DIY Custom made Ironing Board for my Studio !

So this DIY Custom made Ironing Board was our project today! insprired by many similar things on Pinterest.

Requirements:

• Reusing items we had already if possible
• Specific size  - 45cm wide  but not too long, and higher that normal as I'm quite tall
• Easily movable
• Maximising storage

We did have to buy wood for the top, casters, wadding and metalized ironing board cover BUT re-used :

• An ikea unit that had been given to us and which we had modified.
• Old shelving wood left over from out kitchen refurbishment
• Fabric that I had already 

It was a joint project !
OH cut wood to shape, bolted on lockable casters and added wood panels on each side to increase height.

I came up with the design and then - using my SO SO useful staple gun - added wadding and ironing board cover to top and then finished it with a pretty cotton fabric. TOP TIP - if you are going to staple a cover on remember you don't want staples to catch fabric if you are in habit of ironing items over the end of your ironing board hence I covered the under side with some handstitched fabric ( not the WHOLE underside just the end piece ! )

Very pleased with the new addition to my studio! I think the total cost was about £40 for the new items.

I may paint it but it looks pretty good as it is so that may never happen!

A New Kitchen with actual NEW things for a change....albeit still a bit RETRO!

Now if you follow this blog you will by now know that I am very keen on a bit of vintage/recycling/upcyling. This applied to my so called 'temporary' kitchen 7- 8 yrs old. We  used Ikea Varde freestanding units because we'd had them before and they are ACE. Some from ebay, one as a sale/second and a couple new. We sourced a sink from ebay and reused all kinds of beech worksurfaces - all different height! and we reused exiting appliences .  It cost us about £1400 in total.

And jolly nice it was too! .... but my slightly dodgy back demanded a higher oven ( when it's bad I have had to kneel down to get stuff out of oven and lift up on to counter ! NOT GOOD!)  and I had a 25 yr savings plan to play with so....

We are working on a new kitchen !!!

This is the progress so far - I am awaiting granite ( whoop!) worktops and then my builder ( and good friend ) will be back to do lots of inventive carpentry finishing touches. We have no working sink in the kitchen yet and no hob BUT we do have a utility sink and a working dishwasher and new oven so not slumming it by any means . I STILL have more painting to do !

Upcycling is still a feature to some extent - one Ikea Varde unit remains in place and will get a blue paint job. Two other Varde units and some shelving has  moved to the shed to form a work table/area. Several other kitchen items have been popped onto ebay to continue to serve elsewhere :) Kitchen bits! 

I will name check all our suppliers when I post a final update when it is finished - but they have ALL been excellent so far.  I will also cover what inspired the colour choices ... hint: that car boot £1 vintage wallpaper that you can spot on right!

I have a deadline of the 25th Sept as I am hosting a Macmillan Coffee morning but I think we will make it....

Studio update - nearly there !

A quick update!

The roof is on and the next step is putting the windows and doors in .

And my quest for recycled furniture continues ....  the trolley was £2 from a carboot BUT may end up in my kitchen ... and the map chest was £90 , it had a date ot 1969 stamped inside :)

Lots of furniture renovations to do!

The builders are in..... and working hard on my Sewing Room!

Exciting times ahead - no longer will my poor family have to put up with piles of vintage fabric EVERYWHERE...

The builders have started! and I will soon have a dedicated hobby/craft room with a HUGE cutting table and all my vintage fabric will be in one place. When I make a dress I will no longer have to do the 'house sewing circuit' - YOU know the one... cut it out downstairs on dining room table, sew it in tiny box room, try it on my bedroom and repeat.. and repeat....

In the meantime I am acquiring 'projects' to furnish my space DAILY and each fabric I pick up is THE one on which to base my colour scheme , until the next one comes along that is ...

Now whilst you might think 'lucky girl' ... well ... yes indeed!... but.... this is the result of a savings plan that dates back  25 YEARS !!! .... so I have waited a while ;)

My objective is to furnish it as much as possible from recycled items and thrifted finds but even so the pennies only stretch so far - and realising just what an INSANE amount of fabric I have I have been selling some on via ebay - if you like vintage fabric you might like to check it out ?


This is what I have listed on Ebay this week !


At the moment I am on the lookout for a Architects Plan/ Map chest - to store my patterns and my artwork . The latter is 'stored' under an armchair at the moment - NOT ideal.

I'm also after either an Ercol or a Lloyd Loom chair as well. Then - in theory - I am sorted ( ish... famous last words .... )

Watch this space ....

A little revamp DIY project - Footstool Makeover!

A very satisfying and quite quick revamp / renewal of this little footstool
From this rather sad looking thing ... to this smart little stool with a super vintage Sanderson fabric :)

I really should have taken more pictures of the stages involved BUT if you are interested this is what I did ....

1. Remove feet and strip bank to wood - the old foam etc was rather yucky and NOT for reusing! I didn't bother removing all the tacks on the edges of the wood base as I had a cunnng plan to cover them up and in any case was going to use a staple gun to tack fabric on underneath the stool .
2. I used the wood base  to create a circle tamplate - I used this to cut foam, the polyester wadding circle/strip, and the lining fabric circle and strip and another circle of fabric to sew on underneath to cover up base at the end . I made sure that the side strips of wadding and lining fabric had a generous overlap of fabric to allow them to be stapled to underside of stool base - about 5cm deeper than foam.
3. I handstitched the circle of wadding and side strip of wadding over the foam - now you COULD just use foam by itself BUT the wadding gives a smoother finish - also any roughness in foam edges is masked AND those tacks that I couldn't be bothered to prise off are also covered up :)
4. I machined sewed together the circle and strip of lining fabric - I always prefer to line upholstery projects like this but you could just put your top fabric straight on. You could just use one piece of lining fabric and staple it on BUT if you fit the lining fabric it minimises the pleating/fabric gathers when you come to staple it on-  I think it results in a smoother final finish.
5. Making sure I had a reasonably tight fit I put foam on base , put lining cover on and stapled it on with an upholstery staple gun ( such a useful bit of kit!). Staple underneath at one point first , then pulling fabric fairly tauntly/firmly directly opposite staple again. Do the same but at right angled to you first pair of fixings - so basically you have staple at each quarter of the circle ( sorry this is a bit of a rubbish explanation! you then can work between each set of staples aimimg for lots of small gathers/pleats, rather that one or two larger ones, to get a smooth a finish as you can. What you DON'T do is start stapling at one point and work your way round! you will end up with a huge wad of excess fabric at the end - trust me on this....
6. Then I stapled on my top fabric in same way ( a great vintage Sandersons one - was actually an apron when it came to me!) and trimmed off excess fabric underneath . You will see that I didn't make a fitted cover as I wanted  a single piece of fabric to show off the design. You do have to do a bit more gathering and pleating but it's not difficult if you remember to do lots of small ones :)
7. Finishing time ! I hand sewed a hemmed circle of lining fabric underneath covering up raw edges of wadding/lining/fabric /staples. I then had this very pretty embriodered/scalloped edged floral bias binding which I hand sewed on the bottom edge - it didn't NEED this to cover up anything but it is a good finishing touch. I screwed legs back on through the lining fabric underneath - ALL DONE

When I read it back this looks like a lot of work - it really isn't ! although if you aren't keen on handsewing ( I like it) you might want to skip some of the finishing BUT in my opinion it is those bits that make for a neatly finished project.