Kitchen Table Redo: Part 3 and a Half - FINISHED!

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I did it! I finally finished the kitchen table! And just in time to show it off at my birthday party this past weekend. I am going to say it, my friends were impressed.

I think it turned out well! There are plenty of mistakes, which I have turned into learning opportunities. The biggest one being that I managed to trap some of my puppy's hair under the polycrylic, on the table top. I will just tell people I was doing it on purpose...trying to memorialize a piece/pieces of her...maybe people will buy it??

I also chipped the paint in the middle of the table, after I had applied a coat of polycrylic. I painted over it, which left a bump, but otherwise looks fine.


What do you think?

I am excited it is done and I can move on to other fun projects!

Kitchen Table Redo: Part 3 - Tips for working with Minwax Polycrylic

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I am excited to say that I have finally begun putting the final coats of Minwax Polucrylic on my table!! It is a wonderful feeling to be getting close to finishing such a large project. BUT, I am not done. I cannot wait for the feelings of "Oh my god I have finally finished this darn table" and "Sheesh, now I can finally move on to my other projects." It is going to be a glorious day! And, hopefully that glorious day is tomorrow, as that is my goal for finishing it! I am having friends over Saturday evening to celebrate my birthday, and I very much want my dining room table to be in the house and looking fabulous.

Take a look at this beautiful, shiny chair! 



















I have put two coats on the bottom of the table and one coat on two of the chairs. I will finish the one coat on the other four chairs this evening (I am taking a break from the fumes and dim lit garage to blog, obviously, and work on other chores I need to finish before this weekend). I am pretty sure I am going to keep it to one coat on the chairs. Minwax is a very tricky material to work with and I am not at all enjoying the process.
The air bubbles. I find the only place they are
showing up once dry are on the poles and
 other non-flat surfaces.

Which brings me to the point of this post. I entered this project with no freaking idea on how to use Minwax Polycrylic properly, except for the directions on the can, and my first coat of Minwax was bubbly and looked awful. So, I decided to stop and do some research on using Minwax. My first stop, was naturally furniture redo blog posts. Unfortunately, none of the ones I looked at mentioned the bubbly problem I was having so I assumed it was me and got very irritated. BUT, then I did a couple Google searches and low and behold, the bubbles happen to most everyone! That was such a wonderful discovery, I decided to collect the various tactics for dealing with these pesky bubbles and put them in one place.

Quick Tips for Working with Minwax Polycrylic:

  • Make sure there are no dust particles or hairs on the surface, as these tend to cause bubbles. eHow
    • I did not find this tip to be very helpful, because I have two cats and a dog, and I unfortunately carry their hair with me everywhere. I did wipe down the surfaces before applying the Minwax, but did not find it did much to prevent the bubbles.
  • Often the bubbles are caused by over working/painting. To avoid this, try using less brush strokes.  eHow
    • This is something I did find I was doing. I was treating the Minwax like paint, which it is not, and was trying to smooth out the bubbles by continuously working it. I started using very light brush strokes and found this to help rid the surface of bubbles.
  • Often the bubbles will disappear after a couple of minutes. If they do not, try tapping the furniture being painted to help the process along. eHow
    • I tried tapping the wood, banging the wood, and all sorts of other types of movement to create vibrations and it did not work.
  • If the bubbles dry, sand it down and reapply the Minwax. eHow
    • I have not come close to even considering this step, but I have also not done the top on my table yet...I really hate sanding, so I hope it does not come to this.
  • Brush with light strokes and in one constant direction. eHow
    • This is what I did and it works really well. I felt like I was often over working the polycrylic, but if I was consistent in direction and using a light touch, the bubbles eventually went away.
  • Dewhisker the wood first. This creates a smooth surface. ncwoodworker.com
    • I did not do this, so I suppose my project will be "rough," but I think I am okay with this...
  • Do not shake the can and allow the can 24+ hours to settle before use after purchase. This is one of the causes for lots of air bubbles. ncwoodworker.com
    • I did this, but not on purpose, and I still had many air bubbles.
  • Paint in 70 degrees Fahrenheit or better. ncwoodworker.com
    • Um...I do not think I did this, as it is spring and the weather is wonky. 
  • Do not dip your brush into the can and then wipe excess on the side of the can. This can cause air bubbles. Instead, dip less deeply to avoid over loading the brush. finewoodworking.com
    • I did this and it did create a lot of bubbles. When I stopped, I still had bubbles, but there were less.
  • Use a foam brush to remove the bubbles. finewoodworking.com
    • I did not do this, but while scouring the web I noticed there were quite a few people that were quite adamant about this technique.
All in all, I think my two finished chairs turned out wonderfully! They are shiny and I do not mind the few bubbles that show up once the furniture is dry. Who knows, if they do start to bug me, maybe I will break down and sand them off and reapply the polycrylic...but the odds are very low my friends, very low indeed.

I hope this was helpful. Enjoy projecting. :)

Easy Baby Blanket Tutorial

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I find that there are a great many people in my life having children right now. This has been made abundantly clear in the last couple of months. My cousin's wife is 6 or so months pregnant, my brother's wife just had their first baby, and one of my best friends is going to pop in June! Yes, I realize that is only three people, but that number does not even include all the people that are trying to have babies and will probably do so in the next year. I am just at that age, late twenties, where people start popping out babies like crazy. I am not complaining, I love babies, especially all the cute stuff I get to look at while preparing to make gifts for them.

That brings me to the following baby blanket tutorial. I am not new to sewing, but I am also far from being skilled at it. I did a lot of sewing research before attempting the following blanket, but I did not find  a tutorial that I liked. So I decided to wing it. The following is my rendition of double sided baby blanket with a border.

I have found explaining my process much more difficult than the actual process was. If you need more pictures or a better explanation, just let me know.

Easy Baby Blanket

Supplies:

  • 1 1/4 yard of two different print materials - a total of 2 1/2 yards of material
  • Matching thread
  • Several pins
  • Sewing machine
  • Ruler
  • Pen
  • Scissors
  • Sewing needle
  • Iron
Step 1: Pick your prints.






Pick two corresponding but different fabric prints and purchase 1 1/4 yards of each. I used two flannel prints from Joann's. They were 50% off, so I only spent $8.00! I decided to go with monkeys and polka dots, I think they go well together.





If the fabrics have writing along the edge like mine did, trim this off. If you have to do this, make sure to trim the same amount off of the other piece of fabric.




 
Step 3: Pin material together and sew.






Face the prints together, with the backside of the prints on top and bottom, and pin the edges together. Then sew all four edges. Yep you heard me, sew all four sides.





Step 4: Mark the blanket every 3 inches.
Make an X on the corners.





Take a ruler a measure 3 inches from the seam and a take a pen and make a mark every 2-3 inches along each side of the blanket. On the corners, make sure to measure 3 inches from both seams and make a little X where the two sides meet, as seen in the picture. This will end up being the border for your blanket. :)













Choose one of the corner X's and fold the fabric along the line you made with your 3 inch markers. Take scissors and cut a small hole along the 3 inch line.

Once you have done this use the whole you create to cut along the 3 inch marker line on all four sides until you have three separate pieces of material. You should have two squares and one that looks like the image below.
Step 5: The third piece of  material. A frame?















Step 6






Take the large frame like square you made and cut each corner diagonally from point to point.

You will now have 4 long strips.









Step 7: Pin opposing material and strips together






Okay, now the real fun begins.

Take one of your strips and lay it out flat in front of you. Choose one side to begin. Take the opposing square material and pin them together, with the prints facing each other.

Repeat until you have sewn all four sides.

Do not worry about the corners. You will sew those up next.


Step 8: Sew up the corners.






When you finish with step 7, you will have four corners that look something like the image to the right. Now you will sew up the corners.

To do this, you match up the edges, with the print facing each other, and sew along the edge. Make sure you do two things.

  1. Sew over the seams on either side of the corner.
  2. Do not sew too far over the bottom seam, towards the middle of the blanket. This will cause a bunch when you turn in right side out. 
Repeat on all four corners.
It should look like this when you turn it over.



When you completely finish sewing the corners, you
will end up with this.






Step 9: This is what it will look like after you have done
one side.






Almost done! Now take the other square of material and match it up to the opposing material on the frame square. Pin one edge at a time and sew along that edge. Again ignore the corners.

Repeat on all four sides.




Sew up 3 of the corners, the same as you did before. Make sure to leave one corner un-sewn.

Once you have finished with the three corners. Turn the blanket right side out and hand stitch the remaining corner. It will look a little off, but it does not look bad. My husband did not even notice, when I asked him to tell me what was wrong with the blanket. :)



Iron the edges and the inside seam.





Hand stitch a couple stitches on each corner seam where the border meets the blanket. This will help keep the blanket in place during the many washes a baby blanket endures.



Viola! You have made a blanket. It was easy wasn't it? Bask in the glory of creating a blanket for $8!



















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