New treasures

Thanks to a tip from my friend Denise, I found some great used furniture a couple days ago!

Isn't this beautiful? I love anything mid-century modern, especially with Danish influences, and this buffet is perfect for me. There's a stamp on the back that says "Chestnut Walnut", which I'm guessing means a chestnut stain on walnut wood, though I'm not sure exactly how much of the buffet is real wood. Either way, it looks great.

I've wasted no time filling the buffet up! I decided to put all my textiles and supplies in it (before they were just in various plastic bags in my closet) as I've been meaning to find a neat way of organizing them for a while now. Inside the main doors is my fabrics.

The top drawer houses all my sewing, knitting and crocheting accessories. Needles, thread, measuring tapes, pins, etc.

The middle drawer is home to all my yarns. It's just the right size to hold them.

The bottom drawer holds a crocheting blanket project that's been in the works for a few years now.

While we were picking up the buffet, I noticed another piece behind it and couldn't help but ask if it was for sale also. To my delight, it was! And for only $20!

I'm not too sure what you call these... chair-phone tables? I have no idea. But I think it's really charming, and it fits in perfectly in my entryway. I may end up putting new fabric on the seat at some point, but for now I think it's fine as is.

Sewing again

A few weeks ago I braved a new world of sewing - clothing! Sewing clothes is a lot more noticable if you mess up than a pillowcase, so I was a bit nervous to try it out.

I found a really easy free "pattern" at this neat website called BurdaStyle where pretty much all you do is measure your waist, do some math about circles, and make a giant circle with a hole out of it in the middle the size of your waist and then sew on a waistband.

(excuse the crappy quality, they were taken with my iMac with the 3 second timer)

I'm really happy with the results. I changed up the "pattern" a little in that I made it shorter (the original pattern went just below the knee) and I didn't have the belt hardware they used in the waist, so I used a zipper and eyelet hook.

A minor problem I have with it is that any gust of wind makes it fly up. I heard that you can sew fishline into the hem to help weight it down, but at this point I'm fine with it as it is.

Having success with this has definitely made me more confident in sewing garments. Maybe I'll try a dress next if I can find a cute pattern!

Vintage Finds

I'm always on the lookout for neat furniture or knick knacks to make into my own special project.

I've recently come across a few that I'm really excited for!

I found this piece at a thrift store for $3.99! I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with it yet... I'll probably leave the wood as is and make it into a bulletin board, or perhaps into a little wall shelf for knick knacks.

I recently moved the purple chair from my computer into the living room, and needed to get a new computer chair. I found this awesome chair at an antique store just north of Winnipeg in East St. Paul. I don't remember the name of the store, but the entire second floor of the creepy building was antique furniture - dozens and dozens of chairs for cheap, old dressers, old trunks. So cool! And way cheaper than anywhere I've found.

My favorite part of this chair is it's round arms. So gorgeous! I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing with this chair yet. I really love the wood, even though it's a bit dinged and dented, but that adds to the charm, right? The fabric has a few stains and isn't in the best of condition, so I'm thinking I'll probably end up recovering it.

I'm eyeing this pretty fabric by Joel Dewberry for recovering it. I love the deer and birds!

At the same antique store, they also had three crates full of old letterpress blocks for a dollar each! So cool! As a graphic designer, I'm always on the lookout for old tools of the trade.

They didn't have any which were solely letters, only pictures and text, which was cool as well, though I'm mainly into the typographic blocks.

Nevertheless, I did pick up several blocks and am that much closer to being able to make my own letterpress block wall like this one from JHID.

Birds Table Runner

My second sewing project was making a table runner to match the pillows I made earlier.

I wanted to make one that looked a bit homemade, a little kitschy, with sweet birds stitched on top.

Blurry, I know, but it's the only one I took where you can see all 6 birds.

I drew the birds by hand on the fabric and then cut them out and stitched them on to the runner.

This bird is my favorite because it looks like he's still learning to stand.

I like this bird's skinny tail.

I'm happy with the results! (Other than the drop of chocolate milk spilled on it)

Secondhand fabric

Ah, I've been terrible at updating this lately. Mainly because I've been waiting to borrow Mike'scamera. Posts without pictures aren't very fun.

Since I got my sewing machine for my birthday in June, I've taken up a new interest in textiles and fabrics. Buying new fabric can be costly though, and in an effort to save some money, I've taken to buying fabrics at my local thrift store. There are so many cool fabrics there! Plus, I like the thought of repurposing old fabric rather than buying new. I mainly stick to the bed linens section because the fabric is so large there, but I'm sure for a smaller project you could sift through some old men's shirts and get enough fabric.

Anyways, here's what I picked up on my last trip.

Isn't this dotted pattern sweet? I love it. The reverse with flowers was the trim on a pillowcase that matched the sheet.

Pretty pink paisley.

I love the delicate pattern on this one.

Big blue flowers make me happy. I'm making a skirt out of this one.