Sometimes it’s the small details that make all the difference in decorating and having clutter look less like clutter.
Today for Home Sweet Home I’m tackling a mini project which is the start of the wider craft area re-vamp.
This was originally supposed to be my first project XDSo let’s start small!
Project 1.
Organise the pin cushion!
Pick matching colours
Remake pin cushion as it’s old
Theory: cluttered crap looks good if it’s made from similar colours!
Old version of the pin cushion was made a couple of years ago and it’s taken a hell of a beating. The new version will be a little pink hedgehog but that’s part two of the project!
Part 1 of the project is something you can do with your eyes closed… well probably not because, you know, pins are pointy… but you know what I mean!
My pin collection is a mish mash of several types. I don’t think I’ve ever bought pins, I tend to just inherit them when people are getting rid of their sewing collections. So it looks like this:
Which is useful but also not very pretty because they don’t match. Also half of them are bent or broken and stuck somewhere inside the cushion >_<
So step 1, pull all the pins out and throw out the broken ones. Sort everything into colours.
Decide on a colour scheme, I picked shades of pink/white/red/purple and only put those colours back. So as not to be wasteful I donated the other pins to a friend’s sewing collection 😀
Done!
It’s amazing the difference just having similar colours makes. The cushion doesn’t quite match the pins but that’s on the project list too. I really think that little details like this make all the difference to the big picture!
I used to wear this skirt when I worked in an office, it’s really pretty but it hangs too low on my waist for my current wardrobe. I originally bought it at the Valley Girl outlet store for $4 and like 6 years later it’s still going strong 😀
These days I wear things of different silhouette so I decided to take the skirt in and make it high waisted, here’s the end result.
This was very straight forward. Skirt before:I tried on the skirt and held it as high as I wanted it. Then I folded the left over fabric and pinned it in place. This is the view while having it on, you may need someone else’ help to pin without sticking yourself XD
I then took it off and made sure there were no creases along the fold. Once it was completely flat and following the lines of the pleats already in the skirt, I stitched it down.
Honestly I feel like with this project I finally made some kind of progress with the apartment. The little details always make a difference but sometimes you need something really big to show the progress properly. I hate working for a long time and not being able to see results, that’s why I can never stick to one craft at a time I just get bored too easily.
So this vanity is both my most loved and least favorite piece of furniture in the house. I loved it enough to drag it down from Brisbane and I hate it because it doesn’t look good with the style of apartment and it really darkens up the room.
Also after a few days of use it looks like this…
Well realistically it looks more like this…Honestly I’m one of those people who can’t keep things neat unless there is an exact system to do so >_<
How can I keep stuff clean?
Wipe off bench top
Everything needs a home
DIY Ideas!
Paint table white
Cover guitar case
Make box for camera
Better lighting set up
Storage for back drop
Bin for rubbish.
LET’S DO IT!
So problem number 1 is that it’s dark wood. I love dark wood but it’s just not good for this house where everything is light and white. I previously covered the stool with pink leopard print so it seemed fitting to paint all of the wooden parts white.
I chose to do this with acrylic paint because:
I can paint indoors without killing myself with fumes
I can easily remove it when we move and I want the dark wood again
It’s cheap as hell, you can get huge bottles for $2 at craft stores or junk stores
Diary entry:
Le Fancy Stool!
We started with this… I removed the seat and covered it with awesome.
Fancy level 20%
That left us with this. Not bad but so dark!
Fancy level 50%
So I painted it with acrylic and gave a top coat of watery PVA.
And we have this…
Fancy level 90%
Winner!!
I tested it out on the stool first in case it ended up sucking 😀
It took a couple of coats to get a nice finish. I began painting without bothering to remove the seat part so I wouldn’t get paint on the floor but after doing most of the top I removed it to get closer to the edges.
Eventually it started look good 😀 I used a sponge for an even finish.
When I had the finish that I wanted I mixed some PVA glue with water to create a wash. I painted over the whole thing with it. The reason for this is to protect the paint and make it more durable. It also gives a slightly shiny finish to it.
Taadaaaaa 😀
So with the test run complete I moved on to the actual vanity 😀
Beauty!
The current beauty set up is messy and awkward
I was extremely dirty from all of the make up and dust floating around so step one was to clean it up.
Next was removing all of the pieces I could without damaging it.
A couple of coats of paint later and I was well on the way to a nice vanity! I added a pink doily to see if I liked it at this point too.
I painted the other parts too including the mirror. I masked it off with tape first to make sure the mirror wasn’t damaged.
The round parts were the most irritating to get smooth.
Ok so I wanted to make this nice and durable and to be able to clean it easily and not stress about spilling make up on it. The solution? Book covering contact!
I decided that I liked the pink doily so I glued it down.
I cut out the length I needed.
The little grids made it nice and easy to line things up.
I cut out tabs so it could go around the top part.
Then I slowly pulled out the paper and smoothed it all down.
When it got to the heart I made sure to smooth out all of the little bubbles as I went. It was very irritating to get right!
Looking good!
Aaaad all put together!
Getting there but not quiiiite what I wanted..
So I covered James’ guitar case with some nice fabric XD
Sorry James… well not really sorry XD
Putting things back in I was more careful with organisation and making sure that I had things I used often at hand and packing up other things I used less often. Win! I still haven’t organised the stuff on the far left pink shelves because they are going to be folded and stored away soon but everything is coming along 😀
James’ guitar case becomes a nice shelf for hair products. I don’t know how I managed to buy only pink hair products, clearly it’s ingrained deeply in my subconscious haha!
This is my set up for filming videos, lots and lots of lighting but it also means I can’t see the big mirror so I had to add a second smaller mirror angled so I can see.
I have a silicone pot mat to keep my straightener on and everything has a space to stay in, there’s even a heart container to dump old eyelashes in.
Things I use every day go up here and my little white picket fence container sits next to it.
So much happier with it all clean and neat. It’s easy to keep clean and makes the whole room look so much brighter.
I am really happy with my first big project for the Home Sweet Home 😀 What do you guys think??
I bought this leopard print top/dress thing ages ago in Valley Girl and I love it to death but I always felt slightly uncomfortably wearing it because it’s quite low cut and the straps were too long for me. I already altered it by cutting off the bubble bottom so now it was finally time to do something about the top section.
All I used was some matching black netted fabric and a sewing machine.I cut a piece large enough to cover the cleavage area and folded it at the top so I had one less seam to sew.
Pinned it in place and tried it on to make sure it was sitting correctly.
Lastly I added some black lace at the top just for an extra detail.
While I was at the sewing machine I also shortened the strap.
I used white thread so you could see the inside:
Taadaa!
I don’t know why it took me so long to get around to doing this >_< I like it so much more and it is much more wearable now!
I’ve been on a bit of an online shopping spree…. well not an online shopping spree, more of an online window shopping spree XD
Anyway, getting back to the point, everywhere I keep seeing these big drapy cardigans with dolman/batwing sleeves. I’ve never had something with a cut like that and to be honest I didn’t think it would look great on me so I didn’t want to pay any money for one in case it did look completely unflattering XD
So time to DIY!
You need:
Some kind of nice fabric, again I was being cheap so I used some left overs from another project
Lace for the edges
Sewing machine and overlocker, I probably wouldn’t hand stitch this because it would take forever.
First lay out your fabric flat.
Cut it into a big square. To decide on how big roughly estimate how long you want it to hang down from your neck-back and use that as the side measurements.
Now fold each of the corners in to the middle.
And where they meet up horizontally pin them together. The corners on the left side go together as do the right ones.
Cut off the point at the end, this is where your hands will poke out of the sleeves 😀
Now stitch down the sides that you pinned together. I prefer to use an overlocker for this but you can also zigzag to keep the edges from unraveling.
You should have something like this 😀
And this is where you should have stitched:
Now really that’s all the cardigan is made up of… seriously. It’s just because of the shape that they drape so nicely. I decided to decorate mine with some random lace Celeste gave me for my stash.
I stitched it all around the neckline/center hole in a big circle.
I added it to the sleeves as well to match.
Details:
And yep that’s all there is to it 😀 It’s long and comfy 😀 I think I would considering buying or making a big knit one. In fact, I have a blanket I knit ages ago that I could easily turn into one of these!
What do you guys think Yay or Nay to big batwing sleeves like this?
When I started the Home Sweet Home Project I wanted to make a physical diary that I could keep of the progress. Like a scrapbook but full of drawings and pretty things. Of course it needed to be as pretty as the projects I was planning to do so it turned into a mini project in itself.
I went through all of my stickers trying to find something suitable then realised that I had far to many stickers for someone who really never uses them for anything.I used a pre-made set for the base.
And extended it out to cover the whole area. Finished 😀
As a front page I added in a watercolour chart as I was planning to do a lot of painting with it.
Now I can be assured that I’ll have something pretty to remember this whole experience with ^_^ Now back to the real projects!
Illustrator. Strong tea, knitting, watercolours, and making a video game called Moonlight in Garland. Living with her adorable husband Jimmy, fluffy puppy Miss Lottie and Bergamot Bunny in Melbourne, Australia.
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