Reupholstering an office chair

What do you do when your chair falls apart?

 

You reupholster it, of course. 

A few hours later (these few hours include driving to the shop, buying the fabric and new foam), the chair looks as new.

And yes, we also did the backrest, I just haven't got a photo.

 

Now I should do the same on kitchen chairs, right?

Bat and James Bond

I decided to be a bat. Just some black clothes, black wings (I used the fabric that was left from the Harry Potter cloak) and some ears. Simple!

MiniMojcek Nr.1 wanted to be James Bond. Well, who doesn't want to be James Bond, right?

Luckily for me I found a black tie suit and shirt in H&M combined for about 30€ :-) So I only had to make a bow-tie, a holster and a gun. Well, I did the bow-tie and the holster, MrMojcek carved the gun (PPK something) out of wood and then painted it black.

And why do I always run out of black thread on a Saturday night? So everything was sewn with dark-blue, dark-red and dark-green...

Door stops

We've finally got interior doors.

And with the doors, one needs door stops.

I didn't want to drill holes into wood flooring or ceramic tiles, so I decided to make some "bean bags". Well, rice bags. 

 I first made  a cotton bag and filled it with rice.

And made another faux leather bag so that the bags would be easy to dust or wipe clean.

Repeat four times.

Yusei costume

Mid-February and all the crafty mums in this part of the world are sewing like crazy. So am I.

MiniMojcek Nr. 1 decided he wanted to be Yusei from the Yu-Gi-Oh!

Picture from Yu-Gi-Oh Wikia.

 So I first embellished an old pair of trousers:

 Made gloves ...

... the T-shirt ...

 ... the jacket ...

 and the wig/hat.

It's not perfect (hey, it's a carnival costume for kids!) but good enough. And he loves it, which is all that matters.

Brown baby shoes

MiniMojcek Nr. 2 is growing up and he needs a pair of shoes! What could be better than a pair of soft-sole leather baby-shoes? I made several pairs for MiniMojcek Nr. 1 (and of course kept them) but Nr.2 deserves his own, right?

So, adding to the collection of all the brown fabrics: brown leather.


It took me a while to remember how to sew all the pieces together...


in the correct order!


But I'm quite happy with the final result. Let's hope MiniMojcek likes them!

... and Wave Goodbye

Wave Goodbye to my old pair of pairs of shoes!
If you know me, you must know my old Tevas. I have two pairs and have worn them since... 1997? simply because these are THE most comfortable, useful, multi-purpose, April-October shoes. They are literally falling apart but I'm not throwing them away just yet as the new ones aren't as perfect as the old ones were.


These shoes have been on five continents, I've walked in them in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Ocean, Yellow and Red, Dead and Med Sea and probably some more I cannot even name, crossed several rivers and lakes, climbed mountains, walked on the snow and in the deserts. I wish I knew how many thousands of kilometers I've walked in them, but there surely were quite a lot.

And you can imagine my surprise when I found a VERY similar pair of shoes in a museum in a remote village in the middle of High Atlas mountains in Morocco:


I should add that when I was in Morocco, mine were exactly the same colour as these ones in the museum. I have, however, washed mine recently. Anwyay, it will be strange to have a different sun-tan pattern on my feet after fourteen years...

Say Hello ...

Say Hello to my new pair of pairs of shoes!
I bought new Teva Kayenta Leather shoes:

(Photo taken from the official Teva.co.uk site)

In brown.


And in black.


Is it just me or do they really look like a spider - they even have eight legs!


Let's just hope that the hand of Teva will protect me from the evil spirit like just as effectively as the hand of Fatima.

Soft sole baby shoes - part 2

I can't believe how quickly my son grows - and his feet with him. So I needed to make him a new pair of soft-sole leather shoes for the daycare. I used leather from an old jacket and some fleece (left-over from a blanket). Following the same instructions as for the last (at least six) pairs, I managed to make them in less than an hour. Way before I managed to grab my camera and document the process. Next time, I promise!

Soft-sole baby shoes

Coming back from the holidays (Italy, Lago di Garda), I don't have anything new to write about, so again I'll dig up some of the old stuff.

Baby shoes.

So far, I have made 7 pairs and probably will make some more when his feet grow. All my more experienced friends recommended Robeez shoes but they are so ridiculously expensive that I decided to make my own. Googling "how to make baby shoes" lead me to this pattern by Tanya Brown, www.tackyliving.com.

I always use leather for the sole and leather or polar fleece for the vamp. For lighter shoes, I use linen and for warmer shoes I use fleece lining. Yes, I have made all possible cominations. I don't have all of them documented, here just a few: