Patina General

vintage desks & vanities re-purposed

Desks and dressing table vanities were commonly found in homes in the 1930's and 40's.  As time goes on, trends, tastes and needs change.  In the era of technology, long gone are the days that we would sit at a writing desk for correspondence. Laptops, ipads and iphones now make our offices a little more portable.

Lora and I gather up these desks and vanities whenever possible, because they are so functional once re-purposed.

Hubby removes the top (some are easier than others), and cuts two new tops to turn this once desk into two side tables.  Sometimes he adds wainscoting to the sides if needed or in the pic below he added pieces of tin ceiling to give it a different look.

Sorry for the dark pics, garage lighting isn't the best.

They make functional side tables for our family room on either side of the couch with lots of storage for remotes, books etc. In the bedroom one on either side of the bed for a lamp and storage for reading glasses, tissues and hand lotion.

We still have one of these desks in our home office for the computer and our daughter has a vanity in her bedroom.  When the time is right, they may both be on the chopping block!

Making Letters

Last month's occasional, we had these "Winter Sale" letters hanging in the windows.  I snapped pic's as I was creating them, so you could see my process.  Incorporating words into your home is so popular right now.  It's a great way to remind yourself of the important things in life.  Putting the word, "Blessed"  "Family", "Kindness", or "Love" creates an emotional mood in your home.  I also thought these hooped letters would be fun for a birthday party, with the special person's name on them! Using a patterned background fabric, instead of this plain white would punch up the whole look!

The first step is to find a font you like.  I have quite a few already in my computer, but if you don't, there are many places to download them on the internet, for free, or for a small price.  I chose one with chunky, fun letters that could be seen clearly in the window.  I used a mixture of lower case and upper case letters.  I purchased wooden embroidery hoops from the fabric store, in a variety of sizes.  They're very cheap! In a word document, I typed out an individual letter, and increased the percentage size, until it was big enough to fit in it's designated hoop.  My letters were in the 150-300% range.  I then copied them off on my printer and cut them out.

I pinned them to my fabric and cut around them.  You could also trace around them, but I was trying to be quick (this isn't a money making project for me, just a part of store ownership :) I cut out squares of the white fabric, big enough for the hoops.  If you've never used these hoops before, they're very easy.  They are in 2 parts, an inner hoop and an outer, with a tightening screw at the top.  To get the fabric into it, you loosen the screw and lay your fabric on the inside hoop.  The bigger hoop gets put over, and you tighten the screw, pulling the fabric taut as you go.  But...before you go ahead and do this, get the letter attached!

I could have used heat-n-bond to attach these, but good old tacky glue was quicker and easier.  I just wanted the letters to stay put while I was zig-zag stitching around them.  If you're not a sewer, you could skip this step, hand sew something, or even use puffy paint.  I just like the folksy look of zig-zag stitching, but it's a lot of presser foot work to go around letters, if you know what I mean!

Once all your letters are attached, you can place them in the hoops.  I also put some glue on the outside of the inside hoop, so the fabric would be quite attached.  Pull the fabric as taut as you can get it, and tighten that screw.  Trim away any excess fabric.  I decided to add a few white buttons, to simulate snowflakes.  I just glued them on and let them dry.

I found this beautiful colored, twisted Martha Stewart yarn at the fabric store, and doubled the length to hang them in the windows.  I simply wound the yarn around the screw mechanism.  

Some fun variations for this project would be to paint or Rit dye the hoops, to give them a pop of color, or put patterned washi tape around them.  Use rick rack or cute ribbon to hang them, as another option.

If you make some, post them on our Facebook page!  We'd love to see your version!

Vintage Suitcases: All Dressed up and Nowhere to Go!

Fall is the perfect time to refresh suitcases, not that we are taking trips, but rather using them all around the house!  When it seems like I've accumulated quite a few, I have a suitcase party in the driveway! I get a bucket of sudsy soap, grab some mild cleanser, like Bon ami, and get to it!

A little bit of grit helped this splotchy white suitcase sing again! If the insides are a little stained with someone's travel shampoo, or perfume, I make the decision to rip the guts out!

The insides definitely tell how often the owners took trips!  Even though the outsides can get banged up while being stored, many times the insides look brand new!

Sometimes these treasures have been personalized, and sometimes I just find treasures!

This canvas box with old stamps had me intrigued when I found it in an old trunk:

It was a Kwik-Pak Parcel Post Laundry Case that used to be shipped back and forth, probably to and from a soldier!  I'd never seen one of these.

If the lining of the suitcases need to be ripped out, it's time for a little decoupage!  You can use anything from fabric, to old newspaper, maps or children's books, to vintage music.  Match to your style and where you want to use it.

I decided an old trunk would be the perfect place to store our trove of board games.  I was actually going to throw this trunk away, till I realized it was the perfect size to slide under my coffee table.  I pulled off the old, ugly contact paper and decoupaged some vintage newspaper inside.  I brushed the decoupage medium onto sqares of newspaper and then placed them artistically.  By the time I was finished placing them, the first ones were dry, and I brushed another coat on.  After it had dried for several hours, I put a clear coat of water-based poly over to seal it all up. I found it ironic that one of the advertisements was for suitcases!

Suitcases come in handy for storage around the house.  We've got them low down and up high!  They contain craft supplies, photos waiting for the scrapbook, and hats and mittens.  Now we have one with games, too.

These are suitcases I am working on decoupaging for the store, but I thought they looked kind of cool just stacked in the corner, too!  Some of them may need a coat of paste wax on the outside to really make them classy.  Trunks usally get a coat of poly on the outside to make their beautiful, metal hinges and hardware shine.

Next time you see one of these at a sale or the side of the road, don't let it's not-quite-perfect condition hinder you! A little work, and their usefulness and beauty can be restored!

Wool Blanket Bunting

We've been known to cut up old quilts and tablecloths, saving what can be saved, to create bunting, and coasters, and placemats...well, it's fall, and there were a lot of beautiful, yet not perfect, blankets laying around my house!

Once I knew the pile of blankets was freshly laundered, I cut my rectangles.  I wanted this project to be easy and cute.  No difficult sewing involved here!  I cut my blankets into 12" x 24" rectangles, avoiding the stains and worn areas. I had a few plaid blankets, a green chenille bedspread, and some thick wool blankets.  For most of them, I used a pinking shear to get the zigzag edge.  It would have been easier to have a rotary cutter with a pinking blade, but I was going for a not-perfect look anyway.  The best part is the fact that these fabrics won't fray...easy sewing, indeed!

Once all my rectangles were cut, I decided I wanted to embellish them with fall-themed cute-ness.  I grabbed some silk fall leaves I had and peeled off the plastic stem from the back.  Once that's off, it's totally flexible, and sew-able!

The plaid blanket with gold and soft pink lines looked the best with the leaves.  I used brown thread and machine-sewed where the veins of the leaf were.  Do all the embellishing before you sew your rectangle shut!

The green chenille bedspread squares needed some orange, and I wanted to incorporate burlap, also.  I cut a simple square of burlap, and sewed it with a zigzag stitch into the bottom right hand corner.  I then used some of my embroidery skills, and stitched a pumpkin, with a simple straight stitch, and a satin stitch for the stem.

The bright colored plaid blanket was crying out for some sunflowers.  I had some leftover trim, and cut off a few flowers.  I hand-stitched them onto the left bottom corner of the plaid squares.

The beautiful aqua blue, beacon blanket didn't need anything, and the pretty salmon-y orange wool blanket had it's satin edge and tag still intact.  I also found a brown and rusty plaid blanket with a fringed edge, that I added to my pile of rectangles, and a fun vintage blanket that my mom sent my way, depicting donkeys pulling a cart.  I told you I had quite a few laying around!

Once all the embellishing was done, I simply folded the rectangles over, and stitched around the three sides, using a zig-zag stitch, and leaving two inches at the top to thread my rope through. I used different colored thread on each blanket, for an extra artistic touch!

Picked up a package of sisal rope from one of my favorite home-supply stores, wrapped some scotch tape around the end, and wove it through the bunting, leaving about 2-3 inches between.  I left 12" to 14" on either end, in order to hang it from wherever I want.

What a fun project!  We had these decorating the outside of the store last weekend, and some went home to decorate customer's homes!  They look great hanging on the mantle, on the porch, or even from a tree at your next fall party!  There are still some small scraps left...I may make a mini version for myself!  There's still a few left for November occasional!

Vintage Clothing Revival: Enjoying the Journey

This crazy business that we're in...it's like unraveling history, and hearing stories that go along with the item's we find, and also hearing stories that are prompted by the objects we're working on.  Yes, we enjoy selling the final product, and seeing how excited our customers are about their new find, but all along the journey, I appreciate and enjoy each step.  

The adventure usually starts with something forgotton, or ignored for quite a white.  It's been left in the basement, the attic, or even pushed out to the garage. Something that's been useful, essential, loved...but it's seen it's day.  It's no longer what it once was.

A friend from years past invited me over for her parent's home's estate sale.  As I was digging around the very full garage, I spied this old container.  I love vintage labels, and thought this carton may make a cute side table.  The friend explained that it was full of her parents clothing.  Someone had offered to take them off her hands and create rag balls, but that offer had not come to fruition. I decided to bring home the stinky mass of fabric, and see what would become of it all!

Once home, I opened the lid and was greeted by the most musty smelling pile of laundry I've ever gotten into!  I decided it was the safest to just dump the whole lot out in the grass, for fear of what else had decided to live in this pile over the years! I was pleasantly surprised to see that no furry creatures had been nesting inside! In the clear sunshine, I began to appreciate the faded, vintage fabrics of these turn-of-the-century clothes.  I began sorting them by color and decided I would give them a good soak, and a line-dry in the sunshine, and see what evolved!

I washed the darker load first.  As I began to hang them on the line, not only the beauty of the vintage fabrics could be seen, but the designs and details could also be appreciated.

The pintucks, the eyelet ruffles, the different styles of collars.  These were the clothes I remembered my 90 year old great-grandma wearing.  Their lives had been extended as long as they could possibly could.  There were patches everywhere, the fabric was thread-bare, and their buttons had long ago been taken off and used elsewhere. The extension of usefulness amazed me.  How quickly we throw things away, and only see their usefullness in their prime. Hmmm...  I wished I could revive these clothes to their original purpose but they needed to be re-invented.  Take the weaknesses, and make them strong again.

The bright color load was even more beautiful than the blues and greens!

Once again, I loved each and every detail of this generations-ago wardrobe.

The contrasting fabric inlays, the rickrack, the polka-dots all had me charmed.  I even loved the store-bought tags I found on some of them!

The clothes looked so pretty hanging on the line in the sunshine!  It was like vintage, clothing bunting that even coordinated with my flowers!

The rag ball idea that my friend had given me sounded like the best fate for these beautiful clothes.  I've been taking a stack of clothing wherever I go and have some time to dis-assemble these beauties.  As I was ripping strips of cloth at the cabin, my aunt remembered how she had ripped fabric strips for her grandma, as a child.  My great, great grandma instructed her to sew the strips together smoothly, so the rag rugs she made would not have bumps.  I cherish and use those very same rugs my aunt helped to make.  As I was learning how to make my first ragballs, my 8 year-old neice was eagerly learning also. 

I love how the generations before made use of everything.  They took what was weak, and combined it together to make something strong and useful.  The ragballs are a work in progress.  They are time consuming, and relaxing at the same time.  The finished product isn't anything too special...but I've enjoyed the journey.  I'm picturing them with evergreen boughs for Christmas, in a primitave wooden bowl, or maybe piled high on a footed cake plate or metal urn!

 

March Madness

March Madness...  weather!  Hope you had a chance to enjoy the summer like outdoors this past weekend.  It was a Patina General working weekend at our house.  

 

Welcome to our garage!  April Occasional is buried in there somewhere.  This is a view of our third stall, aka Patina General storage unit.  I can't believe I'm unveiling this pic to the public when I'm always telling our kids to keep the third stall garage door closed for fear of the neighbors calling hoarders anonymous.  My husband is a saint for not giving a hoot that his garage has taken on a new purpose.

I've been known to sand furniture on a sunny somewhat warm day in the middle of winter in years past, but full blown turn on the hose scrubbing has never before happened in March.  In my neck of the woods this past weekend it was too humid to brush paint and too windy to spray paint (unless our neighbors wanted a new color scheme to their house).  Hubby and I spent Saturday dismantling furniture, cutting and fitting new backs, tops and other various parts to create pieces for the store.  

He took a few March Madness breaks to check scores and to let me know that I was beating him on our bracket challenge.  My secret to winning has nothing to do with my knowledge of sports, quite the opposite.  My strategy... I choose Syracuse to win because I like Syracuse Dishes, I'd rather visit this state over that state and many other quirky reasonings.

Hope you can make it to April Occasional in a few weeks and see if you recognize anything from this picture.

Lora, I've aired our messy garage for all to see, do you want to show them yours?

Flurry of Fabrics

After an extended season of scrubbing and working outside, the weather has taken a turn. There is a chill in the air and the wind is certainly a stir. I'm thankful to have had the extra days outdoors to wrap up some projects, but I'm so excited to hunker down and accomplish some tasks indoors. I've been yearning to spend time with my sewing machine and play among the stacks of fabric.

So many projects and ideas are afloat in my head. I want to share them all with you, but I don't dare let the cat out of the bag just yet. December Occasional is coming... We'll see how many things on my list I can complete, as my list tends to be longer than there are hours in a day. If only I didn't have to sleep.

Our daughter has been busy playing among her stacks as well. She makes sleeping bags for American Girls dolls and sells them at the store. She will have a fresh new batch for the December Occasional.

Hope you find time to enjoy your fabric stacks.

 

 

 

 

Summer Play(ing)

I just love the different tempo of summer. Different activities, slower schedules, later mornings!  Cheryl has been busy at the soccer field and the swimming pool, along with keeping PG stocked with new stuff, but I decided I needed something new and fresh on the agenda this summer.  As you may have learned in the last blog, I am a ...

 
Growing up, my home was full of music.  My mom and dad sang in small and large choirs at church, my mom played piano, and we always had beautiful music on.  I first took piano lessons, then switched to flute, and then later took voice.  I participated in choirs at church, band at school, and then choir later at Bethel college. I always loved going to musicals, and then singing along with the records when I got home.  Four years ago, our local community theatre was putting on Sound of Music.  Happy Girl decided to try out, so I took her.  I ended up trying out also and getting the part of Sister Bertha-one of the nuns that gets to sing, "how do you solve a problem like Maria?" We had so much fun, and it was such a great experience to do together!  It was a huge committment, but we met so many wonderful people in our community that we never knew before!

 

This year 4CT, which is the community theatre that represents Rockford, Delano, and Orono, decided to do Oklahoma! Oklahoma was one of my favorite records to sing to when I was a kid. Happy Girl and I decided to try out and make the 2+month committment. I'm playing the part of Gertie Cummings, the debutant with the loud, obnoxious, musical laughter trying to catch Curly's eye.  Happy Girl gets to dance a lot and imitate my laughter, and even put the veil on Laury in the dream scene.  We are both having a blast!

 

Community theatre is a great opportunity to have fun with family and friends.  Lois and her daughter, Laura, have been in the last 11 summer performances together!  Other family members have also participated over the years.

 
Practices are full of learning lines, blocking, singing, and dancing-with a lot of fun mixed in!

 
 
 
 

The director's are usually teachers from the local communities that bring a lot of experience, but also realize people are doing this for fun-and have real lives during the daytime!

 
If being on the stage is not your thing, there are many other opportunites to get involved with music, costumes, props, and set building.

 
 
 
If you're in the area, come enjoy a 4th of July family outing (although Judd is a little scary).  Performances are at Orono High School, 795 Old Crystal Bay Rd. Long Lake, MN.

June 29, 30 -7 PM

July 7,8,9 - 7 PM

July 10 - 1 PM

Call 952-449-8302 for tickets. Reserved seating, but tickets also available at the door.

www.4Communitytheatre.org

"We know we belong to the land, and the land we belong to is grand."