Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Weekend Waiting Projects

I was cleaning and waiting for something and that something was delayed a couple hours so I upholstered my computer chair. Then I stenciled it but it kinda bled so I'll redo it eventually.


This is a small drawer cabinet I bought from Ikea. On my sick day last week I covered it with scrapbook paper and painted a tree on the bottom one. Then a couple coats of polyeurethane and put it all back together.

Curtains...sorta


I was home sick from work last week and bored to death. I had planned to buy some textile fabric and make curtains to cover some towel shelves but after measuring I decided it would be too expensive(96 inches + a seam allowance on all sides and room for a curtain rod X2). I did have a bolt of quilting fabric I used so I cut it out and painted it blue with some metallic gold. After it dried I measured and sewed it all to the same length and the seams. I then stenciled in dark blue and red. After it was all done I used fabric glue and some glass beads and glued them to the bottom to give it weight. Overall it took a couple hours of mostly waiting for stuff to dry.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Shoes!!

These were hand-me-down canvas Keds that were boring. I don't have a before picture but after finding some awesome novelty fabric I took the canvas off and made a pattern out of it. My stitching isn't that straight and I'm scared to wear them even if they are glued with special shoe glue.


Books

I really love to make books and journals. Especially rebound books from thrift stores and handwritten fairy tales. They are usually a lot of work but really worth it in the end.

And a tutorial I made for www.instructables.com: http://www.instructables.com/id/A_Handmade_Fairytale/















The Stencil



Added to the new woodworking table, I still need to break it in...

Friday, September 11, 2009

Labor Day Weekend

It was pretty overcast for most of it which led to more time outside with the circular saw. I really need a good table saw if I'm going to make furniture though cause mine gouged the wood. The white is spackle to fill in holes and other marks. This wood was from a bedframe I made and no longer needed. It fits the clamps nicely and I've outlined where I can attach the dremmel drill press.

This is a stool I reupholstered with some ikea fabric and a foam cushion, the kind you tie to your chairs. I still need to cover the nails with another piece but it's close enough to done.


Since I now have a good work table and I want and need a decent kitchen table I bought some plywood and cut it to fit. It's about 8 inches longer and 3 inches wider than the original table top. It was covered in paint and glue from previous projects so I scraped it all off with turpenoid (odorless turpentine) and cleaned it off. I cut the wood and then screwed it onto the original top, rather than glueing and then screws, because I'm pretty sure I will destroy this at some point with a project and I want an easier way to redo it all. I stained it and sanded and at the last minute thought some stencils would look nice. It got all taped off and sprayed and once dry I put down a couple coats of polyeurethane and then sanded again. It looks great in my kitchen. Also, the original was from ikea with a metal frame which is still working fine so I kept it.