The Seamstress’s Sewing Cabinet

The exterior of Architect's loft is not ready to be shown yet, still have a little more work to complete on the tree.  But until then I thought I'd share a few posts on another project I've worked on over the past few years as a gift for a very talented friend.  She's one of the strongest women I know and she's always joked that she wanted me to will her one of my projects.    But I'd rather see the look on her face when she gets one, so this project is for her.  Follow alone on the project I completed for her, the Seamstress' Sewing Cabinet

This was another past project at Camp Mini Ha Ha meant to be a Kitchen Cupboard display.  Of course again I kit bashed the project and turned it into something else.  Since I already had the kit for Whitledge-Burgess French Country Kitchen, I didn't want to do another kitchen project.  So I decided to turn it into a Seamstress Sewing Cabinet.

The basic shell looked like this:-

When researching it in advance and deciding what I was going to do I found a lot of interesting adaptations of the project.

So in preparation of the upcoming project I started to make bolts of fabric, spools of lace, threads, tassels and collect lots of "sewing" boxes from many Artisans such as Art of Mini, Heirlooms by Susan, Looking Glass Miniatures, Dragon Fly International, Lisa Engler and many more.

Not knowing how much I would need, I ensured I made plenty to fill the finish cabinet.

With my stash in hand it was off to Digby, Nova Scotia for that year's Camp Mini Ha Ha.

Each inner section was built separately and then the basic box display was assembled and the inner sections were added.  I whitewashed the entire project with Cottage Paint's Cottage White Chalk Paint and no top coat.

I decided to rearrange the cabinets slightly different than the prototype.

One the basic cabinet was completed I test fitted the few sample bolts of fabric and spools of lace I had brought with me.  I still had to make the drawers.  I didn't want solid front drawers as shown in the prototype.  I wanted "Glass" front drawers so that all the goodies inside were visible.

The hinges were a bit fiddly for me, but once I was able to get the table hinged properly I test fitted some of my "sewing items" again.  At Camp they also sold a base kit that included a back wall, floor base and trim.  Here the mock up shows the base assembled and in place.  I will later add flooring and wallpaper to this base kit.

The dressed mannequin, sewing table and ironing board had been purchased at a miniature show in Phoenix, AZ.  It was over 15 years ago and unfortunately I don't recall the maker's name and there is no signature on the piece.

Instead of a towel bar and extra storage on the inside left door, I decided to do a padded memo board made from fabric and 2mm ribbon.  

For the pull-out "wine rack" in the cabinet, I had to put my brain to use and decide what I could turn this section into.  I decided to make it into a pull out ribbon storage unit.  

Using ribbon covers from Heirlooms by Susan, toothpicks and tiny ribbon, I painstakingly rolled one ribbon after another, separated by the reel covers, until I had filled 6 toothpick full of ribbon.  I drilled small holes into the sides of the "Wine Rack" and inserted the filled toothpicks.

 

I also built the small cabinet by Lisa Engler and filled it with ribbons, threads and more lace bolts.  Lisa is no longer making kits, which is unfortunate.  This is the stock picture:-

This is my version of the kit:-

Overall this was a relatively quick project to assemble.  It just took me a while because I kept moving on to other projects as usual.  But now that it's completed, I'm very pleased with the finished project.  Check back in my next post to see the entire completed project.

Until the next time.......

Wanda