Sewing Table

This weekend I received the best gift ever.  Well maybe not ever, but it’s something that I have been wanting for years.  I received a vintage sewing machine.  It’s in a table and everything.  I got it from my friend Megan (who also has a blog over at Meg the Grand).

The condition of the table isn’t very good.  My original plan was going to be to attempt to restore it to its original condition.

I sprained my toe this weekend too, so I couldn’t do very much on Sunday.  This table became my project.  I started off sanding it.  I spent at least an hour just sanding the top of it.  It helped… a bit… but not enough to make a big difference.  Maybe if I had a belt sander or something heavy duty like that it would have been more successful.  After what seemed like forever (about two episodes of Doctor Who, which I started watching the series when I started on my project), I gave up on the sanding.  It hadn’t made enough of a difference and I had spent so much time just on the top.  There was so much other surface to go!

I decided to just paint it the same way I had done the bedroom furniture.  It loses the wood, which makes me sad, but it was the only way I could figure out to make it look nice and new.  Well sort of new… it’s an antique, so it’s not like it’s going to look new exactly.  I even thought about just leaving it with a weathered look, but only the top looked weathered, not the rest of it. 

I went to work painting it, being very careful not to drip any paint on the floor… I forgot to put a sheet until I had painted a good amount. 

The rest of the bedroom furniture that I had previously painted wasn’t holding up as well as I had wanted.  The paint was showing little scratches and anytime you touched it, you’d see white splotches.  I went out and bought some gloss polyurethane to paint on top of the paint.  This project, on the rest of the furniture, will be completed later this week.

Oh, and wow doesn't polyurethane smell bad.  I was fine while painting it, but even with all of the windows open and fans going, I still woke up with a huge headache.  And my hands are covered in polyurethane... and it doesn't want to come off.  This is where I need some paint thinner...

After the paint had dried on the table (I let it sit overnight), I painted the polyurethane on then.  It says to let it sit for at least a day to dry and longer before you put anything on it.  So it’s going to hang out in our living room for a while just looking pretty.  Even though that is what it’s going to be doing most of the time anyways.  The bobbin doesn’t work right now.

Here it is hanging out to dry!

And the finished product!!!

Now I just have to do some work to figure out how to fix the bobbin!