Vintage Train Case Make-Over

Every since saw the movie That Thing You Do, I've wanted my very own train case.  Faye, played by Liv Tyler, has one in the movie and it is so stinkin' cute!  The case looks like it's been covered by a world map.  Every girl should have a train case to keep her treasures in when she travels! 
 

At the end of the movie, there is a scene where Faye is sitting alone in her hotel room.  As she opens her train case to put her makeup bag into it, she spies a picture of her, Guy and Jimmy.  The photo is tucked neatly into one of the elastics that hold the mirror.  As she looks at the picture, you can tell she's contemplating the last few weeks, (and possibly years) of her life.  She thinks about her recent breakup with Jimmy, and her true feelings for Guy.  She reaches for the photo, carefully pulls a scissor from inside the case, then swiftly and neatly cuts Jimmy out of the picture, leaving herself and Guy smiling for the camera.


First of all, I think Tom Hanks is a genius.  He wrote, directed and stared in That Thing You Do and he's one of my favorite actors.  This movie is one of my "go-to" movies.  I watch it when I'm sick in bed, and I even listened to it on my ipod while the dentist drilled my root canals.  If I stumble upon it while channel surfing, I stop to watch....and finish it.  This winter Autumn and I will sit down and finally watch it together!
And....it introduced me to train cases.

Now, after years of searching for just the right one, I found one a few weekends back!  It is a creamy colored white, (just like I wanted), it's American Tourister and even though it's not really old, it could still be vintage.  I started working on it the other day, and it's coming along quite nicely.



Thank you to person who invented the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser!  The picture doesn't show as clearly as real life, but you can see a little bit of difference between the cleaned part and....well...the grimy part.

The inside is nice but it kinda smells funny, so I Frebreezed it and threw a wax cube of room freshening stuff in there.  Soon it should be smelling like a spiced pear.....or at the very least a spiced pear inside an old medicine cabinet.  The plastic tray, that is original to the case, is cracked and had medical, bandage type of tape holding it together.  Because I believed the tape to be the smelly culprit, I removed it and threw it away....far, far away (yuck).

Yucky tape.

The tray is nice, but I wanted to make it more personal, more my style.  So I searched through all of my vintage folders and printed out all sorts of little clip arts, photos, embroidery patterns, etc.  I cut them out and taped them to the tray.  In hind-sight, I should have glued them down.

Before

After!  Before the clear-coat finish.

I took some clear-coat, decoupage stuff and coated the pictures and the tray.  If I ever decide to do something different I think I'll be able to peel it all off.

Now let's pack and get ready for a trip.

My embroidery floss box fits perfectly into the bottom of the case.  I'm going to bring a small skein of yellow yarn, just in case I feel like crocheting.

Next comes a couple of projects.  A stamped tea-towel and the lilac towel I've been working on, in a hoop.

A favorite book.

And finally the tray of goodies.  I've packed a tiny embroidery hoop, thread, and bobbins (just in case I buy floss).  A permanent marker (to mark the bobbins) a FriXion pen for tracing transfers onto cloth, my new itty bitty pin cushion and my bluebird needle book.  I also packed scotch tape and my new embroidery scissors from my darling husband.  My i-pod and head phones will also fit into the tray.

And here we are, all ready to go! Let's hit the road!

It sure kept me busy Tuesday and Wednesday night. Until another day,
Have a Happy Day!