Cardboard box or kitchen appliance?

It's been rainy and grey the last couple days here so we've been doing more indoor activities with my son.

And I finally made a low-budget version of something I've been wanting to make my son for a little while - a kitchen set.  Originally I wanted to make one out of a refurbished end table like I've seen out in blogland, but lack of tools and budgeting have held me back.

Instead, I just decided to repurpose a cardboard box.  This particular one was a diaper box, but as you can see it has been reincarnated as a hardcore stainless steel appliance.  It only took some silver spray paint, my hot glue gun, some painter's tape, and a little less than $20 in random "hardware."

A plastic valve, an elbow joint, and a little cap underneath became a faucet and a 15cm round baking pan became a sink.  Don't forget to wash your hands before you start cooking!

A pair of wooden cabinet knobs became the oven and stove dials.

A 6-inch burner pan and 3 jumbo craft sticks painted black for a burner.

Another cabinet door handle and a dishcloth for an over door handle and a dish towel.

And, for a little extra storage (because what chef doesn't need more storage), three cup hooks to hold a set of pots and pans.

Tip of the day: if you try this do not use clear packing tape - use painter's tape.  The spray paint will not adhere to the packing tape, but does adhere to the painter's tape.  Use a hot glue gun to seal the various parts to the frame where necessary and for added stability and extra masking tape across all the seams helps a lot too.  I know that typically you'd think that cardboard wouldn't hold up for long, but those diaper boxes are pretty sturdy.  I think we'll get plenty of use out of this one.

Not the clearest picture, but here's my little chef in action - baking an orange and an ear of corn for me. 

The plastic basket of fruits and veggies was $5 and the set of pots and pans were $12.88, both at Wal-mart.

I'll be linking this up at Met Monday and a bunch of other fun link parties...

Easy Breezy Beaded Scarf Tutorial

I love accessories.  Scarves especially.  I found this lovely fabric at JoAnn Fabrics and wanted to turn it into a scarf, but I also wanted it to have a little more body to it, so I invented this beaded scarf.

It's really easy and could be done with any fabric and beads.  So easy, in fact, I wrote a tutorial for you.

All you need is some fabric, beads, and matching thread.  The piece of fabric I started with was "58 x 46" (it was the end of a bolt) and I used 42 beads.  Probably a package of 40 to 50 should work out perfectly or whatever you have in your stash. 

I wanted to make the most out of the fabric I had without putting a seam in it, so I cut a large piece from the center and on the bias (roughly 20 inches wide, but I didn't measure it), like this...

You can save the two corner pieces for your stash.  Then I used my sewing machine to stay stitch all the way around the edges of the fabric:

Now make a rolled edge stitch by hand along the same edge.  All you do is fold the edge under twice along the stay stitch and loosely stitch it in place.

I tried to do this part by machine, but the fabric didn't cooperate and I thought the hand stitching looked better.

Now I'll show you how to make these beaded gathers.

 

Thread your needle with a long piece of thread, but don't knot the end.  Start from the back of the fabric and bring your needle through to the front...

Now weave the needle back into the front of the fabric about a half inch away and then back through again another half inch away...

Now slip a bead on the end of the needle.

Then weave the needle back in and out of the fabric again, keeping the stitches about a half inch apart.

Carry the stitch to the back again...

Then flip the fabric over and pull the thread through.

Pull the thread tight and make a knot.  Then make two more, just to be safe.

Snip the ends about a half inch from the knot.

Flip over the fabric again and... VOILA!   A beaded gather!

Now repeat all over the fabric, but space them out so that they are in rows about 6 inches apart and stagger them.  I alternated rows of three and four gathers, like you can sort of see in this really sad drawing...

 

Maybe this pic is more clear?

 

A bunch of beads and gathers later and... HOORAY... you have a new beaded scarf!