fun with freezer paper

For a long time I've been meaning to try freezer paper stenciling after pinning this tutorial, and then when I saw this super cute JCrew heart sweater, I had to finally do it. It turns out freezer paper stencil projects are super easy, quick, and fun, and now I want to put big hearts on everything:

Four easy steps:

1. Gather supplies: old sweater, freezer paper (from grocery store), paint, fabric medium, paintbrush, x-acto knife.
2. Plan your design and cut it out with an x-acto knife.
3. Place stencil shiny side down on fabric and iron on high heat to adhere.
4. Paint and then peel off stencil.

A couple of tips: Make sure to put some cardboard between the sweater layers so you don't get any paint seeping through. The fabric medium turns any acrylic paint into fabric paint (iron to heat set it once the paint is dry, according to directions on the label), but it still turns out pretty stiff. The technique will be super for stiffer fabrics though - like a tote bag or canvas throw pillow cover - and the possibilities are endless!

{Sharing at The Pinterest Challenge!}

chair redo

Once I finished my DIY roman shade, next up on my crafty to do list was refinishing this chair icky old chair. I actually picked it up on the side of the road way back in the spring, but it took me a long time to decide on fabric... This was my first furniture redo involving upholstery, so I looked around at a bunch of tutorials, and then I just kind of had at it. Since the chair was free and looked quite terrible, I wasn't too worried about messing it up.

Before:

After:

I'm no expert in this, and you can find lots of great blogger tips and tutorials out there, but here was my general process (with links to the various tutorials that I found really helpful):

• First I cleaned up and sanded the chair. It looked like there was originally caning under the arms, with only bits and pieces remaining, so I had to clean those out too. I unscrewed the seat and ripped off the welting and fabric from the chair back, saving everything for reference when cutting my new fabric. And nearly got carpal tunnel from pulling all those staples. Definitely a blister...
• After priming, I painted the framewith some leftover paint from my bathroom vanity. These tips from Little Green Notebook were helpful for getting a nice coat. 
• And then it was time to tackle the cushions. I picked out this Waverly fabric from fabric.com - it was hard to know how much to order, but I guesstimated based on the cushion size and ordered extra so I could make cording.
• For the seat, I probably should have sewed to get the front corners just so, but I decided to fudge it a little and just staple the fabric into place. Stapling fabric around the curve was a bit tricky, but the back part of the seat isn't visible when it's in place, so I could hide any folds back there.
• Then I made a new back with some batting (since the original was tufted, so the old cushion didn't work so well any more) and stapled into place (Little Green Notebook tips here). I cut off the excess and then hid the staples with double-cord welting.
• I made the welting following Little Green Notebook's instructions here (also referenced Centsational Girl's post here) and then glued it on. 

It could be a little more professional looking, but it was my first chair - and a really cheap project (only had to buy fabric) - so I'm pretty pleased with the new chair in the corner of my bedroom. Now just need to hang the curtains and art, and I'm pretty much done with the room as envisioned on my mood board!

 

 

Sharing here.

no sew roman shades

When I started seeing (and pinning) a bunch of tutorials for turning old mini blinds into fabulous roman shades, I decided it was the perfect solution to my window treatment issues: I could replace the icky, dingy mini blinds in our master bedroom with something fancier and then repurpose one of them to dress up my bare kitchen window.

Once I finally picked out (and got my husband to install) the new shades for the bedroom, I got going on the kitchen one. And I love it!

Supplies:

• Mini blind that fits the window in question
• Fabric, sized to the length and width of your window (plus extra on each side for hem)
• Iron-on hem tape
• Fabric glue
• Scissors

To give credit where it is due: pretty much all of the tutorials out there seem to originate with this one from Jenny of the excellent Little Green Notebook. But after reading through a bunch of variations, I decided I wanted to do the hem tape variety, and I found this tutorial from Welcome to Heardmont to be easy to follow - check out the steps (with helpful photos!) there.

The version I pinned:

                                                                   Source: welcometoheardmont.com via Anne on Pinterest

And mine!

I just love this chipper print from Premier Prints so I immediately thought of it when it came time to pick something to make this shade. The only downside to it is that the slats can show through lighter fabrics. Some tutorials suggest adding a liner, but I don't really need the shade for shade, mostly just for looks. So I didn't bother with a liner since it will pretty much always be pulled up.

It's really an all-around win situation. My bedroom windows look like this instead of bent/permanently dusy mini blinds, the blinds got repurposed, and my naked kitchen window got dressed up, making that corner of the room a lot happier looking!

 

pompom trim scarf

Everybody's talking about Pinterest lately, and I've wholeheartedly joined this bandwagon (my pins here). I previously had a completely unwieldy online bookmark list of ideas, but now I can stick them on my virtual pinboards - it's much more convenient & fun to keep track of these things with pretty pictures!

Now I'm developing quite a visual collection of projects to do, so it's time to start doing some of them. First up, this adorable DIY pompom scarf I pinned from What I Wore.

Source: whatiwore.tumblr.com via Anne on Pinterest

I followed her tutorial to turn this fun & flowy clearance rack fabric into a scarf. As a bonus, I finally had an excuse to buy some of the adorable pompom trim that I always eye at Michaels...

I'm pretty pleased with my new summer scarf - though this was supposed to be a really quick project... and in my beginner sewer-ness I didn't really think about how this fabric wouldn't want to have a nice fold ironed into it. So it was a bit difficult to work with but still turned out cute as long as no one looks too closely. Plus with my clearance row fabric and coupon on the trim, it was slightly cheaper than buying a scarf PLUS gave me sewing practice (my new excuse for spending money at the craft store).

Linking here

bits & bobs

With all the yard work, traveling, working, and so on that's been going on around here, there hasn't been a whole lot of time for crafting. ALSO: I have started work on sewing my first pattern (an a-line skirt), and it is taking an eternity. First I had to let the supplies sit for a couple weeks. Then I had to watch a bunch of YouTube tutorials to figure out if I was supposed to cut out the pattern itself (answer is yes) and then what to do from there. Then I had to Google fabric grain, and now finally I've got everything laid out so I can trace and cut. At this rate, the skirt should be ready for wearing in the fall.

But here are a few odds & ends (or bits & bobs, as my colleague in the UK would say... delightful) of copy-crafts that I posted ideas for earlier and have gotten around to.

Paper flowers (from Jones Design Company tutorial). These were so fun and easy (and didn't require any shopping for supplies) that I whipped up a bunch. I plan to stick some of them on wire to make a little bouquet, but I also used them to pretty up the envelopes for mothers day cards.

Wrapped bangle (see also these ones from Martha). I had an old cheapy one that wasn't getting much use, so I restyled it into this with some embroidery thread. I am really into coral right now, so this was a perfect (and cheap) way to add some coral to my jewelry box.

This was as easy as it sounds - just attach the thread to inside of bracelet with a dab of glue and wrap; to end, leave a tail long enough to thread a needle in order to pull the tail under the wrapped thread on the inside of the bracelet to secure it.

 before

after

sequin stripe tee

J.Crew (among other places) has quite the selection of sequined clothing items right now. But did you know you can make your own with some sequin trim (it comes on a roll, like ribbon!), an under-used tee shirt, and some fabric glue?

Welcome to the Good Life made her own shirts and added sequins, but I had this white t-shirt that gets very little use (because I prefer its v-neck sister), so I did a little revamp instead.

J.Crew sampling: left, middle, right

Supplies:

• T-shirt
• Sequin trim (saw it at both Michael's & JoAnn's)
• Fabric glue (that can go through the wash)
• Scissors
• Cardboard
• Ruler

First put the cardboard between the layers of the shirt so the glue doesn't soak through. Then use another piece of cardboard as a straight edge to apply a line of glue. Press down trim over the glue and repeat (I wanted thicker stripes, so I put two rows right next to each other). Measure desired width between stripes and apply glue for the next one, and so on.
I left a little extra when I snipped the trim at the ends of the rows so that I could apply some extra glue (or fray check stuff) to secure the ends, and then tidied up and cut them straight.

Follow the directions on your glue bottle for dry times (and wash instructions), and then voila, you can wear an $8 kinda knock-off version of a sequin stripe tee.

And here it is on (sort of awkward self-portrait, but I was home alone at the time...)

leather wrap bracelet

I finally got around to my first Project ReStyle project this weekend... One item I've been wanting to restyle into something new was my leather gloves, because one day while I was in the shower, the dog managed to get into my purse and do this to one of them:

Now that one of my gloves was not so much usable as a glove, I thought I'd repurpose the material into a wrap bracelet.

First I removed the fuzzy lining and then used a straight edge and rotary cutter to cut loops. After detaching the stitching to turn the loops into strips, I attached three of them with grommets, and then added more grommets for embellishment.

After that I put a ribbon clamp on one end, wrapped around my wrist to determine the right length, trimmed a little off the leather, and then added the other clamp with clasp.