When Vintage Turns Deadly

As in; "Holy hell that stiiiiinks!" You know what I was about to do today? Write an ode to my collection of Lady Pride bags. Just as I was about to take a pic of them, I sprayed my newest one with febreeze just to lighten my day and see the mist sprinkling in the light. Five seconds later I almost died. A horrible fish smell came off of the bag and it was one of the worse smelling things I've ever smelled. Ever. Seriously. Anyway, I googled this issue and found a lot of people have it, and surprisingly they get it from newer leather bags. Turns out it can be a preservative spray causing the offensive odor. I think that must be the case, this bag has never been used. Well, I like to pride myself to be the ridder of smells but I did everything but bomb this thing and it still reeks! I once had a vintage suitcase that smelled so musty, finally I spilled an entire container of Scentsy spray on it and the smell somewhat went away. I have this thing soaking in Rug Doctor cat odor eliminator and I think it's the only thing that can help me. Here's a pic of the offending bag, but I will let you know how it turns out and if so, provide steps and tips to removing odors. Until then, this thing is banished to soak in its own misery and stench.

Vintage Lunch Pail Please!

Well Howdy Doodie people! I tell you, the things I will do for a bitchin vintage dress. About 3 or more months ago I promised my friend Anna I would make her a lunch pail in exchange for this dress:

Needless to say, I finally got it done today! I'm not the best seamstress but who gives a shiza? I just try my best. I just wanted to write a little blog about this because this little lunch pail makes me happy and I hope Anna loves it! In the meantime, I will be fixing my little sister's lunchpail I made for her last Christmas. It was my first sewing experience on this scale and I made a ton of mistakes so I will be working on that! I have tons of projects for you so stay tuned!

No Longer Crazy

Well! I finished this project last night and I have to tell you, it was a blast. I haven't quite figured out how to load pics and then caption below them, I need to brush up on my HTML. Anyway, I went to Jo-Ann Fabrics to buy some replica pink velvet type fabric. I found this excellent look alike, on sale for $3.99 a yard. Perfect!

I also got the large quilting batting that runs 90 inches long, I was shocked to see it was so cheap compared to the bagged batting. Plus, Jo-Ann Fabrics always has 50% off coupons so I wound up getting all the supplies needed for about $18. When I peeled back the pink front and original batting, I saw that there was a nice padding underneath still in great shape. I wanted to see what was under it, but I don't know that I could've replicated it. I took extra care removing the pink re-upholstery pins because I wanted to reuse them. Here are examples:

Then I covered the whole thing with batting, nailed the edges and began to put the pink over it. I sealed it with the original pink buttons and that was a PAIN! I don't think I had the right hammer and most of the nails were so old they kept bending. I had to tack the back in and I think it still needs tightening in some spots. Overall, besides the nails at this point I'd say it was pretty easy.

I think it came out so awesome, I'm really proud of it. Although I think it needs tightening in spots, I prefer the taught look to the random wrinkles it came with.
Overall, I think any beginner could do this. I suggest maybe a rubber ball-peen hammer and extra nails. I feel confident that after seeing this one, I could make another from the ground up without any issue! Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think!

Heather Must Be Crazy part 1

There is nothing like a great deal to get me excited! I went to one of my least favorite thrift stores the other day (never any good stuff) and saw this poor looking vintage headboard. I saw it from across the room and made a beeline to check it out, but when I saw it up close I was revolted. It was FILTHY, faded, and all I could picture was some black haired old lady lying in bed smoking cigarettes with 75 cats around her, while her lice ridden scalp rubbed up against this cute headboard. My boyfriend, Aaron walked over and said, "You aren't bringing that home, are you?" I thought it looked cute under all the grossness but really, do I need another headboard? So I left it and forgot about it until that night, when I looked up what these were worth and how hard it would be to recover it. It seemed meant to be that I buy this lonely little thing because it was a perfect measurement of my bed, which happens to be an odd sized bed.(Another awesome discount score!)I thought I should race back to the store as early as possible, as thoughts of smarter and gutsier do-it-yourselfers probably picked it up as I stupidly walked away. I really wanted to learn how to re-upholster and I thought this would be a great opportunity to learn, hopefully it would still be there.
The next day at ass 0'clock in the morning, I lined up outside the thrift store and wouldn't you know it? I was the only one in line and the only person there. The guy who opened the store gave me a weird look but thank God a bunch of random people showed up to shop right then. I pulled the head board out and was surprised to see it still there. If Aaron was reading this right now he'd say, "Well, yeah it was still there, the thing looks horrible!" I asked the guy how much for it and he said, "I don't know, make an offer!" I say, "5 bucks." So he looks at me and says, "Ok. You know, this is going to be really easy to reupholster!" Music to my ears! So he loads it into my car and I drive home. This thing has been in the back seat for about two weeks now and this week I am finally recovering it. Since this is my first Miss Shabby ChicK how-to blog, I couldn't think of a better project to get started on. So, I'm off to the fabric store, and here is some pics of the headboard! I want to stay with this pink color but I really want to know what sort of foam is underneath. Hopefully I won't have to replace that as well. Either way I will take you through the steps! Stay tuned!
*Pardon the misalignment on the photo captioning- I'm also working on learning that as well!*

This looks harder than I thought. Is that asbestos? Hahaha!




One million nails equals I need some wine and chocolate for this project.









Grossest part of the headboard!




How could you resist this baby?