and the clerk was very quick to accept it. He probably figured it might be a good idea to get my kids out of the store before they broke something. On very rare occasions, shopping with children can work to one's advantage.

Let me state for the record that I am a poser seamstress. I have the ability to visualize in three dimensions, which comes in handy when you find that termites have chowed down on your home, or when you find yourself appalled at the trampwear for young girls and start planning to sew long skirts for your daughter until she is twenty-five. But for the duration of this project, the Singer upholstery book my friend, Maria, (who is a real seamstress, not a poser seamstress) let me borrow will be my security blanket.

Another reason I'm taking this on is because it's recycling, in a sense.  These pieces may have ended up in a landfill.  Okay, they still might when I'm gone and my kids decide Mom was nuts for choosing this fabric.  But let's hope nostalgia takes over and they get passed on to an unfortunate great-grandchild who needs to fill that college apartment with something. 

Secondly, I had a hard time finding exactly what I want, and anything remotely appealing cost way too much.

Fabric for the sofa.

Fabric for the chairs.  Check out how I was inspired for these color choices here.

And for better or for worse, I will post photos when I'm done.  Do you have any winter projects planned?

A Skirt, a Seam Ripper, and Me

I'm back from the holidays, I think.  We'll see if I can actually get this post out with two bored kids in the house...

Didn't I say recently the sometimes I learn things the hard way?  I just did a quick Google search of my brain and I believe it was in reference to my bum pear sauce.  Still seething over that one.  Anyway, when I sew, I sometimes learn things the hard way, too, because I rarely use a traditional pattern and instead lean on my seam ripper and innate sense of spatial relations.  The first never fails me, which is good because the second sometimes does. 

I finally got Byron to take a couple photos of the skirt I made the week before Christmas.  As with anything, this was a learning experience, and though I regret that I don't have a downloadable pattern, I do have some tips if ever you should want to attempt to make your own. 

Again, here's the skirt I used as a "pattern."

And here's the skirt I ended up with.  Notice the homey decor and lack of plywood flooring in the background. This is my parents' house.

I had wanted the skirt to flare out at the sides, but it kind of dips in.  Ironing might help, but I haven't tried that yet.

When I use an existing skirt as a pattern, I usually trace the outline of the skirt on the wrong side of the fabric I've chosen for the outside of the skirt, leaving about 1/2" for seams on the sides and the bottom, and a bit more for where I'll flip down the fabric at the waist.  The first few times, I made an exact copy, which I highly recommend, even though you may feel less than creative.  With this skirt, I made a couple changes, such as making it a big longer and attempting the flare on the sides.  It also has a zipper on the side, like the original skirt.

Before, I've sewn the lining in with the skirt, but since I was using wool fabric for this skirt and poly for the lining material, I decided to sew the skirt and lining separately.  Since the lining will be slightly more fitted than the skirt, I highly recommend stitching the lining together first and seeing how that fits before slicing into your nice skirt fabric.  I did not do this with the gray skirt and spent many an hour seam-ripping because I made it too tight initially!

If you're a professional seamstress or close to it and are cringing right now, this amateur welcomes your comments.  Remember, this is just what has worked for me.  And like I said, not a pattern, but a bit of a framework, and a way to be creative and save money.  The idea of making our own clothes is nearly obsolete, but there's a satisfaction in being creative and choosing your own fabric to suit your taste and needs.

Green Acres Weekend Update

Sometimes I get on a little creative streak, usually when pressured by an upcoming event.  In this case, it's Christmas and my Type-A need for order while living in a house that's in semi-shambles.  For years I've been meaning to make our own Christmas stockings because our set is rather mix-and-match.  And every time I hit an after-Christmas sale, I think to myself, "Self, you could make that for less, even though it's 75% off." 

And so here are our Christmas stockings, which I made by using an old one for a template and looking at some photos online.  They're a bit plain, but will do until I figure out how I want to sew our names onto them.  I spent less than $10 to make all four, and for Byron's and Charlie's, I used green velour-ish fabric I already had.  The lining I also had on hand.  I kind of like "off" Christmas colors, but...

...mine and Akea's are fuscia.  I did a very non-Type-A thing and let her pick out the fabric, okay?  (Oh, and they're hanging on the wall because we don't have a mantle at the moment.)

I love this border I found!

The past couple years I've also gotten into making my own skirts because I hate wearing shorts in the summer; in fact, the only pair I like are some grunge-era army pants cut-offs that have been demoted to chores like painting and gardening.  Anyway, it's so much more creative and cheaper to find fun cotton prints on sale.  Problem is the skirts I've made are for weather that's slightly above the Arctic temperatures we've been having lately.  Since things are tight, I decided to search for some interesting wool or flannel fabric and make myself a couple winter skirts, too.

I think this was less than $3 per yard, on clearance.  It's some sort of British-style fabric.  I found this skirt on the Anthropologie website and will probably shoot for a similar style.

Here is a favorite skirt of mine that I'll use for a pattern for this fabric:

I fell in love with this a couple weeks ago and it finally went on sale this past week!  The new skirt will be a bit longer than the one I'm using as a template.

Besides my little creative spurt, the kids and I took a field trip with my sister-in-law, Dawn, and their cousins to the science museum (thanks, Dawn for the guest passes)!  Our chapter of Classical Conversations had a Christmas party complete with a rocket-launching contest.  Apparently our rocket was much admired for aesthetics, but let's just say form did not follow function.  Yup, it was a dud.

And though we're past Thanksgiving, several events this week have reminded me to remain thankful and steadfast in the midst of trials.  Included was an unexpected and totally selfless gift from friends, and Sunday's sermon at church was insanely apropos given that I'd been thinking about the following verse for the past couple weeks.  I'll leave it with you now; my wish is that it gives you the hope it gives me:

The Lord of Hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our refuge.
Psalm 46:11

Party Favor Pouches

I made pouches for Akea’s sixth birthday party, which had a Disney Princess theme. I figured they’d make great party favor bags and might be fun for the kids to use later as a place to put treasures. In fact, we used them for a scavenger hunt, so they did double duty. But I think the best thing about these bags is that you don’t really have to know how to sew to make them. If you can run a straight stitch on a sewing machine, you’re in business. And what’s really great is that you don’t even have to worry about cutting an accurate rectangle.

So how do you make these wonder bags? First, find some fabric to fit with your theme. I got half a yard of pink sateen as a remnant for 99 cents, which was perfect for the girls. For boys, something thicker, like a faux suede or leather would work, or you could even search through the upholstery fabric remnants for something masculine. The next step is to figure out about how big you want the bag and cut your rectangles. Remember to allow ¼” – ½” for seams on the bottom and sides, and allow a ¾” – 1” fold on the top, which is where you’ll run the cording so the bag can be closed. My bags were about 8”x10” when they were finished.

A basic sewing tip is to sew inside-out. After you cut out the rectangles (or sorta-rectangles), place two of them together with the “good” sides facing each other, on the inside. Then pin them together.

Next, draw a “U” on one side of the fabric. Stay about ¼”-1/2” from the edges, though there will be more fabric where the “U” curves. Sew a straight stitch along this line, and then cut away the excess fabric around the curve of the “U.”

Fold down the top of the bag about ¾”-1”, still keeping it inside out. This fold will allow space through which to run a cord. To figure out the length of the cord, measure across the width of the bag, double it, and add a few inches. This will allow you to tie a knot in the cord. When you’ve figured out how much of a fold you want, pin it down.

At this point, you have two options. You can either sew the top fold with the cord already in place, or you can fish it through later. I went with option 1, and I had to get the seam ripper out a couple times because I accidentally sewed the cord down. If you go for option 2, pin a safety pin to the end of the cord before you fish it through to make that task easier. When you sew down the top fold, you will have to leave an opening for the cord. I did this at one of the side seams.

When you’re finished, turn the bag right side out and knot and pull the cord. And there you have it – a very simple party pouch fit for a princess!