Retro armchair makeover

A few weeks ago I spied a horrid old chair at the op shop.  But I could see it had great potential for a makeover!  I sent Dave a photo and asked if he was interested in doing up the chair together.  He said sure, why not, so a lovely friend's husband picked it up and brought it home for us (our cars are too small).

Here's how it started out.

We took off the cushions and gave it a really good sand.  I loved the colour of the timber (I think it's teak) so we decided we would just buy a clear varnish.  Here it is naked and sanded.

I went to spotlight and bought some gorgeous fabric. :)

 

We gave the timber a few coats of varnish, and gave a few extra coats to the arm rests to make them extra glossy.

I made some lining for the metal frame from blockout curtain fabric, so it would protect the cushion covers from being damaged by the frame.

I made some piping for the cushions.

I got new foam for the seat and back.  The original seat would have been OK to reuse but the back foam was urk.  The cushion cover for the seat wasn't TOO tricky and I got it to fit the first time (YAY).  The cushion cover for the back was a lot trickier.  It had to go over the foam and the metal frame, but the frame wasn't as tall as the cushion.  It didn't fit well the first time, so I had to make some adjustments.  It still wasn't quite right but I hand sewed a fold once the cover was on the cushion and you'd never know. it was there. :)

And here's the finished chair!  We're so happy with it! It's in a lovely spot to sit and read a book in the sun.  It reclines too!

 

So here's what it cost us.

Chair $20

Foam $70

Fabric, piping, zip $20 (awesome sale on the fabric)

Varnish $25 (heaps left over)

Here's something funny.  When I unrolled the fabric to look at a big piece I realised there was a blur of hot pink in one spot.  I thought it was a fault - yippee, maybe I'll get it for even cheaper!  But as I kept unrolling I realised it was a ginormous Eiffel Tower printed onto the fabric.  It's about 2m tall.  So bizarre!   What would you use it for?  Really tall blinds?  Bizarro!

 

 

Sewing

My sister in law Karen is due to have her first baby in a few weeks time. Last weekend Tassy and I went to Karen's baby shower at her parents' restaurant a few hours away from here.  We had a really fun road trip out there with my sister in law Bubby!

Mikey and Karen have had a great time decorating the nursery and since they've used one of my favourite colour combos - grey and yellow - I thought I would make a few things for the baby in the same colours.

I made a little patchwork taggie (terrible job of aligning seams Yvette!), a dummer keeper for the pram and a little elf.  I'm very selective about who I give handmade gifts to.  I think some people just think I'm cheap and don't appreciate all the work that goes in, but since Karen had been buying some things for the baby from Etsy I thought she might appreciate these.  I was so happy they were well received. 

What I Wore Wednesday

This is another dress I made using the same dress pattern as my first two. I really liked this unusual Prints Charming fabric, and it's a thin poplin too. A bit different to the drill of the other dresses. I lined the skirt of this one cos I thought the fabric would be a bit too see through. I altered the bodice again after I wore it the first time cos it was too unflattering and I looked pregnant! I also added the border at the bottom cos it was a bit too short.

This dress cost about $18 to make.
Fabric: $15
Zip: $2
Pattern: well it cost $6 but I'm dividing by the number of dresses I plan on making, so that's $1.
Lining: I used some poplin I bought when Tassy was a baby.

Dress: Made by me
Shoes: Big W
Belt: Cotton On
Necklace: Made by me

What I Wore Wednesday

Want to see another dress I made? I loved this yellow and grey fabric. I used the same pattern as my previous dress but I changed it up a bit. I added the grey band for some contrast and pleated the skirt instead of gathering. The pleating was actually much easier and I think it's a more flattering shape too! The band caused a bit of trouble cos it made the bodice a bit too long and it didn't really sit right. I ended up shortening the shoulder straps and making the band narrower and it now passes for OK.

This one cost more than my first dress cos the fabric was full price. It cost me about $25.
Fabric: $22
Zip: $2
Pattern: well it cost $6 but I'm dividing by the number of dresses I plan on making, so that's $1.
Lining: I used some poplin I bought when Tassy was a baby!

Dress: Made by me
Shoes: Pierre Fontaine
Cardi: Handed down from Dave's sister to Tassy (thanks for the loan Tassy)
Sunnies: gift from Tassy

3/52

Sewing a dress for her blythe doll.

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013."

Check out other portraits on Che and Fidel's blog here.

Here's what she made (with a little help from me).

What I Wore Wednesday

I used to sew lots of clothes. I wish I had a photo of the first dress I made. It was pink and white checks or stripes, it had straps that had knots tied in the ends and they were fed thru buttonholes at the front (similar to this). I think I was maybe 11yo. I made lots of clothes as a teenager and in my early twenties, then I gave up on it. I had a terrible time making them to fit me well. But lately I've been loving dresses I see in shops and they are just WAY too short for me. So I decided I'd make some. I went to Spotlight and bought enough to make 6 dresses and a skirt for me (and a dress and skirt for Tassy too). I didn't PLAAAAAAAN on buying so much fabric.... what can I say!

Want to see my first dress?

It did take me all day to make it and I made heaps of adjustments to make it fit me. I wore it the other day and a stranger asked me where I got my dress. I said I'd made it and she said "Of course". She didn't actually SAY she liked it, but I took it as a compliment LOL.

It cost me less than $10!
Fabric: $6 ($3/m, reduced to clear)
Zip: $2
Pattern: well it cost $6 but I'm dividing by the number of dresses I plan on making, so that's $1.
Lining: I used some poplin I bought when Tassy was a baby!

Dress: Made by me
Belt: Cotton On
Shoes: Windsor Smith
Brooch: Gift from Charlotte (I need a close up photo!)
Necklace: Made by me
Watch: Swatch

I've made two more dresses and a skirt since I made this dress, so I'll share them in WIWW soon!

Book Week Parade

I meant to share Tassy's Book Week costume weeks ago!

These days she likes to plan her costume before there's any mention of book week at school. Cos we don't get much notice. So she's been talking about her book week costume for months. She decided on Alice in Wonderland. For a few reasons - we read the book a year or two ago, I like her to use things we already have at home for her costume, and I insist on the character actually being from a book. Gee I sound bossy don't I. It just annoys me when I see princesses and superheroes at book week.

So we picked a white top, a blue dress and I made an apron using some calico from my stash. Tassy stripped a rabbit that my mum had made about 20 years ago, and made him a felt vest and felt pocket watch. She made them all herself and I was pretty impressed!

Winter Jarmies

Tassy has outgrown all her winter jarmies so I've made her a few new pairs. I made these pants from a vintage sheet whose pattern I love. I would have made it into a dress for myself except the fabric quality is not great. I think they make gorgeous jarmie pants tho. Teamed with a $4 top from Big W. Her pants always turn into ankle freezers in no time so I gave these a big hem. I didn't have a pattern for the pants, I just used her old jarmie pants as a guide.

I also made her some jarmie pants from some flannelette I bought to make cot sheets before she was born! LOL. When she moved into a cot I already had enough cot sheets so didn't end up making them. Ten years later they were put to good use! "My face isn't in this photo, right?"

Bloggy advent calendar DAY 25

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

I've set this post up beforehand - this is the stocking I am giving to my nephew Jaimeson today. I've made these stockings for the three of us, plus my nephews Cooper and Xander and my niece Sienna and you can see their blog posts here.

I don't think I've shown Dave's and mine on my blog before so here they are! Dave's first...

And here's mine...

A Blythe dress

I wanted to show you a little dress I made for a friend recently. I made lots of clothes for Tassy's first Blythe doll before she arrived for Tassy's birthday in May and I don't think I've posted any of them on my blog yet! I'll have to make amends. Tassy has taken lots of photo of them posing. Hmmmm... maybe that could be a blog topic in January. :) Great idea!

Anyway... here's the dress I made recently. I thought it might be a nice Christmassy dress, but suitable for the whole year too. I used some fabric I love from an Op Shop and some of Dianna's vintage trims. Tassy loves it and has put in an order for one the same for her dolls. Ohhh... I think I've actually run out of time to make one before Christmas!

More pinspiration

Remember when I recently bought a Queen Anne style stool at an op shop and Tassy claimed it for her reading corner? Well she has it in her reading corner, but I thought a bean bag would be more comfy and I'd recently seen a tutorial for these cool big cushions on Pinterest...

I thought I'd make one from a gorgeous vintage sheet and fill it with beans instead of polyfil. I altered the pattern and made it shorter, so it's less of a cube shape. I think it would be comfier if it was bigger all round but since it was for a bedroom I didn't want it to be too big. Isn't this the prettiest fabric design?

Caoimhe's towel

Tassy and I went to the 13th birthday party of a very special friend of ours. Mum recently appliqued Tassy's name on a towel for her birthday so that inspired me to make a similar one for Caoimhe (pronounced Keeve). It was the first time I've appliqued on a towel - it was a bit tricky, even trickier because you can't lower the feed dogs on my sewing machine, but I thought it turned out really well (if you don't look too closely!).

Happy birthday Caoimhe! :)

Peabody's Quilt

I have been secretly working on a quilt for Charlotte's baby, which of course I couldn't share on my blog cos she reads it! So I will share some photos of it now that she has received it!

I wanted to choose woodland (Charlotte's favourite) fabrics for the quilt. I found the owl fabric and Tassy was a great help finding the fawn fabric. Thanks Tassy! I initially bought four fabrics and thought I would mix them up with lots of fabrics from my stash at home. I selected some fabrics from my stash and sat them all together in a pile for a week or two, and while I loved them... I thought they were probably a bit MUCH for a baby. So I ended up just using the four new fabrics with a lot of white. I think it's pretty perfect for a baby.






Shame about the lighting in these outdoor shots.


Tassy was modeling the quilt for me and this photo was her idea. Very creative of you Tassy - thanks!



I had so much fun making this quilt and cos it was so small it came together so quickly. I'm so glad you like it Charlotte!