New Pochette From a Louis Vuitton Zipper

I save little bits and pieces from the vintage bags I've picked up. 

Certain types of vintage Louis Vuitton bags have super sticky linings. 

The Vuittonitte that they used 20 or 30 years ago breaks down over time and becomes sticky especially in humid climates. 

 A few years ago, I picked up a cute vintage brief case but the lining was trashed. 

Instead of trying to clean it I pulled it out and threw it away.  
The leather and zipper was cut away from the lining and saved for a later date.

I decided that the zipper would look cute on a pochette or pouch made out of denim. 
Louis Vuitton had a denim line for a while that I thought was darling.  

Yellow thread that matches a Louis Vuitton bag was a must. 

Joann's had a heavy weight yellow thread that was a near perfect match.

It took 8 hours of hand work to sew the zipper unit to the denim. 

My fingers were so sore even with the use of leather needles.  

The back is not pretty but it won't show. 

I sewed a rectangle around the new zipper to form the pouch.
I cut the opening and glued the sleveage with craft glue. 

A quick trip to Tandy Leather yielded the news that my sewing machine could sew through thin leathers. 
They had leather needles for my machine so I sewed a d-ring onto the corner of the bag. 
This piece was a leftover from another bag. 
The strap came from a vintage Louis Vuitton Pochette.

This was a Valentine's Day project since Bill was sick. 
Head phones and sewing helped me survive the 
Star Wars Trilogy. 
 

This holds my iPad or toiletries. 
It can also be used as a clutch. 
 I love Vachetta leather and denim. 
    

That is what I've been up to.
How about you?
Come back for more leather crafting.
I have been sewing leather with my machine! 
So fun. 
Katie 

White Guest Room

This is a long one. I apologize in advance.

I knew I needed to paint Rebekah's old room but I had been putting it off.

She and I had only painted it a few years ago. 

We picked Meadow Trail from Sherwin Williams. 
It wasn't doing it for me. 

This room has also been white, celadon, Tiffany box blue and khaki.

I thought about going back with celadon but in the end I chose white. 

I think I have only painted one wall white, one time and only because I was repairing a wall that had been covered in cork board. 
I didn't believe in white walls.

I had two gallons of white paint in the garage. One was Colorplace and the other Glidden. Both of them were grab it and go, off the shelf, premixed white.
I mixed them together so I would have enough to cover the room because I didn't think one gallon would be enough and I was right. What a pain that would have been to run out of one color white in the middle of a wall. Even though they were both white, there was a subtle difference. (I started this project at 6:30 one evening and painted until 11 p.m.
There was no way I was up for a Walmart run.)

  I lost my shabby and white guest room when Jonnie moved back in last summer.  
See it here and here.

 I decided to shop the house to finish this room. 

My husband loves it when I don't spend any money. 

I made the dust ruffle with some fabric that
a sign shop had donated to my school. I rescued it from the summer clean out. I hotglued the ruffle to the existing bedskirt.

 Yes, sometimes I am lazy.

I had to re-find all the pillows that had been on Jonnie's bed. They got dispersed when he moved back in. 
Several of them eventually ended up in my bedroom so I made a new little envelope pillow out of an old vintage pillowcase. 

The accent color was inspired by this pink velveteen chair from Bill's Granny Vi. 

It has to stay in here. There is no way Bill will allow it to be in any of the other bedrooms or in the living room. 
There is a line even I cannot cross. :)

I love this chair. It's comfy, funky and cute.

My favorite things in the room came from this little rose book. I've had it for a while but it's been falling apart.

I took two of the pages and popped them into painted frames. 

 The frames don't match. The prints almost do. 

These are gorgeous and I'm totally smitten with them.

The memo board is a washstand towel bar and some chicken wire.

I pinned the rest of the book and some vintage postcards to the chicken wire. 

 What is it about chicken wire? Love!



Dixie chewed on the little velveteen flowers when she was a puppy. I painstakingly put them back together because they are precious.

 

The shade on the little alabaster lamp is wonky. I've tried to fix it but it will not stay on straight no matter what I do. 

We used to have the best garage sales around here. The lamp was a $1.00. 

This mirror was $5.00.
I think the chandelier looks better with the white walls.
It was 50 cents. 

The footboard is the old settee from the garden room.

I promised ages ago that I would show it to you but I just couldn't get any pictures to come out. This room was very hard to photograph. It was tough to realize that this piece wasn't good as a settee.
It was cute but no one ever sat on it but me. 
It was too low and uncomfortable. I'm short so it was perfect for me. :)

I had to take off the middle section and trim it down to be as wide as the mattress. 
I turned it around so the good side would be facing out. The bottom board had to be stained because it was behind the seat of the settee for years. 

  I've decided to leave the furniture as is for now because I love the quirky bed too much to mess with things. All the chests are oak even if the wood tones don't match exactly.

I did have to break down and buy a few white dishes to stage Gene (our secretary.) There were tons of white dishes at the thrift store this morning. The whole pile added up to less than $8.00. I could have shopped the house for white dishes as well, but then I'd have to shop to replace what I took.
The little suitcase was also slated for the trash at the school.I grabbed it and painted it. Bill does some leather work, hopefully he will make a new leather strap for it. 

I still need to paint the trim and the doors (clearly) but I will wait until after the holidays.
  
I'll be back because I want to talk about 
Mr. Chester Drawers in another post.

 Bye for now,
Katie  
A Stroll Thru Life  
Coastal Charm 
Cozy Little House   
Mod Vintage Life  
French Country Cottage
Common Ground
Savvy Southern Style

Repurposed Item From The Past

He knew this would happen.

He told me it would, but I didn’t believe him.

The cribs that we have stored in the attic for 21 years should not be used. Millions of cribs made before 2007 have been recalled.

I would not feel good about having my grandchildren (grandchildren that I hope to have someday) in cribs that were a potential hazard.

When I was looking up the measurement for a full size head board it dawned on me that the side of a crib might be the same width as a full mattress. When I went in the attic to look at the two I had up there, I realized that the side rails on our cribs were pretty nondescript, that the most interesting parts of the bed were the head and foot.

For some reason we didn’t only have the crib that my children slept in but also the crib that my husband and his siblings slept in.

That one was more interesting and it fit the colors in the room.

I knew there was no way that a baby would ever sleep in that bed again. 
I put the head rail and foot rail together attached to the wall.

You have read about the bedding. Here. 

I love the new chandelier. Here.

This room has come together so well.

I can't wait for guests. It will also get used when one of us has trouble sleeping and is afraid to wake up the other.

I have plans to use all the other parts as well.

Maybe Bill can even make something out of the bed my children used.

Katie
Linking with,
Wow Us Wednesday @ Savvy Southern Style 
Time Travel Thursday @ The Brambleberry Cottage 
Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage 
Sat Nite Special @ Funky Junk Interiors 
Sunday's Best Par tay @ 1929 Charmer Blog 
Trash 2 Treasure @ Kammy's Korner 
Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps on the Porch