Posts tagged ‘vintage’

My friend, Mary, let me look through these books she bought at a library sale. I am just OOOh-ing and Aaaaah-ing over some of the projects inside. My favorite book out of the three is 167 Things to Make for Children. There are so many cute knits inside, as well as some woodworking projects I want to try out this summer. The one detail that just keeps me laughing as I flip through the pages is just how short the children’s dresses are! My kids wear shirts as long as those dresses! They do ook cute with the knee socks though.

I have been in the “make-for-me” phase of crafting since the holidays are over and I wanted to work through some of my stash fabric. This wrap skirt from Stitch by Stitch is just awesome, and the pattern pieces are included in the book and uncut! With the right fabric this could look really current, and the length makes it a great choice for winter. I hope I have enough yardage in my stash closet!

Tonight is the Journal Binding Class and I have to bring a TON of supplies. That is what makes taking a class so much fun, I buy the supplies and you get to try it out, without filling up your house with things until you are sure that they will be useful for you.

But for me, I now get to have 6 awls, and 6 exacto blades, and 3 special glue sticks, etc., that I have to carry along to the class all at once! That’s why I made “Clever Nesting To Go.” This $.75 vintage suitcase was thrifted and overhauled by me and waiting to be filled with crafty goodness. If you’re coming tonight you get to meet her in all her glory.

Hopefully I will be able to take some time out of instructing and get some decent pictures of the class. I’m anticipating lighting issues, so forgive me if they are dark. But look tomorrow for an update on our first Clever Nesting Education event!

I am lucky that I have daughters because there is always something cute to make for little girls. But Colleen only has a son, and my great friend Ellie has two sons, and I always want to make them cute things, too. I ended up making these cards for Ellie to use for her boys. It’s a set of six blank cards embellished with wall paper samples in a burlap looking print and cut outs from a 1960s copy of the Bear Cub Scouts Handbook.

I figured she can save these to give to her boys as birthday cards, or to send to relatives as “thank you”s from the boys. They would also make cute invitations to an outdoor birthday party or cook out. Hopefully I can get these in the mail to her in the next few days.

I followed some of the instructions from the websites I listed earlier this week for cleaning vintage books. Particular problems this book had were some mildew spots on the cover, some red stains, and a musty smell. To clean it I used a cotton pad and some rubbing alcohol to clean up the mildew spots. I spot tested the book first to make sure it wouldn’t fade the ink on the cover. Then I proceeded to rub lightly in a circular motion with the cotton pad until almost all of the mildew spots were gone. The alcohol did not remove the red stains though.

Then I opened the pages and set the book on the front porch in indirect sunlight to air out the smell. After a few hours outside the book smelled much fresher. I am really happy with the results. It is much more readable, but not quite clean enough that I would sell it. Now we can curl up on the couch and read together without sneezing and smelling like we’re in an attic.

Since I bought those books at the Estate Sale last weekend I have been searching for ways to clean them up. I found the Better Homes and Gardens Story Book from the 60s, the kids love it. I mean who wouldn’t love a book with 5 poems by Edward Lear? But there are some spots of damage, and mildew spots are all over the cover.

Here are a few web sites I found that have instructions on how to clean a vintage book. I think it will be a good start, but if anyone out there has some more information for me, I’d love to read a few more methods of how clean a book with out damaging it. Feel free to leave any suggestions in the comments.

Our weekly free paper has an extensive classified section which includes advertisements for local Tag Sales. I am a big fan of Tag and Estate Sales. We bought our couch and arm chair at one when we first moved into our home for a very reasonable price. The price for items is often a little higher than yard sales, but instead of hoping for the rare find, you are more than likely to find high quality furniture pieces and often whole matching sets.

We are looking for two furniture items to replace falling apart fiber-board pieces in our dining room and living room so I checked the paper last week to plan my Saturday morning. I did not find the pieces I was looking for, but I found some other unexpected treasures. At an Estate Sale run by a local company called Walker Liquidating I picked up some great vintage books for the girls to read/cut up and a few pieces of costume jewelry for myself. I walked out of the house spending only $13. I also met Stephen Walker, the owner of the company, and talked to him a little bit about his business. Read more »

I finally got the chance to try out Crafty Dame’s tutorial this rainy morning. I followed her directions, which were very clear and easy to follow, except I pleated the apron instead of gathering it. That was just my preference, but I think it would look fine either way. I just hate gathering seams. HATE it. I should get the nifty gathering presser foot that she mentions in her post. It might make my life easier.

I also made two aprons from the scraps for my girls. I let them each pick their own fabric for the pockets. Elise wanted the same veggie print as mine, and Liv picked the “flower garden” fabric. I did not use a pattern or anything for the girls’ aprons, and I have the waist straps fasten with velcro so they can put them on themselves.

The non-sheet fabric came from Whipstitch Fabrics, which I got on sale at the end of last month. I love them. I feel the opposite towards these fabrics as I do towards gathered seams. If you like the prints as well, the veggies are listed right here in her etsy store. The flower garden seems to be sold out, but I bet you could convo her and it might just not be listed.

I found this amazing little vintage apron in our Flickr Pool while browsing over the weekend, and I knew I wanted to make one for myself. Fortunately, the apron’s designer also included a tutorial on her blog, Glitter, Vinyl and Thread. At the moment I don’t have any pillow cases hanging around, but I do have a cool vintage sheet, so I’m going to use the dimensions from her tutorial and make 3 matching aprons for me and my girls this week. I’m planning on adding a deep pocket to them as well as a garden tool holder and we’ll keep these out in the garage for when we need to dig and harvest the veggies over the summer.

I’ll come back to post results later. Thanks, Crafty Dame for the great tutorial!

I had mentioned during my video tutorial, in the comments, that I had used Amy Krause Rosenthal’s book Cookies to decorate my kitchen. But I also wanted to share these illustrations which I found at the same antique store as the illustrations for the dolls. Children’s books have the most enchanting and colorful images and I love them so much I want to see them all the time, even after my children have outgrown the books.

These come from a Peter Pan book from quite a while back, but as the pages were loose I couldn’t find what edition they are from nor the date. To display these as art I matted them and framed them in simple and inexpensive frames. When hung next to some more legitimate wall art they do not stand out at all as having come from a book, and they cost next to nothing. I defnitely prefer this to buying cheapy mass produced art from the craft store to display, and if you purchase a book that is currently for sale, like Cookies, you have to buy a second copy to replace the one you’ve cut up and displayed. The author likes that, I’m sure!

My husband brought home this metal first aid kit that he found in the church basement. It reaks like a horrible death, but we repurposers must be intrepid. I want to find a way to reuse the packaging from the inside, without reusing the smell. Does anyone know of a way to remove odors from paper?

There are so many things I can think of using the case for, but we will probably just clean it out and restock it since we don’t have a first aid kit in our home. Now we’ll have the coolest first aid kit to pull out when our kiddos beg for bandaids.