Sewing Box Restoration

For Christmas I was given a very lovely gift of an old vintage sewing box that I came across while on a trip to the in laws in Kent. The lady from the second hand shop there is well aware of my weakness for all things old and sewing related and, spotting me on the street, lured me to her car where this lovely little specimen was in the boot. A bit unloved. A tad forlorn. I had to have it. Manfully, however, I resisted but luckily my mother in law didn't and so, hurrah, on Christmas day it arrived at my house and a brand new project was born.

The inside of the box was very ragged and needed stripping so I first of all ripped out all the lining and then sanded it all down to get rid of the glue marks.

 

After stripping it out and giving it a sand all over I painted it using an eggshell in light blue. I got the paint from a junk shop so it cost me 50p! And here are the results!

I lined the draw with some oil cloth I had hanging about. Always worth picking this up when you see it. I got his from Cath Kidston for £6 in the sale a couple if years ago and it has been used for many, many projects.

I painted the inside, the handles and the bottom shelf area in a more aqua blue using a little paint tester I thieved from my Pa. Oh the joys of having a decorator for a Dad!

Then came the joy of organising. I don't know about you but this cold weather is making me inclined to nesting and organising. A happy afternoon was spent ordering all my bits and pieces into my new box.

 

The drawer now houses all my threads.

 



 My books look lovely all stacked up.

My fabrics are all 'filed', a genius idea I saw on Pinterest for clothes but works well for fabrics to and means you can see what you've got going on in there.

 

And my buttons in a tiny, weeny jar. Too. Cute.

I've said it once (ok, a hundred times!) and I'll say it again. Why buy anything new when you can get such fantabulous stuff second hand?