Rags to Couture

Making Two Boxes out of One – DIY Tutorial

Posted on May 18, 2013 by admin

making two boxes out of one paper diy fabric drawers drawer junk box storage organizing

I needed somewhere to hide all the junk that has been cluttering my desk. I decided to put this old paper box to use.
paper box diy cut in two to make two boxes

I cut both the box and the lid in two.
cut boxes in two

The lid will become the front pieces for these boxes.
lid as front of box

I removed the paper that was on the box (I added that some years ago, so this is the second time I am re-inventing this box…lol) to make it easier to work with.
box drawer on shelf

Some cute fabric and glue was used to hide the ugly surface.
fabric glue supplies for box

The lid was attached to the front with a glue gun.
glue gunning the lid front

All the crap that was spread out around my working space was hidden away in the boxes.
box drawers

The boxes where put up on a shelf.
box drawers on shelf

I also added a handle to them using a white suede leather cord. Very easy to do. Punch some holes in the front, use three starnds of cord, braid, and tie a knot at each end of the handles.
handle tie knots

box drawers lid front knots back braid handle

19th Century Chair Restoration DIY – Part 3 – Finally DONE!

Posted on May 12, 2013 by admin

19th cenury chair restoration upholstery renovation diy black rococo

Check out Part 1 and Part 2.

If you saw my latest post on this chair you probably noticed that I changed my mind about the fabric. Instead of the velvet I decided to go with last time I found a much better fabric a few weeks ago. It is a upholstery fabric and it looks much better that the previous fabric!

I also found a great ribbon for the chair. This is how I attached it.

ribbon chair 19th century upholstery restoration

I knew using glue for this was out of the question. I am actually not sure, but I think most ribbons on chairs like this one are attached with small nails. The problem with that is that you do not want the nails to be visible.

I managed to make the nails invisible by sneaking them in from the sides and hide them within the ribbon.
nails from the sides

Do you see the little nail in there somewhere? I hope not.
nails hidden under ribbon invisible nails

The hardest part to get the ribbon around is the base of the chair’s back. Again, I am not sure how this is done correctly, but I solved it by folding the ribbon and sewing a few stitches.
back part chair restoration

back part 2

back4

19th century rococo chair rhow to restore diy new seating

new upholstery restoration rococo vintage antique

Very happy with the result!
chair rococo upholstery renovation fabric diy antique

rococo antiques renovation tutorial

antique hair old renovation

old chair new fabric seating cushion

How to Clean and Condition Old Leather – DIY Tutorial

Posted on May 5, 2013 by admin

how to clean and condition leather

As if I didn’t have enough old leather jackets to repurpose already, my aunt donated hers a few weeks ago. It had a very heavy brown leather and it was not in a great condition. Before I could use it to make something new, the leather had to be cleaned and conditioned.

I used soap, mink oil and neutral shoe shine/polish (colored shoe shine could get onto my clothes if some residue is left when the leather has been turned into a bag).

sponge swedisg grumme såpa läder rengöra clean leather with soap glycerin pine oil

To get the leather nice and clean I used a sponge and a few drops of Swedish pine soap diluted in water. If you are anywhere else but in Scandinavia you will probably not have access to this soap, but regular glycerine soap will work just as great! Try not to use a soap that will make the leather dry, go for soaps that are oil based.

Gently clean the surface with the sponge.
clean leather with sponge

After you are done cleaning, wipe off the surface with a cotton rag. I used an old worn out t-shirt, hah!
wipe off water with cotton rag

Let the leather dry. Then apply mink oil. I had to use quite a lot of it, mostly because the leather was SO dried up, but also because my mink oil is probably over 20 years old and kind of dried up too… It still works, even though it could be considered to be… uhm. Vintage.
mink oil on leather

Let the leather soak up the mink oil. I left mine over night. In the morning the oil had dried up and there was almost nothing left to wipe off.
wipe off mink oil

But I did anyway, and so should you. Get that cotton rag again and wipe off the leather until you have a surface that is non-sticky and smooth.

After the mink oil I like to use a polish to get some shine. This is not really necessary, but I think it makes the leather come alive again and brings out the color more. It makes the leather look new.

Apply the shoe shine and let it dry.
neutral shoe shine on leather

Polish it up until you have a nice shine.
polish shine leather

… And be amazed at the result!

The end.

I made another Drawstring Bag and it was Terrible – DIY

Posted on April 28, 2013 by admin

multi color fringe blue drawstring bag in suede leather

Terrible because my sewing machine decided to stop working on leather and I had to sew the entire thing by hand :C So, now you know why I did not update last week.

The blue suede is from an old jacket (of course ;)) and the multi colored suede cords are from endlesssleather.com. I also used my hole punch.

supplies

As usual I used A4 paper as a pattern (I did add some extra cm for the fold at the top).

suede blue bag drawstrng diy tutorial

Like the black drawstring bag I did some weeks ago I had to use two smaller pieces for the bag’s front and back.

I used the same stitch as this tutorial on hand sewn buttonsholes use. The fringes I added made the bag sturdy enough even though I couldn’t use my machine to sew it.

hand sewn seam