The Tale of an Old Bench

My son comes home from school. " Oh no! I forgot my spelling book." He says.

"Okay everybody, into the car. We have to go back to school." I say.

This is how the story begins...

We're driving along and I spy this {pictured above} peeking out from under someone's trash (furniture trash, not smelly, stinky garbage trash)

Anyway, I tell everybody, "Hold on. We're stopping. I have to get this." I park and get out, and see a sign that says FREE. It's my lucky day. I know I can doing something good with this. As I'm pulling it out, school buses are passing with drivers I know. Neighbors drive by and they wave at me. Oh my goodness...they must think that I've officially lost my mind. I can hear the whispers....did you see her? She was pulling something out of the garbage!!

But this is cool...and besides...it's not really garbage is it?

I mean, look at these legs? It's perfect!!

I'm imagining a sweet little step-up bench to Abigail's big girl bed one day. That's a few years away I realize, but hey I'm thinking ahead.
Okay, back to the story. So I grab it and haul it to the car.

Husband sees it the next day and gives me the oh my...just what are you going to do with that look.

Just wait, I say...I've got great plans for this baby!

so I start sewing

and then I pay a visit to The Graphics Fairy


and suddenly, the perfect bench is born!
Oh, and husband said to me last night...
"You know, I really like that bench."
SMiLe.
LoVe.
End of story.
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Have a wonderful weekend everybody and thank you for entering my giveaway!
If you haven't entered yet, you may still do so by clicking here.
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xo and God Bless,
Kathleen

I'm linking up with My Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday

and Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday

A Sweater Re-Fashion Tutorial

I am trying to accomplish some things around here that I've been meaning to get to for so long. Things desperately need to be organized, unused items need to be donated and this bag of sweaters in my closet...they need to be re-purposed. I love each one in that bag, but for whatever reason, they don't look quite right anymore. Let's be honest, they're just old. They're in great shape though, so I thought I would try to freshen them up with fabrics and trims. Give them new life and then see if I like them any better. If not, I will get rid of them. Anyway, I got working on the first one this morning and liked it enough to share what I did.

Here is one of the sweaters. It's a great sweater but needed some jazzing up.

I found an old T-shirt...way past it's prime...and decided to cut it up to make some ruffles and a flower for the sweater.

First, cut straight up the middle of an old sweater. We're going to make a cardigan with this one.

Now, cut the bottom hem off of the t-shirt and then cut a total of five strips out of the shirt. I made each of my strips about an inch and a half wide.

Now, cut open each of the side seams so that you have five really long strips. Take one of the strips and set it aside for the flower (which we will make later). Take two of the remaining strips and sew them together to make one super duper long strip. Take the last two strips and sew them together to make one more super duper long strip. These will be the ruffles.

Okay, time to make the ruffles. Adjust the stitch length on your sewing machine to the longest length. Now sew a straight line right down the middle of one of your super duper long strips. Do it again for the second strip. When you are finished, separate the top thread from the bobbin thread. Now gently pull the top thread as you gently gather the fabric into a ruffle.
Hint...when your ruffle is the length that you want it, tie off the top thread and the bobbin thread on each end so your ruffle doesn't come unravelled

When your ruffle is complete, pin it to one side of your sweater as shown above and then do the same thing for the other side and other ruffle.

Let's move on to the ruffled flower.

Take the one strip you have left and sew another straight line down the length of the strip. Instead of sewing down the middle though, you're going to sew along the edge. Gather this one into a ruffle too. As you can see in the above photo, it's going to be a lot shorter than the other two were.
Now...before you do anything else, reset the stitch length to normal on your sewing machine. Do it now so you don't forget later.

To make the flower, simply roll the ruffle up (just like you would if you were quilling paper) and hand stitch it along the bottom as you go. Stitching it will hold it all together nicely when you're finished.

Here is the flower when it's done.

Now you're all ready to sew the ruffles onto your sweater. After you sew them on, you can either sew on your flower, or use a safety pin to attach it to the sweater. I used a safety pin. This way I have flexibility when wearing it. I can easily take the flower off or leave it on.

Enjoy your new (old) sweater!!

Now go find an old sweater in your closet and see what you can create. It's fun!!

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xo and God Bless,

Kathleen

~~~You must go and check out Ruffles and Stuff~~~

Her blog inspired this little makeover and there is so much more to see over there!!

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Linking up to...

Fabric Fun Thursday

Show and Tell Friday

The DIY Showoff

Ruffles Are a Good Thing!

I am a HUGE sucker for down pillows. They are so cushy, squishy, cozy and just plain wonderful!

So...whenever I see them on sale or they're really, really cheap, I buy them. Even if I already have 10. Seriously, you just can never have enough. I put them on all the beds and I use them as throw pillows on all of the sofa's. They fill every single one of my pillow shams and I have never paid more than $5 or $6 for any of them. Oh wait, I did pay $9 once for a big Euro down pillow but you get my point. I only buy them when they're really inexpensive. I'm kinda cheap that way. So anyway, I was at a bargain store the other day~ Ollie's Bargain Outlet ~ and I found a huge, super cushy king size down pillow. It was $5.99 - yes, you read that right! And yes, I did buy it. This time I had actually been on the lookout for one because I wanted it to use on the loveseat in the family room (I stole the one that was previously there to use it on our bed)

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It needed a cover though.

I went through my fabric stash and found this linen and muslin.


I prepared the muslin to make a ruffle. I wanted to leave the raw edge so I just sewed a straight line down the length of the fabric to avoid complete fraying when I wash it.

Then I just sewed the ruffle to the linen and sewed up the whole thing - pillow case style.

Voila!


One can never have too many pillows. At least that's what I think :)


and then, I got out my glass marbles and sheet music and began to play!

Happy Friday everyone. Enjoy your weekend!
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xo and God Bless,
Kathleen

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I'm linking up with Cindy at My Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday