Living room picnics and pajama pants

In an effort to avoid the Thanksgiving grocery store rush, Monday afternoon I swung by the store to grab the few items I needed for my contribution to Thursday evening's work potluck.  As I bent over to crawl into the bottom shelf to reach the last few cans of yams in the back, my phone rang.  Having possibly pulled a muscle in my shoulder, but successfully grabbing two un-dented cans, I tossed them into my cart and rooted through my purse for the phone.  Seeing the picture of my older brother on the screen, I promptly answered.  Imagine my surprise when, instead of the grown man voice of my brother, I instead hear the sweet voice of my 3 year old niece Eva asking  "Auntie, can you babysit us?"

That was all it took! How could I ever say no to that?! From the moment these little girls were born, they have had me by the heartstrings! I adore these little ones. My older brother and his wife are in the beginning stages of starting their own business and needed a bit of kid free time to make some good progress.  When the idea of going to Auntie Janelle's house came up, apparently my eldest niece was more than happy to place the call, and of course I was more than happy to oblige.  Immediately after my niece got the answer she wanted, she practically threw the phone back to Dad.  We hashed out the details, I grabbed a box of dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets and headed for the checkout line.

Once they arrived, we started off with the favorite Auntie's house past time....scare the living daylights out of the cat, otherwise known as laying on the floor saying "here kitty kitty kitty" in their sweetest voices possible in an attempt to coax, Tinker Bell the cat, out from under Auntie's bed for playtime. 

 

 

Now, you should know that Tinker Bell is a bit of a jerk and is also super anti-social.  She has never, in the three years my eldest niece has been alive, heeded their sweet pleas and come out to play.  But never fail, begging her to come out is the very first thing that must be done when we get to Auntie's house.  Sometimes there are multiple attempts throughout the visit.  After that, we had a play-doh tea party, made cookies, painted with water colors and one of the other most looked forward to events, the "living room picnic"

 

The living room picnic was born out of necessity.  I don't own a dinner table any more as I live alone and the table I used to have took up too much space.  So, when my nieces started coming over, I invented the living room picnic as a means of both protecting my carpet as well as making for super easy clean up.  Best of all, my nieces love it! So, we settled down to watch Disney's Tangled and feasted on dinosaur chicken nuggets. (Which I had to assure Eva were merely shaped like dinosaurs and not made of them. I think she thought she was getting a much more exotic dinner than she had anticipated)

 

 

Audrey, my brother's youngest, enjoyed the movie from my lap for a bit.

 

 

This was her first time staying at Auntie's without Mommy and Daddy.  Eva has always been little miss people person, but Audrey has taken her own time getting comfortable without Mom and Dad. She is a bit like her Auntie Janelle in this regard and likes to do things on her own terms, when she is ready. :) She did so well! She had a minor breakdown when they first left, but quickly recovered and joined in on the fun.  They are both adorable and polite girls and I love when they come over to visit!

 

I know, I know...you're wondering about the pajama pants.  Its really a totally unrelated matter. (other than that the adventures with my nieces left me worn out and slightly unmotivated to come up with a cool new project) Ever since I started my etsy shop, and word got out that I could sew, several people have approached me with things that they would like me to sew for them.  I try to say yes when I can, but it generally depends on how quickly people need the project and how much work I have for etsy stuff and making sure to schedule in some me time as well.

 

When a close family friend approached me with a Christmas project I couldn't help but add her request to my list.  My friend Jill has known me since I was born and though her kids are a hand full of years younger than me, we have all grown up around each other.  When she asked me if I would make her four children each a pair of pajama pants in a print that each of them would like, I of course said yes.  A few weeks ago, the two of us went shopping and picked out fabric prints for each kid.

 

 

The following week, I got them all cut out and was just waiting on measurements for each kid so i could get started on the actual sewing part.  I was cracking up when Jill text me saying that she hadn't forgotten to get me the measurements, but was still desperately trying to locate her missing tape measure.  I had to laugh and tell her that that exact problem was the reason I have so many tape measures in my own house.  When I would purchase another and then loose one, I would purchase a replacement and then of course, would find the one I had lost.  It is both frustrating and awesome to now have at least 5 of them in my house, HaHa. It will be some time (hopefully) before I have that problem again.

 

Tuesday became pajama pant assembly day.

 

 

 

We chose this McCall's pattern.  Pajama pants are, I would say, one of the more simple clothing items to sew and most patterns for them are pretty much the same.  We chose this pattern mostly because it was on sale.  But seriously, the hardest part of these pants was turning the drawstring tube to the right side out.  Tuesday I got 3 of the 4 pair done, with the help of "Everybody loves Raymond".  I like to have some background noise while I sew.  My usual go-to is FRIENDS.  I know each episode backwards and forward so it cuts down on my distraction level when I am trying to actually accomplish something. Anyways, "Everybody loves Raymond" (along with my new blue-ray player that plays back to back episodes of TV shows automatically on Netflix) is my new jam!

 

 

After running some errands on Wednesday morning, I came home and set out to finish the last pair.  I finished all but the hem and threading the drawstring before my boyfriend called me to meet him in half an hour for a showing of Catching Fire, which I have been DYING to see.  So I decided that was a good stopping point and headed to the movie theatre.  So, once again, I leave you with an only mostly finished project. :(  But such is life....at least in my world. I am really happy though that this project will be done well before Christmas so I won't be in a huge last minute rush to get them done as it gets closer.  I have a couple custom orders from my shop to do this week as well, so one more project out of the way is definitely a good thing! And, despite the craziness of it all sometimes, I am so thankful for living room picnics and pajama pants and I wouldn't trade them for anything. 



 



There's no place like home....for my patterns

As often as I have wished I could simply click my heels and magically transport my ever growing pile of sewing patterns to their own organized home, it became ultimately clear to me that I was going to have to solve this disorganization dilemma the old fashioned way.  So, I began searching for potential storage options.  Of course, there are a plethora of choices out there.  What I really wanted was something that would be uniquely mine and not just a generic box.  Never one to shy away from endless lists of projects, this one jumped right to the top!

I concluded that the solution for me was not only simple, but budget friendly and ,surprisingly enough, found at my local Office Max. When turned to one side, their half size hanging file folder boxes are the perfect size to fit patterns. Who knew?

 

They are available in a 6 pack for around 12 dollars and come in options of either white or craft paper brown.  I went with the white ones as I thought it would better showcase the decorative additions I had planned.  The boxes assemble easily (and come with easy instructions for the spatially challenged crafter like myself) and within no time, were ready to be decorated.

 

My plan was to take them from boring plain white to fantastic by decopage-ing old pattern pieces to them. (Don't worry, for all you vintage pattern enthusiasts out there, they were all orphaned pieces from incomplete patterns that needed a new purpose in life)  As cool looking as the pattern piece collage  alone would look, I felt it might need an additional pop of color.  I decided it would be adorable to incorporate the pattern envelope images from my favorite clothing era as well.  I adore 1940's-1950's fashion! It has such a classy simplicity to it and I cannot get enough. I found a fellow Etsy seller from whom I purchased the orphaned pattern pieces and envelopes. My Mom also sent me a few envelopes she had found out her local thrift store. Wyoming thrift stores, we have discovered, are far superior to those here in So-Cal and it has become commonplace for me to ask my Mom to search for things that are a rarer find here. Once all my pattern supplies arrived, it was time to get started.

 

To begin with, I sorted through the pattern pieces and gathered up a good variety of sizes and paper shades.  For some of the larger pieces, I cut them into smaller sections, or kept the most visually interesting sections.  Since patterns do tend to have a fair amount of negative space, I stuck to sections that had more writing on them.  It was important to me to maintain the obvious pattern look rather than end up with a tan colored box.

 

Many of the pattern envelopes had a fair amount of damage.  In an effort to preserve the pattern envelope look while getting rid of some of the damage, I decided it would be best to trim them.  Not trusting myself to take scissors directly to such wonderful vintage treasures, I cautiously traced cutting outlines for myself first. This also allowed me to get a better visual on what my cut out would look like PRIOR to any actual cutting.

 

Once I had all my envelopes cut out, I gathered up the rest of my supplies.  A jar of mod-podge and some sponge brushes (available at any craft store) a paper cup for easier mod-podge "painting" and some scissors.  I spread a few sheets of waxed paper on my sewing room floor (I figured this gave me tons of space and easy clean up) and began.

 

 



I picked a side to start on and a grabbed a suitable pattern piece. I found that the best method was to spread a thin layer of mod-podge in the general area of the piece then press the piece down with my fingers.  Much like, say putting a screen protector on a phone or computer screen, its best to start at one end and work your way across the piece, making sure to flatten out as many wrinkles/bubbles as possible.

 

 

 

Once I had a piece sufficiently flattened, I went over it with a topcoat of mod-podge, making sure to anchor down all of the edges. I continued adding pieces, overlapping each piece slightly to cover all of the white areas.  At the top edges, I made sure to leave some excess and wrapped it over the edge, into the inside, and anchored it down with a coat of mod-podge as well. 

 

 

I used the same process with the pattern envelope images once the entire box was covered with pattern pieces.  I did find that a thicker top coat of mod-podge was neccesary for them. They are made with a much thicker paper and I was concerned that edges might be more likely to pop up as they dried. Since mod-podge dries clear, I was not too concerned and went ahead and gave them a thicker layer. For the holes in the front of the boxes, I simply cut the insides of the circular hole into triangles (like cutting pie slices) but left them attached on the outside. Then I pushed the triangles through to the inside and added a dab of mod-podge to secure them in place.

 

 

My classic beauties of  the pattern storage world now live quite happily above my new fabric hutch.

 

 

As you can see, I have only finished 3 of the 6 boxes (sadness!) The rest I plan to finish this week (fingers crossed) but due to a custom order from my Etsy shop, I had slightly less time than planned for this particular project.

 

 

None the less, my sewing space is coming along quite nicely.  Each new detail I add brings me one step closer to the sewing room of my dreams!





"It won't take forever!"

That was my smarty pants response to my boyfriend when he declared that my latest adventure would take us forever to finish. Well. . .a little less than 4 months later, I am happy to report that I was only sort of wrong. (yes, I said the "W" word. . .shhh don't tell him!)

In early August of this year, I began a search for the perfect fabric storage system for my sewing room. I was not quite sure what I wanted but I knew that I wanted it to showcase the fabrics themselves. While being given a "tour" of my boyfriend's Mom's sewing room, I absolutely fell in love with her storage solution. She uses an old china cabinet and I just adore the way her beautiful stacks of fabric are visible. It really brings such a warmness to her creative space.

I decided that this was it. I had to have something like this too! Once word got out that I wanted a cabinet of my own, a friend of mine told me that that antique store by her house was selling a china cabinet that had been painted a beautiful aqua color. This was particularly intriguing to me due to my fascination with the color aqua. My vintage Singer sewing machine is a fantastically retro shade of aqua that I have been in love with since the day it was given to me. So of course, as soon as I had my heart set on this aqua wonder, it was sold to someone else. Major bummer!

Determined to have my aqua china cabinet, I pressed on and along with my best Internet searching friend, began scouring the pages of Craigslist in search of a suitable replacement. We succeeded! We found one in great condition, not too far from my house and within my price range. After giving it a good once over, and hearing about how it was hand made by the owner's grandfather, I was sold. Now came the fun part!

We promptly moved it into my boyfriend's parents backyard to begin the real work. (this option offered way more working space than my second floor one bedroom apartment balcony) Step one was to sand off the old stained surface in preparation for painting. Even using electric sanders, this took us several days and was quite the work out! We got it all rough sanded and then went over everything again with a fine sand to finish it off.

During all this sanding, we noticed that there was a pretty detailed trim piece that connected the top part of the cabinet to the base. By the time we noticed this piece, neither of us really felt like breaking out the hand sander and sanding all the intricate grooves of this piece. Lets just say it didn't take much twisting of my arm for me to agree to rip off the old trim piece and buy a new section of trim that was already ready for paint. I was already chomping at the bit to get to the REALLY fun part of painting anyways. So, we found a suitable piece and my boyfriend's Dad cut it to fit. We nailed it on, filled up the gaps with some wood caulking and we were good to go!

I had gathered a handful of paint chips ahead of time to try to match the perfect aqua with my sewing machine. Suddenly I thought, rather than search for a close match with an already existing color, why not create an exact match? So, we lugged my 40-some odd pound sewing machine to my local home depot and had them make paint that matched my sewing machine EXACTLY! I was so happy! I chose a coral color (Behr light sandstone) for the inside shelving area to add a pop of color. And since my dream job has always been to be a color namer, (for nail polish or paints- come on, you have bought a nail polish just because you liked the name at least once right?)I decided to call my newly matched color "1950's kitchen appliance aqua" (clearly we now know why I am not a professional color namer)

While at The Home Depot, I also picked out some new hardware. I was not crazy about the metal accent pieces and didn't know how well they would mesh with my "1950's kitchen appliance aqua". Also, I am totally a silver girl when it comes to metal. So, before sanding, I removed all the metal accents. I wanted hardware that was clean but not too simple and yet, fancy enough to be feminine and still not distract from the feature of the piece. I thought these pieces fit the bill perfectly.

Painting took a few days as well. The inside was a little too tight of a space to use the roller efficiently, what with all the rungs for the shelving getting in the way. So, I did the inside with a brush. It was slightly more tedious but I thought it would look more consistent than having both brush strokes and roller marks. The outside however, I did exclusively with a roller.

And last but not least came the doors. The glass in the door frames was very old and warped. When we pulled the pieces out ,to make painting easier, small pieces of glass flaked off and it was sooo thin! We decided that due to my extreme tendency toward clumsiness and general safety for my nieces etc, to go ahead and replace the glass. I took it to a local glass shop and they had them good as new the next day. Once that was done, there was nothing left to do but move it in! (oh and keep my fingers crossed that my fabric stash would fit inside)

Don't you just love it? I adore the fact that I can see all of my fabrics, and am impressed with myself that there is still room to grow my fabric collection. It certainly took a lot of help from friends to get it finished but I couldn't be happier with the end product. Was it worth it, you may ask? Well, lets just say that to have a finished product that is exactly what I wanted in every way, even if it HAD taken forever, I would have kept at it. :)

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