Passing on the Knowledge

The last few weeks I spent some time giving my niece her first sewing lessons. She’s never sewn before, even by hand. We decided to start with a tote bag, I thought it would be a fairly simple shape for a beginner. The original pattern had grommets and a drawstring through the top, but after she chose her fabric, I was concerned about the grommets on the satiny fabric, so we left them out. We then added the handmade flowers for a decoration. I had to help with a few things like making the piping that went around the bottom, but she amazed me how quickly she learned to get the right pressure on the foot pedal. I remember that being very difficult for me when I was a child. Anyway, she made a great tote bag. I’m very proud of her.

Renovation Existing Tile

When renovating a bathroom, most home improvement sites and books will recommend completely ripping out all the fixtures and tiles and updating everything. They say that you will usually recover the cost when you resell the house. That’s fine if you can actually afford the thousands of dollars in demolition and replacement. Many of us don’t have those resources. And with the current housing slump and home values having dropped dramatically, sinking thousands into a renovation may not pay off.
I have updated both the bathrooms in my home without replacing all of the tile. I have redone just portions of it. I did it myself, and it does involve some delicate precision and hard labor. I’m not sure tile contractors would like my approach either. Hiring someone to do this work may not be easy as they most likely feel it’s easier to tear it all out and then cover a clean flat wall.
Easy doesn’t always mean best for the environment. My approach is to preserve as much vintage tile as possible and to add as little as possible to the waste stream. Where does all that old tile end up? Probably a landfill. Maybe if it were being recycled for some other use, it wouldn’t bother me so much, but most of the time, you see large amounts of construction waste just packed up into dumpsters and trucked away.
Here’s what I did with the 1st renovation. We had broken tile on the windowsill, some edge tiles at the floor that were cracked, a broken ceramic wall mounted towel rack and worn out ceramic soap dish and toothbrush holders above the wall hung sink. After removing the sink, we also found holes through some tiles and cracks in others.
I loved the 50-year-old tan speckled tile but knew I probably wouldn’t be able to match it. The room had black edge tile, so I had to come up with a pattern to insert black tile to fill in the spaces where I removed the broken stuff. It required placing black tiles where the new towel bars would attach to the walls, black tiles on the new windowsill and a few rows of black behind the sink. It also involved preserving at least one tan tile to fill in a spot where one towel bar was removed. Getting tiles off in one piece is the trickiest part & mostly comes down to luck.
Here’s a few links on how to replace a broken tile…

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/how-to/intro/0,,20051584,00.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_114958_replace-cracked-tile.html

perhaps I’ll post more about my own repair work at a later date as this is already getting too long winded.

New Uses For Hardware And Such

These necklaces are made using a variety of hardware. The turquoise one is made with metal washers, stacked buttons and painted metal scrapbook embellishments. The rectangular one has beads that are made from sliced pieces of pyrex pipettes from a medical lab. The three tier floral pendant is made from epoxy scrapbook stickers over metal washers. The coral color one is made from a C-clip that is some kind of auto part, semi-precious stones and buttons.

I created my 1st Treaury

I created my 1st Treasury on Etsy. It took a while to get settled down and wait for the 333 to pass, but it is fun, I think I'll get into this.
Good luck to all the creative designers I included.
Please check out these lovely Evening Bags by June 17th when my Treasury expires.
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=64795

My Earring Cabinet

Being an earring junkie, it tends to be hard to find a place to store them all, or to locate the pair I want. I decided I needed a cabinet. I envisioned something similar to a CD cabinet that provides storage on the doors when they open.
I went to Lowes and bought some 1x3x2’ boards to build the boxes. Originally I had intended to also put necklaces in the box, hence I chose the 1x3’s, but 1x2’s probably would have worked fine and the box would have been a bit less deep. I decided widthwise to make each door out of a 1x6, and so I also bought some ¼”x6” craft boards to glue together to form the back. I decided to make the doors slightly larger than the box so that I could put a decorative curve on the top, something to match our wooden window valances in the bedroom. The extension on the bottom works as a door handle. I also wanted a shallow band across the bottom of each section to stop anything that fell from dropping out. I just went with some flat ¼” trim molding. I measured the pieces and marked my curved top and my husband cut them for me. He used his router to make a groove to recess the bands across the bottom. I just used a simple butt joint and screwed the boxes together and glued & nailed on the front & back. My original idea was to put in rows of wire and wrapped them around screws to hang my dangle earrings over. I tried getting the wire taught, but all the earrings kept sliding toward the middle. Then my husband had a great idea, remembering the pile of martigras beads we had. So we cut the strands, strung them across and around the screws, wedging a bead between the screw and the side of the box. They work great because the beads separate each pair of earrings. Originally I had left the sides off the middle of the doors (I thought they might bind together when opening and closing) but I ended up adding a strip of the ¼” molding to finish off the edge and cover the ends of the screws & beads.
I own a few pairs of post earrings, so I used some wire and formed a small hole and loop, so I could attach the earring thru the hole and hang them in the box too. It’s kind of a pain, so I end up not always putting them away properly. I’m considering adding a strip of needlepoint mesh in place of the beads, but haven’t tried it yet, or perhaps I’ll find another solution.
I finished it off by painting it white and modifying the stencil from the window valances up the front. The lovely vintage hinges I used on the sides came from our Aunt’s old house. Now I have plenty of room to make and store new earrings.
This idea can be adapted to any size and I have also included a picture of a similar but smaller earring holder I made for my sister using a wooden picture frame and strung beads. I just used some decorative paper across the back. A sheet of needlepoint mesh would also work well if making one from a picture frame.

The Coral Rose Handbag

I made this elegant purse without a pattern. I used the coral color fabric sample just the size it was. I sewed up the sides and created a corner on each side to form the bottom. I thought it would look nice with a front pocket, so I looked thru my scraps & found the lovely floral fabric (left over from a round cushion I made). I cut out the pockets and flap and sewed them on. Then I realized I might have just enough scrap left to add a zipper closure across the top. My mother had recently given me a beaded necklace. I restrung one of its strands onto wire for the handle. Look for it in my Etsy shop.

This Months Feature at The ReFORMatory on ArtFire

Because I enjoy working on so many different types of crafts, each month in my ArtFire Studio I feature a different style of craft. This months feature is “Vintage Button Hairpins”. My button collection started with hand-me-downs from both grandmothers and now my mother, mother-in-law and other friends have also added in. I find that small to shirt size buttons work well for hairpins. I enjoy embellishing some of them with beads and other items. Check them out on ArtFire until June 30th.