Cutwork Curtain Panel Up-cycle/Re-cycle Apron



Wanna-be apron



Sew...



I found this cutwork curtain panel, plus it's two side mates

 at my local thrifty shop for .75 each.

I just had to have them even though I didn't need them!

I take that back, I did need them!

I sold the shawl that was the curtain for my bathroom window.

I just didn't need all three of them.

I used the two side panels on the bathroom window

and decided to make an apron from the center panel.



This is how it started out.

First I took out the hem/rod pocket stitching at the top.

Then, I thought to self....

A white apron just seems wrong.

So I got out my dyes.

Finally decided on red, but I wanted a vintage feel to it.

Maybe only use a small amount of the dye to a large amount of water?

I was hoping for a kind of washed red.

Well, it worked, I used about a third of the dye to a large dishpan of water.

Although,

 it took a lot of rinsing to finally get the water to run clear.

(Big water waster).

I cut off the excess fabric on either side of the panel,

(saving the excess for who knows what)

and searched my fabric stash for a suitable pocket material.

I found a small piece left over from the skirt/purse refashion

that added to the vintage vibe I was going for.

I added a piece of off white lace,

light pink ribbon and little fabric roses,

horizontally across the apron front and the pocket.

The lace and ribbon across the apron front concealed

the hem/rod pocket stitching lines.

I decided to line it with an off white piece of lace

that I attached to the sides and the top,

using french seams. I left the bottom  un-sewn.

I folded the lining at the top of the apron,

 to the front side 1 ½”,

 and sewed it down, creating a waistband.

The ties are a 1 ½” off white, grosgrain ribbon

that I attached to each side of the waist.

Wish I had someone to take my pic wearing it!

I found a pillowcase to grocery tote tutorial that I plan on trying tomorrow.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Till next time,

happy sewing!

Bonjour



What My Eyes Have Seen Lately



So.....

The Market was a no go yesterday,

cloudy, threatening rain, a tad bit windy...



Plato Loco, Waxahachie, TX.



I went into town (Waxahachie) anyway just to get out.

I had breakfast in the little café

across the street from this Ý photo

Then I walked up the street to the "Junk In The Trunk" event around the

courthouse square.

Waxahachie, Tx. Courthouse

About 15 vendors set up selling all kinds of junk.

I bought a brooch for $5.00 and a mini park bench for $1.00.

I'm going to use the bench as a show prop and the brooch as a Terry prop.

Then I walked the few blocks over to the junk store

and found this ß for $2.00, (another show prop)

needs some work though.









On my kitchen counter

Then I perused the many antique/gift stores around the square.

I saw a lot of items in the antique stores that I have, and use on a daily basis.

Like.....

My breadbox, my cast iron corn stick pans, my Fiesta ware, my potato masher,

my cast iron skillets, my Eagle Snacks tin, my Coke tins.....

Just to name a few!

Most had hefty price tags.

I never knew my breadbox was worth $39.95,

the bread should be honored to reside within!

I did have fun though, looking at how things were displayed,

getting ideas for my own display....



I even ran across some Steam punk jewelry,

which was quite a surprise!

All in all it was a good day, although, not very profitable. 

But, maybe I needed a rest, a little eye candy, some fresh input?

The rain showed up today, a steady, all day type of rain.

Not good for painting, the suitcase will just have to wait.

I spent the better part of the day viewing blogs and trying to comment.

Notice I say "trying to comment", google was not cooperating.

I made some muffins using Sue's jam cake recipe, thanks Sue!

And generally just screwed around.





Neighbors' house, Ennis, TX.





Saw this Ý Friday when I was hanging clothes on the line.

?????????????????????

Saw this ß  in Marshall the last time I took Nathan back.



Marshall, TX.



Santa Monica Beach

 

Well, that's all I have for today,

till next time, stop and smell the roses!

Bonjour

Vintage Chair Refashion



Look at that beautiful sky.

 SO...

This is a chair that I've had for so long I can't

even remember where or when I got her!

I'm sure I only paid $5.00 max,

because,

that's my limit on chairs, really.

(I am so cheap).

It's been green, white, red.....

Lately it's been residing on the workstation side of the deck

waiting for a redo.

As long as I had the paint out  for the end table redo, why not tackle her too?

The last painting she had was red over green, the red needed a few more coats

and I just wasn't feeling it so she was pushed to the side.

Time to put her front and center.

Before

(Ignore all that stuff in the background).

Since the base was mostly red, and the paint I had out was

compatible, and the sponge was already loaded....

Monet inspired

The fabric for the seat is a dress I purchased at

a new flea market in Waxahachie for $2.50.

A 90's, gathered creation with lots of fabric.

Oh my!

Out with the old!

In with the new.



Finished

 She now resides in my office/craft/sewing area,

replacing this chair that I found in the dumpster

at our old apartment, actually, I found two of them.



Donate or keep?

 Don't know if I want to keep these chairs or not.

I still have a lot of the dress fabric left,

and this baby needs some clothes.....

Naked ARRANBEE baby.


And I did just purchase a vintage doll clothes pattern on Etsy!

Maybe a new wardrobe for the sweetie pie?

Stay tuned!

Till next time, happy everything.

Bonjour

DIY End Table Redo/Staples And Glue



New To Me, And Improved!

Are you still grossed out from yesterday’s post?

Maybe I should hold off on the jello recipe?

Ok then….

I was out with the Daughter and grand-daughter

thrifting a few months back and ran across

this end table.

Not so pretty when I found it!

"The guy" thought it was worth $15.00.

He says, it's a Broyhill, that's good furniture.

I'm looking at the construction, staples and glue.

Good furniture is dovetailed, not staples and glue.

Staples And Glue

But I needed a table.

$15.00 I say, look, it's all scratched up and

the drawer doesn't even open, it looks like

someone glued it shut.

 He beats on the bottom of the drawer

trying to free it up, yanks at the knob a few times till he finally

pulls the knob completely off. Oh look, now you've broken it I say.
I said a lot of other things, just cant remember what.

(He did get the drawer free though).

By this time he's sweating and I'm pretty sure

he wants to get rid of me, so he says,

$7.00

So, now I'm the proud owner of staples and glue.



Potential Firewood?

I brought it in the house, (hubby just rolls his eyes)

thinking I'll eventually get to it.

Eventually is here, and I got to it!

I sanded the top (broke the sander in the process)

to give the paint something to stick to,

got out my paints and started mixing colors.



Custom Colors



Didn't like the first color on the legs, it was too close to the main body color
so I lightened up the paint a bit and repainted using a dry brush technique.

Much better!!!.

I wanted a third color for the drawer so I added some blue paint
to the darker pink color and got a dirty lavender tone.
Looks good.
The top I painted well, several colors,
didn't like any, so I finally decided to marble it.

Sponge Paint-O-Rama

Final out come?

Not too bad!!!!

 

Finished:-)

Knob got lost en-route,

but I found this medallion in the hubby's stash, (spray painted it)

 had a large holed, pink bead and a small nut and bolt thingy....

Viola, new knob!

 

I even had time to re-do a chair!

Need to help the grand-daughter with her coffee table re-do.

What say ye?

Yea or nay?

Till next time, happy up-cycling.

Bonjour

DIY Skirt To Purse To Skit Refashion

SO, SEW

The skirt!

Another thrift store score!
At only $2.00 I really couldn't pass this up, never mind that it
was a size 4, and well....
I'm not.
 I figured I could do something with the fabric.

It had all these pleats at the waist, so, I just popped one out.
I wore it this way a few times till inspiration hit.

~INSPITATION HITTING~

I took out all the pleats and was rewarded with a giant piece
of fabric-ness for my crafting pleasure.

  The excess fabric on one side was cut away, and I shaped what was left into an a-line.
On the one side I had the zipper, and the length was perfect, so all I had to do was
 sew up a seam and....

Vola cute skirt.

Wait, I'm not done!

What did I make with the excess fabric-ness you ask?

Why, a bag of course!

The green stripe band at the top used to be curtains

and the lace I've had for awhile.

I wanted a lace pocket but the lace wasn't wide/long enough.

Drat

I cut two pieces of lace, laid one atop the other and staggered them

to get the length I wanted and sewed a pink ribbon

across to hold the two pieces together.

Next I pressed under ¼”

on either side of the pocket's raw edge

and then sewed it to the bag.

I gave the bag gussets on the bottom to provide some width/depth,

but didn't line it.

Maybe I should rethink and add a lining?

What do you think?

~BTW~

The photos were taken in two different parts of my house, so,

 the fabric colors look totally different

between the skirt and bag.

I hope you' all have a lovely weekend,

we'll be at the Farmer's Market on Saturday, selling our wares.

Till next time,

Bonjour

Busy Little Bee, DIY Aprons

SO.....

Found these lovelies at my local thrifty shop and just had to have them!

One 23" table cloth, six 9 ½”  napkins and six 6" coasters.

All for $1.00, all in good shape. WOW!

I was thinking of pinning them all together to sell but I started thinking!

The little ones look like pockets, or doll clothes, or clothing embellishment....

So I started with a pocket.

I had this dusty rose color, toile fabric in my stash and decided to make an apron.

At one point, dusty rose color, toile fabric was used to make my bathroom curtains.

 I'm telling you, I definitely recycle fabric.

 This apron is flat across the waist with no gathers.

Finished size is 22 x 22 with the ties being long enough to wrap

around and tie in the front.

I made a pocket out of the toile fabric, then sewed the coaster onto that.

I sewed the pocket onto the front of the apron in a

diamond shape and left it open on the outer side.

This is a reversible apron so I used a doily to embellish the other sides' pocket.

Added this cute, pink, pearlescent button from my button stash,
some lace and pink ribbon.

Wish I had someone here to take a picture of me wearing it,
the hanger photos don't do it justice!

This apron is gathered at the waist, also reversible.





I hope to sell these at the market tomorrow.

 

Wish me luck!

 

Till next time,

Bonjour

                                                                         

Canning Plum Jam and Making Plum Liquor from "FREE" Plums

I never turn down free food!

The outlaws gave me three sacks, full of red plums Friday,

today I made plum jam, plum liquor and plum cordial.

My plum trees are producing but ther're still young,

the outlaws have a gigantor tree!!!

I did a traditional plum jam recipe "twice" and still had plums
left over. Nineteen jars of jam later I had to get creative.

There's only so much jam a person needs so...

I was "forced" to make other stuff.

Who doesn't enjoy a cordial every once in awhile?

This isn't the first time I've made spirits and I'm sure it wont be the last!

I have a vintage cookbook that covers cordials, brandy, wines, weird pickles,

and all kinds of old school recipes, it's pretty cool!





The old school cookbook had me layering 

sugar and plums (stones too) starting and ending with the sugar. (first jar)

I cut the plums in half just to get more surface area exposed to the sugar.

Six months from now I shall have plum cordial.

Second and third jars are the rum plum.

Second jar is a half gallon, second hand store score!

Plum brandy in my sun tea jar



Googled plum liquor and got this recipe.

Plum Liquor

Ingredients

16 cups plums

4 cups sugar

3 cups dark rum

Instructions

Wash and quarter plums and place in a mason jar.

Add the rum and sugar, turn once a day to dissolve the sugar.

Filter out the fruit after 15 days and enjoy.

I halved the recipe, had a bit of dark and light rum so I mixed them.

Did a quarter batch with brandy.
The rums and brandy have been sitting around for awhile so what better way to move them out?
I did save the bottles to decant into though.

Old school cookbook!

I love this cookbook, there's even a recipe for watermelon rind, sweet pickles.

Pretty tasty!

Are you getting creative with your canning?

If so please share:-)

Till next time,

Bonjour

White Elephant You Say?

So....

At Christmas,

my mother-in law's bible study group exchange white elephant gifts.

Guess, who's the load off receipt of all these white elephants?

You're correct,

 me!

About five years worth!!!

Ironically, I don't consider these as white elephants,

to me they are treasures, lovely, pretty treasures!

Tea cups with matching saucers,

some with petite porcelain spoons,

coffee cups and saucers, all in near mint condition.

What to do, what to do?

I needed another shelf.

I had a board, I had some wallpaper from the thrift store.

I covered the board with the wallpaper.
 (stapled it onto the board)

and placed it atop the two cabinets

between one of the kitchen windows.

I had to take down the curtain mounting brackets for the board to fit.

Now I have nowhere to re-mount the brackets.

Ok, I have a tension rod somewhere, I'm thinking.

 I can put it between the cabinets.

Found it.

Drat the curtain is too long now!

I don't feel like hemming it.

Wait a sec,

I have all those thrifted shawl type things,

let's see if we can use one as a curtain.

Many shawls, scarves and saris later I came up with this.

It's a very long, fringed scarf that I folded in half

and safety pinned close to the rod.

I gathered the front half into a ponytail with a ponytail holder,

pulled it up a bit to create a little puff, then pinned it to the back portion.

I used one of my many, many brooches as a center accent,

then topped it off with my dragonfly wind chimes.

The thrifted red shelf holds a Texas State Fair
Dr Pepper bottle that I use for dish soap.
(Dated October 13, 1973 Texas VS Oklahoma)
I have no idea when or where I got it.

Above the Dr Pepper sign is a bracket

that used to suspend a light, but now holds a lidless, black teapot.

Looks like it's pouring for all the cups below!

Do I really have this much stuff?

Yes, I do seem to have alot of stuff!!!

Do you have as much stuff as I do?

As you can see I love advertising art, especially region specific.

Most everything you see in these photos was thrifted or given to me.

That's my kitchen and I'm sticking with it!!!
Do you like?

Till next time,
Bonjour