Under The Bed......

Never buy a new bed! If you do, you must remove the old one and everything that is under it to make room....

We made the mistake of buying two new beds this weekend. The bad news? The above problem. The good news? Now I will have two beds to store things under. Shhhh....Don't tell Walter!

We decided to put a bed back in April's old room.(computer room) There was only one bed in the house....Ours. Now there will be two.

Anyway, I found a Magnolia, a Harrison, a Sweetheart, the contest kit for this this year from Greenleaf and a mobile home that Kathi, from Beautiful Mini Blessingshttp://beautifulminiblessings.blogspot.com/, sent me a couple of months ago. Thanks again Kathi!

I pulled the kits out the the front hallway by the family room. As soon as I did, Tessie and Zar started arguing. They are trying to claim the kits and both want new builds NOW.

I have news for them. It is going to take me another week to get everything back to where I can work on the ones I have started, let alone new ones.

A couple of people made comments yesterday, saying that the new 30s hairdo didn't look that easy to do. It really is, if you have the right hair in the first place. The trick is the viscose curls that you can get at the mini shows. I imagine that you could find it somewhere on line also. I have never tried to find it though. It is much softer than the mohair that comes in a braid. There is a lot less in the viscose package.

The other trick is not to mess with the hair too much. I start at one end and try to fan it out about a half inch from there.

It will look like the piece in the first photo. Both ends are still coiled and the center is unfurled.

Once you get it to this shape, fit it around the lady's head, starting at the center back with one end.

When you lay it around the head, make sure that you can stretch the center edge to cover the whole skull.

Take it off, cover the head with white glue, where you want the hair to stick. I use Aleene's Fast Grab. Replace the hair on the head and fuss with it a bit until you are sure that the whole thing is arranged the way that you want it. Then cut of the end that is not being used. You may have to trim the back a bit and poke at it to make it the way that you want it. Don't press down too hard unless you want the flat look.

You can add a bun to the back if you like. I am going to leave this one just as it is.

I have to get back now. The argument is still going on in the family room....From what I can hear, it sounds like Zar is getting the house trailer and Tessie is getting everything else. I hope that she likes living in flat houses under the bed. I am not starting another building for her until I finish some of the others that are half done....

See you tomorrow.

I Am Being Yelled At......

I am still plugging along at cleaning. This morning I ran onto three naked ladies......Remember these? A while ago, I wigged a couple and the one that is bald had hair already, but I didn't like it.

My big problem with these three were their arms. The person that assembled them made them too short. Their elbows were even with their between their bust lines and waists.

I am one of those DaVinci kind of people....You know that diagram that he is famous for. The diagram of the man with arms outstretched. The arms are the same length from tip to tip as his height. These poor creatures' arms were almost a head length shorter than their height.

I was hard pressed to fix them. The chenille stems were glued into the arms and the torso really well....

The bald lady was no problem. her arms were loose, but the shoulder holes wouldn't budge.

I cut off her arms and stuffed new stems into the cleaned out holes. Then I put new stems in the shoulder holes and twisted them with the ones that were already there. Using glue throughout the process, I ended by twining the new arm stem and the old and new shoulder stems together. I think that they are going to hold well.

Tessie was yelling at me for taking the lady's hair off. So I took a new hank of hair and uncurled it. I kind of liked it wavy, so I just glued a piece around her head for the time being....She kind of looks 30s style now.

Next I tackled the other two. They were the ones that were stuck fast.

Experimentation was in order. I cut off the old wires and grabbed some Super Sculpey. Luckily, the arm casts were very short. Since I couldn't get the wires out of the forearms, I cut the wires and formed a new end on the arms. As I did it, I added a chenille stem to each one. I still have to do a bit of sanding on the additions.

It's just a good thing that the shoulder holes had enough room for another wire. After the arms were baked, I did the twisting of old and new together. I am happy to report that all three ladies are much happier now. They can actually reach the tops of their heads to do their own hair. Before, they could barely reach their ears to put on earrings!

Tessie has stopped yelling at me....Temporarily. She is busy trying to find something to cover them with until I can get to making clothes.

I think that is going to have to wait. Walter and I have other things to do today.

See you tomorrow.

Five Generations, Minus One....

April came over today and we quilted... Maybe I should say that she quilted and I talked about quilting.

She recently "borrowed" the double wedding ring quilt in the first photo from me....It is one of those borrowers kind of things. I will not get it back. That's OK though. I know that it is in good hands.

It was made by my great grandmother for my mom and dad when they married. It's all hand done and she was a wonderful quilter. I have several of hers and April borrowed this one and another older one.

April is very carefully repairing a few patches in it that have worn through. You can't tell which ones she did.

April made and tied a fence rail quilt about ten years ago and, at the time, swore that she would never make another one. I am happy to say that she reneged on that. She is now happily quilting away when she has the time.

The reason for the title of this entry is, with the exception of my mom, we have all been quilters for the past five generations....The catch is, my mom was not in the direct line. She married into it.

You saw Great Grandma Mary's Double Wedding Ring. Then came my Grandma Daisy. She was a get things done kind of lady. She pieced by hand and then tied the blocks. She is the one that taught me to piece. Unfortunately, non of hers survived. They were well used.

As I said, it skipped a generation. When it came to me, I did quilts off and on for many years. I probably started the piecing part when I was about 10. Notice that I didn't say that I finished any at that age.

Some of the ones that I made went the way of Grandma Daisy's. Well loved and well used. Some baby quilts were given away as gifts.

I tore my hair out looking for a lap quilt a year or so ago. I couldn't find it anywhere.....The borrower struck once more....April absconded with it without telling me. Now I know....

The Octagon Paper pieced one that Tessie is sitting on in this photo is one that is about 1/4 done. I had big plans for king sized.

Today April suggested that maybe the six year old should turn it into a lap quilt....I am not sure that I trust her. If I make it a lap quilt, will I get to keep it?

At the other end of the spectrum are the other mini quilts . This one is a cheater and matches Tessie's Christmas apron.

This is the quilt that April is presently working on. She must be getting old. She has to have Tessie thread the needles for her...

I particularly like this one. It is all 30s reproduction fabric. Very soft colors, but not quite pastels.

April is definitely carrying on the family tradition.

See you tomorrow.

PS. I have had several people send me copies of the missing entry of two days ago. Thank you all for the help! Now I will at least have a copy of the original. I do wish that there was a way to put it in the correct order in the blog. Oh well. At least it is there. Thanks!

The Case of the Missing House!!!

OK. The date on this one should be May 27, 2011. Starting over after the entry disappeared!

I will try to recreate what I did the first time. Needless to say, I am not a happy camper right now.

This is a house that I designed, years ago, from a book of house plans that is about 110 years old. It is a little Italian Style house by Gervase Wheeler.

As you can see, beside Tessie, it is about dollhouse size for a dollhouse. I didn't really plan it to be any particular scale. That's just how it turned out. It was just for fun.

The only tools you need are sharp scissors and some white glue...Oh and either colored pencils, pens or watercolors. I used plain old Crayola pencils on this one. It is printed on card stock.

After you color it, the next step is to cut it out. I do this carefully, because the directions on how to fold and where to cut are right on the sheet. If you don't mess it up, you can lay it back in place and see how the folds should be.

If you do origami, the "fold out" is a mountain fold and the "fold in" is a valley.

Make sure that all of your folds are sharp.

I start at the top and glue flaps under as I go. There is one piece at the long end of the roof that looks like another wall. It is simply a support and it gets folded inside the wing, where it turns. That is so that the wing will stay straight and not bow or collapse inward.


Just be patient and hold each flap in place before going on to the next one.

The last step is the bottom. I find it easiest to do this with the aid of tweezers or an Exacto knift to slide the flaps inside.

The two smaller pieces are the chimneys. This time I cut off the flaps on those and just ran a thin line of glue around the bottom edge and sat them on the roof top, where the marks are. They seem to fit better without the tabs.

I did succeed in taking out the color in the background. Now it won't eat all of your ink just for a cream background.

Print it out on an 8 1/2" by 11" piece of cardstock and you should get the size that you see in the photo. You can resize it in one of your programs if you want it smaller.

Now....I do hope that this one doesn't disappear.

Have fun folding.

See you tomorrow....Well not really. I have already seen you tomorrow, because this was the supposed to be on the 27th. Are you now thoroughly confused? I know I am.

See you later today....29th for the regular post.

Post It....And Hide My Jewels....

Sooner or later, if you sit on a pile of post it notes long enough....You come up with something to make with them in miniature....At least Tessie does.

She has been plopped on this pile of notes for the past few days watching me work.


This morning she decided that she needed some place to hide her "valuables". She has valuables???

Anyway, she asked me, "You have so many of these note thingies. Why can't we make something from them. They are already stuck together. They would make a good start for one of those books that you hide things in. No mess. No fuss."

I thought about it for a while and decided to try it. I refuse to use those nice new notes to experiment, so I grabbed a partially used yellow pad. Now that I know it works, I am sorry that I didn't go with the parchment colored ones. I had to stick two pieces together with the used ones.

Here's what I did. I started with a very fresh, never been used blade in my Exacto Knife. I found a pencil and a ruler and measured a 3/4" by 1" rectangle on the edge where everthing is stuck together.....The method to my madness? If you use that side, you don't have to do any messy gluing to stick the pages together. OK...So I am lazy. Lazy but smart.

I then measured in 1/8" all around to mark the inside of my box. With my metal ruler as a guide, I started cutting out the center, a few sheets at a time. I went about 3/4 of the way down.

I then took a piece of paper that looked almost like mini marbleized end paper in old books and cut a piece 1" by 1 1/2". Then I folded it down the center, the short way.

I laid one half on the opening, face up and glued it flat on the top edges. Then I cut an X in the center and forced the four pieces down into the hole, creased them well, lifted them and put glue under them. That's what you see in the second photo.

Then I took a piece of paper and using the center measurements as a guide cut a lining paper with four flaps that would just fit inside. I glued this in place.

On to the next photo. Here you see a couple of pieces of card stock cut just a bit larger on three edges. The fourth edge lines up with the back. A third piece is the width of the spine and the same length as the outer covers.

I laid them out on a piece of fabric that I liked and left just a thin line between the pieces so that they would bend.

I trimmed the fabric as you see in the photo and glued all of the flaps to the inside. Make sure that you put a little extra glue in the corners. That way, if it needs trimming, it won't ravel.

After the glue is dry,starting with the back(bottom) of the book, glue the block to the cover, lining up the spine with the back of the block.

Then do the spine and last the front cover. That gets glued to the end paper. Make sure that the front cover will open and close.

I confess that this one was arguing with me about staying closed. I did win the argument with a bit of mini wax....Don't tell anybody I cheated. After all, this was just a prototype.

It does open and close and Tessie is already looking for valuables to put in it...."OK. Now you have to make me some jewelry."

I knew she didn't have any valuables. Why do I fall for these schemes?


The last step, Tessie did herself. She dug up some of my self stick gold paper ornaments.

Only Tessie would think that leopard skin was too tame a cover for the box. I tried to tell her that gold on the outside would be a signal for anybody looking for her treasures.

She's not having any of it.
She's keeping the gold. In fact, she just looked me in the eye and cheerfully announced, "I need an bigger book to hide the leopard skin book inside, so nobody will steal it.....

Somebody hide the gold paper! I have visions of building a series of boxes that look like books. Each one successively larger....This could go on forever! Does anybody know where I can get a pad of post it notes that are about 5 feet square???

See you tomorrow.

Burn this Book!

I have a love/hate relationship with the book next to the iPad. It is Jo Packham's "Organizing Your Craft Space". If you are plagued by a messy workspace, you will get lots of wonderful organizing and storage idea from this.....However, let's get real. All of the spaces that are in the book are those of professional crafters and also, they were obviously perfectly straightened and arranged before the photos were taken.

The love/hate part? I love looking at the pretty photos and dreaming that my workroom will someday look like the ones in the book....I hate it because I know, in my heart, that mine will never, ever, ever look like those rooms.

It does encourage me to try though. This morning I got a bee in my bonnet to move furniture. This is a major operation. I had to take everything out of the desk and find a place, out of the way, to put it while the move was in progress. Thank heaven for "Sliders"!

I not only moved the desk, I repainted the front of all of the drawers and the top surface. Yes. It is black again. What can I say? I like black, especially since the walls are all white and I have no intention of dragging everything out of the room to paint it.

So now the desk has turned the corner from where it was in front of the window. Now I can see the door to the room, as well as outside. Nobody can sneak up on me now. Not even Tessie.

Even with the desk sticking out into the middle of the room, the space seems bigger. Now I can get to the two corner bookcases much easier than before. I don't have to move things to get there.

While I was at it, I re hung some of my collections of scissors and purse frames. Yes. I said purse frames. Most people want the whole purse. I like the frames, because you can put whatever kind of purse you want on the frame. If you poke the photo, you will see a lavender suede purse that I added to one of the frames. I designed and beaded it.

It has a silk lining and Tessie likes hanging out in there...No pun intended. She can see the whole room from that vantage point.

I also ran onto a book that I love.(That kind of makes up for Jo Packham's book.) It is my original Braun and Schneider, German book of the history of costume. It is all original plates and they are hand watercolored. I found it in a used book store when I was in college and the book shop owner was going to tear it apart and sell it as individual framed plates....After some coercion, we settled on a price....It was much lower than he would have gotten for the individual prints. I think that he took pity on a poor penniless college student. Anyway, it is still one of my favorites, after all these years.

Now that I have the corner by the window cleared out, and there is a place to sit and look at the pretty pictures, maybe I will take a short break.....

I know that there are no minis in this entry, but think of it this way. When I finish with the room, I will be able to sail in there and make anything that I want without spending hours looking for my favorite Exacto knife. Now where did I put that footstool? I may as well be comfortable. Eat your heart out Jo Packham!!!

See you tomorrow.

Personality Is All in the Nose....

Remember the other day, when Tessie was posing on top of the fabric storage unit? She fell off and broke her nose again! She has been running around with a fake nose ever since.

She insisted that it didn't hurt.....much. It finally caught up with her this morning. I found her, with Zar, on the bathroom counter trying to fix it with a band aid....At least the band aid muffled the yelling.

"NO! Not like that! You are covering my mouth! Casey!!! Come in here!"

What now? I went in and she started in on me. "You must get some smaller band aids or cut this one down to my size. I can't breath."

At that moment, I started wondering if that was what Zar had in mind when he suggested it....No....He wouldn't do that.

I diffused the situation by taking off the bandage, and the tip of her nose right along with it. She was not a happy camper.

I told her that the only way it was going to be normal again was with an emergency operation.

She grudgingly agreed and we went to work. I decided it was time to have a bit of fun at her expence.

First I tried on her Aunt Zelda's nose. Darn! She insisted on looking in the mirror before it was finalized....I don' t think that she trusts Zar and I working together.

For some reason, she didn't like the hook and the warts. Pretty unreasonable. At least she could breath normally. She came pretty close to slugging Zar.

I didn't want that to happen, so I took it off and went to work again....Some people are never satisfied.

Once again she demanded the mirror. Now I ask you. Isn't that a perfectly good Penelope nose?

This time she did slug Zar. She had him on his knees and I was afraid that his nose was also going to need fixing if I didn't hold her back.

"I will not be referred to as "The Pig Girl" or be forced to wear a scarf around my face every time you fetch the camera! No get to work and give me back my real nose!!! Right NOW!!!

She was very patient and let me work on it for quite a while, before demanding the mirror again.

She now has her normal nose....I swear. Some people have no sense of humor at all.

Oh well....I will bide my time. She is sure to fall off of something again soon....I wonder how she would look with an elephant's trunk....

See you tomorrow.

Baggies Full of Foamcore...

I promised to show you foam core bags today....Here we go.

The easiest way to make these is with leather. No covering card stock shapes, just covering the block.

For this, you need a small block of foam core the shape of the purse you want to make. In this case I simply chopped off two of the top corners of the block. Next you will need a small scrap of very thin leather.

The turquoise one is suede on one side and smooth leather on the other. The other one is blue suede and smooth leather and it's trim is red lizard skin. I think that this is printed into the leather....No. I didn't go out back and grab one of my collared lizards! They are still safe and sound. Besides, who ever heard of a bright red lizard?

As you can see in the first photo, I glued a piece of suede to the foam and trimmed it so that the edges were about an eighth of an inch all around. Then I clipped the corners. You don't want the leather to overlap. Do this on both sides.

Now cut a strip of leather the width of the purse. In this case it was one quarter inch wide and long enough to fit around the purse with a generous overlap. This piece will be cut in two, so that the zipper can be laid on top and the ends covered with a second piece of leather wrapped around the bottom.

Incidentally, the zipper is a couple of strands cut from some gold fringe. I like the kind that has a black base thread with gold wrapped around it. This can be found in upholstery trims. See the last photo for this. Speaking of the last photo, here it is!

The straps and trim on the purse is up to the maker. I usually just cut a few 1/8" wide strips and start playing around with them....Since I am trying to keep it simple for first timers, I didn't put on any buckles, etc. I just stuck with the basics.

The turquoise one has the ends of the handles glued over the ends of the zipper. Then I put a tab across the top with a piece of gold finding glued to that. Did I mention that it is all done with white glue? It is.

With the blue one, I used the red lizard skin for the zipper placket and the end panel that wraps around the bottom. Then I cut two handles of equal length and glued one to either side in the same position. I took a third strip and wrapped it all the way around and over lapped it just a bit. I cut a five sided pocket and glued it on the center front. The last touch on this one was a zipper pull, also a piece of finding, glued to one end of the zipper.

OK. Now it's your turn. Let's see what you come up with. If you are stumped for ideas, look at magazines, in your closet or go shopping...The latter is always fun. You have an excuse to buy a new purse to bring home and copy. After all, you are going to have to have it at hand, so that you can measure for accuracy.

I am going back to my workroom now and straighten up the mess that I made doing this. I tell you, it is a never ending job....

See you tomorrow.

The Old Bags......

I thought that I would put on some of my older bags, just to show you what variations you can get with Tampax, among other things. You really don't need much in the way of materials. None of these took over six inches square of material....I will not claim responsibility if your man finds a hole in his best silk tie or his old, soft leather gloves!

Don't forget to poke the photos to make them larger.

We'll start small. Three of these bags can be made with Tampax. The two Turquoise silk ones and the red leather one are just that.(No neckties or gloves were harmed in the making of these.)

The tube was just cut in a different shape on the two flat ones and the barrel one wasn't squashed. The instructions for that one are here... http://caseymini.blogspot.com/2008/03/barrel-bag-tutorial.html It was one of the earliest tutorials on the blog. The larger one was done with card stock, covered with fabric. There are also instructions for the shoes in a couple of different places too.

Here's an assortment of all different kinds. Some of them open and are lined. Those would be the black satchel on the top, the cream leather at the bottom left, with matching wallet and the one next to it with the open mouth. Oh! And the one next to that has drawstrings that actually work.

Since I am on a purse kick, I took out my shadow box with all of the purses. It needed refurbishing.

Tessie kept hinting that she would appreciate it if I left the glass off of the front when I was done, so that she could change purses more often....Not a chance. There would be purses, helter skelter, all over the house.

Did I mention that I actually carry one of these around in my car at all times. It hangs over the cigarette lighter that has never been used. Hey! I had to make it useful somehow.

Some of the other purses in this photo and the one before are made over a piece of foam core....I will show you how to do those tomorrow.

Right now I am finishing the laundry and cleaning up after a messy weekend.

See you tomorrow.

Original Tampex Purse...

Years ago, I learned to make bolster pillows from the cardboard tubes from Tampex tampons. A few years later, I came up with using them for purses. I purchase the boxes that have several sizes in them. They are specifically for this purpose. Nice, clean, new ones. You can use the insides to wipe up paint spills and apply stain....Or just throw them away.

Please note that the Tampex purses are "Casey Originals" designs. I would appreciate it if you acknoledge them as such. These are for personal use only. Please, no resale.

I use the tubes for all kinds of minis. Canisters for the kitchen, powder boxes for the bedroom and other such things. There are tutorials on all of those on the blog.

I did show how to make a barrel purse from one of them very early in the blog, but I don't think that I have ever shown the squished one before. At least, not how to do it.

These purses are about as simple as it gets. All you need is sharp scissors and glue. First cut a small piece of the tampon. I usually just squish the tube and cut it with scissors. Nothing fancy...No measuring. The largest ones make big bags. The smallest ones make evening purses. For those you don't even have to make a strap if you don't want to.

You May or may not want to use a piece of card stock to make the flap heavier. I did on this one, but not on the brown one that you will see at the end. On this one, the flap is covered with leather and is a separate piece. On the brown one, it is just a continuation of the outer skin of the purse.

You will need two pieces of leather to cover either end of the bag. For this one, another piece that is cut to just fit around the tampon. Leave a little more than you think that you need, because you will be adding bulk with the end covers.

Put glue on the edge of the tube and sit the end on a small piece of leather. The same with the other end.

Then cut Vs in the edge. When you bend this around the tube, it will make it easier to fit the leather smoothly.

Glue down all of the points on the bag ends and around to the back of the flap.

Next you will glue the leather body to the tampon, covering the points of the ends. Trim if needed. The strap is bent into a continuous loop and the ends glued to the top of the purse. Then you can glue the flap over the top edge. The straight part across the back and the rounded flap to the front. Did I mention that this flap can be any shape that you want, just as long as you make it the same width as the top of the purse? Have fun with it.

Here you see the completed blue lizard skin purse, with a clasp that was cut from a bell cap with six little prongs.

The brown one is essentially the same. For added interest, I glued a contrasting piece of leather under the flap and added a small, flattened bell cap for a clasp. The handles on this one were simply glued to the outer sides.

The last step is to hide them from Tessie...Oops! Too late!

See you tomorrow.

Cat and Mouse Games....

OK. I spent the morning in the back yard. I planted zucchini and a boxwood basil and did various other not so fun jobs.

Why wasn't I working on the computer or in the workroom? Well...The workroom needs a break. And the computer is a bit difficult to work with, when there is no mouse at hand....I didn't have the heart to take the mouse away from Mookie.I finished helping Tessie get all of the material in the five story walk-up as Minka calls it.LOL

I do believe that she has a good idea. She says that I can threaten Tessie with turning it into a 1/2" scale apartment building if she doesn't behave....

The only trouble is, the threat works both ways. While Walter was away playing golf, I moved things around and gave myself another place to put some of the quarter inch scenes. I wanted them all in one place.

They are now mostly in two CD shelving units that I got from Walmart a few years back.

They work well, because the shelves in them are completely adjustable. Tessie knows this and has been sitting on the dining table, making notes about size and what kind of room she could put where.

I have three of the trunks in the top of the one on the right. The fourth shelf is my thatched cottage in a Wedgwood cup. Then I made a larger shelf for my big latte cup with the quilt shop/coffee shop inside. The last two shelves are hard to see, but they are just little cottages kind of like David Warner's.

On the left, two more trunk scenes in the top two shelves. Then I put my 1/2" Neman-Marcus Cheese shop on the next shelf.(larger space again)

Below that a shelf of small books, just for added interest.

And I took out the last two shelves and finally have a place to store my three tiered, English silver, server/carrier.(garage sale find)

I am now thinking that these units could be handy fillers in corners.

Tessie, on the other hand, is now thinking small pied-a-terre.(Home away from home) She announced, "If you take away my fabric storage unit, I will take over the two CD units and have a ten room apartment!....So there!"

So much for that idea, Minka!

Back to work.

See you tomorrow.

Fabric Storage Shelf.....Mine!"

Some of you may remember when I bought this shelf unit at a garage sale a couple of months or so ago. It has been sitting just inside the entrance to my workroom since then.

While cleaning, I kept wondering what I could use it for. I seem to unconsciously collect hand built, and I suspect, unloved high school, wood shop, projects. Some of my favorite pieces of small furniture are of this nature.

This piece is really well built. It is dovetailed at all four corners of the box and was very well measured. Corners are square, so it was easy to work with. I paid two dollars for it.

I am not sure what it was to be used for. It is too shallow for CD or DVD storage.

I decided to gussy it up a bit. I had some 1/2" cove molding and a bit of screen door molding out in the garage, so I whipped out my handy dandy, real life miter box and got to work. First, since the screen door molding was the same width as the thickness of the box, I ran a rim around the top with that.....A little better. Then I took the cove and mitered that to sit on top of the box. It could look better....I took a strip of 1/16 X 1/4 mini wood and cut a piece to fit the front of each shelf. The shelves just happened to be stepped back from the side walls just that amount. I glued those in the center of the front of each shelf. Still not enough. I went and got a piece of square stock that was 3/32" I ran that around the center of the screen door molding at the top.

About that time, Tessie zapped in and insisted that the shelf unit was hers and asked, "Why are you messing with my shelves? I didn't say that you could! Stop it. Those are MY shelves!"

I had to come up with something quickly, if I didn't want to spend the rest of the morning arguing with a mad witch....And I do mean mad as a hatter type mad, not angry.....Well maybe that too...

"But Tessie, I am decorating it for you. I am going to store all of the bits and bobs for making aprons inside." I replied....Then I bit down on my tongue and didn't say anything else.

Too late, I realized that I had just committed myself to making more aprons....That shelf is going to hold a LOT of material....And she hasn't changed her apron for two days.

Could it be that she was losing interest in new aprons???

Well, not anymore. A gleam came into here eyes and she ran for the black paint. "Since it is mine, I get to pick the color. I want black. Every good witch should have at least one piece of black furniture. Yup. Black. And beat it up a little. I don't want it looking all shiny and new."


Here it is now. The paint isn't even dry on the inside(second coat) and she is already making plans for what fabric will go where.

You will have to poke the photo if you want to see the rough around the edges look.

I took an emery board to the edges and then used rub on gilding on the thin strip around the upped edge and the front of the shelves.

She didn't even say thank you. She just zapped the piece and herself away. I assume she moved it to one of the fabric closets. I guess that I should go see how much damage she has done so far. I just cleaned those closets...and I still don't have the workroom done. HELP!!!

See you tomorrow.

Still in the Workroom, But....

Yes....I am still stuck in the workroom, but you don't have to be. So I stopped long enough to draw up a new purse pattern.

This was one of those middle of the night, maybe seen in a dream kind of things. It just popped into my head, full blown. Don't ask me why. Don't forget to poke the photos to make them bigger.
If you just want to enlarge this pattern and make it the right size in one of your programs, the squares are 1/4".

I cut all of the pieces out of lined index card. I find that they are just the right weight for purses and use them quite often. You could also use card stock, but I prefer the index card because of the lines. They help me keep things straight.
I cut the pieces out and glued fabric to all of them. Please note that the only piece that I left the sawtooth border on in card was the side piece. You need the card to fold under and glue to the back and front.

A little side note for those of you that haven't done much fabric covering before...Always cut little Vs out of the outer curves, like the bottom corners of the purse. Always simply make little slashes up to the edge of the card on fabric, when you are doing an inner curve. This will make all of your pieces lie flatter when you go to glue them to something else.

The first piece illustrates the cuts. The second and third pieces show the front side and inner side of the pocket flap.

The two straps are simply fabric strips folded and glued together without index card.

The last is the side panel that has the card left in the V points. More stability.

Basically, to put it together, you glue the side panel to one side and clamp the edges to hold. I use the old metal hair clips to do this. Let it dry...Do the second side. This one is a bit more difficult to do. A stylus or even the end of a pencil will help get it right. Clamp and let dry.

I used chain links from a necklace for the buckles on the straps, tab and outer pocket. There are six all together. Bend down about an eighth of an inch on the top tabs of the purse and glue the ring inside the bend. Then take one strap at a time and loop it through the top half of the installed loops and glue the end together. One strap goes on the two tabs on the same side of the purse.

Next you put a link around the closing tab and glue it. Then glue the tab over the center of both sides of the purse. The purse that I just made is not meant to open, but if you wanted to, you could glue lining pieces(the same size as the pattern)inside.

The last step is to bend the front pocket flap and glue the bent part to the purse front. Before you glue the flap down, insert another link and glue with about half of it sticking out.

There are a lot of variations that could be used on this pattern. Different findings and trim can make it look like a completely different bag.

Experimentation can be fun. Run along now and play. I have to go back to work.

Tessie already disappeared with the purse and left me holding the bag....Workroom cleaning, here I come.

See you tomorrow.

Another Shelf Bites the Dust......

One down and more to go. I finish this shelf unit this morning. I probably won't get any more done today. I have the Wednesday Witches here this afternoon.

Someone suggested that I would find things that I had forgotten about...I did. At the very top of the bookcase, on the back, I found this. I had indeed forgotten about it. Another garage sale find. It was originally meant for cigars...I think. It was just a plain, nice walnut box when I bought it.

I can't leave anything well enough alone. This box included. I decided that, if it was to be of any use, it need lining and a tray fitted into the upper area.

Here's what I did. I took the measurements of the interior. I cut, from mat board, a bottom liner and a lid liner. I wrapped them with fabric, mitering the corners and gluing the fabric to the backside of each piece. Then I cut strips of mat board to the size of each side, but shorter, so that my tray would rest on the strips. I covered these with fabric and glued them in place.Then I made a tray that would fit exactly inside the box and rest on the side liner pieces.

I cut two bottoms, one a bit smaller than the other so that I could cover both the bottom and the top, when they were sandwiched together.

The bottom and the sides were all covered with one piece of fabric. It was carefully trimmed, folded and wrapped to the inside. Then the two loops, for lifting it out were glued to the bottom and the liner piece of fabric covered board was glued over that.The fabric that I used was cotton quilting fabric. I put a small patch of covered card over the place where the monogram had been on top.

Tessie came out of her closet annex long enough to pose with the box, so that you could tell the size of it. Then she found a more comfy place to relax.....I don't think that she had better relax too much.....Mookie doesn't look too happy about the arrangement....Maybe I should go make her move before she gets eaten for lunch!

See you tomorrow.