Today I'm spending a quiet day at home sewing! I have several boxes and racks of vintage in my basement that needed repairs, small alterations or things that were damaged beyond repair that I thought I could make into something else.  I love piles of beautiful fabrics with all of the prints, textures and colors like this.

I've gained weight over the past few months and so many of my cute skirts don't fit anymore, which is a major bummer. I started going on daily walks and eating better but those things take time and I'm impatient! I've been letting things out here and there and moving buttons a bit. I know I'll have to adjust them all again later but I love to sew so its okay.

                                                    




Since Halloween is around the corner, I started decorating already. My vintage Halloween garland is a free printable from Made in a Day. For my fireplace, I laminated it with clear contact paper.  I set up our miniature Halloween house that we made last year. When my mom was in high school, my grandma made a Halloween house exactly like this with help from my mom's friends. I loved it when I was a kid but after many years and many moves, it was ruined and parts lost. I wanted my kids to have a Halloween house of their own so I talked to my mom, grandma and sister to try to piece our memories together to recreate it. My sister and I sculpted the people and I made thier clothes with scraps of vintage fabrics, trims and beads. I made the little bags of candy with  printed tiny candy bar wrappers, wrapped around a little rectangle of aluminum foil. The twizzlers are of a piece of wire from an old computer, twisted together and wrapped in clear tape. The life savers and hard candies are tiny seed beads also wrapped in clear tape.

                              

The pumpkin guts are made with sesame seeds, sewing thread and glue, sitting on miniature newspaper I found online. The foods are my favorite. Our original Halloween house didn't have a lot of food but I got some great ideas from Pinterest and you tube videos and I made most of these things myself using polymer clay, glitter and shavings of cheap chalk pastels for sprinkles and coloring. We even printed tiny paper plates and cups and little vintage Halloween cut outs to decorate the paper table cloth.

The fortune teller's table has miniature vintage tarot cards and a miniature Ouija board with a crystal ball that glows from a Christmas light under her table. Her skirt is made of vintage gold brocade fabric. The old witch in the hall has a candle that lights up and scarf made from a scrap of 1950s fabric. Her hair is made of vintage wool yarn.  Through the window is a cemetery and an ominous sky. The moon glows and the lightning flashes. The fireplace is also lit behind a bundle of twigs and flames made of cellophane that I colored with red, yellow and orange Sharpies.  If you love miniatures too check out my Pinterest board, Halloween Dollhouse DIY for ideas, tutorials and printable resources!




Since I was home sewing all day, I kept my outfit comfy with black pants and a new thrifted sweater. I have several cardigans by Designers Originals that I've found at thirft stores and they're great vintage basics. I found this modern high collar sweater by Designer Originals at the thrift store last weekend and its super soft, perfect for fall and winter. I think I'll wear it with circle skirts and pencil skirts too. I'm definitely going to look for one in green. This style is a great 50s-60s wardrobe staple.

I wore a few bakelite bangles today, which I haven't worn in a long time. I recently did a live chat with Margaret from Texas Gal Treasures on her YouTube channel talking about how to identify bakelite in the wild and showing a few of my favorite bangles.

Lately, I've been rocking out on dollhouse furniture and accessories for a Christmas present for my kids. We found this junky dollhouse at a thrift store but it had good bones so it got a paint job, new handmade furniture and all of the little details that a vintage dollhouse needs.


The entire dollhouse has only cost $12 so far. That's the wonderful thing about a handmade Christmas is that you can do it on a shoestring budget. I have never made miniatures before but it's not hard and it's really fun, especially with an outside the box thinker like Pj around and a bunch of power tools at your disposal.

Check out my Vintage Dollhouse Pinterest board for tutorials for some of these things and more vintage miniature inspiration.

The sofa is cardboard, upholstered in some fabric scraps with copper rivets from Pj's leather working stuff as legs. The coffee table is heat-bent acrylic that Pj made and I printed out some mini vintage magazines.

 The little glass tumbler is a pen that I sawed into little pieces and the chair is made from a coat hanger and a conditioner bottle. I sewed a rug from some scrap fabric.


The shelf is made of craft wood, along with the dining table. Pj picked up some free formica samples from the hardware store and we glued those to to the top. The chrome trim is silver Christmas ribbon. Pj bent some copper wire to make the chair legs and a coat hanger for the hairpin table legs.

I used some scraps of vintage vinyl from a 50s dinette chair that I need to reupholster. The table vase is a plastic bead with some strips of a faux flower that I cut up and hot glued in place. We still aren't sure how we want to attach the table legs so for now, they're taped in place. I think Pj is talking about using some epoxy. We'll see!




Yesterday, I made some tiny pyrex for the kitchen and I had a ton of requests for a tutorial so here it is! These are so easy to make and so fun, you could easily do a whole collection of your dream Pyrex pieces to set in your kitchen windowsill or a dollhouse of your own. Here's how:

For the dish, root around in your medicine cabinet and search for empty blister packs from over the counter pills and cough drops. For the long casserole dishes, I used blister packs from gum.

       


Cut out the pack, leaving some excess around the edges for the handles. Try to peel off all of the foil backing so its clear.

        


If your blister pack has been crushed from popping the pills or gum out, stick the end of a paint brush or something in there to push it back into its original shape. Use small scissors to trim around the outside edge and cut out the handles.




 My first set of dishes were hand painted but that's a lot of work and doesn't look exactly like Pyrex so I made a free printable with some vintage Pyrex designs for you which you can download in PDF from Dropbox here.  These designs are sized to fit little gum or cough drop blister packs but they'll need to be trimmed to fit a tiny pill pack.


Print and cut out the designs that you want to use. Paint a little mod podge or glue to the inside of the dish and a very quick swipe of modpodge or glue onto the front of the paper design itself. Apply the design so it shows through to the outside.



                              

If you lay the dish on its side, design facing down, you can use the end of your paint brush to roll across the design and smash out any air bubbles. Be careful to not put to much glue on it or the ink will bleed. If the ink does bleed, rinse it off in the sink and try again.

I probably should have let mine dry for much longer between glue and paint, which is why the patterns aren't as clear as they could be. But, I'm a very impatient crafter, if you can believe that.





Before painting the inside of the dish, seal the paper with mod podge or clear nail polish, otherwise the wetness of the paint will make the ink bleed out entirely and will ruin the design (like my first ones did!) Dry thoroughly.

 
Paint the inside of the dish and handles to match the background of the Pyrex design. Allow to dry completely, about 30 minutes. I used acrylic craft paint but you could also use nail polish for a high shine or glittery look.

 
 

If needed, apply a second coat and allow to dry. At this stage, they look pretty rough


Next, pour a few drops of white paint into the dish and roll it all around to coat the inside nicely. Paint the handles white as well. Allow to dry. Seal the inside with clear nail polish

If you want to make lids to match, look through the recycling bin for thin clear plastic from packages and cut a piece to fit the top of the dish, including the shape of the handles.






IMPORTANT NOTE: Blister packs are made to protect medication from moisture or damage. If you remove the medication, they may become damaged or mixed in with other medication or worse- lost and eaten by pets or children.

Only use blister packs that have already been emptied or from things like cough drops or gum that you can pop out and put in a sealed container for use later. Make sure to label containers with cough drops or gum in them so you (and others in your house) know what they are!



I hope that you enjoyed this little craft project! If you make some of your own Pyrex dishes, I'd love to see them. Leave a link below or tag me on social media @vavoomvintage