I Can't Keep Up!

So we all know I am terrible at keeping up with what I do, vs posting it on the blog, right? Today was a total example of how behind I am, we sold a vanity dresser on craigslist that I refinished for Emmie's room last summer, and I still have as of yet to post about it here....... what the heck me? cathgrace, this is your memo to get your booty in gear! I even used the pictures I took of the dresser last year to put it on craigslist, so there isn't even a photo shoot excuse. We have sold the turquoise dresser that I did for her room, and now the purple vanity dresser, because they were too big and low, with not enough storage, and I have refinished a tall boy style dresser for her that has a smaller footprint than both pieces, but with much more storage - the motto of the day being think up in the new apartment, not out!

Anyway, I'm going to add it now, even though I don't own it anymore, so there lazy self, you got it up at some point anyway!

Here are the before pictures, we got this piece at an estate sale for $45, It was really old, probably early 1900s?

After sanding, and spray painting the whole thing purple, I sanded back all the edges, added gold paint to some details, and then wiped stain over everything.

sorry about the weird corners cut of this picture, you could see both of our cars' licence  plates in the background of this one!

The insides of the drawers were pretty yucky, so I cleaned them out, stained the outsides of the drawers, and then sprayed the insides with a fresh lemon sherbet color so they felt fresh and clean.

So anyway, there it is! Hopefully the new owners will like it now that we don't have it anymore!!!

Maybe I'll manage to share Emmie's new ORANGE dresser before we get rid of it down the road (no plans in the immediate future to get rid of it, but you never know how long it will take me! I have photo's of it already taken, but apparently that doesn't mean anything!)


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These Poor Fingers...... {photo of the day}

My Hands, they are both the tools of my trade, and victims of my abuse. This week I managed to get blisters, a 1/4" splinter under the nail, stain, paint, sand my nails (not in a good way!) callouses, burns, and general aches and pains due to too much use and abuse from embroidering for hours, and refinishing 2 pieces of furniture.

I'll share pretty pictures later, today I'm sharing my poor fingers, I need to be kinder to them before they go on strike!


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Thanks for reading!

Catherine

New Season of Project Run and Play! Week 3

The new season of Project Run and Play is in full swing, and I have been following the competition but not playing in the sew along thanks to a sewing machine that needed to be serviced. This week's challenge was Earth Day, so you could use any recycled, upcycled, or organic fabric. I got a wild hair yesterday that I would make something for the sew along flickr group, and ran out to my local thrift store to find something in knit fabric, so I could make something with just my serger and cover stitch machine, that way I could still play without worrying about my sewing machine! (I got it back from the service place a couple of days ago, but it is STILL skipping stitches, so back it goes!)

Here are the shirts I started with, they were $2.99 each, one in a small, the other in a 2XL. Sorry about the crappy cell phone picture, I didn't pay attention to the fact it was blurry when I snapped it. 

I picked apart all of the seams (gotta love picking out serging, NOT. I did it during an episode of Criminal Minds so it took a little less then an hour since I fast forward through the commercials, which doesn't seem as long as it felt.) I saved all the trim pieces from the small shirt so I could add them to the finished top.

I had to be a bit creative with my piecing in order to get all the fabric I needed for the top I made, there are 5 different seams in the light pink velvet yoke portion just to make it all fit, luckily they are mostly hidden by the pile of the velvet.

Here is the finished product, I made a bubble shirt with little capped sleeves (the sleeve caps were the bust pieces of the original small shirt.)

I used the front trim and bow as is from the small top.

In order to hide a seam I needed to add to the width of the front, I cut the side trim from the small top in half and gathered it so that I could sew it into the seam as a detail. 

The back is more simple, with less fullness gathered into the hem band.

 Anyway, here is my offering for week 3, I am glad I took the time to make it, I was feeling pretty stressed out about not doing any sewing lately, and this "scratched the itch" so to speak! (Emmie's shorts are thrifted too from last year which is why they are a *little* tight, that girl is a weed I tell you!) Emmie did her own hair this morning, and I only managed to take the pictures as she ran out the door for school, she asked that her sleepy face NOT be in any of the photos, hence the chopped off head!

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Emmie's Bed

Oh my goodness, this week....... I was working on a project for the sew along for Project Run and Play for last weeks theme of pattern remix, and then my sewing machine died........ Well, it didn't DIE die, but it started acting up and I just can't make myself sew something badly (the lower looper wasn't catching everything, so my stitches were showing up short and long intermittently) So my skirt it sitting about 90% done on the floor of the studio where I will pick it back up when my machine comes back from the shop. I could have used my embroidery machine to finish it if I had wanted to, but I am an old dog and like MY machine for sewing things.

We got Emmie a desk for her room after much searching, only to find out that the desk we had settled on for Isaac's room wasn't going to be an option since it was a mini-desk (it was a Restoration Hardware desk, and it turns out that it is too short for a big boy) so we went back to hunting for a desk for him. (which I was not happy about since I LOVED the Restoration Hardware desk.) Anyway I found one on craigslist for $55 which was an amazing price difference, but I have to paint this one and change some things, which is sort of difficult, because right now time is not something I have a lot of. (We have a little over a month before we put our house on the market, and 3 months before we will be in Korea......)

I have had killer allergies all week, I feel in a fog, and can't remember half my words. I did manage to paint 2 dressers and the second gray sideboard this weekend, I had pictures of everything in process, but then discovered that none of them had recorded onto the camera! Ah well, I can show finished products anyway.

So after all the work I have done (moving Isaac's new dresser upstairs last night at 10:00 pm?) I decided to share something I took pictures of FOREVER ago, and never shared (total theme of my blog?) I had Emmie's bed at a fabric design class critique last year, and I was determined I was going to take artsy pictures of the quilt before sharing it here, but I have since decided that sharing is better than nothing, so instead you get to see the pictures I took of her bed in the critique room rather then some place scenic.

You won't remember it since it was forever ago, so I will post a link here of Emmie's bed before post, so you can see what I started with.

And then here is her bed now,

I am absolutely in love with this bed, it is so her, and looks great in her room! I spray painted the bed green, sanded it back a bit, and then rubbed walnut stain over the whole thing before clear coating it all.

I printed a huge E off of the computer just using a pretty font, and traced it onto the headboard, and then painted it in gold enamel paint. (I did this before the stain and clear coat) Emmie feels like such a princess with her monogrammed bed!

 The bed skirt is made from Anna Maria Horner's innocent crush line, which I found after I made the quilt, and I was very happy with how many colors in this line went with the one's I had already put in the quilt!

The pillows are some I made for a school assignment, I painted the pictures, scanned them onto a computer, and then had them printed onto fabric at school (Like you would at spoonflower or something.) I quilted the fabric, and then added the piping, ruffled edges, and pom pom trim. The Bigger pillow has a detached needle lace flower in the dolls hair.

Next up for the class assignment was the quilt, I was supposed to make something with printed fabric that took more then one of the processed we had learned over the semester, and this quilt actually took LOTS of steps.

I was inspired by the Sugar Pop N Change Quilt at Moda Bake Shop, although I used my own dimensions etc. when it came to actually sewing it together. 

There are 12 different printed fat quarters in this quilt, I started with all white fabric, that I had split into 3 1 yard sections, I used a thickened brown dye on a foam roller, and I rolled over the fabric with a texture underneath the fabric (there was a Lego board, a plastic light panel and something else I can't remember.)

Next I split the yards into 4 and then smeared thickened dye in bright colors over each of the fat quarters. after leaving for 24 hours, I washed and dried each of the fat quarters. Next I screen printed with while pigment on each of the fat quarters, with screens I made from some hand drawn images.

Each square in the quilt has 2 of each piece of fabric. I used my sewing machine to quilt this piece, with yellow thread in a free motion style.

Anyway, so here is Emmie's bed, I have to run to class now, so sorry about any mistakes/typos, I'll fix them when I get back from class!

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Emmie's Curtains

Here's a terrible camera phone peek at Emmie's new curtains.



They are made from 8 different Anna Maria Horner prints (mostly her Innocent Crush line)sewn together in strips (my living room rod is obviously too short since they are dragging on the floor) and they go with Emmie's already existing bedskirt.


I used giant rick rack on the center edge as a lacy trim (my husband's idea!) I added it by sewing a titch of one edge into the seam as I sewed the curtain lining onto that edge. There are 2 different smaller rick racks on the same middle edge. Emmie designed these curtain's all by herself, selecting the fabrics, the trims, the red grommets at the top, and the order in which the stripes were sewn together. (Which is sort of funny in the sense that these curtains sort of look like a crazy toddler dressed them-self in whatever their favorite things were no matter how they went together!) They are super busy, but in the grand scheme of Emmie's room, they will be adorable, and they are very HER.

I can't wait until they are in place in her next room! (I will take real pictures then I promise!)

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Thanks for reading!

Catherine

Isaac's Footlocker, part 2 / Tutorial Tuesday

I wanted to start off saying thanks to all the people who have followed me recently, welcome! I hope I am exciting enough to keep your interest (tell your friends!)

The kids are on spring break now, and I am loving having them at home! Isaac went with Paul to work yesterday, so Emmie was my buddy all day; we went to the fabric store and got the last of the stuff we needed to make the drapes for her Room in Korea, and she kept me company in the studio while I sewed them. (She was watching episodes of Bob Ross on DVR and painting happy little trees.) Today Isaac was home with me while Emmie went to work with her daddy, and he mostly just wanted to sleep in and watch TV, there is either a huge difference between the ages of 9 and 11, or boys and girls, because they couldn't be more different in the way they want to spend their time with me!

I had a dental cleaning this morning, and I got my clean bill of teeth signed for my medical clearance for Korea, Emmie is pretty excited for her dental appointment tomorrow, (Isaac went yesterday, and it has been determined that braces are in our very near/immediate future with him. We knew it was coming, but this tween thing is getting here so fast!) Emmie has what I would consider to be an unhealthy love of the dentist, she actually potty trained herself at age 2.5 just so she could go to the dentist, and she has always loved it. (Hopefully she gets good news too, but I suspect that there might be some cavities in that little mouth that we will need to get fixed before we leave the country!)

Anyway, onto Isaac's Footlocker - I am pretty excited with how it turned out, (part one is right here)

Paul made the base for me one day while I was at school, it's simply pre-made bun feet screwed into a pine piece of wood cut to length (it was already the right width when we bought it.) I painted it black over a green that Paul painted it, and then I sanded it to show a little of the green. I am not sure I like it since it's a much lighter black then the trunk, (it was what I had on hand,) but I might try for the undertones of khaki on the peely bits of the trunk, on the base and feet at a later date, for right now I was in get-er-done mode.

To attach the base, we screwed from the inside of the trunk into the wood and feet of the platform, putting one screw in every corner.

After the screw was in, I simply hid it with an extra bit of paper and some modge podge. It's obviously a little bump up close, but at a distance you hardly notice it.

The next task was stenciling the outside with military-esque information. We came up with a fake WWII style serial number (It means he enlisted in the Army Air Core in DC) and added the sort of information that would have been on the footlocker of a serviceman.

I used tape to make sure I got my lines straight, and 2 different sizes of stencils, (with acrylic paint) I really liked how it turned out.

After sanding the letters back a bit and 2-3 coats of varnish, his footlocker is ready to do duty at the bottom of his bed (holding important Lego bits no doubt.)

Here is the before (it is already on the platform because I was lazy and didn't take a picture before then.)

And here are the after pictures......

Isaac was the most excited about this process, he can't wait until he is allowed to put things inside of the trunk (right now I am using it as storage for his future bedroom stuff, it is holding duvet covers, framed pictures, and his curtain panel that I made last weekend.) I think all kids like personalized stuff, and Isaac is certainly no exception.

I honestly only have photographs of the process again, because Paul thought to take them, he also took pictures of me making liners for some wire baskets for Isaac's room (although he wasn't home when I made the laundry basket liner, so no in-process pictures there, but I will try to show an after picture later this week.)  Last weekend I made Isaac's curtain, laundry basket liner, 4 basket liners, a skirt for Emmie, finished his trunk, and worked on Emmie's curtain's (which I finished Monday) wouldn't you know it, but the only things I have pictures of are the one's Paul took pictures of for me! He's definitely a better photo journalist than I am, since I never want to slow down to take pictures.......... I get so much more done when I push through!!! Anyway, I'll try to take some *after* shots anyway, I might not get to real pictures of the curtains yet, since they will look much better on their intended rods in their intended rooms in Korea, (right now I have been previewing them on my living room curtain rod, which is about a foot shorter than I intend to hang the curtains in our apartment in Korea) But I will have a tutorial for the basket liner since I DO have those photos.


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What's Up? Wednesday

So it's the middle of the week and I can't believe that I only have one more day before the kids go on spring-break this Friday! YAY!!! I love it when the kids are home, I don't plan any special activities necessarily, but I just love having them here with me as little presences in the house keeping me company as we get things done. (I know right? It must be so exciting to be my kids!)

This week has been crazy busy! On Saturday Paul and I ran in the Ukrops 10K and it was an amazing experience, I almost died, am pretty sure I cried at some point, but I met my goals of running the whole time, and we came in under my goal time of 70 minutes by over 5 minutes!!!! I am not a runner by any stretch of the imagination (having run my first mile ever last summer) but I was so proud of us! (Paul could have run it much faster, but stayed with me the whole time.) 

Don't you love this picture? Out of the thousands of pictures they took of the over 40,000 participants, this is part of the only evidence I was even there! (Do you think I look stressed much? Although Paul isn't exactly looking happy either, maybe I was worrying him?) If you click on the picture you will be taken to the brightroom site where there is a 22 second-ish long video showing us cross the finish line on the right side of the screen. DON'T BLINK or you will miss us!

I have been doing my embroidery fieldwork for my Craft Capstone class, so my degree can finish up in 5 weeks! I am gone a lot for fieldwork though, and can't wait for it to be over, although I am enjoying the time spent embroidering! I have a couple of sewing projects I am really excited about, (but I am waiting on starting them until this weekend) and I have a test on Friday that I have been studying for, but that is about it so far for the week (other then Isaac's footlocker)

Oh! and I had my hair done, and my picture taken for my graduation announcements, which although I think I look terrible, everyone assures me it is a very nice picture. (it's bound to be better than the race picture!) I'll share it here after the announcements go out in a couple of weeks. 

So what have you been up to this week?   

Isaac's Footlocker, part 1 / Tutorial Tuesday

I got Isaac a trunk at an estate sale for $10.50, which was killer considering it was an original WWII era footlocker with it's original insert and everything. I decided that it would be amazing storage for the bottom of his bed in Korea, but there are going to be several phases to the trunk's renovation, and today is going to be part 1 of several parts before the footlocker is ready to go into his room. 

Here is a picture of another WWII era footlocker that is VERY similar to mine (source here) 

It really is so similar, even down to the paper style that is lining our's! The outside of our trunk has been completely painted black, and the lock has had some stuff done to it, which is fine, I'll just have to figure out a way to beautify it. 

Although the inside is original, and the pattern on the paper is cool, it is also gross and peeling. I knew that I wanted to clean the whole inside surface up, so that it felt hygienic and looked new again. 

  

I peeled as much of the loose paper up (including the glued in circus posters that someone put in the lid, which apparently was a common practice if you remember all the stuff pinned to the inside of the original WWII era footlocker picture!) and then I vacuumed the inside of the footlocker out.

The paper I chose for the decoupaging was a 12" x 12" scrapbook paper from Hobby Lobby, that I got on sale for .25 a sheet, (I used 45 sheets for the whole project.) The original was done with huge pieces of paper, but I think it's easier to smooth out smaller pieces of paper, as well as liking the look of the torn edges.

I ripped the paper up before decoupaging it to the trunk, if I was lining the paper up to a straight edge, I used the paper's straight edge, and if I was working on the inside, I ripped the straight edge completely off. To start I used a foam brush to brush the Modge Podge onto the area I wanted to glue the paper down to, and then after laying the paper down, I brushed more Modge Podge on top. All of the pieces of paper were laid down slightly overlapping each other.

I used gloss Modge Podge as the glue and top coat for this project, usually I have used just plain old white glue for this sort of thing, but I was very impressed with the Modge Podge and how I didn't get any ripples in the finished surface, and I would definitely go with the good stuff for any similar projects in the future. A good tip that I thought worked out well, was to pre-fold the paper if it needed to go into an inside, or outside corner, that way it went in crisply and stayed in place well.

  

Be prepared to get sticky, and rub things with your fingers (even though most of the installation is done with a sponge brush. After the glue dries it goes clear and glossy, which is awesome and made the trunk feel so clean and ready for his toys to go inside! As a bit of a nod to the circus poster placement, I also used the Modge Podge to add some pictures to the lid. Isaac picked a couple of favorite WWII propaganda posters, and I added an image of my grandfather's Hawker Hurricane fighter plane taking off, which Isaac also LOVES. (I glued a few star stickers and some Americana style buttons to the inside as well.)

The inside is now perfectly clean, nostalgic, and is going to make him smile every time he see's the pictures on the lid! I also decoupaged the tray insert, but will only show that in the final reveal, as it was the exact same process as the inside. I didn't worry about getting the glue on the trunk at all since I am going to be varnishing the outside too, and it is just more of a barrier between Isaac's stuff and the sort of creepy dirty feel it used to have.

Next is dealing with the outside, and adding some feet to make it tall enough to sit on as a bench at the bottom of his bed so it can do double duty. I am pretty excited about this project as I was originally thinking about putting a Restoration Hardware bench at the bottom of his bed, and it was going to be a LOT more money without all the storage and original awesomeness of a genuine WWII footlocker!

(P.S. Thank you Paul for taking pictures for me while I was working on this, I am honestly the worst about taking pictures, so the fact that you thought to do so without me even asking you to was awesome!)


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