Sewing and woodworking

So I'm not the best blogger out there but I have good reasons. We are expecting our fourth child soon and we have been hard at work getting ready for her. Yes I said it - it's a GIRL - finally after 3 boys - I'm so excited to get to sew some girl clothes now. So we have been hard at work finishing off the attic so that we could move all my crafting stuff out of the spare bedroom - so that we could fix the cottage cheese textured walls, build a closet and refloor the roof. This house is a labour of love....and heartache.  Renos aren't fun! especially when you have so much to do and very little time to do it. Dh is soooo stressed and I'm stressed because I can't do as much as I'd like being pregnant.  Anyways in the last 3 months I've finished off the curtains in the family room - wow what a task that was.

Don't you love the toys in the toyroom! I love how they migrate into the family room within mins of the kids being up :) Anyways they are done and I am so happy with the results. They definitely keep the drafts out. Here's another angle of the room - o how I love this room! 

I have to shamefully admit that I haven't done a ton of sewing this past year but that because there really  wasn't a great spot for it - the spare bedroom had everything in it but other things around the house had to be done before I could get back to sewing. In the process I learnt how to build furniture. So when it was time to furnish the attic (my new sewing room) I wanted to build everything, mostly because I couldn't afford the price of custom as the attic stairs are steep as steep can get. Dh thought I was nuts but he soon realized I CAN DO IT, YES I CAN! So here's what the attic looked like when we bought this house.

After the walls, insulation and floor were in.

Here's one of the two fabric storage cupboard I've been building, it has wood centres now though. I just looking for the perfect door knobs. I got the plans from ana white's website.

here's my 3 machine tables and cutting table.

Tonight I got everything primed and tomorrow will be painting it all. It's almost done. Although it could take a few more week until after baby is born, to finish the stain part.

Family Room Curtains - In progress

As I've mentioned before, dh and I bough a fixer upper! It was (and is still) in need of some renovations . The family room as come along way since we moved into this house in May. All that is left are curtains and pictures / interior decorating. This room is actually huge - it's difficult to see in the pictures but it's 14 feet x 20 long. All of the windows are different heights  and the ceiling are 10 feet tall.  Here's what the family room looked like before - dated and in serious need of some tlc.

(here's the NE view of the room)

(NE and S views of room - N room is the sunroom)

(NE view of room)

(S view of room)

The wood panelling and carpet were the first to go. We then added a small powder room to the left of the door. Hardwood floors were added instead of carpet (as I despise carpet immensely with little kids and dogs) as well as crown moulding and newer baseboards that matched the old baseboards in the rest of the house. The walls were in desperate need of repair and wallpaper chair- rail were removed. The only problem with this room is it's shear size and that all the windows in it are completely different sizes. So I decided to make all the drapes 98'' (based on the tallest window) to give it a little bit of symmetry and uniform look. The drapes are made with home dec outer fabric, double napped interlining and drapery lining on the backside. I attempted to blind hem stitch these with my domestic home sewing machine but was dis-satisfied with the results. The drapery lining was puckering and looked awful from the backside. So I bit the bullet and invested in a portable blind hem machine.  I got a Consew 75T blind hemmer off ebay for $214 shipped to my United States address as a Christmas present from my dh. Why I went to this extreme just to make curtains - well truth be told we have over 30 windows in our house and making interlined curtains is a heck of a lot cheaper than buying them. The curtains I made for the windows in the family room alone based on the size of the windows and interlining, I checked on Sears website and they were a whooping $1300 each panel - that $2600 each window or $7800 for all the windows - I assume because I wanted them interlined - mainly to keep the drafts out of this place not that there are many but it is after-all an old house and new windows aren't in the budget right now - although for the cost of the curtains I priced at Sear, I'm sure new windows are cheaper than buying curtains. 

Anyways, I'm really pleased with my new blindhemmer machine - it doesn't go over the really thick areas with the double folds of home decor fabric and linterlining and lining altogether, but I knew this when I purchased it as it is a lighter weight machine. I just hand stitched those areas. Eventually, I plan on opening a small home based sewing business to sew home decor and basic alterations so this machine will come in handy - if I get bigger and new a more industrial blindhemmer than I will buy it them but for now this works for me and for the price I couldn't go wrong. There was only one thing I did off the book - and that was I used pennies for my drapery weights instead of buying them - I know they were only $2.00 for 4 at fabricland but I only paid 6 cents per panel and no one know they are there anyways.

So here is one of the 3 windows finished, please also keep in mind that these are my first curtains I've ever made (yes honestly) and I really love how they turned out.) They are triple pinch pleated drapes.

(blind hemmer stitching - Oh doesn't it look so professional)

(bottom hem - yes it's only a single fold but I really don't care that it's not double - know one but me will notice)

So here are my latest creations. A medicine cabinet and wall shelf for our new main floor bathroom. Oh what a luxury it is to have a bathroom on the main floor of our house again. Since we moved here in May our 1914 year old home did not have a bathroom on the main floor. It's a fairly small powder room, however it's right next to the kitchen and family room. With having youngsters it's such a treat because I don't have to cart them the stairs anymore just to use the toilet and make sure they stay out of trouble. It's all conveniently packed into the family room. So what's a stay at home mom to do when decorating a bathroom on a tight budget. Turn to building! I have learned a lot about myself these past couple of months, that I truly am compatible of doing things I didn't think were possible. If I just open my mind and try - I can learn to do anything.

The wall shelf was simple. I used a scrap 1x6 for the backside, 1x3 on top for the shelf part and finished if off with crown moulding and return mitres. 

The medicine cabinet I had to design from scratch as I wanted the crown moulding on top. For the finish - I matched the paint to the mirror I got at home sense with my bday money. I first painted it a chaarcoal grey then a taupe/grey mix - then lightly distressed the edged for the charcoal grey to show through.
So on to the totals:
Wall shelf : all the wood used were scraps from from projects and I got the hooks for $5 in the summer from a garage sale.
the medicine cabinet cost $20 in wood - the b-board was scrap.
with paint the total cost of this project was less than $50 as I have a ton of paint left for other projects.

(not bad when the cheapest medicine cabinet I could find was 130$ for a cheap melamine cabinet

Sewing? O where have you been?

We recently moved into our new 98 year old home in May of this year. It's been a while since I've sewn despite having a dedicated room to sew in, I don't really have the time or ambition to sew much right now. I like an organized sewing room not a messy one. I can't even move in it because boxes are still everywhere in there. I can't find a thing. I was thinking of unpacking it but why really? when I will just have to repack it to bring it up to the attic area in (hopefully fingers crossed) near future. So what did this crazy sewing nut do, I brought my sewing machine downstairs, LOL. I wanted to make this really cute valance that I saw on pinterest. I loved the colour of fabric I choose. They were really simple to make and a quick sew - just the perfect sewing project to get me in the mood again to sew.

But truth be told it will be a while before I can sew like I used to, again. So much stuff to do to this house. WIth having 3 boys all 4 and under makes diy time - fix up your house time (when they are sleeping). So instead of sewing I learned how to build things. Okay truth be told I would never thought in a  million years I would be able to build things but I like what I like and I really can't afford the stuff I like (sometime being a stay-at-home mom has some minor disadvantages - $ - mind you even if I had a full-time job I still wouldn't be able to afford the stuff I like lol ;) ) While looking up ways of refinishing furniture to make this house our home, I stumbled on Ana white's website, and learned of one of the best tools The kreg jig. I love it and now so does my house. I decided to build a bookcase for my kids' toy room. It turned out amazing and I truley love the colour. Only thing is that now I want to redo the curtains in more of a nautical theme. My dh gave me a hard time with this as it took a lot of time to do - when it comes to power tools, you can only use them during certain times of the day (not at nap time and not when the kids are sleeping cause the neighbours will get mad too) so it left my dh as solo daddy daycare for 2 whole evenings but really thats not that much in the grand scheme of things. It definitely made me more self-assured that I can do it too.

I also decided to build the boxes using 1x4's and up cycled plywood from the fugly built-in from the dining room. I image transferred a clipart image on to the boxes to denote the contents. Then I added twine for some handles and stained them with the stain I got from BM as-is section for a whooping $5.00 for nearly 3/4 of a gallon 

Sewing update!

Wow where does the time go?  We finely found a new (old 98 years to be exact) house that has the potential to be a great house for our family. We are moving in less than two weeks. The unfortunate part is that the my beloved sewing room has been taken down (as it's coming with me) here is what is used to look like.

The exciting thing is that I get to design a new sewing space all to my self, in the attic of our new home! I just wonder how long it will be before I have a completed sewing room again. When we move my sewing room will go into the 5th bedroom which we have named the "cottage cheese room" because the texture on the wall bears a striking resemblance to that of cottage cheese. The house has great potential but it needs a lot of tlc/updating. It hasn't been updated in 20 yrs.

We have been looking for a couple of years for a house that meets our criteria, however it became evident that unless we put some hard work into fixing something up, that we would never be able to afford what we wanted/needed in a house. To be honest, I never really wanted to move mainly because I love our house and it would have been paid off in 14yrs but unfortunately this house is just becoming to small for our growing family. 

Sewing

The last bit of sewing that I did before the sewing room was dismantled and put into boxes for storage was this purse - Simplicity 2685 View D. It was one of the items that went into a door prize for a mom to mom sale that our church organized. The money raised form the sale will buy mosquito netting for families in Africa, to prevent malaria. I have sewn from this pattern before but I didn't sew the flap on it the first time. I like how it turned out but realized after that I didn't follow the directions on this one as the top portion of the flap is supposed to be sewn into the top seam. Ah well, lesson learned (maybe) next time follow the directions!

Jalie 3132

I had to have this pattern when it came out. The funny thing is that I purchased it with the intention of making the nursing version of the top however felt that I really liked non-nursing version better. The only change I made was to add a contrasting binding to the kangaroo pocket using my cs machine. I used cotton interlock from fabric.com for it and it feels great.

Christmas Sewing 2011

Ottobre Woman 5/2011

Ottobre Woman 5/2010 #11 Nanette

Ottobre 6/2004 #2 Footed pants

Stretch and Sew 2085 Yoked nightgown

Lavender eye pillow

Shirts: ottobre 6/2010 #15 undershirt pattern

Pants: Ottobre 6/2009 #35 Stripy-legs long johns

Jalie 2327 Boy's underwear boxers

Quilt for DS3 (my first ever quilt)

Back of quilt

Simplicity 2278 Misses slippers size large

Pillow case

pillow case

pillow case

pillow case

pillow case

car caddy

car caddy

Handmade slippers - Simplicity 2278 Misses slippers

I decided a needed a quick and fairly simple project as I haven't sewn anything in over a month, which is totally to be expected with a newborn baby! I know that there are tutorials on the internet that explain in detail how to draft your own slipper pattern but I wanted simple, so I decided to splurge for the Simplicity #2278 pattern when it went on sale at my local fabric shop.

I decided to use leather for the sole instead of jiffy grip as I had it on hand and it matched perfectly to the pink cotton that I had. Leather is definitely not the easiest thing to sew with and don't suggest it if this is a beginner project. I lined the interior in a contrasting black for dramatic impact. I made one minor change and that was that I omitted the provided strap and instead covered a 10" strip of 1/4" elastic with the contrasting black fabric. This project was actually a draft run to see how it turned out because if it did I was debating on sewing these for Christmas presents for all the woman in our family. It turned out better than expected as you can tell by the pictures. I made one minor mistake (as I was trying to rush it before naptime was over) and that was that I sewed the strap on the left slipper on the wrong side and didn't realize it until I had basted the bottom of the interior and exterior top together :( oh well they still turned out great! I then stitched a beautiful wood flower button onto the slippers so that the elastic would just pull over and loop around it.