Total Overhaul

Today I became quite…intimate… with my seam ripper. It was a rocky relationship; tempers flared. But in the end, we were able to pull it off.

I totally started over on my felted wool bag.

I liked it, but I knew I wouldn’t use it because the straps were way too bulky. I wasn’t quite sure where I was going, but I knew the straps had to come off. I cut pieces off, I ripped out seams, I sewed new ones.

And ripped the new ones out again, and sewed them up again. My sewing machine is having tension issues. If you sew, you know that bad tension can really mess things up. And in turn, give you tension issues, like screaming and slamming things down in disgust.

But I digress. I turned the two straps into one long one. I made a lining out of scraps of drop cloth. When I was, at last, finished, I decided that I needed some closure.

No, not the kind you get by burning your ex-boyfriend’s love letters, although there were moments when I definitely considered doing the equivalent to my sewing machine. Whatever that would be.

What I needed was a button. At the antique mall last Saturday, I bought two bags of vintage buttons. I found one that worked, sewed it on, and made a little strap to button up the bag.

And here’s the finished product:

I think the butterscotch-colored button adds a little pizzazz. And look, I even have a pocket for my cell phone!

Okay, so the inside’s not too pretty. I still have a little clean-up to do on dangling threads. But it’s functional, and I really like the outside, and I will definitely use this second reincarnation of the wool sweater, which was the whole point in the first place.

Oh, and here’s a tip for you from Dixie. Shaving your felted wool will greatly reduce the fuzzies.

Recycled Wool Sweater Becomes Tote Bag

Last year my friend Dixie (happy birthday, Dixie!) introduced me to Betz White and the concept of felting wool sweaters for repurposing. I even picked up some sweaters at the thrift store for that purpose.

Then I recently saw Wendy’s sweater tote, subsequently found one at Canadian Living, and decided a tote would be my first felting project.

I found a men’s large 100% wool sweater on the dollar rack the thrift store. I liked the tone-on-tone stripe.

After two trips through the washing machine on hot with high agitation, and machine drying, it shrank down to this (use the couch cushions for size comparison).

I cut it apart:

The above linked instructions just used the shoulders as the handles, but I wanted longer straps to be able to carry it over my shoulder. So, I cut two basically equal pieces from the sleeves.

I pinned and sewed across the bottom (wrong side out). The instructions show turning it so that the sweater side seams are down the front and back; I didn’t do that since I was changing it up a little. I did sew a gusset, as shown on the Canadian Living diagrams.

After turning it right side out, I pinned the pieces of sleeves to the shoulder sections (which I had cut apart at the seam) and sewed straight across. There were two of these, forming two straps.

Felted wool will not ravel, but for a finished look, I turned all the raw edges under and sewed around.

Here’s the finished bag!

This was fun (other than the sewing machine giving me fits; I think it may be on its way out), and the end result looks pretty good, but I learned a few things.

1.The two wool straps are too thick and bulky to comfortably carry on my shoulder. Next time, I’m going to modify it to a single-strapped bag.

2. A lining would make the bag more functional, and neater looking on the inside.

3. Hand-sewing certain sections would make for less frustration while topstitching on the machine, and a nicer looking finished product.

I plan to try this again and will show you any improvements I’ve made.

Edit: Go here to see how I remade this bag.

The Project

I know with absolute certainty that I took ‘before’ and ‘during’ photos of this project. However, they are nowhere to be found, and judging by a few of the surprise photos I found on my camera, I think they were most likely deleted by a certain young man.

**Edit:  I found the pictures; they were on a different computer.

Our master bath was very like this:

source

Double sinks with a big plate mirror above. Our vanity does not have drawers like this one, and there was no real convenient place to keep all the stuff we use every day. All the contact lens paraphernalia, toothbrushes and paste, face wash and lotions, etc. were constantly spread out all over the counter.

It was a hot mess.

On our first walk-thru, I had them replace several of the kitchen cabinet doors, but I kept the old ones. The cabinetry is the same all over the house, and I thought they might come in handy one day.

And so they did! Some time ago I got the idea to make medicine cabinets using two of the cabinet doors. While my dad was here, he and Craig got to work and executed my plan.

First, they built two boxes with shelves out of 1x4 boards.

The cabinet doors were attached with hinges.

After some trial and error with stain, and unsatisfactory results, Dad suggested color-matching paint to the cabinet doors, and just painting the box. It worked out very well, and you really wouldn’t even notice the difference if I didn’t tell you.

We had some mirror cut, first at Lowe’s, then at a glass shop. Take my advice if you need a precise cut, and just start with the glass shop. The mirror was glued into the inset of the cabinet.

My vanity area went from this (the hinged box was intended to keep stuff in, but it wasn’t convenient or big enough):

To this:

I love it! It’s easy to keep everything put away, and my vanity actually looks tidy! It’s just as I envisioned it.

Fabulous job, guys! Thanks!

Look at A Soft Place to Land for more DIY projects.

Super Souper Saturday

On a whim today, we took a day trip out into the surrounding country/small town areas.  We made some geocaching stops, and  went to an antique mall that I’ve really been wanting to visit.  It’s about an hour-and-a-half south of us, if you go straight there, which we didn’t.  We took a lot of snacks and the puppy, set the kids up with a movie on the laptop (no built-ins in our van) and hit the back roads.

It was a beautiful sunny day, and we saw some fall colors, but we’re probably a week away from the real show.  The first geocaching stop was at this old church and cemetery of German settlers.

The antique mall in question frequently lists items on craigslist at affordably low prices.  I’ve been wanting to check it out for some time, and I’m looking for a small table or shelf for a particular spot.  There were lots of nice pieces; how about a large round dining table with three leaves and six chairs, newly painted black and distressed, all for $250?  Or one of several white distressed coffee tables for around $30?

Craig was manning the camera, so I didn’t get photos of anything I really would have wanted to show you, but here are a few shots.  The building itself was very cool.  I would love to have this woodwork and exposed brick.

In some of the rooms, the floors had this pretty stenciled pattern. 

I found some milk glass for the etsy store I’m contemplating. Huh.  In this photo, I am clothed entirely in thrifty finds: $1 Gap jacket, $1 Banana Republic purse, $1.50 Ralph Lauren jeans, $5 consignment store shirt, Kmart clearance shoes.  Not bad.

Unfortunately, I did not find the piece of furniture I want.  There were many pretty pieces at good prices, but I need something very narrow, and I just didn’t find the perfect thing.

It was fun, though, and thanks to my fore-thought, a slow-cooker of taco soup was waiting for us when we got home 7 hours later!

That hits the spot!

This ’n That

Dad left yesterday afternoon; we had a nice visit, and he and Craig did a big project for me that I’ve really been needing to have done. There’s one final step that I’m hoping Craig will finish over the weekend, and then I’ll reveal it.

Firstborn and my dad at Panera

I still found time to shop craigslist, and ended up with this chair for $20.

It needs a little work, like another coat of paint and redoing the seat, but it’s heavy and sturdy.

I love the curvy lines, the caning, and the acorn finials. I’m thinking the chair’s ultimate destination will be my bedroom.

Have a great weekend!

Weekend Recap

Saturday unwittingly became the first, albeit unofficial, Souper Saturday of the year. I had all those lovely organic vegetables to use up, and my first thought was ‘soup’.I found a recipe for Squash Soup on allrecipes.com, and modified it just slightly. I used the yellow squash and the zucchini, a yellow bell pepper that I already had (I thought it would be disguised better than a green one), and cheddar instead of processed cheese. Craig and I thought it was very delicious, and filling. No comment on the kids’ comments.

I also sliced the radishes and sauted them in some butter, then added the steamed green beans and tossed them all together with some sea salt. Craig and I enjoy green beans, but haven’t had a radish since childhood. Cooked, the radishes lost their bite and were quite tasty, almost nutty.

I’m planning to roast the sweet red peppers, and there’s a couple of beets under there that I want to pickle. I may try this recipe, which doesn’t involve canning.

Now an update on our wild ride of pet ownership. Our cat Daisy never came back, in spite of all of Craig’s attempts to find her or trap her. After the first 10 days or so, we never even saw her again.

So, of course, the subject of a new cat started coming up. Firstborn told me he had “a hole in his soul” because he missed Daisy. I certainly have my hands full with an adolescent dog and a puppy, but wasn’t entirely opposed to the idea, as cats are pretty self-sufficient.

I did say if we ever got another cat it would be an adult, a neutered male because I’ve always heard they’re the friendliest, and it would be declawed.

On a whim yesterday I checked craigslist (famous last words). There was an ad for “FREE 1.5 yr old tom cat, neutered, declawed, up to date on shots, good with dogs and people of all ages, exclusively indoor, very friendly”. His owner was a college student who didn’t have time to care for him and her parents didn’t want to.

You saw it coming, didn’t you? You were right. Here is our new cat, Owen Pickles. ‘Owen’ because that’s what we were going to name the puppy if it was male; ‘Pickles’ because when Firstborn was about four somehow it was decided if we ever had a dog we would name it Mr. Pickles and he took it seriously and has wanted to use that name ever since.

I fully expect Daisy to show up at the door in the next couple of days.

(My dad is going to be in town this week, so I may not be as active on the blog. I’ll try to check in a couple times though.)

Small Project, Big Announcement

This is related to nothing, but it looked so pretty I wanted to show you. One of Craig’s patients belongs to an organic garden co-op and shared these veggies with us. Mmmmm!

Moving on, I have a fun little project to show you. Months ago, I bought some plain little wooden plaques at Dollar Tree (no before photos). Some chalkboard paint and replacing the original ribbon hanger gave me this. A cute sign to leave messages on the interior garage door.

Or happy greetings.

Or congratulation notes!

Random.org selected Amanda’s comment as the winner of my giveaway! Amanda’s blog is fun and funny and you should check it out.

Thank you to everyone who entered, and all your sweet comments congratulating me on my one year of blogging and telling me how much you enjoy my ramblings! I appreciate each and every one of my readers!