The Homemade Nursery: A Custom Dresser Remodel

As you may remember from my post about my Nurture Hope quilt, I am quite fortunate to be pregnant.  My husband and I had been holding off on doing much in terms of preparation for the baby until we took holidays back in November.  Then we got started and have been plugging away every since.  I'm going to share individual projects we embarked on over the past few months, and then a final blog post with the big reveal of the whole room.  

One of the first things I knew I was going to want to do for the baby's room was refinish a dresser.  I find that most dressers bought brand new these days are kinda..... hunks of garbage.  They are wood printed veneer pasted over junky particle board, and fall apart at nothing, all the while not even looking nice.  And they want $300 for them!  I wanted something with holding power, something strong and real, something worth the money.  

So I took a tour of the local thrift shops and used furniture stores, hoping to find something made of real wood, in a vintage style that could handle some modernizing.  I was super lucky to find this mid-century modern dresser, in good condition, just asking for some love.  

I feel like I stole this beauty.... it was only $75!

So I took it home, and sanded all the varnish off using my fancy new power sander (because doing this by hand would have killed me).  

Sanded and ready for staining

Once it was down to bare wood, my husband took over and stained the frame of the dresser a nice walnut colour, and sealed it with a clear coat finish to make it all shiny and nice.  I painted the drawers white, and then we sprayed shellac on all the unexposed surfaces to seal in the slightly musty smell the dresser had acquired over the years.  

Next, we attached the hardware.  I found the most perfect brass animal heads for the top two smaller drawers at Anthropologie (and spent almost as much as the dresser itself on them!). 

For the four larger bottom drawers, we spray painted the original hardware with a brass paint to match the pulls.  

Almost perfect!

I am so proud of how this dresser turned out! 

The final product

Close up

It is definitely a classic example of not knowing how to do something, googling it to learn, and executing it well.  I encourage anyone thinking of giving an old piece of furniture a makeover to give it a try.  We didn't find any aspect of the project difficult, and the results are so worth the effort.  

This dresser is the perfect addition to our baby's Homemade Nursery!

First Rosette! (2015 project of the year)

I finished my first rosette for my La Passacaglia quilt! 

I used some of my Bluebird Park fabric from Kate and Birdie to put this cog together. It was definitely a challenge to figure out what direction I wanted to go with this. At first, I had a different centre to this cog. 

The original version

I just wasn't feeling it though. I tried auditioning other fabrics, but nothing was really working. 

Neither really works....

So I percolated with it for a while to figure out what was wrong with it. I looked through so many pictures of rosettes that other people had made, and thought a lot about what I liked about them. I realized that one thing I love about these quilts is the beauty in repetition. Another thing I love, is the distinct layers of each cog, like a bullseye. A bold star shape in the middle is a solid base to build upon. 

So when I looked at mine, I felt like it was strong in repetition, but weak in the distinct layers, especially the star. So I picked apart what I had so far and started over with the centre. I changed the middle to make a definite star, and changed the long diamond shapes to the green with a white flower instead of the dark grey linen. The dark grey just blended in too much with the bunnies/butterflies above. Also, the green tied in with the star points so much better. I like the final version much more than the original. 

In the making of this first rosette, I also realized the need for some fussy cutting templates. So I made some (and wrote a tutorial, in case you need some too!). And I also felt the need for a needleminder. I was inspired by @tinkerellen on Instagram to put together a simple magnetic needleminder made from a small wooden fox. 

He fits in well here!

And in case you were wondering what size these pieces are, here is a picture to give you an idea of the scale. 

Tiny!

I have really enjoyed working on this first rosette. The journey so far has been so enlightening, and I loved figuring out what works and what doesn't. I can't wait to keep making more!

To read more about this project, have a look at :

The Homemade Heart's La Passacaglia Quilt Index

The best gifts are Homemade

Homemade gifts are my favourite to give and receive. I love knowing that someone worked hard and poured their heart into something made special for me. And I love working hard and pouring my heart into something made special for someone else! 

My mom had said she wanted a tote bag for carrying crochet projects, so I set to work whipping something up for a Christmas gift. I chose these fancy foxes for the main part of the bag, since she had told me before how much she liked them. 

Dapper foxes

I paired them with a darker grey for the base and handles. 

Front view

I used heavy interfacing for the base, but medium for the sides, which allowed for greater flexibility of the bag, while still allowing it to stand up on its own. I opted for a funky button from my extensive button collection (inherited from two different grandmas who were borderline hoarders). The loop closure I paired with the button is a hair elastic that matched the dark grey.  

Funky button clasp

I made excellent use of the decorative stitches my sewing machine is capable of executing, and jazzed up the handles with rows of Xs. 

Fancy handles

This bag came together much quicker, and with less mistakes, than my previous bags. Gotta love getting over the learning curve! I stuffed the bag with fun little goodies my mom would like, and wrapped it up for Christmas. I can't wait for her to see it! 

Welcome to the world...err...happy year and a half birthday!

I always have the best intentions to deliver a "Welcome to the World" blankie to babies the first time I get the privilege of meeting them.  Too bad I am so slow at knitting!  My best intentions often turn into "Happy 18 Months Birthday".  Especially when a whole bunch of babies are born all around the same time.  If one blanket takes a long time, it pushes back all the others, too.  I am starting to get quicker now though, and actually have a couple blankets in the bank for babies not yet earthside!

When I found out that my brother-in-law and his girlfriend were expecting, I promptly pulled out some knitting pattern books and selected a blanket featuring dragonflies, to fit in with the theme of the nursery.  I selected green and white colours to be gender neutral, as they decided not to find out the sex of the baby beforehand.  

Parker's dragonfly blanket

I worked at this blanket for months, the baby's birth day came and went, and then his first birthday, too.  Dang, it was slow progress for this blanket.  And then when I was finally done with the knitting, the dragonflies had to be added in with double knit embroidery.  I'm not going to lie, I seriously considered omitting the dragonflies on the body of the blanket.  But in the end, I didn't want to be a quitter.  So, Happy Year and a Half Birthday Parker!  

Parker loving his blankie!

With Parker's blanket finished, I could start a blanket for a close friend of mine's baby.   I knew that my friend was having a boy, so I had selected the pattern I wanted to use (see it  here ) and bought some nice blue yarn.  Again, my best intentions wanted to deliver this blanket to him in the hospital, but in reality, I hadn't even started it yet the day he was born.  This blanket was knit in panels and I used a single crochet stitch to fasten them together.  I modified the pattern to be larger, since I wasn't presenting it to a newborn.  I made the seed stitch portion wider and the whole thing longer. Instead of the seed stitch border in the pattern, I made a straightforward crochet border instead.  Then I laid it out and looked at it and was honestly a little bored.  I wanted to do something else to really personalize the blanket for Mason.

Mason's fox blanket

I made a long crochet foundation chain and shaped it into Mason's handwritten name, then attached it to the blanket.  That was better, but still not enough.  Mason's nursery has the most beautiful trees painted on the wall by his daddy, and there is a woodland theme throughout.  So I found a pattern for a little fox applique, and whipped that up, and I think it was perfect!  So I attached that as well, and it was finally ready to gift...... ummm..... Happy Year and a Half Birthday Mason!

Foxy closeup