Sunday Diversion: A Dollar Tree Craft

Still working on Hot Patterns 1226, but I needed to order some seam binding, so I took a little detour into Dollar Tree Crafting.  My local Dollar Tree is a mixed bag.  Certainly not as much fun stuff as is depicted on those haul vlogs on YouTube, but still some intriguing things.  For instance, I picked up six spools of burlap ribbon and a wire wreath form.

The resulting wreath came out quite nice, so for $7 I was able to add a nice accent to my door!

I'm pretty happy with my dollar store craft.  The other thing I've done is repair a pet bed for some friends.  I am looking forward to completing my blouse as soon as my seam tape arrives!  Until then, enjoy your Spring!

Quick Sunday No-Sew Craft

The hubby is watching a man movie... so, I'm free to craft!  This happens rarely on weekends, so I threw together a quickie.  I acquired this frame at a yard sale.

And, I had some printed burlap left over from another project.

While thrift shopping earlier, I had also gotten some cute fabric strips.

So I threw them together with an old Yale safe key found in our house when we moved in.  Here's the result!

Not bad for a few spare minutes!  Hope you're having an excellent weekend!

A Day Off

A day off has such potential doesn't it?  So little time and so much to do!  I have one today because I have to go to work this weekend :-(.  I'd like to be able to tell you I've been all kinds of productive, but I'm afraid that's not really true...

I had breakfast out as a special little treat to myself, then browsed an antique shop.  I had serious sticker shock there, so I went to Target to accomplish some weekly errands.  Then I did the week's laundry and worked on another of the laundry room curtains.

Love the burlap and the lace.  Like many of my projects, this one gets a little done on it whenever I get the chance... two valences to go.  I'm undecided on whether I should make cafe curtains to go on the bottoms of the windows, or remain au naturale.  

I'm trying to do some blog work, too, as you can see.  I actually learned how to get rid of the little borders around all the pictures on the blog here (Thank you!). That had been puzzling me.  And I created a new signature without the annoying white background.  I'm sprucing up the place for spring.  You see, I'm hoping to post much more frequently... and more pithily!  The slightly crazed ramblings of the frustrated and time crunched sewist!

Mini Projects

 Today I only had time for a couple of quick mini projects.  When I bought the burlap for my laundry room curtains, I also bought a roll of burlap ribbon.  Today I made the first of many burlap flowers to use as accents on the laundry room curtains.  I have made fabric flowers before, but I love the way the burlap lends itself to the imperfection of my flower folding, and comes out just right!

I had a little time left over and wanted to do something a little different, so I made this pair of earrings.  Hope you like them!

Making Over Victoria: Laundry Rules

 One of the more minor decorating projects around the new home has been completing our laundry room. This is also temporary home to my sewing area – in the spring we hope to begin renovations to our 140 year old basement to put in a finished room down there which is planned to be my new sewing room.  The planned room will be large enough to accommodate an actual cutting table, as well as multiple sewing machines and ample fabric stash storage!

I believe this pretty much un-insulated laundry area was once an upper-level back porch, with its five bright windows, and near access to the back stairs.  I’m not sure when it was converted to a laundry, but that was the purpose the previous owners assigned to the room as well.  I think the it is coming out pretty cute, so I’d like to share a few pictures from the room… while not haute couture, I am sewing the curtains for this room, using one of the latest Pinterest trends, burlap and lace.  These are the completed valences.  The burlap was purchased from www.burlapfabric.com, and the lace was a yard sale find.  I scored a whole spool of it for pennies.  As you can see, there’s plenty left to complete the curtains, and then some.

This legless dresser was left behind by the previous owners of the home.  It makes a great place to store sewing supplies, and an equally nice window seat.  I’m planning on covering a cushion to make it even cozier.

While I lack a “before” picture, the walls in this room were formerly stark white. We definitely wanted to jazz things up a little, and we wanted to pay homage to the Victorian era without sacrificing modern convenience.  Corrugated galvanized steel roofing is the paneling we chose for the walls, with a periwinkle blue upper wall.  We first saw this used as a wall treatment in a regional fish fry restaurant. Galvanized buckets are used as light shades, and antique washboards, wringers, and clothes drying racks help to tie the theme together. 

We chose to stack our front loading washer and dryer because this saves floor space, and allows free access to the attic via the pulldown ladder in the ceiling of the laundry.  Please feel free to comment and let me know what you think about this room renovation.

Thanks for stopping by!