TINY DiNiNG SPACE

Hello Everyone! I sure do hope

that you all had a wonderful

Thanksgiving!!

 

Thanksgiving  threw me behind on trying

to get our home back in order.

My house was

in shambles. It still is! The view is from my

front hall.

Here is my dining room table and chairs in my

breakfast area. I am surprised that it looks this

good. It is really big, perhaps too big for the

space. But I do love the look of using a

tablecloth in here. If the cramping

here gets to where I cannot stand it any longer,

then I will just have to swap with

my daughter Jan for a smaller table. The

only good thing about using a smaller table

in this space is there is not a cramped feeling.

The upsize of using a larger table is you

can seat more guest. Now 6 people can

dine with me. You know, I got tired of having

a room just sitting there empty all year only to be

used twice a year. Time to get

rid of the purple vase of flowers that

stayed on this table when it was in

the green room.

When my rooms get finished moving

around then I hope to take the

table cloth off and display the glass

table top like I have always done

with this set.

 

When I grew up we never

had any formal rooms. All of the rooms were

used and they had their functions. My

Mother had a large table in the dining space

right there in the kitchen. Of course

we had a lazy Susan on that table.

Back then, we did not  have any of the amenities

that we have today. There were not any

computers or un-necessary toys to add clutter.

Nothing was laying around. Her bedrooms

held the bed, night stand and only one dresser

that was shared by 2 children in each room.

My parents raised 7 children in her small

home. My Mother cleaned so much that

she cleaned the color right off of the tile.

Hehehe

My Mother did not sew or craft, so her home

was easy to clean and to keep clean. She was

an island girl and we lived by the beach.

Ahhhh memories!

 

Anyway someday I hope to be able to reduce the

clutter in my home. However majority of it is

in my sewing/craft room. In a few weeks I will

show you that room.

 

Okay back to the breakfast room.

Next year I hope

to re-paint the walls along with my cabinets

to a creamy white.  We need to lay down new

flooring, to a neutral color. Only cosmetics

need to be done in here. Nothing major.

By moving furniture around or getting rid of outdated

things - it kind of feels like you are getting something new!

I hope you like my tiny space!

 

Come back and visit me again

Hopblogger



Dining Room gone!

My DINING ROOM is a thing of the

past! We got a new fan

to go into the former living room. The fan

that you see in this posting came from that

room. Beck took the chandelier down

in the dining room (or green room as I

call it), and put the fan up.

He had to install a

new switch because the former

switch was only geared to the

chandelier.

 

It does not take long before your

house becomes dated. Stuck in a time

warp or a worm hole.

 

I did not want lights on this fan in this room. Maybe later but

I do not want the lights to glare on the television. So

we will see how it goes.

 

Thank you for visiting me!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

 

Hopblogger



SHADES OF WHITE LINEN

Hello Everyone!

 

I hope that you all had a very nice

Halloween!

I am sure that all of the little

witches, ghosts and goblins got

their fill of candy.

Yum, yum.

 

You know - you have to be able to

live in your home. My home is little

and we like it. We do not want or need

to move. A home has to grow and

change with you because after all that

is what you do. Every year you change.

Your clothes change. Your habits change.

Your food changes - so why not your

home! Make it work for you.

 

Everyone has seen my dining room.

And you know that my rooms change LOTS

AND LOTS!!

 

Well it is getting ready to

change again and this time it will be all my rooms

except for the master bedroom and bathrooms.

I cannot move my kitchen, if I could I would.

I need space and this time many of my rooms

are going to get an over-haul!!

I hope that you are here to witness the transformation.

They will be simple but I hope to clear out

the clutter or at least manage it.

Can you manage clutter?

Is there such a thing?

I do not know but I guess I am going to

find out or I am going to get rid of some

more things.

 

Just before I got sick with that virus that is going around

I told my hubby what I was planning on doing. He liked

the idea and he began taking measurements.

So therefore our plan has already begun and been in

effect now for about 2 months.

 

My nice dining room is getting ready to become

my new living room! My hubby has already installed

a jack for the TV.  So that part is done.

The green will stay on the walls. My curtains will

stay also.

Whereas this room has always had

plenty of light coming in, just the opposite will

happen now. I made white linen shades to go behind

my cotton lace curtains.

 

To get a good photo - I have had

to turn the lights on!

It did not take me long to

make the shades because they will never be opened. This

room is in the front of the house and I needed

privacy so we could sit in here at night. I really

do not like blinds. They get dusty quickly.

With my allergy's, I am not even suppose to

have curtains or cloth furniture, but I cannot

live in a bubble either. So I deal with all

of it.

 

I wish that I had photos to show you of when

I was making the shades, but somehow

I forgot to take the pixs. However

the shades were super easy to make so

I will tell you how I made them.

 

I measured the windows and as you can see this is

a bay window. The side windows are much smaller

than the middle part of the window.

 

I will talk about the middle panel and you will

know how to do the side shades if you wish to

make these.

I measured my fabric the width and length needed and added

4 extra inches to the sides, tops and bottoms to allow for

hems and any mistakes. Each shade is 2 pieces, one for

the back and one for the front. I cut out my size needed.

And I sewed the front & back together like a giant pillowcase.

Left open one end. Turned the fabric right sides out.

Pressed the seams - yea with an iron!

We took down the valance and I cleaned the glass

doorknobs.

 

We took the shade and tacked it over the wood molding

with tiny nails. I did not even hem it!

We just let the shade hang down.

Then we replaced the valance up on top. You cannot

see how the shades are attached unless you go look.

Which I doubt if anyone does.

 

Each shade only took about 15 minutes to complete.

They have no ribbons or anything to raise them. And

if I do decide later that I want to raise them. Then I

will add ribbons to roll them up. But for now this is

what was needed.

A privacy window!

 

 

My hubby got a pinched nerve and it set us back

about a week. This table and chairs will be moved

out of here. The chandelier will come down soon I

hope! In its place will be a ceiling fan. Then I

will clean up the room and we will move in our

living room furniture. I am hoping that this

will only take us about a couple of weekends.

Then I will post more pictures of the room.

 

Thank you for visiting me. Come again soon!

Hopblogger

 

 



Cute Dresses!

Hello everyone!

I just wanted to show you

some of the cutest little prairie wear

dresses that I got from Marsha.

They came from

Prairie Dusters Trading Post

off of ebay! You should go look.

I found it hard to choose which

ones to get. I hope you like my

selections.

 

Aren't they just the sweetest little

dresses you ever saw! It was a pleasure

to see how cute the dresses were wrapped.

 

You know a witch has to have clothes!!!

I know that I am late

to post it up for Halloween but I had to find

them a place to hang. They probably will not hang

here too long as I am moving my sewing area.

 

In the middle, is the witch black dress with the

little hat. It has stars and a moon! The

flowered dress and hat to the far left is also for a witch.

This dress is for when a witch needs to go to the garden.

Hehehehe

 

Here is a better view of the witch hats. Sorry about

how they are hanging. I think that I need to stuff them

and then re-hang them.

 

The dress and hat that is in red is just a normal

dress for a witch so no one suspects her. The same thing

with the blue outfit. Both of these dresses have

mobcaps! I think that I should stuff these hats also.

 

Don't you agree on how cute these are.

Each dress hangs on its own wood hanger. I should

have photographed it but I forgot. Sorry.

Marsha has a good imagination!

HEY, I think that a witch needs some nite clothes!

Hehehehe

 

Thanks for visiting me!

Hopblogger

 

WITCH DOLL - SEWING MACHINE COVER - HALLOWEEN

Hello everyone!

Hope ya'll are not sick like me.

 

I wanted a Halloween witch doll cover for

my sewing machine. I searched the web

but could not find a pattern so I decided

to make one for myself using an

existing doll.

I think that she just might be a one-of-a-kind

doll sewing machine cover!!!

 

Many years ago

while in Oklahoma, I made a Bunny sewing

machine cover from a pattern. About 4 years

ago I gave the pretty Bunny cover to my older sister. I thought

she needed a dust cover. She proudly displays

it on top of her sewing machine.

 

I hope you like how I did remake my doll over

for Halloween. I will even tell you

how I made her. The directions are not

hard, just many. If you do not understand

just drop me a line and I will try to tell

you better.

 

SO - DO NOT BE SCARED!!!!

 

......HALLOWEEN APPROACHES....

 

MEET SCARY SABRINA, the good girl, angel.

I do not know what she was. I bought her

last year at a thrift store. She was 34 inches

long and had a sparkling fairy wand. She

did not look like a fairy to me. No offense

to the lady that made her. A nice job was

done here. She is stuffed really well and

is made from Osnaburg. That is a nicely

woven fabric.

Scary Sabrina stayed

up here on my curtain holder the entire

time.

 

Here she is sitting in my

chair. You can really see here

how long she is.

 

I took her legs off. I will save

them for another project soon.

 I want the skirt to hit there

where my forefinger has made a

dent in her body. Do you see that. I then cut about

3 inches down to about where

my thumb is. No measure, next cut the fabric

I then stuffed more stuffing inside her

cavity. Then I sewed it shut

exactly as you see the way the

lady that made her did.

I forgot to take pics of what

I did next so you must bear with

me so you can understand.

I used cotton batting but you can

use whatever you want to. I cut 2

pieces of  batting 15 inches long

by the width of the doll. I

sewed it together lengthwise

and left each end open. Seams can show,

cause it does not matter. The width

of the top of my sewing machine

is 6 inches wide. So I folded the

stitched batting in half to get the center

and laid it on top of my sewing machine.

In other words, you want about 10 inches

of the batting to hang down on each side of the

sewing machine from the top. Now,

stitch across the batting on one

side and then in my case the top

width is 6 inches, I then stitched

again 6 inches away from the

previous stitch. This way my doll will

sit on top of my sewing machine

correctly. After this, my hubby gave me

18 large- size flat thick metal washers.

On one opened end, I inserted 9 of these washers

in the batting and stitched the batting closed. Repeat

to the other side. This keeps the

doll steady on your machine.

Next, center your doll between the

2 stitching's that you made and sew her down good

in the middle between those 2 stitching's.

Now you are ready to give her

clothes!

 

 This was the nice linen-feel dress that she wore.

I decided to use it.

FOR THE BODICE.

I cut off quite a bit for her

bodice. I cut it extra long because you can always

cut excess off. If you cut off too much then just

stitch on more. But I was using what I had and I

did not want to sew anymore than I had too. After I

cut off the size I wanted, I then went to my bathroom

and painted it black. Yep, yes I did!!!!

I used regular black craft paint and layered the paint

on heavily in some areas. Both sides, but not on the inside. That

took me quite awhile. But it was well worth it!!

 

 I took this pretty dress from the thrift store. Washed

and dried it very well. I only wanted the black cotton

Tulle skirt underneath.

To make the tulle skirt.

 As you can see, I cut the skirt off from underneath

the skirt as far up as I could go. In other words

you want as much of the slip as possible. So cut

higher than waist if possible. Sorry here is where I forgot

to take more photo's again. Anyway, to put this on my doll,

all I did was take thread and a large needle and make

large stitches around the skirt at the top to gather it.

I placed the skirt on the doll and positioned it at

the waistline, then I pulled the threads tight to

gather it to my doll. I did not give a hem at the

top since you will not see it. I was not concerned

with that. After that is hanging like you want, take

it to your sewing machine. Place the doll on top

and make sure the skirt hangs where you want

it to. It should if it is long enough cover your

entire machine.

For the over-skirt, I had a size

large (that went to the knee) black gathered skirt. I cut off

the waistband. I then gathered it at the top the

same way I did the black tulle skirt. I placed

the black skirt a couple of inches above the

the tulle skirt (close up under the armpits). This

way I could cinch it really tight so it would

hold and not fall and also to give more strength

to the doll. Again I took this to the

sewing machine to see if it hung properly.

It did. This part went very quickly.

For the Bodice.

I then took the white bodice that I painted

black and placed it on the doll. I gathered the

arms with white crochet thread and put in a

bow. You cannot see it but the bodice is on

top of the skirt.

After this, I placed the

apron back on the doll. Then I decided

how I wanted her to look with the hat.

 

 Here is a close-up of SABRINA. See the osnaburg

fabric. I did not mess with any of her facial features.

For the hair I used a whole ball of crochet thread

that had some tan or light brown running thru it.

All I did was just form long loops around my finger

to get the length I wanted. Once the entire ball was

around my fingers, then I cut the top and glued it

on top of her head, making sure that the back of her

head had some as well so it would hang down like

I wanted. If I had black crochet thread I would

have mingled it with the white but I did not

have it. Note to myself, next time get black

if I do this doll again.

For the hat, I did not measure. I cut out

2 large triangles, one for a back and one for a front.

And then I cut out 2 large round brims with my

pinking shears. I cut a hole in the middle of both brims, a

little smaller than the width of my triangle's base.

I then stitched the sides of the triangles together with some wire

in both seams, then turned them so the wire is on the

inside, and then I sewed the triangle to the base

of the brim. (Or you can glue it. It is up to you).

After this, I went to the bathroom and painted it

black also. I painted the underside black and also

painted some on the inside where the head goes,

just in case you would see some of the inside hat on the

outside. When this dried, I stuffed it like I wanted.

Then I twisted the hat like I wanted it to look. It

stayed put. Next, I placed the hat on her head seeing which

way looked best and then I glued it on her head with

regular craft glue. Then I decided her hat needed

a little something extra, so I glued orange grosgrain ribbon

to her hat and glued a pumpkin button to hide the front

seam of the ribbon. I then added

an ear-ring to the end of her hat. The earring

is glued into the fabric. It was easy to pierce the

black fabric for the earring. Just be sure to use glue

on the earring wire (and not a lot of glue) and stick

it in.

(Witch hats are easy to make, you can

google a witch hat pattern online. After a couple of times

of making them, you start to understand it better).

As you can see I left her button eyes and her little

mouth. Her long nose gives her a prairie doll feel.

 

 Since Sabrina is a sewing witch.

For the Chatelaine and Orange Pumpkin.

I gave her a

chatelaine the same ribbon as what is on her hat.

I cut 2 pieces of orange felt in a circle and sewed

them together at one end of the chatelaine. I then

hid it with a ribbon and a pumpkin button. I stitched

part of the left side of the pumpkin together so it

would not flap like the wind. I cut 2 eyes and only

a mouth and sewed with only a couple of stitches

to keep them on. To the other end I curled up the

end thru the scissors and stitched the ribbon shut.

The bow and pumpkin button hide this also. On her

scissors I attached a watchband. The watchband

is a deep purple, a light purple and clear

beads along with small beads. It was so cute

that I could not resist placing it on her scissors.

After that was done, I slipped an orange pumpkin

on her hands and then I gave her a few stitches

on her hands so they would be closed.

The orange pumpkin was an item I bought after

Halloween last year to use as a pincushion. I

never used it. It was so cheap!!!

Anyway I took some of my

pins and painted the tops of them black

and stuffed it into her witch pumpkin pincushion. By the

way his hat also got a pumpkin button. I think that

I should paint some orange pins and stick in there also.

 

Anyway, here is Sabrina. I hope that you understood

my directions. I love how the tulle hangs below

her skirt.

 

This doll did not cost me much. The doll was

$2.00 at the thrift store. She was there for days

before I bought her. I guess no one did not want or like

her. The orange pumpkin was from A.C.Moore's craft store after

Halloween sale and cost 50 cents. The tulle

skirt was a dollar at the thrift store. So it only cost

me $3.50 cents to make her. Her hat was made

from scraps and the skirt was mine from years ago.

Scary Sabrina sits nicely on my machine. The skirt helped

add bulk to her middle. Bulk is good. Bulk is what you

want and need here.

 

 The bodice and the hat being painted black has a

canvas feel. It is crisp. Some of it shines. I guess

that is because I really layered the black paint on

it a little heavy. Anyway it glistens so I like that.

You will be able to see it on the side of the hat

that holds the earring. I did not get frilly with the

hat. You could if you wished to get fancy.

 

 Another photo of her hat. Be sure not to stuff

a lot of stuffing in her hat or you will not be able

to twist the hat like you want to.

 

A better pic of her earring. A pumpkin with a

black cat. When I bunched up the hat, it made

the hat look gathered at the seam. I liked that.

 

 A better photo of the chatelaine. Nope,

I did not put in a pumpkin nose. I kind

of think that perhaps I made the pumpkin

needle holder a little too big. You be sure

to make it smaller. I will change mine so

you can see the apron better.

 

Inside the chatelaine. When I am finished

I always attach the needle that I used and

a piece of thread. I sewed the hat together

with white thread. It did not matter since

it was being painted. Plus I am so lazy when

it comes to changing the thread on my

sewing machine.

 

Better pic of the smiling pumpkin and the

crochet thread used for bows on her arms.

 

The bottom of her skirt again. I just love how that hangs.

 

Scary Sabrina's back.

 

 Don't you just love her hat!!

 

Thank you all for visiting me. I hope you

Enjoy SABRINA!! She sets proudly on

my sewing machine.

 

Hopblogger