NURSING CHAIR

Look what you can do with a couple metres of fabric, it was a chair given to me, (thanks Liz) $20 of fabric, it now has pride of place in one of my bedrooms, think its a nursing chair.   

I did gathers around the base, as i felt that was easier then getting the pleats right.

 in the back ground of this pic you can see a captains chair i did up, found that in a garage sale, for $15, its oak, it was painted pink on the top and white legs, the cane bottom had been replaced with wood, which i covered,, love this chair,  oh it does have one old leg, but i am ok with that,

Wall decoration

What to do with a bare wall and no money to decoration it with something,

here i have stenciled large words all across the wall, didnt take long , but looks better than a bare wall,

Crystal window decoration 

What to do with that old broken crystal chandelier, use what crystal beads and drops are left, thread them , put little hooks evenly along window frame and hang the crystal and enjoy, mine is hanging in the toilet window, 

TOP INTO CUSHION

Hi there, one short post today, as i have lots of home work from mt fashion tech course ,,,  plus i am feeling in the need for a nana nap later.. lol  no i not a nana,


This cushion i have posted a pic of -  was a top, it was a knit top, plain back, beaded front, round neck, no sleeves,

Which i kept hoping it would grow bigger, as i grew out of it, ..  it wasn't wide enough once cut so i added a satin fabric on each side and a plain back,,  now i can enjoy my top/cushion every day. the other choice was to cut all the beads off and keep them with all the others i collect.

Welcome to my home............................................

Well I have had a good day, getting heaps of little jobs done, even had time to stand under the feijoe tree , eating the fruit straight off the ground, ,  yummy,,

 

This posting is about my collections,,  how I have to have everything that I can find with the Paris, Eiffel tower / busts, shoes and fashion,,,,   these are a few that are around my home.

 

Yes this treadle sewing machine still has the sewing machine in it, and it still goes,, took me about twenty years of wanting and wishing for one, then i found this one is perfect condition . weighs a ton.

OMgoodness, pics wouldn't go where i wanted them to, these are some,  coffee time

TIP 

OLD STOCKINGS

What you do is cut old panyhose or stockings up into strips and use them to tye up plants or tye up the rubbish bag before putting it out

 

DRAWS 

 This was a piece of furniture i had for 30yrs, its was solid Rimu, i decided i had no room for something that was so ugly,  ( sorry cant find before photo) so i tried to sell it, no one would buy it, thank goodness, cause i striped all the peeling varnish off it , oiled it, and took the two doors off the front, brought 4 baskets, they are made from news paper, and hullo i have new piece of bedroom furniture, 

 SAD CHAIR


 As well as sewing i do love to do up old good furniture, maybe save them from going to the tip, look what you can do with a sad broken chair, i needed to replace a bit of wood underneath, then i brought a secondhand pillow case for $2 , chair was $5,  time to do it cant remember, not long to clean it up and oil it,  now it sits in my lounge.

 WINTER COAT

Well i know lots of you been waiting to see what i did with this old coat,  been trying to research it, and i think is late 50's early 60's. if you think different please comment below..   now i brought it last week from the Hospice shop,  it was expensive for an old coat, $45  but i loved it,  its 80% wool, 20% other , its said and lining is 100% acetate......... the fabric has lots of little tiny bits of other colour yarn, which i think wouldn't pass the test in today's factory's, it has lovely detailing,  but one thing was i had a little rust mark on sleeve, about the size of a 10cent piece.

 lables inside coat , this company Buckely and Nunn was started in 1851 and was brought out by David Jones,

So what did i do, first i washed it in wool wash, i  know it said dry clean only, i don't do dry cleaning ever, if it cant be washed i would throw it away....
i took in shoulders, took out shoulder pads, , took up hem to above the knee , not below,  took off top button and sewed up button hole, and sewed a seam down the middle of each sleeve to take out the rust mark,    So good end result, looks great on, warm , very pleased, not that i would usually spend that much on a second hand coat that needed a lot of work.

next,  no rest for the wicked 

 ME ME ME

Well today is another lovely day, my computer chair is in the sun, so i am nice and warm,  i should be in my sewing room finished the coat i am up cycling, just hem on coat and lining to do, you will see it soon, 

Today is all about me,  that's my saying since my girls left home, as i was all about them and my family before that, before having my girls i was a hairdresser,  10 yrs in the industry and have my trade cert, loved it, love cutting hair more than anything else with in hairdressing , once having my two girls i did lots of sewing which is my first love,

then i thought scrap booking wouldn't make so much mess, how wrong was i with paper everywhere,  so over that one, and stamping, over that ...................

 Then i did folk art, was not good at that, they went by the way side, then on to ...................

Calligraphy , did a course in that with an amazing tudor, while doing the course i did 20hr a week practice, so at the end of the course i could be good at it, , sadly at this min i cant find anything i have done,

then have you ever done decoupage, that's a lot of fun, i did this bust as i collect busts, which i will show you later,

 i did land scape gardening course , learn lots , did all my own landscaping, Important tip when doing your garden, cut it into areas, like your house, areas that are hidden till you walk into there,


Also have a love for beads, collecting them more than doing anything with them. have them all sorted in there colours in there own containers , stop laughing lol lol

also did this lampshade, was lucky enough to find this glass things crystals  in a flea market , which is by my bed lamp,

Then i was lucky enough to have an elderly neighbour pass on to me the craft of stumpwork embroidery . well that took lots of practice,  you will see from my first piece , which i was so proud of but my neighbour said it was 100 times to large, stump work is small  , it got smaller,

Tatting was another craft, you need someone to teach you , hard to learn it on your own, and if you make a mistake, your done, cant be undone easy.. also i have knitted, not a love of knitting and also  crochet

Well i hope i have not bored you, that's just a touch, there was also pressed flower cards , my real estate papers,  level 3 - year long computer course,  an Interior design course, which i loved..,and not to forget a photograph and Photoshop course, plus still today - doing my family tree after doing it for 27yrs ... i did fit in looking after my girls and working in our business,

My love is still sewing , making old clothes into new one, and i am enjoying the full time course in Fashion tech, so far getting 100% in fabric textiles and pattern making,  hope to go on to do the degree next year,

anyway had my coffee back to my sewing room , while the sun is still shining in there,

thanks for reading, please come back, 

At the moment i am spending more hours than i care to say on my Textiles and Fabric assignment, its worth 70% of course, so its important, while going thru the second hand clothes i brought for this assignment i found a jumper, which is 70% cashmere and 30% silk,, its soft, and light, but its in light blue, it had a high neckline , which i hate,

 So I cut the neckline down , over locked, top stitched, and now i have a nice light jumper to wear under my winter clothes, that will keep me warm.