Sew Good: a wordy post and a project
For the last week I've been entertaining my cousin who was so kind to drive me and my Christmas presents back to North Carolina from New York after Christmas. My cousin is one of those folks that has, among other things, never seen the ocean. While he was here I tried to take him places he had never been and do things he had never done, so, we made a few trips to the beach, a trip to the aquarium and a trip the USS North Carolina Battleship Memorial, ate sushi, alligator and Mexican food that wasn't from a fast food joint.
On Wednesday night my cousin made the tedious 13 hour drive back to New York and I can't say I was sad to see him go. Despite my efforts, we ended up spending lots of time at Wal-Mart and at the house where he was content to play video games. My frustrations with him aside, I must say that his visit was a great way to start the new year.
Because of my cousin, I am now incredibly grateful for the life I've had, the things I've done and the things I can do. In the next 12 months I hope to check a few things off my "to do list," the first thing being, learn how to sew better.
Sure I can hem pants, sew on a button or two, and follow a simple pattern but I really want to learn to make something great. Luckily my wonderful mother listened to my whining about my finicky old machine and bought me a wonderful sewing machine for Christmas. Since this newfangled machine is without an attached sewing cabinet, I've been hunting for an appropriate desk on craigslist and at few bargain shops around town, my goal was not to spend more than $50, which seemed impossible.
I had all but given up until this little beauty showed up on Le Jeune yard sales:
On Wednesday night my cousin made the tedious 13 hour drive back to New York and I can't say I was sad to see him go. Despite my efforts, we ended up spending lots of time at Wal-Mart and at the house where he was content to play video games. My frustrations with him aside, I must say that his visit was a great way to start the new year.
Because of my cousin, I am now incredibly grateful for the life I've had, the things I've done and the things I can do. In the next 12 months I hope to check a few things off my "to do list," the first thing being, learn how to sew better.
Sure I can hem pants, sew on a button or two, and follow a simple pattern but I really want to learn to make something great. Luckily my wonderful mother listened to my whining about my finicky old machine and bought me a wonderful sewing machine for Christmas. Since this newfangled machine is without an attached sewing cabinet, I've been hunting for an appropriate desk on craigslist and at few bargain shops around town, my goal was not to spend more than $50, which seemed impossible.
I had all but given up until this little beauty showed up on Le Jeune yard sales:
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| Above: the photograph from the listing |
Adorable, right? Classic lines, good storage, $40 for the desk and the chair, I had to have it.
So, I emailed the seller and went to pick it up the next morning. The chair had never had the seat screwed, the drawers were missing pulls and the white paint was nicked and scribbled on with crayon, but hey for $40 I could afford to fix this.
A quick trip to Lowes and I was in business. I found some great paint for $5 on the miss-mix shelf and picked up some not so cheap but lovely drawer pulls, upholstery tacks for the chair and some white spray paint to cover the flaws in the original paint.
I hurried home to start my project and within a few hours, this is what I ended up with.
Olladene likes the new chair but not the camera.
I just love how all the colors came together in this project.
Like the sewing machine, the sewing basket was also a gift from my parents.
The fabric for the chair is a scrap of vintage fabric I have had hanging around for ages and of course, like I mentioned before, the paint was a miss mixed discount can from Lowes. While nothing is exactly the same color, (the paint is seafoam, the fabric a robins egg blue and the box a teal and green) somehow every seems to match! And you know what? I didn't even try!
I can't wait to sew at my desk. First order of business is to fix the valences in my kitchen- I cut one large valence in half and left a raw edge, now I can finish it!
I'm also very tempted to make curtains for the sewing room/spare room but I know I should wait until we move or until I at least know the dimensions of the windows our next house.
