Tip Shop armchair

Hi everyone and welcome to my latest project, the tip shop chair!

Now those of you who know me will know that the tip shop is one of my favourite places to visit.  All that booty just chucked out, you never know what you might find.  This particular specimen cost me the grand sum of $15 which I was delighted with I must say.  Why anyone would just throw out a classic old chair like this is beyond me but hey, one man's trash is another girl's treasure.

The structure is just fine here and the chair is super comfy, just the upholstery to replace as it is a bit shabby.  The good news though is that this chair has been reupholstered at least once before (I think from the shape the chair itself is quite a good age).  This means that I can use the pieces to make templates and see how the upholsterer went about the job much easier than if the upholstery were original.

The plan is not yet clear but I'm still on my recycled denim wagon so I think some kind of patchwork design might be the go.  This is by far the biggest fitted upholstery project I've tried so I'll keep you posted.

As Christmas is nearly here so I'll have until the New Year before work starts to come up with flashes of inspiration.

How hard can it be .....

Patchwork chair reno

Just a little update and a new pic of my patchwork chair project.  I've been very busy with my projects recently and have just finished (finally) adding the trim to this chair.  Its 3 little "friends" have also been all stripped back ready for a makeover.  I also decided to distress the chairs a little and it suits the whole look although it is hard to really see that in the photo.  This one is staying here with me however the other 3 will be up for sale once completed and I'll post them here first.  I also take orders or refurbish your existing chairs in your own colour scheme using as much recycled material as possible for each project.   Here she is!

This post covers a whole new project I've had happening for a while so I thought I'd share.

I was given four of these chairs which were painted in a cream(ish) colour with purple velour seats and gold piping.

They had been in storage for some time and they have hung around as a possible project for years waiting for me to decide where to go with them so the fabric and the paintwork was pretty shabby looking and not really my taste.  This post is the story of the first chair.

With my current dual obsessions with recycling denim and all things patchwork, this is what I came up with.

Sanded back and repaint the chair white.
Pulled off all the upholstery and used the old bits as a template to create patchwork pieces to go back on.  (All the fabric used was already in my stash as was the paint so no cost involved.) 
 Using a staple gun, fitted the new upholstery onto the freshly painted chair and ... voila

I still have to glue the trim in place over the staples to satisfy my picky nature but all up I'm delighted with the results.  The big decision now is whether to keep this as a feature chair and do the others completely differently or create a "set" of four (although they will all be different of course).   What do you think?

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall ...

What to do on a wet windy day with the kids on holidays?  Get the sewing machine out and have a go at making them some toys, what else.  Here's humpty, and I'm pretty happy with the way he's turned out.  He's completely made from bits and pieces already lurking in my fabric stash so he cost nothing to make.  The original plan was that he would be a gift for Christmas however he has been adopted by my 5 year old son (who reckons he's "awesome") so I'll have to come up with something else for the gifts.  I also now have an order from Miss 3 for a pink and purple unicorn with ribbons and shiny bits ... hmmmmmmm.

Byron Bay Roadtrip

Ok Ok, I know I have been totally slack with progress reports on the van so apologies for that.  The time has just zipped by recently and I've been meaning to take some update photos.  This weekend we went to the lovely Suffolk Park Holiday Park at Byron Bay for a weekend in the van so I took a couple of shots as we were packing up.  I'm pretty happy with it all now and have decided not to bother with changing the cupboards for the time being.  I think I'll keep that for an inspired moment somewhere down the track.

The van went into the repair shop last week for a set of sexy new legs as we managed to snap one of the corroded old ones off on our last outing.  The new ones are longer and stronger which makes the van much less rocky than it was.  It cost us a little bit to have done and I wish I could do that sort of job myself however a complete lack of welding skills (or interest in welding come to think of it) meant that the lovely guy at the caravan repair shop got the job. 

What has been finished by me is the curtains.  We now have full blackout curtains in a plain colour to match the canvas so you don't really see them.  These were made from bargain fabric I found at the Spotlight clearance.  Full blockout curtain material down from $22 per metre to just $2, I was on a high for days about that find!  I've jazzed up the plain with red spotty lighter weigh fabric curtains for the bed ends, tiebacks and on the door.  The original plan was red spots all round but the effect was way to much, made me feel seasick.

Other than that, this weekend was our first (and possibly last) attempt at using the awning which came with the van.  It works fine but takes nearly as long to put up as the whole tarp setup so we will just use that I think for long trips and take the pop up gazebo for short ones.

The van itself we are really getting the hang of and it's quicker to put up each time now, I'm really pleased with it overall and am starting to think an external paintjob may be on the cards. 

Here are the latest photos:

Quite a change from this:

 All up I'm feeling pretty proud of myself and inspired to tackle some new projects so watch this space.