How to Tuft furniture

 This leopard print beauty has been living with us for awhile now.  She has her own post here if you desperately need to know how she came to be with us....
I re-tufted the seat cushions today.

this is a good "before" photo...

She has a hard life with our two littles wallowing all over her, and the buttons have started to mysteriously work their way OFF of the couch...
I cannot for the life of me imagine how that is happening.....hmmmm
So while re-tufting these seat cushions I thought I'd share how I do it.... 

Supplies :

One large upholstery needle mine is 10" or 25.4cm

two fabric covered buttons one for each side

24" piece of linen or cotton thread

Thread a button onto the string and thread BOTH ends of the string through the eye of the needle...

Pass needle through the cushion...

This was actually the hardest part.  The foam can be really dense so these took some real effort....

Pull the needle all the way through to the other side of the cushion....

Pull the two pieces of thread all the way through the cushion, and remove the needle.....

Thread the second button on to ONE of the strings and then I pull the string to make a long and short side....

Take your long thread and make a slip knot around the short thread 

(my short thread is the straight piece in the center there)

I used to refer to this with my art students as a "pretzel" knot because it should look like a little pretzel as you pull it tighter....

Tighten that up as tight as possible around the short string...

This is what helps you get that nice deep tufting and if it's too loose the short string will keep slipping back instead of tightening up....

Pull on your short string until you get your button as tight as you want it....the idea of course is to have all your buttons the same depth into the cushions....

Finish it up with a regular double knot (the above photo twice) but you want to pull on that until it goes all the way underneath the button each time.

Snip it off right at the edge or even a little bit under the button.....

That's it...I thought I'd finish with a photo showing the difference between those I had re-tufted and those I hadn't (the two buttons on the back left)....

A pretty big difference in how they look and I was even able to readjust the cushions inside to straighten them back out too....

Demi Lune makeover

While we were at the Scott's Antique show I spied this little demi lune table.....

The "before" photo...

I'm thinking the messy basement background helps all the "after" blogtastic photos look even better right??!?!?!

She had some minor veneer issues but over all a great little table...

A hand painted preppy, grey and orange argyle pattern...

She cleaned up nice and now can have a whole second chance at life....

And here's a look at what me trying to "stage" photos looks like...

 They like to keep it REAL for me....
Them and all the dust bunnies I had to sweep out of the way after checking the first couple of photos.

Boring women have clean houses people!  
I know you're with me.....

Scott's Antique show Columbus

This past week-end we went to Columbus for the Scott's Antique show for the first time....

We bought a few things

This "how to draw" scroll which probably came from the top of a children's art easel.  

You roll the knobs on the right and it has a several different things laid out step by step....

Doodlebug already tried this one out!

 We also snagged this really cool industrial light....

 The shade is a spun aluminum piece which fascinates my husband.....

 This nice little, aluminum lunchbox 

 Which even had thermos inside...

And a third Fire King mug 
( I already had 2 of these) 
because they bring back so many fond memories of drinking hot cocoa on snow days.
I also picked up a set of 6 Fire King dessert cups and a sweet little 60's dress...
We enjoyed looking at everything and would definitely go back---another one coming up next month!

Personalized Anniversary Bracelet

 Perhaps the best compliment ever...

"I lost my anniversary cuff my wife gave me, and it's probably my favorite thing of all the things she's given me..."

 A button stud closure....

 Their initials and wedding date....

 Rivets with handcrafted washers to hold the metal tag on...

All makes for a very personal, handcrafted gift!

See more details on the Jewelry page...

Hand Stitched Leather Wallet

The newest piece of hand stitched leather

...a wallet  for my husband....

 We cut down the cell phone wallet pattern

I included the cell phone wallet in these two photos for comparison...

 It's pretty much the same except for the length....

 Holds a pretty good sized stack of cards or cash or both...

A nice little addition to the leather goods...

I received a few inquiries about wether or not our leather items are for sale and the answer is YES!

You can go to our "leather" tab at the top of the blog to see more information on any of our leather goods.....

Hand stitching leather supplies

Some photos of the supplies we use to hand stitch leather goods...linen thread and beeswax..

Waxing the thread helps the stitches stay tight and not slip...

You also have to use blunt tipped needles (2 of those) which I don't have any photos of yet...

 A thick rubber mat to protect your work surface, a set of dividers, and a punch (makes the holes you stitch in)

 Using the dividers to make a straight line for your stitches...

Using the mallet to hammer the punch into the leather...

Here the piece is completely punched and ready to stitch...

Using a piece of waxed linen with a needle on each end, you sew from both sides back and forth criss crossing the thread....

We've molded a smaller hand bag that we're going to be sewing together here soon so I'd like to take better photos of some of the stitching process then...