I needed a sewing kit upgrade. My portable sewing kit, until now, has been a 6" organza gift bag, like these:
It was alright, but that little bag spent so much time in my purse that it ended up with holes and threadbare spots, and the ribbon drawstring was pretty much fuzz. It wasn't big enough to hold my scissors, or really anything more than a couple of spools of thread and a case of needles.
What I really wanted was a pretty little box. I just happened to have a flat box with a locking clasp sitting around--a few years ago I'd started to put a gray-tinted whitewash on it, but hated it, and never did anything with it. It was the perfect size for a couple of pairs of scissors, a few spools of thread, and whatever else I needed.
Because the wood on these little craft-store trinket boxes is so soft and thin, I didn't want to risk using a stripper on it, or sanding it much. Instead, since the existing whitewash still showed much of the wood grain, I "stained" it with layers of acrylic craft paint, striated and buffed back to keep the real wood grain's texture visible through the colors.
Orange oak-y highlights, rich, deep "cherry wood" tones over that, then finally a thin, wet layer of black to provide shadows and patina.
Next up is some decorative painting, a deep and shiny clear-coat, fabric lining, and the brass hardware that came on the box (which is sitting in a cleaning solution at the moment, because there were flecks of the gray whitewash paint all over it).
To be continued...
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