Sewing Projects!

September is National Sewing Month...so I guess I better get sewing.  I have several projects I want to finish before September passes by!

Today I finished a lamp that's been taking up space in my sewing room.

Sad!

But, a few hours and a little bit of sewing...

Completed!  I did line the fabric and settled on a ruffle to finish off the top.  I think it turned out cute.

P.S.  Don't tell Emily, she doesn't know it is finished.

Till tomorrow...

debi

Emily's House

We finally got the built in bookcases installed at Emily's.

This little helper never stopped long enough for me to get a clear picture of him.  He was all over the place trying to help (and get the tools before the guys could use them.) 

They work together...each taking turns drilling.

Here's Austin...once again trying to get in some "tool" time.

Jared was also able to replace the old fan...

 with this new white one.

 There is additional trim molding to add to one end of the bookcase and along the top and bottom to complete the built in look.

 We'll need to stain the new trim to match what was salvaged from the original tear out.

While the boys were installing the bookshelves, Emily got into the small pantry area and pulled up the nasty dirty carpet.  The floor is dirty, but it can be washed.

This same flooring is under the new carpet in the office.  Emily hopes to tile the kitchen, laundry room and pantry area later on.  She felt it was easier to live with this floor than the dirty carpet.

 We had other helpers...but I'm not too sure how much they were helping!

I finally finished the kitchen curtains.  Emily bought an embroidered tablecloth at a friend's garage sale and really wanted to use it in her kitchen as curtains.

There wasn't enough of the embroidered tablecloth to cover all the windows, so I picked up another tablecloth with the same color scheme to finish the other areas.

 I made the topper to look like it had a "petticoat" underneath.

The lower curtains have a small ruffle made from the petticoat material.  This big window used the full tablecloth to complete the project.

Emily wanted a curtain for this opening.  "Someone" thinks the microwave is that low so he can push the 'butts."  (He can't remember the word is button.  He always wants to push the butts.)

I used the new table cloth for this area and...



to cover the window in the back door.

The two look nice together.  Emily is NOT into anything "matchy".  She's only into vintage!

Which is why the curtains covering the window over her sink are vintage tea towels...

The ceiling in the back room finally got a patch.  It will need a little more work to finish the texture, but we started painting in the hall...working toward that back room.  There is still a big chunk of the carpet left...she's threatening to haul it to the curb.  Anyone need a big piece of carpet?


We'll finish painting the hall this week...then move into the back bedroom.  We need to paint the ceiling and the walls in there.
 Only one bedroom and the small bath left to complete! Nearing the end!!!
Till tomorrow...
debi

Re-start Emily's Project

Well...when we last left off at Emily's new house "makeover" we had almost all the rooms painted.  Work projects, vacations, conventions...lots of things have put us at a crawl.  I'm still sewing for the house (window treatments and other small items), but the big projects had come to a total stand still.

To re-fresh your memory, this is how the room originally looked when Emily purchased the house.  Yellow walls and green/brown carpet.

We got busy painting the walls and freshening up the woodwork, but at that point we did not have carpet for the room (and as we have since found out, what was underneath was NOT pretty - old 1960's linoleum!)

We eventually got carpet for the room...then it was a loooooong wait to get it laid.  That finally happened this last weekend!

The carpet was a "free" remnant from a friend of my husband who owns a carpet business (plus he threw in the pad!)

It really freshens up the room.

It has all of Emily's colors in her house packed into that carpet!

Here's a picture of  the same carpet that her sister had bound to use as an area rug in her living room.

 

Believe it or not there is still enough left for another room...I think I may need it in my own office! (It's the right colors!)

The next element to go in the room is a book shelf  "system."  Since Emily wants to use this room as her office...all the shelves are perfect.

Due to the fact my husband is a facility manager...he's always supervising the tearing up of offices to make room for new offices.  These book cases came out of a lawyers office in his building.  It's one of the components we've been waiting for (he knew they would be available when the lawyer left the space.)

 It's amazing to me that "stuff" is trashed and thrown away when a tenant leaves their old space.  Guess they think it's cheaper to "rebuild to the new space" than to take the old stuff with them.  (My husband is opposed to throwing away good wood!)  We've benefited many times from someones "throw aways"!

This weekend the guys will affix the shelves to the walls, trim them out and we'll start creating this room as a home office for Emily.  The shelves fit very nicely wall to wall!  They will look like custom built ins when all is said and done.

We are also working on a door "system" that will enable her to close off this room if she needs to. 

Well, unloading the shelves was enough for one day (I just watched. HA!)...more on them tomorrow...

till then,

debi

Cushion Sewing

At it again...or still! I'm back to recovering cushions.  Seems to be the never ending job - torecover Emily's cushions.  They appear to be multiplying upstairs!  Originally she had the two love seats and I recovered the cushions to complete one love seat and the seat cushions to the second love seat - then I ran out of material  I was using a "sample bolt" from my friend and actually had enough to do quite a bit with the amount of fabric on the bolt.  Unfortunately...we had to order the second bolt to complete the back cushions of the love seat.   Then...miracle of all miracles...Emily was given the matching couch to go with the incomplete love seat.  Now there were three more backs and there more seat cushions to recover...and more material to order!

We spent a full evening pulling apart the seat cushions so I could begin the sewing process (still have the backs to rip apart!)  We saved the zippers, but the old cording was in bad shape to try and reuse.

I covered them with new batting to stabilize the foam and give a little bit of firmness to the seats.

Then comes the "diggly" work (as my mother-in-law is fond of calling it.)

Creating the zippers

and more zippers....

and creating miles and miles of cording.

and half way through...more cording.

Oh...and more cording!

AND...I still think I will need to make more! HA!

Till tomorrow...debi