Memory Lane Day

I just parted with these old couches.  When Bryant and I first got married, we turned to Craigslist to solve our lack of furniture woes.  I don't have a picture of the couches in their original early 90's hideousness but lets just say they may or may not have seen better days, my guess is that they were even ugly in their youth.  My solution was to cover Everything.  The slip coveres were store bought, I had to alter the one on the smaller chair.  The pillows are all made by me,  I was able to recycle the stuffing and the zippers.  The brown ones are a chocolate microsuede.  The other big ones are grassclothish, mostly a tan color but have some green threads.  I also made some throw pillows, beacause I am obessed with patterns.  I can't say that I was terribly sad to part with these couches but I think my pillows and covers helped me to not throw up in my mouth everytime I entered my living room. 

The office is finished!

My incredibly useful husband finished the office about a week ago.  I think it looks incredible.  I don't have a future in home photography but here are some pics of the finished office:

The office from the outside

Bryant and Scott ran the electrical.  He also somehow hooked up the Internet cable from outside and patched up the siding

My job is to scrape the paint off the glass.  Its really boring so I do like one pane at a time.  6 down, 24 left to go.  Bryant free handed the drywall on the corners because they don't make corner pieces at that angle.  It looks really good

More free handed drywall

More on the office

Here are some more pictures of the office being built.  Again I should say that this project is entirely Bryant's, with the help of a few good friends (thanks wes and scott and the best neighbors ever).  Drywall is up and mudded.  Now he just has to paint, prime, rip out carpet, put in new floors, frame out the doors and put down the base boards.  No biggie.

Can't wait to move in

the doors!

Check out our new wall!

LT says hello.

My New (to me) Sewing Machine

I bought a sewing machine off craigslist recently and I had a hard time finding much information about it online so I thought I should contribute a resource.  The machine is a Morse 200 Deluxe.  I read somewhere that these machines were made by Toyota but I can't really vouch for it.  I was interested in the machine because it is older (Made in 1956) and its a beautiful blue color.  Sewing Machine/home decor all in one.  I knew that I wanted to buy it as soon as I plugged it in and pressed on the presser foot.  This thing has a really strong motor, its doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles but it sews fast! Almost like an industrial machines.  I hate when my sewing machine is the thing that is slowing my project down and I think this machine is a great solution to that problem.  I have resisted having it serviced because I want to figure out how to do that myself but I may have to buckle.  I think it needs a good tune up.  It sews fast but It doesn't feel like the foot goes all the way down so the fabric floats around and it leads to wobbly stitches.  I also think the stitch length is inconsistent.  I am confident that these things can be fixed with a little tune up though. Let me know if you you have any questions.

Here are some more pics:

Side

Other Side

Back

Full disclosure:  I think I am developing a bit of a sewing machine addiction.  I already have a Kenmore 158.???? and a Singer Fashionmate 248.  I think the Morse is going to be my favorite.

Batman Cape

I made my nephew a Batman cape for Christmas but I just got to take some pictures of him modeling it when I was in Texas.  My nephew Loves Batman, it is pretty much all he talks about.  I used some black lining fabric that I had laying around and some yellow lightweight cotton with iron on interfacing for the batman logo.

I just learned to upholster.

I just came back from visiting my parents in their new home in south Texas.  It was a really fun trip and I picked up a new skill while I was there.  About 10 years ago my parents bought a new couch and matching chair.  The couch was made of a casual blue cotton and faded quickly in the California sun (my parents move a lot) so my mom bought a slip cover while they were living in Tennessee.  The chair however remained uncovered except for my moms very creative attempt at converting it to cowhide chair.

Moo chair

Pretty cool huh?  Mom is great.  She sewed it on there with raffia.  I don't know exactly how to describe her style but its something like 'contemporary rustic.'  Is that an oxymoron?  I think you can see from the picture that the chair has some stains and is quite faded and mom had a few yards of some really cool fabric so I decided to try to cover it.  I made some pattern pieces out of an old sheet but I could not win my game of fabric Tetris to try to get my pattern pieces to fit on the 3 yards of cool fabric.  The solution was to buy a complimentary fabric to make parts of the chair.  Here is the result:




Front o chair



Oh and there was an ottoman too.

Repurposed Skirt

I bought this skirt at an estate sale for fifty cents.  I don't think I would or should ever wear it in its current state but I think the print is really fun so I decided to take it apart and give it new life in my wardrobe.  I basicaly took apart every seam I could find and then put it back together to make this:



Voila!



What do you think?  I'm pretty pleased with my little expiriment.  I bought another skirt for the same price at that sale.  I am working on recreating it as well.  I'll let you know how it goes.  Here it is in its current state: