Learning to sew…again

Hello there! Hope you had a wonderful weekend! We started the Fourth festivities a little early and had a blast – I LOVE this week every year. :)

As you may or may not know…if you have read this blog for two minutes…you know we just got a new sofa in the family room. And it’s created a snowball in the space (and the rest of the house, but more on that later) – but it’s the kind of snowball I LOVE.

It’s the “this part is soooo much better so now that needs to be addressed” effect. I know you know what I’m sayin’. If you’re like me anyway. Which many of you are. (I’m sorry.)

One of my favorite parts of the new sofa – it’s deep. Plenty of booty space. And almost as important – plenty of pillow space. I’m a chick, what can I say? I love me some pillows.

My pet peeve with our last sofa was that the pillows ended up on the floor every. single. time. the Bub and hubby would sit down. (Can someone please tell me WHY this phenomenon occurs?)

But now there’s plenty of room for tush and pillows, so I’m one happy Momma.

I wanted to find a couple new pillows that worked with the ones we already had and our rug:

(You can see more on my FAQ page about the rug!)

I was at the “fancy” mall for a bit this weekend and checked into Pottery Barn. They had this striped cover on clearance:

And I brought it home but it was too bland. It was super cute but too much red with our other pillows.

I checked out Target and found this cutie:

The opposite side was blue, which worked great with the rug, but it was just too graphic for what I wanted.

And what I really wanted was something with blue, red, cream and a bit of green like our rug.

Next to impossible. So I decided it was time.

Time to make my own. (Dun dun duuuuun.) I knew if I looked at the fabric store I’d find something perfect if I would just be willing to sew them myself.

But I kept hesitating. I haven’t sewn anything in about two years. Mostly because the sewing machine I had was an itty bitty Shark sewing machine:

It worked pretty darn well for years…I sewed a few pillows with it and even a set of drapes. And it was supa cheap – you can find it Overstock here for only $20.

But it was SO small, and hemming tape was SO easy. :)

For a while I’ve been realizing the endless possibilities that I’m missing out on by not sewing…or at least learning to sew better. I’ve got the most basic skills when in comes to this – all from Home Ec in the 7th grade. ;)

So a few months ago I got a new, slightly larger sewing machine. It’s still not a full size, but it’s much bigger than my old one and has a ton more options.

But it sat in the closet for months. Taunting me:

The whole relearning thing was intimidating me.

But when I walked into Joann’s and found the PERFECT fabric for family room pillows, I knew I had to bust it out.

And I was so pleasantly surprised – I basically pulled it out, plugged it in and started sewing. It was all ready to go and the sewing part came right back to me!

With just a bit of measuring and a little time (and I mean little, they went fast) I made a couple of pillow covers for the new sofa:

Told you the fabric was perfect – blue, red, cream and a tiny bit of green! It’s so fun and fresh for summer too! (I’ve got some drywall patching and painting to finish up before I can show you the whole space.)

The fabric is a Waverly print and I made two pillows with just a little over a yard of fabric – for $12.

GAH. Doing it yourself strikes again – since I used the pillow inserts that came with the sofa, I got two pillows for $12. Score!

I was feeling pretty darn good, so I moved on to the next project that I’ve been meaning to finish forever.

After I finished up the Bub’s big boy room last year, my friend Rebecca emailed me with a photoshopped picture of a cute yellow and white striped pillow on his bed. She thought it would be the perfect finishing touch and she was SO right.

It only took me a year, but I finally got that darn pillow done! I found the perfect striped fabric at IKEA earlier this year. I think it was about $6 for what I needed.

My pillow-making tutorial is not really a tutorial. :) I cheat by folding over the fabric so I have one less side to sew:

:) I’m going to work it on people. Just give me time.

Then I just sewed a straight line on two sides, and half of the other. The opening is for stuffing the pillow, and I just sewed it up by hand:

It’s not pretty. I don’t care. No one will notice. And if they do, as you know, they get a cookie.

I have yet to hand out a cookie. :)

I love how it turned out!:

Seriously cauuute!!

It pulls the yellow out of the sheets and works with the touches of yellow throughout the room:

FUN! And I did it all by myself – WHOO! Next up, slipcovers!!

Watch out world!

No really, my next goal is just to put zippers in pillows. I’m very excited about this. :)

Now the little sewing machine no longer mocks me…it flutters hearts out at me:

Awww…so sweet!

If you are looking to get into sewing, so far I’m REALLY pleased with this little Pixie machine. It came with a ton of supplies as well:

Everything you will need to start out comes with the machine. I’m good on thread for quite some time. Until I try that slipcover. ;)

So, any sewing tips for me? Do you have a machine you love for when I get so good at this that I need to upgrade? (In…a few years.) Did you teach yourself or did you learn as you went?

I’d love to hear!

Musical dressers

Hello all! How was your weekend? I didn’t get many DIY projects started, but I did clean our bathroom (yikes) and got one big project marked off my list – and I didn’t even have to paint like I thought I would! Score!

If you remember back last May, I showed you the Bub’s big boy room redo:

A few months later I realized I needed to find a new solution for his clothing storage. I had installed really cool slide out bins in the closet, but many of them were too tall for the Bub to get to.

So I started thinkin’. And searching…on Craigslist. :)

And I found a beautiful dresser for about $100 and was SO excited. It was adorable:

A little too adorable – it was teensy tiny. That’s the thing with Craigslist though – no returns.

I had planned to paint it, but I wanted to live with it for awhile, and I’m so glad I did. Whenever I hesitate for, oh…six months or so – I know there’s something not quite right. ;)

It’s been about six months since I got it, and it took about five months and two weeks to realize there’s was NO way it was enough storage. I mean, my boy’s clothes are still pretty small, but there were just six little bitty drawers and it just wasn’t working.

So I searched, and searched. And searched some more. For months. I was on my Craigslist app every day or two, looking for that perfect dresser for this spot. Couldn’t find a thing (for the price I wanted to pay).

Fast forward to one day a few weeks ago. While sitting in our family room, I gazed over at the lovely dresser (another Craigslist find) and thought to myself,

“Self, a dresser just like that is exactly what I’m looking for in the Bub’s room.”

(Ignore those cords. You SO know I dealt with them.)

Hmmm. If only I had another beautiful, long dresser that I could replace that one with.

Enter one more Craigslist search last Friday.

Alas my dear Squeezies, the day had finally arrived. The heavens shined down on a listing for a beeeeautiful, long, Henredon (aka well made, gorgeous, fantastic) dresser.

The measurements were PERFECT. The color was PERFECT. The storage…PERFECT.

It would be mine. And so it was. Mine.

And I gotta tell you, I have been meeting the nicest people buying through Craig and his List. We bought this dresser from an older couple who were downsizing and moving to Florida to be closer to their kids and grandkids. We chatted with them for some time, just hanging out. The woman loaded up my Goodwill stuff in her car for her next trip (it was hard fitting it all in my car with the dresser), AND…they were sure my husband was about 15 years younger than he really is.

He liked them a LOT. ;)

He does look 15 years younger than he is by the way…which is great, cause any day now I’m going to look older than him. Or maybe I already do? Fantastic.

Anyhoo – the patience paid off. The old family room dresser came up to the Bub’s room, and I am in LURVE:

Oh be still my ever-lovin-the-classic-look-heart. It’s so beautiful. Any other dresser I was going to paint, but I couldn’t decide on a color. Funny how things work out, because I’m not painting this one.

I love the warm tone of the wood with the classic colors in his room:

It’s a little worn on the top, which is just fine for a little boy’s room:

I didn’t do much accessorizing – just put Squishy (the second? third?) up there, stacked some books in a wire crate I found in my father-in-law’s house (LOVE), and a couple other pieces I had:

Awhile back I scrubbed the rust off of the crate and sealed it. I put a bunch of felt protectors on the bottom of so it won’t damage the dresser.

I love having something of my father-in-law’s in our son’s room. :)

It only took about FOREVER, but I finally found the just right dresser for that spot.

And the new piece looks fantastic in the family room:

The Scooby Doo haunted house to the right is the perfect finishing touch, yes? :)

Don’t you love those knobs?:

It’s so beautiful, and in fantastic condition.

And the best part…such a perfect spot to hide toys:

Perfectly hidden, and easy to put away.

I’m using dressers all over our house now -- they’re not just for clothes anymore:

Sigh. Oh my. I love it.

Big FAT double thump to the chest at ya Craig!! Yo YO.

And lest you think I have it all together, this proves that I chuck stuff out of the pictures:

That would be the rest of our family room. :)

No more dresser searches for me now though – we’re maxed out here, finally. For reals, no more. The black one will go in the guest room, and it will be so lovely in that space. But NO MORE. Pinky swear. I’m saying it here so I will stick to it. :)

So, what about you? Do you love dressers like I love dressers? Looking for that just right piece? Taking awhile?

Patience grasshopper, it will come to you…in about six months or so. 

 

P.S. One hundred pennies to the person who can find the bit of Christmas left in the Bub’s room. I keep forgetting about it. :)

Details of an airplane room

First of all – the (randomly drawn) winner of the Lisa Leonard Designs giveaway is Patrizzia from iCreate! Congrats Patrizzia! Email me and I’ll connect you with Lisa.

Well, shucks folks. Seriously, I am so thankful for all the comments here, Facebook and Twitter and all of your sweet emails about the Bub’s new room. I really don’t don’t what else to say but that I’m so glad I’ve inspired so many of you and I’m so thankful to all of you for your kind words!!

I promised some more details about the space so here we go – detail mania!

First things first – the wall color is called Admiralty from Lowe’s:

I got it color matched at Home Depot so I could use Behr paint. (They were actually able to look up the Lowe’s color and mix it!) I used the flat scrubbable sheen and I love it.

The roman shades on the window are from Lowe’s:

I get most of our bamboo shades there but I’ve also bought them at Home Depot and Target. The privacy liners I’ve only found at Lowe’s though.

The sides of the built ins are basketweave wallpaper, from Lowe’s, painted the wall color. The sconces are from Home Depot (about $35 each I think?) and were spray painted with Rustoleum Crimson Red spray paint. (Gleeeee! I love that red!)

I had drooled over the star quilted bedding from Pottery Barn Kids for months, if not a year now:

The quilt was $130 I believe, and the shams were $30 each – told you they were a total splurge! Funny how I don’t hesitate to pay that much for my boy, but our bedding set cost $25. ;)

The precious airplane sheets were from KMart and I got three sets! As one very smart reader mentioned, I knew I’d want more months and years from now, so we’re set for a while. 

The sweet button pillows were made by a sweet, very talented friend. She’s made a few pillows for us and I am never disappointed. If any of you local Indy folks need drapes, cushions or pillows made, shoot me an email and I connect you with her! She rocks!

The DIY headboard needed a little somethin’, and when my friend Richella directed me to one of her headboard posts, I knew just what it needed:

A few bucks of white cording and it made it pop off the wall!

I just hot glued it to the back…shhhhh…

The Bub’s desk was a fantastic find a couple years ago:

There’s a farm house not far from us that used to have a huge antique/random sale a couple times a year – I got the desk and a matching chair for $15. (I think?) It’s not antique, but definitely vintage. I spray painted it the Crimson Red color about a year ago.

The chair that came with the desk was a bit too short, so I replaced it with a navy blue school chair I found at Goodwill a few weeks ago. Love how it ties in the blue and metal tones in the room!

Some of the accessories were store bought…or should I say Target bought? I just realized most of them are from Tar-jay. ;)

The red piggy bank was a major act of patience:

The only one our Target had was damaged so I waited and waited…and no new red piggy bank! I finally found one at a different Target weeks later. (No, I did not go from Target to Target searching…but I was considering it!)

The propeller ($30) I had walked by numerous times, not even noticing:

Till a few of you Squeezieeees mentioned them to me. I went back and wasn’t crazy about the original brown color -- I wanted it to pop off the blue walls. Nothing some brushed nickel spray paint wouldn’t fix! Now it really looks like a propeller!  :)

We found some teeny tiny fans one day while strolling through Target, and they had at least six colors available:

I asked the Bub what color he wanted and he insisted on yellow. I thought red or blue would work better so I kept on with “Are you SURE you don’t want blue? The red is sooooo cool!” But he was stuck on that yellow!

And my child is brilliant! It is perfect.

(That picture is my sweet Bub “conducting” Daddy’s band. Could you just die??)

The little storage ottoman was on clearance a few weeks ago for $20:

No way I could pass that up!

The airplanes throughout the room were mostly clearance purchases:

I’ve had this one for years – since the Bub was just months old. I got it on clearance at Hobby Lobby thinking someday I might use it. It was a dark brown metal so I sprayed it brushed nickel and hung it with fishing wire. Lurve.

Two of the planes displayed in the built ins were more Hob Lob clearance finds for a few bucks each:

I’ve been grabbing them up over the past year or so. They both had a little bit of damage, but nothing hot glue and spray paint couldn’t fix!

The yellow plane was $20 from HomeGoods a couple months ago:

The perfect pop of yellow!

I reused whatever I could from the nursery – including boxes and baskets I repainted to work in the new room:

(Cutie lantern was from Goodwill last year!)

(Cardboard “E” used to be apple green, and the box was spray painted to work in the room as well.)

The baskets used to be a very pale yellow:

Navy blue spray paint saved the day, along with wood tags I bought last Christmas to make ornaments (that never happened!).

Squishy’s digs are a Goodwill gumball machine made into a fish tank:

You can find the how-to here.  :)

Most of the picture frames (from Michael's, 40 percent off) I already had. I did pick up a few more to fill up the shelves a bit more. The “mats” are really just navy blue poster board from Michael's:

I just taped the black and white pics (printed on regular paper) on the front of the blue paper.

By the way, that picture is one of my all time faves of my Bub. :) I took that as I held him after a bath – just goes to show what good cropping can do!

A couple of my favorite pieces in the room are the lamps. This one is a touch light I found at Meijer:

I loved the metal, the shape, the size! Just for fun, I used an airplane paper punch and extra navy poster board to cut out the shapes. I sprayed them with spray adhesive and then just stuck them inside the shade randomly! (The light is low voltage and the paper is not hot at all…I checked.) I LOVE the effect!!

A bit of skinny grosgrain ribbon finished it off!

I used the ribbon on this one as well:

The little airplanes “flying” around the edge are really buttons. I snapped the backs off of them and just hot glued them around the bottom. (The shade was purple fabric before and I recovered it in white muslin I had leftover from the drapes.)

The lamp itself was sprayed in none other than the brushed nickel! I love that stuff! ORB better watch it! ;)

Some asked how we light things in the shelves. When my dad and I built them years ago, we used a large drill bit to make holes in the sides and backs of the cabinets as well as in the bottom shelf of each one:

  

Someday I’d love to run lighting up to the very top of the shelves as well.    

Overall, this whole room (not including the price of the new bed, which was a given), came in at just over $1000! That includes everything else – bedding, molding, paint, fabric, accessories.

Some items were taken from other rooms. Some we already had that I repurposed. Some I’d had for years, hoping they may work someday. :)

There are only two things left from the nursery…one is the turtle nightlight:

This is really our second one – the first one we used so much it stopped working! My Dad and Stepmom got the first one for us when I was pregnant. To say we all adore this thing is an understatement!

It has constellations in it’s back and when you turn off the lights, the whole ceiling is covered in stars. It is adorable. We found the new one at our children’s museum gift shop.

The only other item still here is his rocking chair, now dressed with an airplane pillow from KMart:

There are still days I rock my baby in this chair.

Cause as you know…he will always, always be my baby.

:)

Thanks again for your lovely comments!!