Feeding chair [tick]

This afternoon I've completed a long-standing project.  Here it is:

Years ago I salvaged this chair from a rubbish skip down the road:

It didn't look so bad back then - it had a lovely golden glow, but we ended up with too many chairs, it needed repair (the seat started to fall out of the bottom of it), and it ended up in the back yard for a couple of years.  I cut a fresh seat for it from some timber salvaged from another roadside find and kidded myself that placing it under the eaves would protect it until I could get to re-finishing it with exterior varnish.  Well, both the chair and its supplementary seat had seen better days, but I still loved the shape.  In between time I'd also sold off a number of the chairs we had inside, so it was time for the 'captains chair' to be reinvigorated as a feeding chair for the baby's room.

Firstly I reinforced under the original seat:

Then I coated it with several layers of paint (I used interior/exterior primer first, just in case it ends up outside again).

I painted the supplementary seat too.  I left it in two pieces because its such a tight fit that it needs to be in two pieces to fit it into the chair.  I confess to being too lazy to fix the split that had developed on the left though.

I then left it for ages because I didn't know how to proceed next made a cushion for the seat from a combination of a foam cushion insert, a cut up scatter cushion (to fill out the curves), three layers of dacron (to try and make the lot look uniform) and some calico (to hold it all together).  Today, having been inspired by this pin, I made a cushion cover from a men's jumper from the op shop.  The cable knit hides the imperfections in the cushion underneath better than a more traditional cover (I had originally been envisaging something with piped edges).

You can still see the gaps in the timber seat, and I didn't fill all of the holes in the chair itself, but all up I'm pretty happy with the result considering where I started.

Turning the bookcase(s) upside down

My bookcase project is nearly complete!

You might recall that I had two of these bookcases in need of a revamp:

'before'

I'd made them about 15 years ago, then added the doors when the Schoolboy was a baby to stop him climbing on the bottom half.  Somehow I'd never gotten around to painting the doors.  With the Newbie on the way and in need of office storage I crafted a plan to re-use them as part of a hutch over my new desk.

'after'

I need to paint and add some trim on either side of the fabric (Verano Petals from Yardage Design) to neaten the edges, and finish painting the shelves, but I'm so excited that I thought that I'd share their transformation now (its also your last chance to see this desk looking so clutter free!).

Here's the process in brief (fabric decoupage tutorial to come):

Upside down, with the old top cut off & sides shaped...

Painted and in place...

With the doors added...

'mini-desk' from offcuts and $1 'seconds' from Mitre 10

I should be working right now, but I'm off to check out more creative spaces over here instead!

A finished project and one yet to be started

This week I can't resist showing you my first 'go' at baby sewing - I made the Schoolboy and Kinderboy quilts when they were babies, but I didn't make any clothing.  This time round I'm encouraged by those in the blogsphere who regularly sew clothes for their kids, and I'm planning to use up some of the stash to make some new clothes for No. 3.  This is my first attempt:

The pattern is Simplicity 7017 (printed in 1990, and 99c from one of my Savers trips), and the only change that I made was to use two straps tied together at the shoulder, rather than a single strap and button.  The fabric is some that I bought when the Schoolboy was a baby, when I was planning to make something similar for him.  I was pleased with how quickly it came together, and have some ideas for a slightly different version in the next couple of weeks.

In between time, I have some furniture transformation in mind - I have two of these bookcases, which are due to be shortened, turned upside down and painted for a 'hutch' above my new desk once I can find somewhere to offload their contents and some assistance to move them to the garage.

The plan is to cover the doors in some of Yardage Design's new Verano 'petals' fabric (I bought a metre from Nic when she had a sale last week, but now I'm worried that I should have bought more - there are several more places I want to use it!).

I'm trying to work out whether I should be washing the fabric before I glue it down or not - any ideas?  I've only ever done this sort of thing on a very small scale before, and I don't want to ruin the finished job!!

Of course, before I do any of that, I'm heading over to Kirsty's 'Our Creative Spaces' page to put in my link and look at what other people are up to.  Hope to see you there!

Thrifty Thursday

I seem to be spending a fair bit of time in op shops lately, although not everything has been the bargain I originally thought, I'm happy with the outcomes...

... Mr Saucepan on his way to the school Book Parade (the saucepans are now back in the car, waiting a return visit to the op shop)

... Some 'recrafted' pants (I discovered once I got home that the original waistband as too low, and they fell off each time I climbed the stairs!  The new improved waistband gets the tick of approval on the stairs, and should grow with me)

... A 'recrafted' handbag - a bargain at $2, until I got home and realised the lining was disintegrating.  Luckily it was easily removed, and I've relined it with some leftover satin that I've had in my stash for coming up to 20 years (sad, I know!)

... This one doesn't actually fit in with the op shop theme, but I combined some deep blue cotton from my stash, some of the leftover waistband fabric from the jeans, and some courage inspired by Lara's skirt to come up with a breezy summer skirt that I can recraft into something more inspiring once the baby's born.  Construction was easy:

1. Cut the fabric in half across its width, 
2. Join the two pieces into a tube, and gather the top to a width a bit bigger than my anticipated final girth
3. Join the waistband fabric into a (smaller) tube and fold in half to give a folded edge at the top and two raw edges together at the bottom
4. Stitch skirt fabric onto the stretched waistband, then hem.

More crafty spaces over here..., and more flea-market / op shop finds over here.

Easy appliance labels (a how-to)

Today I'm running around labelling appliance cords!  Here's the background:

In our paid jobs, the Cyclist and I both work helping people to save energy (gas and electricity, not the human kind!).  About a year ago, after hearing about the difference switching your appliances off at the power point can make, we started turning off our TVs, DVD players (two of each) and computer equipment at the power point each night, and only turning them on when they're in use.  I can honestly say that we saw an instant 10% drop in our electricity bills.

Having to have the cords accessible though resulted in the need for more power boards (so we can actually get to the plugs), and often we're trying to work out which plug is which, so that we turn off the TV not the hard drive when its recording something.  I have resorted to writing on the power board in the study, but have since rearranged things, and at least once have found that my mobile's flat because I have turned on the stereo rather than the phone charger, etc.

All of this is why I was attracted to this idea:

Source: unplggd.com via Jackie on Pinterest

I'm not sure that bread tags would fit around most of our power cords though, and the bread we usually buy comes with twist ties instead.  What I needed was some sort of fabric that wouldn't fray and I could write on.

Well, the Cyclist came home on the weekend with a new pair of shoes and yet another polypropylene bag, and now I have the answer (my apologies for the lack of progress shots - I have managed to blur the lot!):

1. Cut strips of a polypropylene bag (I cut mine about 1/2" x 4" using quilting tools, but you could use scissors or adjust the size).  You'll need a bag that's reasonably light in colour.
2. Write on the labels with a laundry marker, making sure you leave around 3/4" blank at one end
3. Fold over the blank end, and cut a slit around 1/4" long down the centre of the strip (when you open it up the slit will be about 1/2" long
4. Wrap the label around the relevant power cord, thread the long end through the slit and pull tight.
5. You're done!
   
   

Flea market finds

Braved a trip to Savers with the Kinderboy yesterday.  He found himself a paperclip early on, and used it as a percussion instrument, which certainly beat the usual running away and hiding amongst the clothes!

Came home without clothes but with a stash of sewing patterns for 99c each (here's hoping all the pieces are there!).  I seem to collect patterns, so this week I'm determined to make myself an 'action plan' for using some of them.  After all, why buy maternity patterns if I'm not going to use them in the next few months?

Here's a selection of my purchases:

For me (pre-baby)

For baby - don't you love the vintage pic's?

For me (post-baby or maybe modify for pre-baby if I discover some free time somewhere...)

Inspired by...

I didn't get to see much of the series 'Around the World in 80 Gardens' on the ABC when it was on, but one idea from an episode I did see stuck in my head, and I've just completed my version of it!  I call it my 'secret deck' (although the Schoolboy had decided that it would be a perfect hide-and-seek hiding place for him before I'd even screwed down the deck top).  The original was a horse-shoe shaped hedge just over waist height, with quite a  narrow opening.  Inside was a crushed rock area just large enough for a sun-lounge.  When you were on the sun-lounge no one could see that you were inside, and all that you were aware of was the greenery.  Fantastic!

We live in a double storey house, and so do the neighbours on either side, so when you're in our back yard you can see other people's bedroom and hallway windows from just about everywhere.  I'm growing hedges to help break that down a bit, but relative seclusion is still a few years away.  The secret deck is behind one of the established hedges (its at its final (chest) height on one end, and around waist height at the other), and between my citrus trees which I've planted in a U shape with this in mind.  In time they'll form a 3-sided hedge around the deck.  The idea is that in the end there will be a 1/2 metre or so wide walkway which'll lead to the deck, and once you're inside you won't be able to be seen.  Already the side fence and the hedge offer privacy from the neighbour with the most windows.

I used timber the builders left behind when they replaced our front pergola a few years ago for the deck itself, supported on the old veggie patch garden beds and some treated pine (all up the cost was less than $50, as I also used paint we already had).  It's small, measuring 1.9m x 1.2m, but big enough to sit/lie on with a book / have a picnic with one of the boys.  Very satisfied with myself because I did the whole lot myself (with some help from the Man to speed up screwing down the top after dinner last night) and it took less than a week.

Sorry, I think I'm waffling, I'm so happy to have seen this project through to completion - it's been on my mind for quite a while.

Repair work

A few years ago I salvaged some deck chairs from various roadside pickup piles.  Some were perfectly OK and some needed a bit of repair.  I fixed and stained them, then made new matching covers, using the cover of one that was OK as a pattern (some had the more traditional two-piece seat and back, but I prefer this design, which came from a Freedom deck chair).  It's really simple if you have some chairs and want to revamp them rather than replace them, and I think it looks better than slip covers over the whole lot.

Well, all was fine until one of my larger nieces visited last summer and decided that using one of the chairs as a trampoline for her bottom would be fun.  Mysteriously she went through!  Luckily I have spare fabric, so today's repair day before the big NYE party tonight!

The fabric:

Each deck chair takes 90cm of fabric (you'll need a piece around 70cm across, so you should get two from a 90cm long section of canvas).

I use the following seam/hem allowances:

• 3cm at the top
• 1cm at the side of the backrest
• 1.5cm to the side cutouts and the bottom

The steps:

1. Using your existing fabric as a pattern, cut out a new seat & back, remembering to allow for hem allowances and pockets for the dowel at the side on the seat and uprights on the back.
2. Zig-zag or overlock the side edges of the seat section.
3. Hem the sides of the backrest and the top and bottom of the cover.
4. Fold the top in and to make the pockets for the uprights, and stitch across the top plus a double row of vertical stitching.
5. Fold the seat to create pockets for the dowel to go through, and stitch.

For best results:

• Wash your fabric beforehand (just in case it shrinks)
• Check the tension on your machine - I've found that I need to adjust mine otherwise the top is too loose / bottom too tight when hemming the canvas.
• Use stronger cotton (eg. upholstery thread).
• Stretch the fabric when you're hemming the curved sections, rather than clipping the corners, as this will help to prevent creating weak points in the seat.

A bit of woodwork to round out the year

I don't often get a chance to make something out of wood, but I love to.  I've observed towards that latter part of this year that my younger son really enjoys playing with dolls houses.  He often carries around a Buzz or Spiderman figurine, and when we're at playgroup he loves the wooden dolls house.  We had an old Barbie one but it fell to pieces, and I think that it was just too complicated to capture his imagination.  The idea of getting or making him a wooden dolls house was cemented by seeing some lovely wooden peg dolls on Blue Caravan.  So, this last week I've been making him a dolls house out of old shelving that I'd saved in the garage for a rainy day, some scrapbooking "wallpaper" to cover the state of the internal wall, and "architrave" to cover my carpentry sins.  I hope he loves it - I have those pirates, some wooden furniture and plan a quilt and pillow case for the bed to match his own.

Trying hard to resist temptation

I have wandering eyes.  I can't help it.  Every time I drive past a hard waste pile I just have to turn and look.  Who knows what treasures might be there, hidden amongst the discarded televisions and cushionless couches?  We were driving home on Sunday night when we passed a pile which looked like it held the contents of someone's lounge room - couch, television, tv cabinet, a picture frame and this little treasure perched on top.  I turned around and went back, my husband protesting, but I think it was worth the sighs and rolled eyes!  The only problem is that now my mind keeps on wandering to it and what it'd look like filled with something red and sparkly for Christmas.  Or maybe with something soft and tactile.  Hmmm need to focus: have to finish the trouser project and a fairy skirt this week, or my Christmas present plan will unravel.