My Sewing Box

I love antique furniture! During one of my trips to the local flee-market I found this lovely antique sewing box. When I bought it it was in a horrible state! Sticky everywhere though it looked good.

I cleaned this beauty with some water, brown soap and a sponge. See below for the before and after picture.

Shocking isn't it?! The sellers put so much wax on it, it opened difficult. After washing the sewing box you could see there had been made some reparations to the box (new screws, some glue to one of the legs,...). I polished it with some sandpaper. Then I painted it with varnish for floors (two layers) and painted the insides white. I think the end result is quite fabulous!

Some tips buying antiques (things I've learned).

• Don't let looks deceive you (it looked really good with wax, without the wax you could see the reparations)
• Always look on the inside of the box! (there where screws sticking out inside)
• Test the stability of the legs

• Never buy something that is painted (you can't see the wood that way!)
• If you want to polish the wood with sandpaper always check if it's solid wood!

Good luck hunting antiques!

Wallet/Clutch

In July I found a great tutorial on how to make a super cute clutch (I use it as wallet) on How about Orange (watch my post about this tutorial for more information To put away all that cash!)

In my town there is a fabrics store that is not quite in business any more but still sells some old fashioned top quality fabrics. The owner of the shop gave me a sample book with all kinds of fabrics. Out of these fabrics I made myself, my mother and my sister an adorable clutch based on the tutorial on How About Orange. 

Beneath you can find some pictures of the result.

The corners are not that beautiful, but that's because I've made the clutch out of fabric to cover seats. This fabric is quite thick. The ribbon's on the clutch are vintage. These used to be decorations on old curtains of my grandmother.

This clutch is an ideal beginners project! This way you learn to attach zippers.

The clutch is very practical, everything fits in to it (all your credit-cards for example :)) U use a very small purse for change. I even put my keys and cellphone into it!

Have fun making these! I tell you, once you start you'll end up making these for every women in your family!

Christmas Dress

I'm ALREADY working on my Christmas Dress! I know it's a little bit early but I coudn't wait to test this fabulous pattern and work with the beautiful fabric I've bought a few weeks ago in a fabricsshop nearby (those are very rare in Zuid-Limburg). The pattern I'm using is one of Burda. The long sleeve seamed Dress 08/2012 #121.

 I considered using a red wool, but in the shop I fell in love with a grey wool. I'll use blue lining for this dress. I love contrast colours in dresses! The give an instant glam to a dress.
The original design of this dress is for women of 1.76 meters. I'm a petite of 1.60 meters so I needed to make some adjustments to the bodice and the length of the dress. Because this is the first time I'll be making some major adjustments to a pattern (I'm a novice so yess these adjustments are major to me :)). To practice this I bought a cheap (but fabulous) fabric on the market for 3 euro per meter. With this fabric I'll be making the sleevless version of the dress.

The adjustments to the length of the dress are not the only ones I've made. I've made some adjustments to the collar too. The lining would be showing a little bit at the collar in the original pattern. So I've redrawn the pattern.

The fabric I'm testing my redesigned pattern with is a 100% polyester. It's very slippery. This makes it very difficult to match the seams.

Tips for adjusting the bodice and the length of the skirt will follow (with pictures).

I'll post some more about this dress soon. At the moment this project is not yet finished!