Les Clés
I've been collecting keys for years, so I have bags full of them. I'm not sure how many exactly, but they probably total several pounds in weight. Some of them have ended up as necklaces, some have been given away as gifts, and there's one with a red ribbon tied to it that I keep with me all the time for good luck. I had some of my favourites mounted on a piece of framed matte board hanging in the living room, but I dismantled it a while ago to make room for a new painting and I have missed them ever since. 
Last week I found a vintage needlepoint kit at the thrift store, still in the original packaging. It came with a pre-stamped pattern of potted plants, enough yarn to complete the embroidery, and this small shadowbox to display the finished piece in. I wasn't all that wild about the potted plants pattern (very 70's--looked like something that would have hung on the wall in Jack Tripper's apartment! Oddly enough though, I actually started embroidering it the other night while watching tv.), but I loved the shadowbox and knew it would be perfect to house a few of my keys in.
With some orange textured cardstock, a liberal amount of E6000, and a few minutes, I had a new key display that I like even better than my old one! The key in the top left square I found somewhere a long time ago, and I think it might open an old, forgotten trunk or chest. The very large one in the upper right I purchased recently as part of a lot of keys at an antique store, and I love it to pieces--it's one of my all-time favourites, even though I bought it and didn't technically "find" it. The bottom left key is very rusty, and has a small piece of twisted wire attached to the top hole. It's embossed with the number 3, and came from a store that sells old furnishings--they always have a huge box of keys for sale and the nice man that works there lets me go through the box at my leisure and always gives me a bargain. Incidentally, 3 is one of my favourite numbers. The small key on the bottom right probably goes to a padlock. It's also rather rusty, especially on the back side. I found that one outside on the ground a long time ago. It isn't as old as some of the keys in my collection , but I really like it anyway.
Do any of you have collections? What are they, and how do you like to display them?
Labels: display, diy, keys, repurposed, shadowbox, simple, thrift
Kupo!
A few days ago I was in a thrift store and happened to catch a glimpse of this little guy as I was passing by the toy section. For half a second I thought he might be a stuffed moogle, so I had to double back to get a better look. Obviously he's not a moogle, but he is terribly cute, so I felt compelled to rescue him from a potentially dismal future of winding up at the bottom of someone's toy chest or being chewed on by a dog. I'm not sure what the story is with this character, but the tag on his bottom says his name is Mowbray, and he was made in the UK. 
I thought Mowbray possessed enough moogle-like charecteristics (light tan fur, large purple nose, cute little roly-poly body) that it would be easy to perform a little plastic surgery and make him into a moogle. So Mowbray the Moogle was born a few days later. The transformation was pretty simple. First, I picked out all of the embroidery for his eyes, mouth, and eyebrows (very tedious, that. In fact, it was the hardest part of the entire project!). Then I gave him a bath in the washing machine to get him nice and clean and loosen/remove any threads I missed. After that, I opened the seam at the back of his body and removed his old fluff. I gave him new eyes (solid black 12mm safety eyes), anchored his antenna/pompom (made from the cable of an old pair of cheap circular knitting needles & some hand-dyed vintage wool), and re-stuffed him with new fluff. 
I made his wings with felt, heavy-duty interfacing, and low-loft quilt batting with some dark purple embroidery for detail. After inserting & attaching the wings, I stitched him back up and embroidered a new mouth for him, and then he was finished! He doesn't look exactly like a moogle, but I think he's super cute & I love him. ^_^Now I just need to keep him away from my dogs, who seem to think he is something new for them to rip to shreds. :/
Labels: diy, felt, final fantasy, makeover, moogle, mowbray, plush, thrift
Two quick make-overs...with leopard print!
Several years ago I bought these cheap snakeskin heels at a thrift store. I'd planned to somehow make them leopard print, but after removing the outer layer of snakeskin (in the photo you can see one shoe in its original condition and one with the skin removed....yuck.) I sort of stalled for a very long time. I thought about painting them leopard print since the under-fabric was a relatively smooth cream coloured cotton twill, but it all seemed so time-consuming and I just never got around to it.Well, I finally completed these shoes, and I ended up covering them with fuzzy leopard fabric instead. I used some black bias tape to trim the top edges and give them a more "finished" look. I think they came out pretty nicely after it was all said and done. What do you think? 
Next is this sweater that I purchased at a thrift store. My best friend was looking for a light weight, short-sleeved black cardigan that did not have a vee neckline. I told her I would see what I could find, because I was confident I could turn up something like that after a bit of thrifting. Yeah, but no. After hours of hunting around, the closest I could get to her request was a light pullover sweater that had short sleeves and no vee-neck. I bought it anyway, thinking I could probably make it into a cardigan.
Of course I didn't think to take a before OR an after picture because I'm an airhead, but I do have an in-progress shot. 
Basically, I just cut the sweater straight up the middle, and then trimmed the raw edges with some leopard print jersey fabric. When the photo was taken I was in the process of basting the trim on. I also added a small elastic loop and a covered button to the neck area for closure. My friend said she loved it, and she looks super cute in it, too. The whole project turned out to be a lot easier than I thought it would be, especially considering how frightened I was at the idea of cutting a sweater open. ^^; Labels: clothes, diy, makeover, shoes, thrift
Long overdue.
Oh, my.
This blog is so neglected. Someone really ought to call the Blog Welfare Agency and report me.
I am so not fond of the word "blog", and I can't believe I just typed it twice. I'm slipping! D:Anyway, I have been busy with a variety of different things (some good, some not-so-good), and they have kept me from updating here as well as my pages at other sites (facebook, twitter, myspace, etc). I have about a ton of things I need to post here, but I'm going to slowly chip away at it.
Oh boy! A post about upcoming posts that will feature content that is well past its expiration date!
No wonder no one reads this thing!Labels: excuses, neglect, thrift, update
Ridiculously easy side table makeover!
I finished upgrading my side table quite a while ago, but am just getting around to posting the pictures.
Unfortunately, I've been having a lot of issues related to my neck injury which has made it difficult and unpleasant for me to be at the computer for more than a few minutes, or really do much of anything to be honest. I'm supposed to be having a second operation soon, so hopefully that will fix everything that is wrong with me and I'll be back to "normal".
Anyway, without further ado, here are the pictures (you can click them to see the larger versions):
I didn't really think to take a "before" photo, but be assured that this was one sad, ugly side table. I bought it a year or two ago at a thrift shop for 2$. I needed something to store my knitting gear in, and it was cheap, structurally sound, and just the right size. When I purchased it, it was varnished an ugly brown wood-tone, had tacky faux-brass drawer pulls (the kind that scream 1976-bicentennial), and had several really old unicorn stickers plastered across the front of some of the drawers. They were so old that they had become almost transparent. There was also a large amount of yellow acrylic paint spilled inside and on the front of the small top drawers, not to mention random globs of glitter glue everywhere. Nice. :D
So I decided I'd paint it black. It looks better with our couch, for one thing, and it matches the paper I planned to cover the drawer fronts with.
Here are the drawers after I covered them with paper and painted the edges. That is just some of my obscenely large collection of knitting needles, crochet hooks, and gadgets, many of them vintage. There's really no room in the drawers for much of anything else, but I usually keep a few small skeins of yarn in there. You can see some vintage Red Heart and Rochelle brand wool in there, plus some random black yarn.
And here is the finished product! I am very pleased with the way this turned out. When I started this project, I didn't plan anything and I was kind of half-assed doing it while watching Cold Case and Law & Order on tv. The gift wrap I used on the drawers (purchased on clearance at Old Navy last year) is so pretty, it really made this makeover remarkably easy, and it didn't require much forethought or planning at all. I had all of the stuff I used for this laying around here already, except for the black drawer pulls...my husband picked those up at Menard's for me, and they turned out to be just perfect (when I sent him to the store, I asked him to get the cheapest, least ornate drawer pulls he could find, lol).
Anyway, the whole thing cost me maybe 10$ or so, including the cost of the table itself, gift wrap, black paint, foam applicators for the paint and mod podge, and the drawer pulls. There's nothing I like better than doing something myself, and doing it cheaply. :D
Ever since I finished the side table, I've been shrewdly eyeing all of my other furniture pieces, wondering what could be done to update them, lol.
Labels: decoupage, furniture, makeover, paper, pictures, revamp, table, thrift
Revamping the second-hand side table that stores all my knitting gear. I need it to look pretty now to go with our new couch! Pics soon...
Labels: furniture, makeover, thrift
Thrift Haul: 08-02-08
I love thrifting. ^_^
I usually end up going at least once a week, sometimes twice if I'm lucky. Mondays and Saturdays are my usual thrifting days, but I missed Monday this week so I wanted to make sure I had time to go Saturday. I was feeling a little sick when I got up on Saturday, so we didn't get out of the house as early as I would have liked, and the thrift store was about to close by the time I arrived. Still, I managed to turn up some good items even in that short amount of time.
The picture above is kind of an overview of all the small items I found. It's hard to see thanks to my crummy cell phone picture, but basically there's a ton of vintage rick-rack, lots of lace trim and seam binding, a lot of blanket binding and quilt binding (some vintage, some newer), and a couple packs of bias tape. Also, there are two size Q crochet hooks and plastic size 12 knitting needles. In addition to all of that, there are several never-opened packages of vintage snap kits in a couple different styles, and some vintage brass buttons on a card. That big spool on the upper left is a 50 yd. roll of industrial strength iron-on mending tape, which I was beyond thrilled to find for a thrifty price. I've already found a fantastic use for it: repairing the holes in my dog's stuffed lizard toy, which becomes shredded instead of splitting along a seam, making it pretty much impossible to sew shut.
I love the wrapper from this old pack of rick-rack. I already took the rick-rack out and put it in my storage box, but I had to save this because I thought it was so pretty. ^^
I really have way too much rick-rack, but I can never say no to more when I see it, especially if it's old. In fact, I can't seem to resist any type of old sewing notions. ^^;
Anyway, I also got several bundles of lovely vintage fabric, including approximately 5 yards of bright, grass green pleather. I was thrilled about the pleather...usually when I find vinyl or pleather, it's just scrap remnants, and often the colours are not exactly ideal (taupe, anyone? Yeah, I didn't think so...). The pleather had its original purchase tag still attached: 1.75$ a yard. That must have been quite a few years back, because I've never seen pleather that cheap, even on sale.
Besides the green vinyl, there was a pretty "patchwork" pattern fabric with a border print. I might make a dress from that if there is enough of it for what I have in mind. I also got some pin-wale baby blue corduroy, royal blue fleece, green silky-type material, a light green and blue printed polyester, some stretchy blue fabric with abstract lions printed on it (yes, this fabric is a little strange...), and...I think that's it!
But no, I'm still not done. ^_^;
I have to spazz about the really cool old knitting row counter I found!
It's hard to see well in the photo, but it's made by Susan Bates, and it has 10 red pegs that you move around to keep track of your rows, pattern rows, and increases and decreases. Each kind of thing you count has its own little area on the raised plastic peg board. This was a lucky find as it still has all of its pegs and came with the original instructions. :)
This thing will definitely come in handy when knitting season rolls around again. I do have several of the counters that you slide onto your needle, but I hate those because they always either fall off, or the little counter wheels are too loose, and they turn on their own when my knitting is stored in my bag. I also have one of those Clover brand clicker-counters, which I love (mostly because of the clicking action ^^;), but of course it only counts one thing at a time.
Finally, this is my last item: a vintage blue plastic sewing "tackle box". This baby is in perfect condition, nice and deep, and came with a cool top tray that has labeled, shaped compartments for your gear (ie: "scissors", "bobbins", "spools", etc). About a month ago I purchased a new sewing box thingy on sale at Michael's. It's padded and covered in this unbelievably ugly fabric, but it was cheap and I needed something to keep my "second set" of sewing gear in near the sofa, for use when I am watching TV. It isn't nearly as deep or big as this blue one, which I like much better. So, yeah. The new box will probably be exiled to the closet in favour of this old box. :D
Labels: fabric, gear, knitting, notions, purchases, sewing, supplies, thrift, vintage
