Duvet Cover Thoughts

I have wanted to revamp my bedding for some time now.  Here are a few covers I found that I like:

Here, here and here (this last link is my favorite!).

However, bedding is expensive!  I was inspired to make my own duvet cover out of two flat sheets by this tutorial.

If I found some flat sheets on sale I could make a beautiful duvet cover, embellished with ruffles, for significantly less money than buying one. 

This may be a bigger undertaking than I realize, but I am excited.  I have found a couple other inspiring tutorials here, here, and here.

Vintage Hair Accessories

I love to go to yard sales. This past summer at a yard sale I found vintage earrings for 25¢ per pair! I bought several pairs along with some other miscellaneous jewelry. I wanted to somehow make them into hair accessories.

So I bought some metal alligator clips at a craft store. Then I pried the clips off of the backs of the jewel earrings so that the jewel would sit flat nicely. Next, I hot glued the jewels onto the alligator clips.

Inexpensive Fancy Hair Clips!

Armless Chair Recover

I love reupholstering furniture.  It reminds me of wrapping a present, and I love wrapping presents.  I decided that my first chair upholstery attempt should be an armless chair. I figured it would be a good learning project. 

I found this armless chair on craigslist:

It had a 90's hotel feel.

My wonderful husband went with me to purchase it so that he could help me load it in the car.  One thing that the craigslist photo didn’t convey was that this chair is BIG!  It takes up more floor space than I expected.  My husband lovingly named the chair “Big Bertha”, and that name has stuck.

I started off by unscrewing the back off of the chair.  I didn’t realize the chair was capable of this from the craigslist photo.  This made reupholstering it much easier.  Then I took a lot of photos of the chair.  The photos were going to help me remember how it all went together.

Then comes the part that takes some nerve: tearing apart a perfectly good chair.  I removed the fabric by prying out the staples with a flat screw driver and pliers.  The trick is to remove the fabric CAREFULLY.  The original fabric was going to be my pattern for the new fabric.  As I removed each of the pieces I labeled where they came from with a Sharpie, for example, “back of chair”.  This part of the process was pretty slow, it probably took about 4 hours to get all of the staples and fabric off the chair.

I ordered new fabric called Wood Fern by Amy Butler.  I found this chart that helped me decide how much fabric to order.  This 54” heavier weighted fabric turned out to be perfect for an accent chair like this.

I cut the new fabric to match the old.  Then I stapled it all on with my electric staple gun.  I would highly recommend an electric staple gun if you are serious about upholstery.  This was the quickest part of the whole process, it only took about an hour and half!  

I am smitten with this chair!

Ta-Da!

Felt Flower Tutorial

Baby girls wearing headbands look so cute.  I found that after Kate was born making headbands was about all I had time for in the realm of crafting.  I could make one for her in about the same amount of time she napped. 

Her newest headband is a gray chrysanthemum (spell that Gilbert!). I made it yesterday while we were snowed in.

Kate looks adorable!

To start off, a good pair of scissors is helpful.  I love my Ginghers!  I cut seventeen teardrop shapes and a two inch diameter circle out of a felt sheet that only cost ten cents!

I pinched each tear drop together at the base and hot glued them into petals.  I used a ball point pen to help hold the glue until it set so that I wouldn’t burn my fingers.  Then I glued eleven petals around the edge of the circle and filled the inside with the remaining six petals.

Finally, I hot glued elastic lace to the flower, and finished it off by adding a sparkly button that I had laying around.

Lovely!

Jewelry Box Redo

I found this beat up jewelry box at a thrift store for $2.

Before

With a little TLC, I thought it would be the perfect gift for my niece’s 13^th birthday.  The outside of the box was scratched and dirty, while the inside had sustained water damage.  The felt lining on the inside was stained with brown water spots and was peeling in several places. Also it was missing a brass knob. But still, I knew I could do something fun with it.

I started off by ripping the old felt out of the inside.  It came off pretty easily.  I saved the pieces so that I would have a template to make a new lining.  I removed the hinges from the door, pulled the brass knobs off the drawers and detached the spinning necklace hanger.  I decided to spray paint the box brown. 

The most fun part of this project was putting a new lining on the inside.  Inspired by my suitcase project (link post), I found some fancy wrapping paper that would complement the brown paint.  I got some poster board from the grocery store and traced the old felt lining on it.  I did this for each drawer and for the taller compartment.  Then, I cut the pieces out and I wrapped each one in the fancy wrapping paper and glued it into place inside the jewelry box. 

The wrapping paper needed some additional protection, so I used Mod Podge to give the inside a protective, plastic-like coating.  I really like the texture and glossy look it created. 

At this point, I reattached the hinges and necklace hanger.  I scoured home-improvement stores for new tiny knobs, but I had no luck.  So, I went to the craft store and picked out some crystal looking buttons.  I attached each button by threading it with fishing line to a bigger button on the inside. They held securely. 

It turned out great, and my niece loved it!  Success!

Finished!

Happy drawers!

Kate's Ruffle Quilt

I wanted to make a quilt for my little baby girl.   I was 39 weeks pregnant when I purchased the material for it.   Several people joked with me that if I started a project it would make the baby come sooner.  So, I guess you could say I sort of hoped I wouldn’t be able to finish this quilt, at least not right away. 

I had never sewn a ruffle before.  So I called my sister, who is an experienced sewer, but is usually up to her eyeballs in trains, shooters and rockets with her two little boys.  When I asked her if she knew how to sew a ruffle she replied, “A ruffle?  Hmmm….I don’t know…we don’t really do ruffles here.”  With that, I turned to google and I found a great ruffle tutorial here.

 I folded the sides over and hemmed the raw edges down on my ruffle strips, this way the ruffles looked more finished.  I quickly learned that sewing ruffles takes a lot of fabric.  So I had to go back to the store to get more fabric halfway through. 

Before attaching the ruffles I quilted the gray fabric on my mom’s long arm quilting machine.  Then, I attached the ruffles.  I marked even, concentric squares on the gray quilt top.  I then pinned the ruffles on to my markings.  I sewed the ruffles on with my walking foot because the fabric layers were pretty thick at this point. Lastly, I put a yellow binding on.  

All finished...still no baby.  Baby Kate didn’t arrive for another two weeks!

Finished!

Kate (almost 4 months) loves how tactile the quilt is!

Turtle Recover

This adorable turtle was hiding in a closet in my husband’s great grandparents’ house.

Turtle Before

I first saw it on a family reunion trip and knew it had great potential.  I was lucky to receive it on a subsequent visit.  The paint was in great shape, it just needed a new shell!

I found the perfect fabric, “green / wall flower” by Amy Butler, which looked like it belonged on a turtle’s back!  I removed the old fabric by prying out the staples with a screw driver.  I then attached the new fabric by stapling it to the underside of the turtle with my trusty staple gun. 

To give it a more finished look, I pounded new upholstery tacks tightly around the base of the turtle shell.

New shell!

Lamp Revamp

This lamp was found at the Salvation Army for $6.  It’s not often one can find a lamp with a matching lampshade in good shape at a thrift store.  Sold!

Lamp Before

Krylon makes a spray paint line called Krylon X Metals.  It can be used to paint metals.  I thought it would look nice on the lamp. The paint can says that you can use an optional special primer.  I opted not to use that, but I wish I had.  The paint went on nicely, but it dripped in a couple of spots, and I think using the primer could have avoided the dripping. 

I have seen lots of lamp shade redos online, and I have wanted to try it myself.  The shade had a nice drum shape.  The fabric I chose had enough white in it so that the light would shine through nicely.  I sprayed the entire shade with adhesive rubber cement glue (use the spray adhesive outside, it’s messy stuff).  Then I carefully laid the shade on the fabric and pressed it onto the shade smoothing out all of the wrinkles.  Then I trimmed off all of the excess fabric  except for a quarter inch or so.  I then wrapped the excess quarter inch of fabric around the top and bottom of the frame and glued it down with craft glue so that no raw edges of fabric show.  

Shiny Red!

High Chair Redo

I like the look of old high chairs because they blend into the décor of the house so much better than new plastic ones.  I found an old high chair that was perfect in looks and price at an antique store. In fact, this high chair was the first thing I purchased when I found out I was expecting.

The wood grain on the chair was quite nice, I just wasn’t a fan of the orange-ish color.  So I decided to strip the chair with the intent of restaining it a reddish color so that the grain would show through.  Being pregnant, I had my husband strip the chair with spray on stain/varnish stripper.  We quickly learned what a mess that creates.  We both lost interest about halfway through the process.  So the chair sat for about two months with dried paint stripper on it.  It was a big mess.  Finally, I got up the nerve to begin again. With steel wool and sandpaper I was able to get the dried stripper and old varnish off the chair.  It was ready for stain.  The local paint store had a stain called “fruit punch”, I liked the look of the paint chip and so I went ahead and had some mixed.  Big mistake.  It came out looking hot pink.    So, there I was again, with steel wool and sandpaper, getting “fruit punch” stain off the chair.  Being a little discouraged by the ordeal this project was turning out to be, it sat stagnant for another couple months.

Stripped and sanded with a hint of "fruit punch".

Then, the nesting instinct kicked in and I suddenly had a new drive to get this chair done! Not wanting to spend too much more money, I went to the store and bought the cheapest red spray paint I could find.  With me being pregnant, my sister volunteered to do the spray painting.  It turned out great!  I opted not to paint the wood on the tray and foot rest, which was a nice way of preserving some of the pretty wood grain.   We thickly coated it with polyurethane so that it will endure spills and withstand general baby wear and tear.

Last but not least, the tray needed some latches so that it would attach to the chair.  I found some high chair hardware online here.  Perfect!  They latch and unlatch easily.

Redoing this high chair was a lot of trial and error, but in the end, it turned out very cute and I wouldn’t change a thing.

Ready for Baby!

Weekend Case

Old suitcases have so much character compared to new suitcases.  I am always drawn to the luggage section of a thrift store.  I became especially inspired by old suitcases after seeing this before and after on Design*Sponge.

I suddenly had a goal to find the perfect suitcase to revamp.  I was looking for a suitcase that was  just the right size for small one to two day trips away from home.  Thus, I named this project: Weekend Case.

After scouring multiple thrift stores, I realized that finding an old suitcase that was not completely worn and disgusting inside was going to be a bit of a trick to find.  So, I decided to just keep my eyes peeled for a few months.  Finally, I found one at an adorable little consignment shop in Salt Lake City called Emilie Jayne. 

The suitcase was almost like new on the inside and it had very little wear on the outside.  “LCB” went easy on her luggage. 

My next task was to find just the right wrapping paper.  I wanted a slightly higher quality wrapping paper, something a little bit thicker than standard gift wrap.  Another little shop called Cabin Fever sells fancy wrapping papers in sheets rather than tubes.  I found exactly what I wanted.

I used Mod Podge to adhere the paper to the case.  I followed the directions on the bottle.  Giving it an extra thick coat achieved the plastic look on the case.  I then spray painted the trim to match.

It turned out great!