StarSparrow

How To Make a Vintage Chalkboard

I've been lusting for ages after those amazing vintage chalkboards I see in decorating magazines, but with price tags in the triple digits, I've kept my distance. Until I found out I could make my own, that is!
All you need is:

• an old window 
• RustOleum Chalkboard spray paint
• Scotch-Blue™ Painter's Tape
• sandpaper
• alcohol

First, scrape any loose paint off of the frame. Be careful doing this. If the paint is old, it could contain lead, so be sure you research lead safety before you start. Wear a breathing mask as well, so you don't inhale any of the dust, lead is very dangerous and there is no "safe" lead level in the body. Any exposure is harmful. (Okay, Public Service Announcement is over now.)

Next, lightly sand whichever side of the window glass you plan to use as your chalkboard. This will give it some "tooth" so that the paint can grip the glass. Clean the glass with the alcohol to remove any dust or residual oils you may have left behind. Let dry. 

After sanding and cleaning the glass, tape off the front of the window. Carefully surround all of the window panes with the painter's tape, being extra careful not to put the tape on the glass, only put it on the wood. Cover all exposed wood on the front and around the sides with the painter's tape. 

Now you're ready to paint! Move the taped-off window into a well-ventilated area, and be sure you have something underneath to protect your floors (or walls, if you have the window propped up). Begin spraying, holding the can about 10" away from the glass and moving it in light, sweeping motions. Once you've got the first coat on, follow immediately with a second light coat. Let dry for about 45 minutes to an hour. After the drying time, apply a third coat, making sure that the window glass is totally covered with a smooth, even coat of the spray. Add more layers if necessary. Leave alone and let dry for 24 hours. 

Lastly, once the 24 hour drying time has passed, carefully and gently remove the painter's tape. And voilà! Before you first use your chalkboard, condition it by lightly running the side of a chalk stick over the entire surface. Erase with your felt eraser, and you're ready to go! If you want to prop your chalkboard on a mantle or on an easel, there is nothing else you need to do. If you want to hang it on the wall, add hanging hardware at this point, and hang. Enjoy!

Here's mine (I still need to add the hanging hardware): 

I picked a window with two large panels, so that J and I can each have our own side to record our own tasks and reminders. If you have more than 2 people in your house, you could buy a window with 4, 6, or even 8 panels so that there's one for everyone. Or even if there's just you, multiple panels could help for organization. One panel for "Do Now" and one for "Do Later", maybe?

Let me know how your chalkboard comes out! I'd love to see! 

Want To See Me Wrapped in Tape?

I have been wanting one of those awesome dressform mannequins for ages, but I just can't seem to come up with the $300 to buy a new one, or the $300-$600 to buy a really cool vintage one. Left with the quandary of wanting what I can't have, I devised a solution: make one. That's my life's greatest theme. If you need it, make it.
 I started out by making a very fashionable gown from plastic bags. I then showed J this tutorial and explained to him what we were going to do and how we were going to do it. He protested slightly, but one dirty look from me was enough to quell his complaining. After I was sufficiently plastic-wrapped, J began to wrap me in layers of paper tape. Since we had never done this before, the first layers did not go on as smoothly or as evenly as they should, and we made the mistake of letting my "girls" get smooshed a little, and then NOT cinching my tummy in! So I look flat chested with a tummy pooch. Fortunately, that's not my "normal" look. I just ate dinner! 

It took about 2 hours to get me all wrapped up and dried, then we cut the form off (up the center back). I taped the back together, and added a few more layers to make everything smoother. I then used some biscuit-colored cotton jersey to create a cover for it. Since I didn't have a pattern (or any knowledge of draping, creating garment patterns, etc) I had to improvise by cutting pieces that looked right, and then pinning and hand sewing them in place. I ran a threaded rod through the form, stuffed it with wadded up pages from my Anthropologie catalog, and attached it to a base I made from some metal piping.
I'm not 100% done yet though. I'll be adding casters to the bottom of the stand so it can be wheeled around, and I'll be painting the base and stand a lovely shade of blue. I'm also considering adding some chicken wire (painted black) sticking out of it, to make it have a caged bottom like some of the older ones.

In the future, here's what I'll do differently (use these tips if you make one!):

• I'll SUCK IN when I'm being wrapped around the tummy. And maybe do sit-ups for a week beforehand. And maybe skip carbs. 
• I'll wear a wonder-bra. It's amazing how flat that tape can make you!
• I'll use thinner strips of paper tape. We cut the strips in 1/2 lengthwise, but I think cutting them in 1/3's might have been even better.
• I'll do it early in the afternoon. We started in the evening, and so it was pretty late when we finished.
• I'll have a fan in the room. Three to four layers of paper tape over a trash bag gets HOT.
• I'll make sure J isn't feeling crabby or wanting to do something else. Even if I have to bribe him with cookies. He wasn't really into it, so about halfway through he started complaining (loudly), practicing the adult version of "are we there yet?", and rushing. The rushing meant that the end product wasn't as smooth as it could have been. (Notice no rear views... by the time he reached my butt it was like a race to the finish. My dress form's butt looks like pea-gravel in pantyhose).
• I'll spray the form inside and out with clear sealant to protect it. I'll also add extra layers of paper tape inside the form to the delicate areas like butt, bust, hips, that could be prone to being crushed.
• I'll come up with some type of pattern so my dressform's cover doesn't make it look like Frankenform. 
• I'll spray my form with a light coating of adhesive spray before I add the cover, so that the cover clings to it and doesn't give me the dreaded "mono-boob".

Although there are a lot of things I will do differently for the next one, I am still proud of how this one turned out. It's not bad for a first attempt! And at about $56 for all of the supplies, the price wasn't too bad either.
There was a lot of time invested in this though. It took 2 hours of being wrapped in tape, 3 hours of driving around to get all the supplies (all at different stores in different areas of town), about 6 hours of hand sewing to make the cover, and about an hour of assembly. And I still have to paint the base and add the chicken-wire cage to the bottom.

J  was working on a video skit for YouTube while I was getting ready to be wrapped. If you'd like to see me wearing nothing but a trash bag, check out this video. I make a cameo somewhere in the middle:

P.S. Interesting tip! I just read a comment from someone on another site suggesting that pieces of thin batting or flannel be attached all over the form with spray glue before adding the cover. Then use a turtle-neck shirt that fits very snugly as the cover! It's easy to find one that fits right, just try it on in the store. If it's tight enough to make you look like a hoochie-mama it'll work. Once you have it on the form, tuck in the neck and sleeves, and add in wood pieces cut to fit the openings. You could just glue in the wood pieces. Or you could have a big wood cross-like shape inside the form, and screw the wooden arm caps into the two projecting sides of the cross, and screw the wooden neck cap into the top of the cross. You could then screw a piece of wood cut to fit the bottom of the form to the bottom of the cross shape. Then, it would be really easy to attach the drain-cover (which is attached to the stand and base) to the wooden bottom. Presto: perfection!

Aging a Mirror

I'm all done with the Barn Owl Mini! I just love him! I'm going to try to make another tonight, I've really got to get cracking if I'm going to have enough of these to fill a booth. I think with the next one, I'll try to do some less traditional fabric choices, while still keeping him "owlish". Is floral fabric "owlish" enough if it's brown? I'm going to find out...
 Today I also whipped up this aged mirror (pardon my camera in the lower corner). It's sooo easy to do this yourself! Take a mirror that's already pretty old out of its frame, and spray the back of it with paint stripper. Don't do the whole back, or you'll end up like me, and you'll have to put silver leaf there to make it be mirror-like again.
 It's better to do a halo around the outside, leaving the center untouched.
Leave the stripper on for about 15 minutes or so, depending on the age of the mirror. Mine was fairly new, so it took a little longer.
 I'd suggest wiping off a test spot when you think it's close to being done, and see how it looks. Better too little removed than too much!
 After you are satisfied with the aging, very gently clean the back of the mirror with a wet rag, using circular motions. Gently dry with a soft cloth.
 At this point, I free-handed some climbing vines and stars onto the back with liquid gold leaf.
 Next, coat some old book pages or old letters with mod podge, and press down onto the glass, smoothing out all of the air bubbles. Let dry.
 Now you're all done! Enjoy your vintage style mirror!

Also, we have one day left in the fabric giveaway! Don't you want to be the owner of the adorable bundle above? Tomorrow I'll be drawing a random number with the random number generator, and the number it pulls out first will be the lucky winner. There's still time to enter, so jump in while the water's warm!
If you've already entered, then good luck!

And, if you don't win, make sure to keep reading. I'll be doing another giveaway next month!

Sad Gallbladder Mini Quilt Tutorial

 So I've been working on a secret project for one of my best girlfriends who had to have her gallbladder removed this year. It's a replacement gallbladder, in adorable quilted cuteness! I made it up as I went along, so please excuse the tutorial being a little rough (it's also my first-ever tutorial).

Here's the finished project:

Here is the finished mini-quilt! I used an orange sherbert colored Fig Tree fabric for the background, a Kaffe Fassett Aboriginal Dots fabric for the borders, a scrap of green batik for the gallbladder, and some premade Moda binding (to make my life easier!).

First, I found a medical drawing/diagram of a gallbladder online, and drew off my own version of it (as close as possible to the original). I traced this onto freezer paper, and then ironed my freezer paper template onto the right side of the scrap of green batik fabric and backed that with steam-a-seam on the wrong side (I left the paper backing on one side, and let the other side stick to the fabric).

 Then cut it out, and stuck the fabric gallbladder (backed with steam-a-seam) to the background fabric. At this point, you can remove the freezer paper.

Iron down the gallbladder to the background fabric until the steam-a-seam sets.

This is the diagram I used for labeling the parts of the gallbladder. I programmed the name of each part into my machine, and then stitched it in eggplant purple thread. If your machine does not have a stitch alphabet, you could use a pencil to lightly write the words on the fabric and then stitch it by hand.

Programming in the words...

Stitching the words... make sure you give the machine plenty of room to stitch each word, it takes more room than you might think! Try to give too much space rather than too little, or you'll end up ripping out a lot of very tiny stitches (I speak from experience).

Here's the fully labeled piece. I used a decorative stitch to "draw" lines to the parts I was labeling.

I then used one strand of black floss to stitch a thin, sad little mouth, and make a pair of French knot eyes.

Here's another view from further away.

I then cut some 2 inch wide strips from the pink Kaffe Fassett Aboriginal Dots fabric, and stitched them onto the top and bottom of the main block.

Then trim off the excess fabric from the sides, and iron the seams toward the borders. Repeat with the side borders, stitching down, and pressing the seams toward the borders. Trim off any excess.

This is what the block looks like with the borders on.

Sandwich the quilt top with the batting and backing fabric, and use a zig-zag stitch to outline within the border. After this, I quilted the background with free-motion stitching, and quilted the border with straight lines every 1/4 inch.

I stitched down the binding with mitered corners, and finished it off with a simple straight stitch from the front. It would finish off nicer if you hand stitched it down to the back, but since this will just be hanging on the wall, and I have a lot of projects waiting in line to be completed, I used the machine.

The finished mini is super cute! The pictures don't really do it justice. I'll try to take some better ones in natural sunlight soon and put them on my flickr page. 

Be sure to comment and let me know if you use the tutorial, I'd love to see how yours turns out!

If you have any problems with the tutorial let me know and I'll try to help!