Home Improvement

November Happenings!

I have loads of little things in progress right now, but nothing finished just yet so it feels like I’m doing nothing >.<

So here’s just a smattering of pics of two things I’ve been working on.

I posted this pic in one of the random pic posts before. The stooooory is, in December 2010 I went to Japan and thought I should make myself a lovely coat to wear there. This is as far as I got, that’s the liner in the pic, but the shell is at the same spot. When I went to set the sleeve I reeeeeally didn’t like the shape of the sleeve head, but I didn’t really have time to mess about with drafting a new one, and I wanted to add some things, aaaand I ended up getting a lovely wool coat on holiday sale anyway.

It’s B5425 from Butterick btw, view C cut at A’s length (also note, it’s going to hit just above the knees on me and I shortened it a few inches from the A cutting length, so it runs long).

Anyway, so got that other coat, folded this up to finish later aaaand… never got around to it ;_;
I’m very much deadline driven, so I have loads of half finished “real” clothes that get pushed aside for costumes or presents that have to be made at a certain time. It’s been sort of nagging at me since I moved though. Then one of the bloggers I read sometimes posted about finishing a quilt she started in 1991 and I was like whoa, I do NOT want that to happen to me! I need to go through my bins and finish what I want to finish and toss what I don’t.
Then I started to read Lladybird’s blog, and she has an excellent post on how she sews so much, and I realized that I *am* at my most productive when I do those things, I’d just never really thought about it before. But one of the things she doesn’t do, that I clearly do (did?), is allow UFOs! (UnFinished Objects)

So that long story really is just to say, I’m going to finish this coat XD

That fabric is like … twill weight. Which is nice, but not really coat-y. So I went to Joann to get some flannel to underline it with, and it happened to be 50% off, scooore.

More pics and rambling after the cut!

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Kitchen Weekend Project

Departure from sewing to do a home improvement post!

So I saw this pin some time ago about making the undersink area pretty, and thought hey I can do that!

‘Cause clearly, under my kitchen sink could use some prettification!

First thing was to clear it out and set up.

I swept it out and then used my mum’s steamer to do a nice deep clean.

It was totally disgusting in there lemme tell you.

Of course after steamcleaning, it was quite damp! So while it dried I moved outside and spray painted this plastic bucket that I’d washed earlier that morning.

This bucket came from a dwarf tree my mum had planted, and she’d used it to transport some plants to my house. It’s not super sturdy, but how sturdy does it need to be? Not very!

Anyway, eventually it was getting drier under the sink. I’d bought six 1′ stick and press laminate tiles from Home Depot (this one actually). Well my cabinet isn’t 3×2′ even, so I had to do some trimming. Due to the design I chose, I ended up trimming both sides of the middle tile.

It ended up being super easy! After I measured and marked, I just ran my exacto knife along the line to score it.

Then it pretty much just snaps!

It’s so easy to snap that actually you have to be really careful. I was holding one tile by the corner while I peeled the backing off, and it snapped in my hand!

I put that snapped corner in the corner 8D

Brought in my newly painted trashcan and… done!

Oh! And here’s that pin I saw. I didn’t actually click it, I just saw the pic and thought “Good idea!” so she probably has more ideas and method there!
Actually… maybe I should check it out for myself 8D;;