My Sewing Room - Part 6

I know, we are still going.  I do hope that you don't mind me going into so much detail.

This cupboard had been languishing in the garage and very nearly sold on Facebook.  I'm so pleased that didn't happen.  We would have really regretted it. The top was on my silky oak chest of drawers.  There is a story behind it.

Way back when Mick and I bought our first house I went to a garage sale out of town with some friends, while Mick was at work.  I came home with a pine table, which was our dining table until a few years ago.  I also came home with the cupboard section of this. It had been painted with one of those awful 1970s faux wood grain finishes and in fairly poor condition.  But, it only cost $5, when, in the lead up to Australia's Bicentenary, old furniture was costing a fortune. It was put in the shed until it could be restored.

Meanwhile, Mick and I were attending a TAFE course, "Woodworking With Power Tools", back in the days when you could do non trade courses.  I made the dresser top in that course.  Finally, it was time to do up the cupboard.  Well, if I hadn't made the dresser top, the cupboard would have gone to the tip.  It was in terrible condition.  In the end, Mick made a new back, replaced both shelves and put a new plinth around the base.  He also replaced the drawer pulls.  It came up a treat.  Well worth all that effort.

Then.....we moved into our new home out of town and took the top off this cupboard and put in on the silky oak drawers, as they were much more practical in our farmhouse kitchen.

This is the first time they have been back together in 25 years!

On the top is my little toy sewing machine collection.  Dad bought a couple for me and the rest we have bought at various places.  None have been restored or attempted to be used.  I never did have a toy sewing machine when I was little.

The two cream things at the top are match box holders.  They would have hung next to the fuel stove in a kitchen.  The colours are right up my alley.

On the next shelf sit some biscuit tins with 1930s sewing patterns on them.  Mum and I each bought a set one Christmas in the late 1980s.  The other set are in one of the cupboards.  I crocheted the shelf edging when I made the dresser top.

On the next shelf down sit the one and only doll I made, when they were all the craze. I had previously made a tiny weeny teddy, so she nurses him.

Next to the doll, is the Mazawattee Tea Tin. This was my Grandmother's and has always been spoken of as though it is something very special. I'm not sure why so much importance has been placed on it. It is very old and the picture is in fairly worn condition. It holds some old buttons and buckles, but some of them aren't all that old.   I must ask Mum more about it one day.

The cream sewing machine is one of the first we came by, and we even have the box that it came in.

The other tin is just one we have had for ages and the little sewing baskets are just cute.  I made the strawberries on the top of one in a class in the mid 1980s.

Mum made the little grey koala.  She has made several of these, using left overs from a dove grey flannel skirt I made in the 1980s.

The counter has a table runner I made on it.  Someone posted it on Pinterest, when it was a fairly new thing.  It went kind of viral.  I was rather chuffed when Lori Holt pinned it.

The tin on the left is Mum's old cake tin.  I'd never thought anything of it, but it turns out to be an Arnott's Christmas Cake tin and dates back to the 1930s and is very rare.  I think we will hang on to it.

Other than that, there is actually some pretty fabric on show and a box of odds and sods.

The only other thing there, is one of Joey's scratching posts.  He does love using them.

The storage in the cupboard is just the right size to house shoe boxes from The Reject Shop.  They are my new favourite storage item.  I'm all for inexpensive, but practical storage.

That takes us all around the walls.  The tables will be next.

More soon.