Tag Archives: Before and After

Pretty Quick: Mason Jar Sewing Kit

6 Jan Mason Jar Sewing Kit

So Sherry tackled sewing a bean bag and I tackled something a bit more basic – a mason jar sewing kit! I was inspired by this pin on Pinterest (and my new found ability to attach a button to a coat). Thanks for featuring this little project in the Pinterest Challenge, Sherry, Katie, Cassie and Erin!

Y’all didn’t think I could keep my sewing supplies like this, did you?

Singer Sewing Kit

UG-LY.

As I proclaimed here, I can now sew. Kind of. As in, I can sew on a button. And nothing stops kind-of sewing like misplaced supplies or having to dig said supplies out of clamshell plastic packaging.

Enter, the Mason Jar. Oh, mason jar – is there any end to your possibilities?

I followed this tutorial  at the awesome Momtastic blog to make a cute little sewing kit. It took all of 15 minutes and it adds a pop of color to my desk/craft table.

This is one of those projects that isn’t at all necessary, but adds some pretty to a mundane thing – my favorite kind.

(Apologies for the iPhone photos.)

Mason Jar Sewing Kit

Mason Jar Sewing Kit 2

The fabric is cut from the backdrop used in my birthday party photo booth (so fun!). I also repurposed it as a Christmas tree skirt this year.

And…I didn’t have any batting and didn’t want to buy it for the small amount this project required, so I “borrowed” some stuffing from one of my pillows that had a tiny hole in the bottom. The pillow didn’t seem to mind.

There you have it – a pretty quick sewing kit made from items I had around the house. Now I’ll just have to wait for a button to fall off of something.

Do you have a sewing kit?

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Adventures in Sewing

20 Dec

I have a confession:

I can’t sew.

I learned the basic needle and thread thing as a kid, but then I went through a mini-feminist stage. Whenever my mom tried to teach me something I deemed traditional “woman’s work” I rebelled. I thought I’d just become rich and have people do that sort of thing for me. Sensible, right?

Well, the irony…I now write a blog dedicated to homemaking. So there, Past Katie. Growing up has taught me that feminism and homemaking skills are not mutually exclusive. Follow your passion, as they say, and my passion is pretty things.

Want to know what’s not pretty? A coat and a sweater pushed to the back of your closet because they lost buttons, um, months ago.

Nothing like a wardrobe shortage to make a girl learn a new skill.

Sadly, my beloved no-sew iron-on tape does not work on buttons (I used it to make curtains in two rooms in my house, though – check out a tutorial here - Sherry is a fellow non-sewer!)

So (haha),I picked up this sewing kit for $8.99 at Target.

Singer Sewing Kit

Here’s what was inside:

Sewing Kit Content

  • Instant Hem Tape (know it)
  • Iron-On Hem Tape (know it, love it)
  • Needle Compact with Threader (I have no idea what a threader is, or why it has a Native American chief on it. Can anyone shed some light?)
  • Seam Ripper (Obvious, but I’ve never used one.)
  • Marking Pencil (It says it’s water soluble, so…that’s good?)
  • Thimble (how cute!)
  • Scissors
  • Sewing Gauge (no clue)
  • Straight Pins
  • 5 mini spools of thread

The subject:

Coat

I’ve sewn buttons before, but usually badly and not finishing before someone took the whole thing out of my hands and said, “Here, just let me do it.”

This time, I was determined to do it myself. With a little help from Mr. Hong.

Who’s Mr. Hong? Oh, just the angriest looking tailor I’ve ever seen, who stars in his own sewing tutorial on VideoJug (whose tag line is amusingly “Get Good at Life.”):

It won’t let me embed, but you can check out Mr. Hong here.

He doesn’t look happy about it, but Mr. Hong took me through the steps, and with much pausing and rewinding, I did it! I actually ended up sewing 3 buttons, two on the coat and one on a sweater. Here’s the coat:

Coat 2

I won’t be auditioning for Project Runway anytime soon, but it works!

If you’re equally clueless, take a look at Mr. Hong’s video. It explains it much better than I can.

I can now check button sewing off the life skills list. I know, I know, it should have been checked off around 10-years-old, but I was busy. Babysitter Club books don’t just read themselves, people.

I feel better thinking about that How I Met Your Mother episode where they discussed each of the characters’ knowledge gaps – things they should know how to do, but some reason, don’t. This was definitely my knowledge gap.

What’s something you should know how to do but don’t? (‘Fess up!)

Oh, and if you think this means I’m going to take a second look at that curbside sewing machine table and get inspired to go full-on seamstress, think again. I’m sticking to buttons.

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Coffee Table to Entry Bench

7 Nov Bench 3

When I moved into my house about a year ago, I was in desperate need of extra seating. Having people over and having them awkwardly stand in the middle of the living room didn’t really feel too hostess with the mostess.

At the same time,  I was looking for a good sized piece of furniture to fill my entryway so it was inviting to those awkwardly standing guests we were having over.

Enter…the Craigslist coffee table turned entry bench.

Bench 3

Pin It

In a previous life, it was a rod iron coffee table with a glass top. The glass top was long gone and its owner was selling the base. Looking back, that’s a very strange thing to sell, but it’s also a very strange thing to buy, so I’ll just move on.

For a whopping $10, I had myself the makings of a great entry bench.

I was inspired by benches/daybeds like this one from Horchow. However, with the $2,000 plus price tag, this could only ever be inspiration. ($2,000? Really?)

Day Bed

Here is what I started with:

Bench Before

It was super heavy and super ugly. I got to work fixing the ugly.

First, I primed with Kilz primer, so none of the gunmetal gray of the iron would show through.

Then, I sprayed the entire thing with two coats of black spray paint. If you’re spray painting, be sure to do this step outside, and be patient. Avoid the temptation to spray close to the furniture or you’ll get a drippy mess. Swing your arm as you spray so you don’t over-spray any spots.

I had a piece of heavy wood cut at Home Depot to lay on the table base and bought several chair cushion foam inserts from Michael’s to give the bench a cushy – but not overstuffed – feel.

Once home, I began laying the foam inserts out on the wood like puzzle pieces. I used a craft knife to cut a few of them to fit and then used my glue gun to make sure they stuck to each other and to the wood. (Since I knew the fabric would hold the cushions tight to the wood, the glue gun worked fine. For other wood gluing projects, I would recommend Gorilla Glue or something specially made for wood.)

The fabric was a metallic silk I had left over from curtains I made for my bedroom. (Stay tuned for an easy, no-sew curtain tutorial.)

In one of those DIY miracles, I had just enough left over for the bench.

I laid the fabric out and flipped the cushioned wood base over so that the inserts were on the fabric. Then, I pulled the fabric tightly and used a staple gun to secure the fabric to the wood.

Since this involves some Twister-like action to hold the base, pull the fabric and staple, it might be a good idea to have two people for this step. I managed to do it by myself, though. Thanks, yoga.

The trick to upholstering like this is to do a few staples on each side and flip your base over to make sure the fabric is tight enough. That way, if it’s not, you only have to pull out a few staples and not every last one.

Once the fabric was good and tight, I began stapling the fabric on each side, jumping each time. (Yes, I’m kind of scared of my staple gun.)

I left the corners to last. When it was their turn, I folded each one in like wrapping a present. There’s no rule for how to do it, but just make sure your fabric doesn’t bunch. If you’re unsure, there are several great tutorials on YouTube you can check out.

Then, the fun part! I flipped my cushy piece of wood over and laid it on top of the former coffee table. Luckily, it fit right into the grooves, so no permanent adhering necessary.

Bench 1

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Bench 2

Bench 3

Not bad for a poor little topless coffee table. (Scandalous.)

The whole project cost under $30. I consider the fabric and spray paint free since I already had them.

Extra seating? Check. Entry way prettiness? Check. Another reason to scour Craigslist for way too long? Check.

What have you DIYed lately? Are you also oddly afraid of your staple gun?

UPDATE: This project was featured on the always-inspiring One Pretty Thing blog and the Thrifty Decor Chick Before and After Party!

TDC Before and After

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Curbside Beauty

20 Oct Dresser Before and After

So, you’ve heard of a diamond in the rough? I’d say this is the furniture equivalent.

As I was running errands one day, I drove past a house and saw two men dragging this dresser to the curb.

A bit rough? Yes. Coming home with me? Double yes.

I mean, this was a solid wood piece of furniture. Good bones, as they say.

And, I’d been stalking the Anthropologie chests/buffets that displayed pretty dishes and tea cups. This had potential.

Not being in the business of picking through garbage in my everyday life, I was a bit nervous to take a giant step into dumpster-diving territory.

But, technically, this thing was on its way to the curb. So, really, it was kind of in garbage purgatory and I could save it. There. Justified.

Thank goodness for the fold-down seats in the Jeep Liberty and the willingness of the two men to hoist the heavy dresser into the car. And they only laughed at me once.

Once I got home and some awesome friends helped me lug the piece into my place, I evaluated my find.

Hmmm.

It was missing two drawers. The bottom molding was roughed up. Any luster it once had was completely gone.

This was a definite Before. I wasn’t sure I could pull off an After, but this was completely, absolutely free. So, why not see what happens?

After some Googling, I set out on the first of many trips to Home Depot for supplies.

After covering my patio with plastic tarps – and feeling a bit like Dexter – I started cleaning the dresser from head to toe. Then, I sanded. And sanded. And sanded. I wanted to make sure to buff out the imperfections so that I would end up with a nice smooth surface.

After thoroughly cleaning off the sanded bits with a cheese cloth (you just can use a clean towel if you prefer, but this was my first rodeo so I stuck with the expert-recommended cheese cloth), I was ready to prime.

I used white Kilz Premium Primer. It took a while to paint the whole piece plus the drawers with the primer, but it’s an important step to make sure the paint goes on nice and smooth. I let it dry for a full 24-hours, just to be safe.

The white of the primer almost convinced me I wanted to paint the dresser white, but I forged forward with my original idea to paint it black. (Cue the Rolling Stones.)

After the primer dried, I started applying the black paint.

I used Rust-oleum Painter’s Touch in Black.

There are different schools of thought on using latex paint v. oil-based paint for furniture makeovers like this. I’m in no way an expert and did plenty of Googling and YouTube video-viewing before making a decision. I found this tutorial helpful, too.

I started from the bottom and worked my way up, applying thin, steady strokes. It ended up taking three coats in the end to achieve the smooth finish I was looking for.

Since I’d been eyeing display/buffet-style pieces for pretty dishware, I decided to scrap the broken drawers, move one of the good drawers to the bottom and create two display shelves in the drawer space up top.

To do this, I painted the drawer space to match the rest of the dresser. (Be prepared for paint on your nose while doing this. Just roll with it.)

Then, after measuring the space, I had the friendly little Home Depot man cut some pieces of MDF for me to fit inside. Since I was going to paint the wood and it wouldn’t really be seen, the low-quality MDF worked just fine. It was solid enough to hold the dishware but inexpensive enough to keep me feeling good about me “free” project.

The final touch was to go to the source of my inspiration – Anthropologie – and snag some cute little drawer pulls to pop against the black. I decided to use them on the first and third drawers and keep the original pulls on the second. They had a bit of a retro vibe going on and they were a good link back to the piece’s previous life.

And, in the category of things I didn’t know back then…Hobby Lobby has a whole aisle of drawer pulls that are thisclose to the Anthropologie pulls, for about half the price. And every three weeks, they are at least an additional 40 percent off. You’re welcome.

Now, the reveal…

All dressed up for Christmas

What do you think?

It’s become an ever evolving display of pretty bowls, tea cups and platters, with a few odds and ends mixed in.

Up top, here’s what’s on display (minus the Christmas decor seen in this photo):

  • A vintage map of Memphis, bought from this shop on Etsy and framed
  • An old window frame found at my favorite antique store, Sheffield Antique Mall
  • Two vintage light fixtures found at an antique shop in charming Savannah, TN. They really are the same size, but I propped one up to create some dimension.
  • A pair of extra large candles from Pier One
  • A clock from Hobby Lobby
  • A few other candles holders I’ve gathered from different places

I was pretty excited about the way it turned out, given a) it was pretty sorry looking before and b) I had no idea what I was doing. This was definitely one of those cases where not over-thinking it paid off.

And speaking of the pay off, the whole makeover project was under $50 and it would have been less if I had the supplies already at home.

Dresser Before and After


So that’s the story of how a destined-for-the-curb dresser became one of my favorite pieces of furniture. It’s not perfect, but it has a story. And it’s a great reminder to take a second look at all those thrift store, Craiglist and garage sale finds.

Have you ever brought home a curbside find? Are you a thrift store shopper? What kinds of treasures have you found?

As mentioned in the post, I’m certainly not an expert in painting furniture. In fact, those who are experts may laugh at my methods. But so far, they’ve worked for me and I continue to learn on each piece. YouTube has some great video tutorials with real experts if you want to see how it’s done.

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