¡Project Project!

refinishing

Matt and I have taken on a few fun projects lately that involve patience and heaps of elbow grease.  We bought an old "Don Suite Set" a couple of months ago and thought it would be fun to bring it back to life.  Matt has been carefully scraping away the old varnish while I have been attempting to re-cover the old squabs.  So far they are looking rather promising and with a bit more work they should be done.  I chose an aubergine upholstery for the main squabs and a retro look pure orange wool for the cushion covers.  It is my first time re-covering anything and it is surprising how simple it is.  I can't wait to see them all done. 

I also managed to snag these metal framed chairs from the op shop last week for two bucks a piece.  They were hideous to begin with, (being bright purple with bits of rust everywhere,) but we managed to refinish the wood pieces and re-paint the frame, but we are both suffering from aching shoulders now.  A couple of our friend's have awesome taste and this is totally their idea and I was so excited to be able to do it on some chairs of our own.  Now we just need to find an old dining table.

I have also just updated the shop so feel free to take a peek if you wish.  I should have a few more women's hoodies up there soon!

Here are a few photos of the furniture.

BEFORE

AFTER

METAL CHAIR BEFORE

METAL CHAIR DURING WITH TEO'S HELP

METAL CHAIR FINISHED!

A Break over Break

We have been enjoying a bit of downtime during school holidays.  Matt and I put in a modest veggie garden consisting of potatoes, tomatoes, green beans and courgettes.  Teo loves going out and saying "HI!" to all of the wee plant babies, and has  become an expert at watering them all.

I have also been taking sewing lessons to learn some fine tailoring techniques and they have been going really well.  I am not sure how many of you know that I only began sewing last year when we moved to NZ and before then I had really only ever sewn a pair of boxers and a pillow case.  It truly amazes me when I think about what I have learned over the past year in regards to designing and sewing garments, but I still felt as though I needed to learn about precision sewing in order to gain the confidence to take on more technical projects. 

For my first sewing project I decided to make Matt a pair of shorts and next I will be moving on to a dress shirt.  The shorts came from a trouser pattern I got from BurdaStyle and all I did was shorten them to just below the knee.  I also wanted to play around with the fabrics to make them a bit more fun.  I am really pleased with the outcome and another bonus is that Matt also loves them!

I made him another hoodie last night from this awesome green & black argyle merino.  He also loves that one (YAY!)  I will post more photos later of some other fun projects.  Tata!