White linen slip finished

My last post showed the beginning of the transformation of this chair.

She’s done.

One more white jewel in the living room. My husband thinks I’m cracking up, slip covering everything. Little does he know it’s only just begun! But for now I’d better clean up the threads, linen scraps, linen dust, (Why does linen make so much dust when you cut it?) and get ready for the Memorial Day weekend.

This slip took me a total 20 hours to make. Shellagh at Ticking and Toile was wondering.

More white linen slip covering

Inspired by Shellagh at Ticking and Toile, again. Her beautiful ~Ruffles and Lilacs~ post spoke to me and energized me to create yet another slip cover.

Shellagh’s beautiful white linen slipcover. She’s making a second one. Shellagh asked me to count the hours it is taking me to make mine.

So here is the metamorphosis of another chair. This is the most comfortable chair, beautiful leather but again adds to all the dark elements in the room.

I took a chance and painted the wood white. Even the oyster shell lamp brightens things up.

Then I decided this wonderful chair needs a white linen slip.

So far, I have the chair back and front done. This, chair back and front, took me at least 10 hours. There’s always a goof here or there that has to be ripped out and fixed. Goofs are time consuming.

Hope to finish the seat up in next day or so.

Look how the other white linen slip covered chair brightens up my dark living room. This chair and the other 2 armless chairs are new. I don’t want to paint the wood, as it goes nicely with the silk that they are upholstered in. I don’t want everything white, I still love dark traditional wood.

And white linen looks amazing with dark woods. Hopefully I have a few more things finished in the room and show the results.

Off to help a friend find some new furniture. No sewing today. Have a great Monday!

Joining Metamorphosis Monday and Do It Yourself Day, and DIY Showoff.

Another white linen slipcover

Linking up with My Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday , Favorite Things Friday at A few of My Favorite Things, and Frugalicious Friday at Finding Fabulous, and Tools are for Women Too!, Do I Yourself Day, and Furniture Feature Friday.

Back in 2008, I posted this about my dream to slipcover these 3 chairs. Finally the chair with the arms is wearing her new white linen slip.

Pining on the gusset, Bailey trying to get my attention. See Bailey under the table?

Arms on a chair = difficult slipcover for me. Trying to cut the opening presents a challenge.

Putting the chair on my kitchen table gives the perfect height for working on the gusset and ruffled skirt.

A simple arm cover with a ballet slipper tie

5 ties down each side

2 ties at front arm

and she’s done

ALIVE DAY MAY 11 2010

Tomorrow we are celebrating David’s 1st ALIVE Day! Let me tell you,  we are the happiest families on earth….David’s and ours.  We thank God and count our blessings on a daily basis that our David survived his EOD explosion in Afghanistan.  It has been a long and difficult year for David and Liz. They have made us all proud with their stoic perseverance,  David’s maybe 30- surgeries,  their daily struggles (which make most of our struggles look like a dream), their founding of the amazing Wii’s for Warriors, and their commitment to each other in their first year of marriage. The wonderful welcome home.  Their special Christmas Eve.  And, on occasion, I do believe, my Liz has kicked a butt or two.  Go Liz! You are an inspiration to all us girls, wives, and Moms!

Most of the world had no idea what EOD was until the Hurt Locker won awards.

Last weekend was the Memorial EOD Weekend in Fort Walton, FL.  Liz and David flew down to participate in this solemn ceremony. David is ALIVE. 16 other EODs are not.

Please watch this amazing video that was just made to memorialize all the fallen EODs this past year. The song: “In the Middle of the Night” was written for this tribute. It shows what our amazing EODs do, when the music changes, half way through, you will see pictures of the fallen EODs and their families. All of these brave men were added to the EOD Memorial Wall on the first of May.   The Wounded EOD Warrior Foundation is another great place to visit. There is even a picture of our David receiving his Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

 

Thank you to all our EODs, who “In the middle of the night, while the others are in bed, they go out and do the job where the angels fear to tread”.

 

Love you, David and Liz! Happy Alive Day!

ooh, ooh that smell, can’t you smell that smell…

On occasion, depending on the winds, we can smell oil here in Diamondhead, MS. Keep in mind the weather here has been horrible for the last 4 days. No oil yet on our beaches, but we can smell it.

Please fly away, you sweet Least Terns, please fly away! This picture was taken yesterday, off the beachfront in Bay St Louis on a drive-out fishing pier. The innocent Least Terns are so used to sharing their nesting spots with humans that they don’t even fly away when cars or people come close to them. The Least Terns have protected nesting beds all along our 27 mile beach coastline here in Mississippi. Sadly, this is their nesting season. You can just imagine what might happen to them.

I want to introduce you you to these amazing blogs that here in this region. These girls share the same fears that we all do on the entire Gulf Coast.

Bumpkin on a Swing and her Captain John are Mississippi neighbors here that are trying to help in every way possible. This blog is amazing and a must read for up-date info in our local area. Bumpkin is Worried Sick right now.

NOLA GIRL wrote an amazing post so eloquently and factual. She says all the things I wish I could say, but I break down and cry in trying to do so. Please read her amazing post: Feeling Helpless but not hopeless.

As for me, I’m signing up for some of the classes being offered to assist in the clean-up. I am quite depressed but realize I need to do something to help and keep busy. This is pretty much the attitude of my all Mississippi neighbors that pulled through Katrina. We blame no one (our entire country is oil dependent, so the blame is on all of us)... do not blame or diss any one entity. Spend your thoughts on what you can do to help us here in the Gulf Coast Region.

Katrina was a natural disaster... this oil spill is a man made disaster. We residents know the first response is up to the locals and the citizens. NOT THE GOVERNMENT. We realize we have to rise up and help our community and ourselves. Does the rest of our great country understand this attitude?

And we wait…

For the second day in a row, the skies are heavy and oppressive, as if the oil slick has been dumped overhead. It is windy, warm, and humid…almost difficult to breathe out of doors. I had prayed that 2010 would not present any misfortunes but it looks like we all on the Gulf Coast will be expecting the worst man made national disaster. After going through the worst natural national disaster. The Coast Guard planes have been flying low over my house all this week. Our local shopping spots are full of Coast Guard and the National Guard are now starting to show up. Gives me Katrina flashbacks.

The waiting is just like waiting for a hurricane. You know it’s coming, it will hit somewhere. You secretly “wish cast” it to another area, feeling a little guilty about doing so. This morning I heard a reporter from Louisiana wish cast the oil to us in Mississippi. His theory was the oil will be easier to clean up from the beach then it would be to clean from the estuaries. I suppose this is true.

I’m headed down to the beach to see what is going on. There’s this page on Face book that has great info about volunteering. Apparently we have to be trained as the oil is dangerous. I’m signing up to do whatever I can. The waiting is really getting to us all…

A table from a wire planter

Before I left for DC, I reposted this post from last year. I'm joining Transformation Thursday, Show and Tell Friday, Frugalious Friday' and Frugal Friday.

Make sure to visit Finding Fabulous and My Romantic Home and the Shabby Nest, and the Shabby Chic Cottage. I had to leave everyone's party picture off as the laptop I'm edited on does not have LIVE WRITER.

Rhonda at Blue Creek Home graciously allowed me to copy one of her fabulous REPURPOSING idea.

I was struggling to find a narrow table to go under the Trumeau mirror. There is not a lot of walking space between the big fluffy bed and the wall the mirror hangs on.

I’ve had this 25 yard bolt of white European linen for over a year, waiting to be made into something. Ordered from Fabric.com. It was $12.98 a yard a year ago, still the same price. I used 17 ft of this, cost was roughly around $70.00 for the linen for this project. I just needed to find a wrought iron window box planter, which was very easy. These babies are everywhere. I bought a 40 “ long by 14” depth. $24.00 at a local garden shop. It was already off white. I sanded it lightly to let some of the dark show through.

I used 5 mollies and long screws, goofed the first attempt to get them level but that was an easy fix. The planter was very snug, secure, and doesn’t tip.

One of the mollies that had to redone.

On to the linen and sewing. I decided to make my skirt ruffled. Rhonda did pleats on hers, which I think is more difficult. Because this European linen is rather heavy, I bought double shirring tape, $.27 a yard at Wal-Mart. I cut a solid 17 foot length of the linen. This particular bolt of linen is 58” wide. I used this as my height, floor to table top. Less cutting and less sewing that way.

I used the selvage edges as the bottom of the skirt and the top where I installed the shirring tape. I attached the tape 5 inches down. This gave me an extra ruffle at the top. The tape has to be stitched on both edges for security. Starting pulling the heaving strings within the tape. This takes a bit of time.

I did double seam and stitched the 2 ends but left the selvage edges for top and bottom. You can see the top selvage edge here.

The gathers have to be continually pushed down to the other end. When it finally was the right length to fit within the planter, I decided to use hot glue.

Rhonda hand stitched hers. I took the lazy girl route, and just dotted the glue along the upper rim, after turning over the ruffle. Very simple, very lazy, very me....

Next came the top. I took a piece of foam board, used the top interior of the planter and drew a template. I actually did this first before box was on the wall. I contemplated having a piece of mirror, wood, or glass cut from this foam board template. I can always do this later on. But to keep the cost down and get this project finished using what I had, I chose to cover the foam in the same linen.

Then I hot glued the material to the bottom side.

With the linen foam board on top, hot glued a little braided trim that cost about $2.00. I manipulated the hot glue so that the top was glued to the wrought iron as well as placing trim on.

The curly wavy wrought iron is perfect for the total over all effect I’m trying to achieve in this room.

Remember, no sewing for the hem, since I used the selvage edge. Just poofed it over, or under!

This is such a great idea for a beautiful table, dressing table for a little girl, or just a random dose of loveliness that could be done in so many different ways. I’m sure it could be made without any sewing for those that don’t sew or have a machine.

Total cost to make this was way less then $100.00. It could be sooo much less expensive, depending on your choice of fabric. I wanted to use this linen to keep within the room's theme of materials that I'm set on using....I'll post more on this later....

And I think it took no more than a total of 4 hours. I work from project to project, always have, always will. So it's difficult to get a total estimate of time for the table.

I had to hang the mirror higher since the table needed to be high. That’s why the bed is not imaged in the mirror any longer. I think it looks better since it’s almost to crown molding. Really brings the eye up.

This room, daughter’s old room, is now a guestroom. It has been undergoing an amazing transformation. It’s almost done. You wouldn't believe what it looked like before. I’ll do a complete make over post soon. I really kept all costs down by reusing things from my house. See, no window treatments? I’m debating…

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