Brighten up

Hey peeps!! I wanted to share a little craftiness with you guys. I have had my sewing machine out lately...and when I say "Out"...I mean its taken up residence on the end of my dining room table for easy access. I wish so bad I had a sewing room..but alas...I do not....anywhoo. I realized that I needed to update my couch pillows. We have the Ikea Karlstad sofa...with we LOVE...and it has a dark gray slipcover...which we LOVE (with two messy kiddos with sticky fingers) but the couch cushions that were on it were from our last couch. Our last couch was cream microfiber so I added dark gray pillows to it to balance out all the light-ness. Well this couch is gray+gray pillows=Way too much gray! Is that even possible?? I adore gray.

Anyways I wanted to bring A LOT of color to my couch. Bright fabrics...fun for spring (which we are having in southern CA) I adore using random things to make pillows. Remember my Place Mat pillow from many moons ago?
Well I was in World Market the other day looking for some new...well...everything! World Market has so many gorgeous things that I could simply move in and live there!
I stumbled across their table linen area and my eyes fell upon the most gorgeous cloth napkins to ever be created!

OOH LA LA...that bottom fabric is the cloth napkins (linen..soft as a baby's bum..and saturated...amazing colors!) and the top two fabrics are some other fun ones I found at Jo Anne's to make some other fun pillows. The left one is a mustard yellow paisley...and the right one is a bright fun colored Ikat fabric. I love me some Ikat. That is all.

So because I'm a follower...I used Prudent Baby's zipper pillow tutorial for the napkins. They just happened to be the same size as the pillows that I needed to cover so it was easy peasy to transform them! This tutorial is seriously AWESOME people. I never ever follow patterns. I'm a lazy seamstress and I like to just sit on the floor with my laptop and watch someone else do the tough work. Yup. That's me. Not really...its because patterns scare me. Anyways.

Tah dah!!!!! I seriously adore how these pop on our dark sofa. They brighten up the room so much. This is gonna be my decor inspiration fabric from now on...or at least for the spring thru summer time period.

Here's my zipper. I adore being able to wash my pillows. Sure a non zipper pillow is fine...but a zipper pillow looks like you bought it. It makes a huge difference in how professional a pillow looks I think.

That Ikat fabric became this snazzy number. Check out that sham edge. Oh ya that was all me! I didn't put a zipper on this one. I created a sham edge on 3 sides and made a button closure on the far left side with orange vintage buttons.

I really love how a simple sewing project can transform your space. I seriously love how these came out!
So what have you all been crafting lately?? Anything inspiring? Share with me puhlease! :)


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Do you fear the zipper??

Hey ladies! There might be some expert seamstresses out there that are laughing at my blog post and that's totally fine...I can take it....but I have majorly feared any sewing project involving a zipper. Lots of pillows are made...and there covers DO NOT COME OFF! And thinking back on that, all I can say is, What was I thinking?? I have a toddler! A toddler that is potty training and peeing on  my couch!! (Ok that might have been too much info...but oh well) Those precious pillows are getting trashed and QUICK! In comes the most genius tutorial EVER on sewing pillows with zippers! Have you all heard of Prudent Baby??? It is only the most AMAZING sewing blog EVER. They don't just do sewing projects though...they do crafts, recipes, garden tips, etc. They are 2 amazing women and they just happen to majorly rock at all things fabric! I have much to learn from them (insert Star Wars music here). If any of you are like me and fear the zipper then you need to head over there and read this post. I also have a ton of projects that I've been working on lately and I haven't had time to post about them yet. Those will be coming soon along with my completed pillows WITH zippers!!! Oh and is anyone else out there like me and has mounted their ginormous TV above their fireplace?? And you now have the extremely unsightly cords to try and hide?? Well I have a solution for that....next post!!

My new obsession...

Hey Everyone! I lucked out today and got both the kids down for a nap at the same time. Instead of doing the smart thing which would've been to drag my tired booty to bed and soak up a precious couple hours of sleep, I made HEADBANDS! And not just any headbands....adorable baby girl headbands!! I am seriously in love with how they turned out. I bought some Goody adult cloth stretchy headbands in tons of different colors at Target the other day and I was itching to re-purpose them into something super fun and girly for my little one. Especially since she doesn't have much hair yet...she needs them! I've kinda turned into a headband critic since I had her because I've tried several different types on her and they all leave ugly indents in her head and pull her hair! These are super soft and stretchy and leave her baby-fine hair intact! I'm not gonna do a tutorial for these because they are literally a mish-mosh of whatever I had around the house. Scraps of different fabric and ribbon, buttons, etc. My next venture will be to head to Goodwill and stock up on vintage, funky shirts to cut to pieces to make flowers...the possibilities are endless!! If you are going to attempt these headbands for your little lady then I strongly recommend the headbands that I bought. They come with about 6 per pack and they have multi bright colors and then neutrals with black and whites and creams. I have to give credit where credit is due and give a shout out to Emily at Jones Design Company for her amazing flowers that have inspired me to get creative! Thanks Emily!!
Linking up with Transformation Thursday at the Shabby Chic Cottage

White headband with cream ruffle and funky flower

Periwinkle layer flower with purple headband

Red headband with purple and red flower and cloth button

Upholstered Fabric Headboard

So I have been wanting to make an upholstered headboard for my bed for a LONG time...I mean every time I see a tutorial (which is ALL the time) I cringe because I had still not done it. Well I decided that yesterday was THE DAY to stop procrastination! I went to Lowes and purchased a piece of cheap-o MDF and had them cut it for me in (what I thought) was the dimensions I needed for my headboard. Well when I pictured what I wanted my headboard to look like, I pictured a gorgeous one like Centsational Girl did for her daughter's room here. In fact Kate was the one that inspired me to take on this project...Thanks Kate! Well I've had a hankering for a more breezy grown up room for a while and this headboard was gonna be the first piece of that puzzle.
So picture this....gigantically preggo chick walks into Lowes...orders MDF...has them strap MDF to my car...drives home with MDF excited to begin headboard construction....measures bed....realizes that MDF is WAY too big for bed....Darn! So after a quick call to my neighbor who happens to own every saw known to man...I had the MDF cut to the correct size and even some cutey patootie half circles cut out of each corner! woo hooo! So after a quick trip to the fabric store for batting this morning I was excited and anxious to complete my project. I wrapped and stapled the batting around the MDF. I opted to buy extra thick batting and double wrap it instead of buying foam (batting is MUCH cheaper) and I was satisfied with the cushiness of it after it was wrapped. I then laid my wrapped headboard down onto my adorable Michael Miller fabric and started stapling. I get it stapled all the way around except the last side...I go to pull the fabric over to staple it and realize that my fabric is about 2 inches too short! Darn!!! I bought 2 yards and I needed about 2 and a half yards. So back to the fabric store I go after my toddlers nap to buy another whole piece of fabric (can't sew a seam in it because the pattern's wouldn't match up)...I take a small piece of the fabric...show that fabric to the fabric chick who goes over to the place where said fabric is supposed to reside except its missing...a thorough search in the stock room turns up NO adorable Michael Miller fabric!!! Ok breathe....i really wanted THAT fabric...now I will have to pick a totally different one unless I want to drive all over town with a grumpy toddler looking for it....well since that wasn't an option I perused the rest of the Michael Miller fabric in that specific series and found a chevron stripe that had the same color of turquoise in it. SOLD...I even had a 40% coupon which helped with the 11.00 a yard price tag. Yay! So I got 3 yards this time (just to be safe) and also scored 2 yards of cool burlap in the remnants section for 2 bucks!! Double Score!!!
So I drive home excited....I immediately start working on it without washing the fabric first (who has the time after the morning I've had??) and it turns out adorable! Not quite as adorable as it would've been with the first fabric...but still really cute! I used the first fabric that I purchased to cover the buttons for the tufting so there would be some contrast. So everyone mentions how easy this project is...and I'm here to tell ya they were right! If it hadn't been for the 2 steps forward 12 steps back (while also dodging a toddler) way that I went about this project I would've been done in about an hour! So here she is....whatdoya think??

Ok so I realize that yet again I have neglected to stage my picture...I'm the worst blogger EVER i know! Honestly the reason is because I'm not putting this headboard on my wall until after we move into our new house in 3 weeks and I start making our master bedroom a Retreat that I can be proud of. Please forgive me ladies...I will show you all a pic of my master bedroom complete with new headboard asap!

Nursery fabric book pocket

Hey everyone! I spotted this tutorial the other day on ohdeedoh and couldn't wait to make it. My son has a bookshelf in his room thats always empty because he's always pulling the books onto the floor to play with them. Its the bain of my existence seriously! We have a lot of books...some of them too big to fit on the bookshelf so I knew that this pocket was a good solution. If your interested in making this for your kids (and who wouldn't be) then just click the link above and follow her step by step tutorial. Its a great way to display colorful fabric on their wall too and I want to put another one in next to his changing table so he's got books to read while he's getting his diaper changed. This could also be a diaper organizer, or it'd be great in the bathroom for magazines (mine are currently stacked on the back of the toilet). Its so easy too...check it out!!!!

Here's the one I made...whatdoya think?

I'm linking up to Great Idea Day at Infarrantly Creative!

I just used what I had around the house...

So what do you get when you mix a a pretty matelasse shower curtain that was left by the previous tenant, and some left over drop cloth fabric from your still not finished chair upholstery project? You get dining chair slipcovers! I've been wanting to slipcover my dining chairs with something that I could throw in the wash but was more neutral. I reupholstered my dining chairs a few years ago with a fabric that I loved at the time. Its chocolate brown with different colored polka dots on it. Its cute...but totally not my style anymore. I would just reupholster them but they are not the drop in seat or screw on seat kind...they are cushioned all the way around and the seat part doesn't come off. Big pain in my rear end to reupholster when I can just slipcover them and get a removable...machine washable...and toddler proof seat cover! Ok so here's a couple picks of them. I've only done one so far but I have the pieces cut for the rest of them...just need my back to stop hurting so I can hunch over my sewing machine like Quasi Modo for a couple hours! I haven't figured out how to attach them to the legs of the chair yet...I'm thinking straps of the drop cloth with cute black buttons. I'll take any suggestions I can get on this one!

Before

(notice the cute toddler in the background!)

                                                                        

So please let me know what you ladies think about how I can fasten these. I think I'll probably just attach them to the back where the backrest attaches to the frame so its more tailored. I was majorly inspired by this post but knew that I would never be able to recreate them so I wanted a simpler look. I await your ideas!!

Pillow's....made by me....ON A SEWING MACHINE!

Hey people! So if any of you read my Stumped by sewing post about a week ago I expressed my frustration about wanting to learn how to sew and not knowing how. Well I bought a sewing machine (Brother...from Walmart....great deal!) a couple days ago and sat down during Liam's nap today to learn how to use it. Well after spending seriously about an hour trying to thread my needle and watching the extremely helpful instructional DVD I felt fairly confident that I could sew something without impailing myself with the sewing needle. So I had this super cute black and white Ikea fabric that I wanted to cover my HIDEOUS couch pillows with. These are the "Oh so cute" pillows that "come with the couch". They are microfiber on one side and some funky looking print that I hate on the other. They've been needing to be recovered for over a year now and I just now got around to doing it. OK...without further adeu.....
Before

After

These pillows are so much fun to make! The first one that I did took me seriously about an hour. I did it about as wrong and backward as you can make something. I truly made it way harder on myself then it had to be. The second one took me about 20 mins to make and came out so much better. The ruffle is from the second one...the first one's ruffle is so messy looking that I didn't want to show that up close. lol. Regardless of how much I messed these up...I had a blast and broke my fear and apprehension with sewing!

Linking up with Frugal Friday at Shabby Nest

DIY Pillow from Placemat

So I have a confession to make. I am NOT a seamstress! I own a sewing machine that I don't really know how to use and is just taking up space. When I found http://www.thenester.com/ and her No sew Window Mistreatments it was like a beam of light came down from Heaven and shone on my drab uncovered windows! Ok but enough about that for now...thats another post...

I was perusing one of my fave blogs the other day www.prudentbaby.com and she had an awesome tutorial for making an easy pillow out of a placemat! I was amazed! The only requirement of the placemat is that its double sided (meaning it has at least two layers of fabric and is able to be opened). Well on one of my many Target trips I came across these adorable placemats for only 1.99 each!

 

I snatched them up and brought them home to make these easy pillows. Here's what you need....

~Placemat

~Seam ripper (or a razor blade to separate the seam)

~Needle and thread in coordinating color...i used black since I was stitching it around where the black piping was.

~Batting

~Straight pins

All you do is pick a spot in one of the corners that you want to open it and use your seam ripper to make a small opening (just big enough to squeeze your hand inside). Once thats done you stuff the batting in the opening making sure you get extra down in the corners and making sure its nice and fluffy. I had a couple of old back cushions for a couch I no longer have that had some great fluffy batting so I used that. Once you stuff it all the way you pin the opening closed with straight pins and then hand stitch it closed making sure to make the stitches small and even so it blends with the rest of the stitching. This took me about an hour to complete (because I'm a sucky seamstress like I mentioned) but the result was awesome! Target or Crate and Barrel would sell this for 30.00 or so and I made it with a 1.99 placemat and re-used stuffing! I'm super pleased with it and need to find the time to do the other one. lol.