Pillow redo

I bought this plain pillow several weeks ago for several reasons.  One, it is a great color for my couch; two, it is in dark brown burlap with a muslin ruffle; and, three, it was on sale for a great price.  Here is the pillow.

I thought yesterday that it needed something to give it a better look.  After a search through my box of lace and doilies I came up with this:

Much better!!!  Now I won't be covering up its plain-ness any more!

Recycled bottles and vintage pearls

I have been collecting broken pearl necklaces for quite some time.  Little by little I have filled up several small bottles with the pearls.  They sat for some time on my shelf (would you believe over a year??) and I often wondered just how decorate them.  Here are the results:

This bottle came with the rusty ring on the neck.  It's what's left of the screw off cap.  So I found a glass stopper that fit, filled the bottle with a broken pearl necklace, glued the stopper in and decorated the front of the bottle.  It is an old pearl earring glued onto a bit of lace with tiny seed pearls and then a small dangle attached.

This small bottle has an old earring for a stopper, a bit of a lace doily with the top of a broken locket glued on it.  Small coffee-dyed lace is wrapped around the neck and tied in a box.

Recycling at its best!  And I am slowly cleaning out bits of my stash.

Two finished lampshades

These are two of the small shades.  I finished them up yesterday.  They are actually for a chandelier or tiny lamp that takes a flame bulb with a small base.  I need to make two more to go on a chandelier I have for sale in my booth at Merchant Square.

Fun to do!  Here is the first one I did . . .

It had six sections.  Three I covered with a cut up doily.  I overstitched the pieces to the wire frame.  This particular section in the middle is covered with a piece of lacey ribbon wrapped around the frame and pinned.  The bow is from a piece of tulle fabric that has pink felt polka dots on it.

This side is wrapped with another piece of lace and has a white feather glued to it.

This section has tiny rick rack wrapped from top to bottom.  An old photo was cut out and glued to coffee dyed cheese cloth and a piece of pink fabric.  It is pinned to the wire frame with safety pins.  I also glued on the ribbon roses and then put old shoe buttons, crystals, a diary key and some pearls on the bottom.

Here I covered the entire shade with an old piece of lacey fabric from an old dress.  I overstitched it at the top and bottom of the frame.  I had this old vintage bouquet of pink flowers and I tied a piece of rayon ribbon on it.  Once again I put old pearls from vintage and new jewelry around the bottom.

You can tell I spent more time on the first one.  It was a learning piece.  The second one was easier because I used one piece of lace to cover the entire shade and whipstitched it in place.  I may have to make changes since I don't know how much light they will filter once they are on the chandelier. 

I plan to do a couple more and will post them when finished.  I have to hunt through the thrift stores to see if I can find two more small shades OR some small lamps that take clip on flame bulbs.  :-))

Embellishments 2

I think that taking a strip of fabric, and adding sewn buttons, bits of other fabrics and safety pins is a neat way to add texture and interest to a piece. Also a fun and unexpected addition could be a watch face with the gears and arrows of Tim Holtz bits. Putting that on lace just makes it interesting! This vintage orange velvet corsage is attached to a tiny doily piece. I tied long threads to it to hang down like a ribbon from the corsage.
The fridge is fixed! The repairman found the problem (bad capacitor, relay and overload parts) right away and had it running again in a matter of minutes. And he even had the repair parts on his truck! Can you imagine that??!! I lost most of the items in the freezer. However, the entire fridge is now clean inside and the food that couldn't be salvaged is gone. Feels like new!

Prairie Doves 4

This image gave me some pain. Can you imagine wearing a corset and having to tie it tight in order to get a tiny waist which was so popular around 1900?? I couldn't!! That's why I put the following quote on these pages:"Corsets! Too tight! Rather wear my camisole and my pantaloons. Sarah." I have added a vintage garter/stocking piece as well as more lace and a small doily. I don't think they had those fancy garter pieces when this picture was taken. I think these ladies either rolled their stockings or used elastic type garters.

Remember girdles??!!! Ouch!! I was really, really glad when pantihose became popular!! How about you??!!