Wednesday 25 December 2013

Seasons Greetings!

My first year of blogging is drawing to an end.  Thanks so much for all your comments and support over the last 11 months or so.
Now it is Christmas day and the presents have been opened and mostly played with and the best presents this year voted by child A and child B?  Bucket of slime of course!

We have enjoyed our Christmas dinner and I for one enjoyed a nice nap.
It is raining here in Sydney but that is perfect because we can stay in and not feel bad about it.
I wish you many blessings and a safe and peaceful Christmas wherever you are.
I wonder if 2014 will be a more creative year with more homemade stuff than 2013??  See you then! x

Friday 20 December 2013

Finished Cushion on Friday

I finished something today!  And I have lots of photos but flickr is being so slow I cannot upload very many.  Why is it always slow when you need it?  Actually it is not flickr, I am sure it is my internet connection.  Maybe it is just to hot in Sydney?
This cushion is for a friend who is moving back to the UK.  I haven't given it to her yet but it is ok, she never reads my blog so there is no way she will see it :)
The friend it is for has a daughter with a name that starts with a J, so I hope it goes on her bed and my friend sees it and is reminded of her year in Sydney often.  I hope it is kept a very long time.
The closure is a zip. I think this is the best thing to use but you need one to hand.
I love this little cushion and I hope it is treasured by the recipients.
Have a wonderful Christmas!
xxxx

Monday 16 December 2013

Another Great Street Find

I found these amazing chairs by the side of the road the other day. 
I just loved the shape of them and everything about them except the state of the upholstery.  When I saw them I had just driven by quite fast and seen one of them.  I thought about it for a few seconds - I was on my way somewhere and needed to hurry, and maybe I could go back that way and pick them up on the way back?  Would they still be there..... hmmm.  I turned the car around and salvaged them - better safe than sorry!
I am so glad I did!
I would call them french provincial chairs, or maybe shabby chic chairs?!  
Somebody had already made a rather halfhearted attempt to start to reupholster the back of one using the navy blue brocade, but that came off and went in the bin.
Then I really went to work taking all the old stuff off and getting back to basics. 

The foam was completely perished and awful.  Both chairs had 3 springs.  I am not sure if this is enough?  Both chairs only had 5 pieces of webbing which I think is woefully inadequate.  On the one above one piece of webbing had broken.  The webbing needs to cover the entire seat area but not overlap.  It wasn't even woven either.  So I have ordered new webbing and it has arrived.  But first I will sand and paint the wood.  I want the chairs white.  I like these ones:

And these ones;

Here are mine all stripped down, every staple has been removed and I will start sanding them... when I get a minute.  Making these amazing will be a labour of love.
Merry Christmas all and I hope you all find what you need, be it by the side of the road, or elsewhere!!
Love
Marianne xxxxx

Friday 13 December 2013

Christmas Stockings

Well it has been very quiet around the sew paint it blog.  This is what comes of having two children with birthdays in December.  And I only have one birthday and one party done so far.  Lots more to do and that is before Christmas!  But it is also a lovely time of year, if a little hot here in Sydney.
The Christmas decorations came out the other day.  The tree was standing there naked for a few days when I lost all motivation.  It is now done and looks great and the kids love it of course.
With the decorations came the stockings I made.
I got the idea for these from a show with Kirstie Allsop who I love.  She made some like this but much more muted colours I think.  I do love her programmes on UK Channel 4 on craft and repurposing and lots of things close to my heart.
To make the stockings I took lining and batting of the stocking shape and made the front sort of by quilt as you go, placing on the pieces and the trim and sewing it together until I had a quilted stocking shape with lining on the other side.  Then I took another two more pieces of fabric, one lining and one the back and sewed them to the front right sides together.  I turned it the right way out and sewed around the edge to make it nice and flat.  Then I bound the top raw edge.  
After all that I appliqued on the letters by hand and then sewed on the bells and pom poms.
Oops, I cut one of the stocking backs on the wrong side and had to do a horrible seam.  I only had that piece of fabric and I really wanted to use it for this.
Lastly I sewed on the loops to hang them in the lovely candy stripe ribbon. I like that I used up a lot of little bits of ribbon and trim with these.
And now all that is left is for these to be hung up on Christmas eve so Santa can visit us! 
Seasons Greetings all xxxx