Dollhouse Renovations

So last week, I went by Goodwill looking for a dresser for my friend, and I scored BIG. Well, that's not entirely true. I didn't find a dresser, BUT I did find a huge end table/small coffee table (?) with a marble top for $12, an bedside table for Finley for $3, a bedside table for Wyatt (not that he has a big boy bed yet or anytime soon) for $6, a glider/rocker with gliding footstool for a girlfriend's new nursery for $30 AND a big dollhouse for Fin for $12! Husband was not at all pleased, but I was giddy! Lots of refinishing projects in my future :)

I've already finished the marble topped coffee table for a friend and I'll be posting that project as soon as I remember to take my camera to her house to get an after picture. Yes- I'm that fantastic of a blogger that I forgot to take an after picture. I also refinished a four poster bed for Finley a month ago that I have yet to share- I should quit now, right? Well- I'll share Fin's doll house before I quit ;)
Soooo- here is the dollhouse I found for $12 at Goodwill:

A little bit colored on. A little bit dirty. A little bit outdated. But not a bit broken! Hooray! Cosmetic renovations I can handle. Finley is always playing with the dollhouse at church and I'm hoping she'll like to play with one of her own. So far it's a hit!
Anhow- renovations: The dollhouse comes apart very easily and I painted the frame a creamy color and painted all the walls a muted pink. I used contact paper to "wallpaper" the downstairs living room, bathroom, and upstairs bedroom. You can find laminate "tiles" at Lowes or home depot for around 80 cents a piece. I used "marble" to re-floor the bathroom and kitchen, laid carpet (that I found in the attic- thanks Landlords!) in one room, and put wood floors (laminate strips cut into smaller strips) upstairs and downstairs. The roof also got an overhaul with actual shingles. They have handy little sample strips (Read: FREE!!!!!) in the roofing section at Lowes that I cut in half and glued on in pieces. So all in all I spent less than $10 in supplies, making the dollhouse a total of $22- not bad.
Finley loves it!

 Wyatt likes it, too!

 And Finley insisted on posing in front of it. In her bathing suit. In early March. With dinosaur stamps all over her legs. Because that's how she rolls.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the makeover. Now we just need to find some furniture! It's ridiculously expensive, so I'm going to have to get creative!

What I made Monday! Overalls overhaul

So, I may be the only mom that experiences this (almost daily), but it seems like my child always looks a bit like a hot mess ragamuffin. I buy her clothes- new clothes- and they're super cute, but then we get them on her and she wears them for about 10 minutes and things go downhill. SHE WON'T STOP GROWING. Ugh. Kids these days! Right before I left to pick up my mom from the airport and head off on our road trip, Finley decided she needed overalls. She said that she "knows they make them as dresses" which means, don't even try to buy me a regular pair and tell me they didn't have the kind with the skirt. So, our roadtrip suddenly involved a hunt for an overall dress. We scored pretty quickly at a Tommy Hilfiger kids outlet. $22, which is more than I'd like to spend on overalls, but I didn't want to spend our whole trip hunting for overalls, so I snatched them up. However, when I returned home and she tried them on, they were RIDICULOUSLY short. They're a 4T. Really Tommy?? Really?? Who do you use to size your clothing??
Of course I forgot to take a before picture (one day I'll remember!), but here's an *almost* before picture:

 And on the reluctant model (with leggings because I'm a family friendly blogger like that):

They barely covered the top half of her tush with the ruffle intact. And of course she loved them and wanted to wear them every day. Everywhere. Eeeeeeegosh.  So I needed to make them longer.  I looked allover for a tutorial and couldn't find one, so I just decided to wing it. If you have an old pair of overalls, you'd like to overhaul or just a pair you'd like to make longer, maybe this will help!
So, first I removed the existing tiny ruffle.

I cut a piece of base fabric a little wider than the bottom of the skirt and long enough to cover her tush. Then I cut three pieces of fabric wider than the width of the base fabric. I actually am super lazy and just cut the fabric the width that it came on the ream. Each piece of fabric is folded in half in the pictures (because you have to have a front and back- having just a front wouldn't solve the tush exposure problem).

Then I hemmed the bottom of each ruffle piece by folding up an 1/8-1/4 of an inch and ironing, then folding and ironing again.

See? It's folded twice so there won't be any exposed raw edges.
Then I zigzagged along the top because I don't have a serger, followed by a straight stitch along the top with a longer than default stitch- I used a 4, my default is 2.5. I ruffled each layer slightly by pulling the bobbin thread and lined up my first piece face down, raw edge to edge and sewed them together.

Wyatt helped.

Then I folded it over, ironed flat, and top-stitched.

 Then I did the same thing with the second row, marking with pins where I wanted it placed- about 2.5 inches above the bottom row. This will depend on how large your ruffles are, but you want to make sure you place it low enough that you don't have a gap between ruffles, but high enough that you don't completely cover the bottom ruffle.

For the top ruffle, I didn't bother folding over and sewing because this part is attaching to the overalls. So just pin in place and sew a straight stitch.

 Now fold in half and sew right sides together to make a skirt then pin skirt around bottom of overalls right sides together.

 Then zigzag around the seam and trim excess fabric.

 Then flip down and iron flat, and top-stitch.

Voila!

Isn't she just lovely??

And shy.

Overalls are good for climbing...

And pretending to snowboard...

And for being just plain cute.

How much do I love her?? "THIS MUCH!!!!!!"

An end to the end tables. Finally.

A couple weeks ago I purchased some really ugly end tables and a coffee table off of craigslist. I'd been looking at garage sales, which I'm new at and I feel really really awkward doing. So really we just drive around looking for people that have furniture outside, and none of them do and then we cry a little and go home. I gave this up pretty quickly and stuck to looking at bookoo.com and craigslist. Anyhow, here they are:

Yes. Hideous. You're just jealous. Of course a couple days after I purchased this set, I got an email from the company that does estate sales and they had a set that I liked better AND it was cheaper! D'oh!! I was a little sad and lost momentum, but I finally got around to finishing them. They are done, finished, in the house. Yea!! We have tables!! We've never had end tables. I just couldn't a) commit or b) dish out the cash for something I really liked.  We haven't had a coffee table for 4 years, either, so that's in the works too- on the agenda for this weekend.

I know, the top pull on this one is a little cock-eyed. Didn't notice before I took the picture. Oops :/  I sanded them down, primed them with a brown primer, painted them an olivey green, did a little distressing and a poly coat. The pulls were an old set of bronzy looking things that I spray painted black.  I'm pretty pleased :) That is all.