Covering A Frame With Fabric
Earlier in the week I posted some great estate sale finds that we recently made and two of them were this awesome 1950?s travel poster and this HORRID 1993 picture frame. Between the two we spent $8. The poster is an original Northwest Orient Airlines lithograph. It was a little banged up and the airline logo was cut off of the bottom. Even so, I am ecstatic that we were able to score it for $2! We’ve been looking for a friend for it so that we would have a pair, but no luck yet. During my research I’ve found out that this poster in good condition runs between $800 & $1200! I would guess that even in this condition, because the main artwork is still in great shape, that it is still worth a few hundred dollars. The frame was $6 and was not only ugly, shiny, plastic and mauve, but parts of the ugly was coming off showing the raw glue spotted “wood” underneath. I bought it because I felt that I would end up paying way more for a heavy duty frame of this size if I passed this one up, so I went ahead and got it. We needed a big sturdy frame to protect our new treasure, so I thought for a few minutes about what I could do with it and come up with a great solution!
The first thing I did to the frame was to break off as much of the loose plastic as I could so that whatever I did to it next would have a solid base. Then I cut the paper away from the back and removed the cardboard backing, the faded old Monet poster and the glass. I had to take out the glaziers points and unscrew the hanging hooks to do this and I set those aside. I decided to do a simple fabric covered frame, but I had to find something that I felt would match the poster, but wouldn’t be too crazy to fit in somewhere in the house. The paper has yellowed a little over the years and the bright white of the buildings is now a light ecru color, so that is the color I chose to go with. I went to my fabric shelves and looked for something similar and I pulled out unbleached cotton that I had. I measured how far it was around the frame (as in each piece of it, not the circumference) and then how long each side was. I cut pieces of the linen 1/4 inch wider and 3 inches longer than my measurements were. So now I had 4 pieces of linen and a frame.
I wrapped the fabric around the sides of the frame lengthwise and sewed it with a simple stitch along the back of the frame. I made it tight but not TOO tight because once you put the glass back in it will take out the slack. You want the fabric to be centered in both directions. I started about 1.5 inches in from the corners and sewed straight to the other end, stopping about 1.5 inches away from it because the corners take a little configuring and you want a little mobility for that. Once I had all four sides sewn on, I folded and cut the corners to make two angled edges on each that would fit together like the corner of a blanket. When I was happy with how they looked I sewed them from underneath, or inside some people call it, so that you couldn’t see the stitches when I was done. I repeated this on all four corners and completed stitching up the ends on the back as well. We cleaned the glass really good, put it back into the frame and reattached the hanging hardware. To spruce up the poster itself I took a white plastic art eraser which is good for cleaning up artwork and won’t smudge or spread stains. This immediately got rid of 3/4 of the marks of the piece like they had never even been there. I straightened the one rip and smoothed it out and folded about 1/8 of an inch on the edges where it was too big for the frame. We laid the poster face down on the glass and Loving Husband held it while I arranged it and made sure that it was flat. Next, I put the cardboard back over the back and LH reinserted the points to secure everything back into the frame.
All I can say is that I am extremely pleased with the finished project and the frame is perfect for the poster. It fits in with our decor, matches the poster and doesn’t detract from it at all! One expert I spoke to about the poster said that we were lucky to find one at all, and it is unbelievable that we got it for $2! Right now it is hanging in our bedroom, but next time we move I will hang it in our dining room for all our visitors to enjoy!
Great Freebies From Wedding Style Guide
I came across the Wedding Style Guide website while browsing design blogs and I had to share it with you. Although their wedding ideas and advice are great, it’s not the “wedding” aspect of the site that I was focused on. What I REALLY wanted to share with you is the Download section. While the multitude of their beautifully designed printables are intended for use at bridal showers and receptions, they could be used for and adapted to many, many different purposes. I loved the Issue 1: Tea Party labels (above) and thought they would be great to unify the look of my own teas in my kitchen. Also, I highly recommend the freebies for Issue 7: Book Club and Issue 12: Pretty Parisian! For a better look at some of their other lovely vintage inspired printables, follow the link above.
Turn Paperbacks Into Hardbacks
I saw this project (above) by KatieDoh over at OhDeeDoh a while ago, but I almost forgot about it until now. I remember that I wanted to try it, but never did get around to it. I don’t know much about printing on fabric, so I might try to embroider the covers when I finally try this out. Until then, I thought maybe you guys would find it interesting and inspirational. If you make any of these, let me know, I’d love to see them! I always have so many paperbacks piled up that I have to find somewhere out of the way to store them because I can’t stand how they look on the self next to my hardbacks! This would be a good solution!
Turn A Simple Screen Into An Awesome Wardrobe
Today while was reading my iGoogle reader posts I came across a simple tutorial on Maison Douce for turning an old screen into this great display wardrobe! I thought this was a great idea and so easy that I had to share it with all of my readers!
Thrifting: Fall Trip To NY
During our fall trip to my Hometown of Jamestown New York, we did a lot of thrifting! After all, this IS the place where it all started! To be more accurate, THIS Salvation Army in the photos (above) is the place where it all started. I had a friend who lived on the side road across the street from this Salvos when I was in Middle school. One day after riding my bike over to her house and finding her family not at home, I was so very bored that I thought I would go in and give it a look. I was probably in the 5th or 6th grade at the time. I instantly fell in love and have been ever since! It was like a huge indoor yard sale! There aren’t a ton of thrift stores in the area, but my birth-mother, aunt and uncle took us around to the ones they frequent (it must be in the blood), and we found a ton of cool items!
Make Your Own Seed Packets
No matter how hard I try to save my seed packets when I’m planting, they always get lost or destroyed. This last year Loving Husband kept grabbing them with wet dirty hands and throwing them in the pile with the empty soil bags; the ones I managed to save then got left out in the rain. If you are a seed saver you might be interested in this project I found over at Something I Just Made! She covers a few different uses for them and even gives you the images free for download! I think these would be great to use with my pattern collection. I could keep fabric swatches, thread, buttons and trim samples that I’ve used when making a garment from a pattern and stick it in the folder with that pattern. I suppose if you wanted to you could even take the templates and redo them with your own images to suit your every need. I devised my OWN seed packet pattern that is slightly larger and assembles differently than this one that I make out of old dictionary pages and use for storing little things around the house instead of buying plastic baggies that are bad for the environment.
Thrifting: Antiques & Auctions In Autumn
Instead of trolling the thrift stores as usual we’ve been busy doing some antiquing and auction shopping as of late. I wanted to show you guys a couple of the really cool things we bought, if you’d like a closer view, simply click on the images to enlarge them.
We actually found this watercolor in an antique shop UNDER a pile of rusted metal light fixtures. I managed to pick it up for $20. I just LOVED something about it. It’s a depiction of a cavalryman of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw (possibly the Lancers of the Vistula Legion) during the Napoleonic war. Of course the painting isn’t that old, it’s actually from the 60?s I believe. I cleaned it; we bought the lovely silver leaf and linen frame from the Goodwill for $4. The blue linen pattern acid free mat was custom cut for the piece and cost $12. Total cost $36!
I researched the artist who is S. Pajackowski. He was born in 1900, but I can’t find any information on when he died. The few paintings of his that I was able to find online sell for about $350-$400, so not bad for under $40!
This unfinished painting is on the BACK of our painting. I’m not really sure what it is exactly, some sort of polish procession I guess. They appear to have been part of a book at one time and were since removed.
It’s hard to say that one or the other of this group is my favorite; all three items in this post are great! But I really LOVE this vintage pram. This is in such awesome condition that I honestly don’t think that this was ever used with a child. There are no rips or wear marks on it anywhere, no staining, it has all of the original parts including the cloth covered mattress and the mosquito net. When I saw the Perego Confiori stroller in forest green and white, I HAD to have it. The auction house sold it as a buggy pram (the two photos below) and a car seat that was out of date. Once I got home and could really look at it, we figured out that it wasn’t a car seat at all (Loving Husband figured it wasn’t from the get-go). What they were calling a car seat is actually the seat for the summer stroller configuration (the two photos above). The hood over the bassinet collapses, the little window on the apron snaps up or down and the entire apron can be removed if you want the pram open. You can remove the bassinet and replace it with the stroller seat. This seat can be adjusted into several different reclining positions, the surrey top can be attached, there is a bracket that can be flipped up and that holds the mosquito net off the baby’s head. It also came with a matching cover that would go over the top of the stroller to cover the baby for sleeping.
I know what you are thinking… We don’t have a baby! True, true, but I figured that it was well worth the $100 price tag, because if we DO have a baby (we are trying) I couldn’t get a new stroller half this awesome for $100. This thing is in such good condition, it’s like old-new stock and we love vintage, so it is perfect for us, it’s even LH’s favorite color! If we don’t have a baby, at least I have an interesting piece to use when staging photos of the baby items I make. Also, I could sell it online. Less mint versions of the same buggy have been going in the $300 range on eBay (even with $50+ shipping) and most of them only have one set of the parts, either the stroller or the bassinet and none of the accessory parts! I feel like it was a hell of a deal even though it was way more than I would normally consider spending. Something about it just called out to me!
This (above) is the reason why we went to the auction in the first place! It is a handmade vintage/antique pattern case! It is solid wood, all brass pulls and glass in the windows with 2 replacement pieces included. I had been storing my vintage pattern collection in Rubbermaid storage drawers which were becoming stressed under the weight. I don’t have to worry about that anymore with this; now I have plenty of room for all of my patterns to be spread out into their categories and then put into separate drawers by size range and even one left over for other stuff! The drawers aren’t completely full, so I have room to grow! It’s 21 inches deep, so that’s a lot of drawer space! This one set me back $80, which I don’t think was too bad for a handmade item like this. It seems like anything with more than 6 drawers in it sells for WAY more than I’m willing to pay. All of the little apothecary chests, old safety deposit boxes, seed chests, etc, etc; they all START at about $300. Taking that into consideration, I felt lucky to get my hands on this one for a relative pittance. The only bad thing about it is that Loving Husband tore his abdominal muscle while moving it into the house and has been out of work and on Vicodin for a week. It really isn’t THAT heavy, but it’s very awkward and he should have let me help him when I offered. Hopefully he will be well again soon, but the medics said 6-8 weeks.
Homemade Elizabethan Tall Hat
I started recently making Garb for the Ren Faire and dressing when we attend. I’ve been going for years, but had never dressed before. Last weekend I had one week and just my stash fabric to create an outfit; I did a fairly good job for not using any patterns or anything, but one thing I was missing was a hat. I have a low crown straw hat that I bought for this very purpose a long time ago, but it got left at the house in Indiana. I Scoured craft stores and thrift shops last week and was unable to find ANY sort of straw hat at all! This was weird because, they are normally everywhere. We are planning to go again the last day of the faire (two weeks away) and I need some sort of hat. I saw some of the women had on fancy pilgrim sort of hats and I really liked them! I didn’t know what they were called, but after searching the Wench Guild archives, I discovered they were called “Elizabethan tall hats”. When I looked for one online, I think the cheapest, plainest one I could find was a few bucks shy of $100! That’s a lot of money for something I potentially might only wear once, so I decided to try to make one myself. You can see an example of this style below as shown in The Tudors series on Showtime.
Below is a photo gallery of the hat making process complete with instructions.
Yellow Rose Childs’ Dress
Here is another new dress I just put the finishing touches on this afternoon. This one too is made out of a vintage twin bed sheet I found in Memphis; it was $1.98. The vintage lace trim is also from a Memphis thrift store and cost about 30 cents. The buttons, chiffon for the sash, elastic, bias tape and tulle for the petticoat are all new, but were things I already had (except for the tulle, it was on sale 50% off at Jo Ann’s. The total cost of the dress & petticoat is about $4. I used a vintage 1959 Simplicity pattern (3413) in a little girl’s size 8. I’ve found a pretty good way to make the petticoats I think, this one is slightly different than the one on the blue dress I posted earlier, but was much more simply made and seems to give me more poof. I’ve really lucked out with having just the right amount of trim for the dresses I’ve made so far! Hope to have some more stuff to post tomorrow as well.
Lavender & Roses Little Girls’ Dress
This is my latest completed project. The muslin I used for the body of the dress was a vintage twin sheet that I bought at a thrift store in Memphis for $2.50. The lavender lace trim on the neckline, hem and covering the belt buckle was also bought at a Memphis thrift store and cost me about 10 cents. The zipper and belt buckle are vintage, salvaged from old items. The only things that are new are the grommets and interfacing I used on the belt and the netting for the petticoat. I used about 2 yards which I just got on sale 50% off at Jo Ann Fabrics. The elastic and the ribbon I used for the petticoat were things I’ve had for a while, but they were used when I got them too. I’d estimate the total cost of making the dress to be about $5. To cover the buckle I simply wrapped the lace trim around it until it was completely covered and then I secured it with a few stitches. The dress is a child’s size 8 and made with vintage McCall’s pattern 5428 from 1960. The petticoat is of my own devising!
