A Secret Sewing Project

A couple of weeks ago I shared this photo over on the Facebook page and hinted at a sewing project I was going to be working on.

Some of you guessed that maybe it was going to be a fall quilt.  I sure wish I knew how to quilt!

Then a few days later I shared this photo and told you that I had the next step of the project completed, but that it would be a couple of weeks before I could share the whole thing.

Well, now I can share.

I was working on making fall themed pillow covers!  I made 13 in all and the reason I couldn't share them yet was because they were going to be gifts.  In my last post I told you that I'm on a little vacation in Tennessee with my mom and her sisters this week, and 8 of these covers were coming with me to be given out to my aunts, my mom, and two of my cousins.  Whenever they get together like this they have what they call Scarecrow parties and gifts are given out all around (the scarecrow brings the gifts instead of Santa).  : )

I decided the cheapest most cost effective thing I could give would be something I had made.  And since I have TONS of scraps leftover from my shower curtain business I decided to use some of them up and make pillow covers.  I made 2 more that won't be pictured here because they were Christmas ones and I'll share them another time.  I also made one for myself and one for my sister.  The total cost of 13 pillow covers was a whoppin' $8...and I still have plenty of fall fabric left over to make even more if I feel so inclined!

I was a busy bee trying to get these all completed before my trip, plus keeping up with making my shower curtain orders.  We pretty much didn't see the top of the dining room table for about 2 weeks, lol!

Let's take a look at what I worked so hard on.

Some of the covers have a pumpkin shape on them and some have a fall leaf.  I used a variety of fabric styles since I don't know the decorating tastes of my extended family members.  The pumpkin up there at the top though, I made that one with my mom in mind.  She wants to change her living room decor over to a lighter color palette of greens and blues and do a coastal theme.  So I made that one to coordinate with her upcoming decor change.  I love the combination of the 3 different patterns, but yet they all coordinate.  I don't know if you can see it well enough or not, but the aqua one has little white polka dots on it.  So sweet.  :)

The other ones I made were more traditional fall colors and patterns.  After I cut the patterns out of the fabric, I then used a spray adhesive on the backs of them and followed the directions for a temporary bond.  That allowed me to move them around and get them centered just right, but yet it held them in place strong enough to allow me to get them stitched all around.  I purposely left the very edges unstitched so that when they got washed they would rough up in a cute rustic sort of way.

I love the paisley and flannel pumpkin!  I made two of those, one for me and one to give away.  I already had two pillow covers that were two different style fall leaves that were done in the paisley fabric, so then I made the pumpkin to go with them.  I wanted it to coordinate, but not be completely matchy matchy.  I think the addition of the flannel pattern helped achieve that.  It's a warm olive green color that matches the green in the paisley fabric.

So....13 covers in all.  Eight were made to give away as gifts, 1 I made for myself, 2 were Christmas ones to be shared later, I doubled up on one of these patterns and made one for my sister....that accounts for 12.  So what about the 13th one?

Well, remember in my last post I told you to be sure not to miss this post?  

That's because.......

SURPRISE!!!

I'm doing an unannounced giveaway of the last pillow cover!!

I made two of these sweet little pumpkin designs and I decided to give one away to one of my faithful readers.  I appreciate you guys so much and I'm so thankful you've stuck with me even though I haven't been a very regular blogger these past few months.

I didn't announce it anywhere and I don't plan to because I want only my faithful readers to be on this.  I don't want any freeloaders hopping over here just because they think they can get something for free and then I never hear from them again.  This time its just for you guys.

All you have to do is leave me a comment at the end of this post and you'll be entered!  Be sure I have an email address to contact you at in case you're the winner.

This giveaway is for the pillow cover only, you'll have to supply your own 14" pillow insert.  It's an envelope style closure, and its made out of drop cloth.  They're easily removed and very washable.  

I apologize for all the wrinkles.  I was running out of time and light to get these pictures done so that I could schedule this post before I left and I didn't take the time to iron them, but you get the idea.

There's just one thing we gotta get straight......I don't claim to be much of a seamstress at all, I can accomplish basic things, but I'm certainly not a professional.  SO....if you happen to be the winner you have to promise me that you won't make fun of my lack of skills....mmmmm-kay?  Just remember, it's the thought that counts and I made this with love for my faithful readers.  : )

So just leave me a comment below and include your email address and in a week or so I'll do a random drawing and let you all know who won!  

Happy Fall Y'all!

 *This giveaway has now ended*

                                                               

5 Minute No Sew Curtain

Today's project was so quick and easy, and such a small little thing, that I wasn't even planning to share it.  But after a month of being away from the blog many of you said, "Please don't stay away so long again!"  (Awww, you know how to make a girl feel loved!)  So....small though it is, I decided to go ahead and share it, after all, this blog is all about the ideas I come up with to try and improve my home.  So, without further ado, here is my 5 minute no sew curtain project.

This is the side door to our house, and it leads into the laundry room.  Even though it's the side door it gets used as our main entrance because of the way the driveway leads up to the house.

This curtain was already in place when we moved in, and even though I strongly disliked it I kept it there because I didn't have anything to replace it with.  The fabric was so thick and dark that not even the tiniest shred of light could get through.  And there was so much of the fabric that there wasn't enough room on the rod to push it over and let light in.  The result was a dark and cave like laundry room, even with the light turned on.

It was kind of a dark and depressing view walking up to the house as well, and didn't reflect our personalities at all.  You might think that's kind of crazy to say about one little curtain, but even the small things have a big impact.

The other day I was cutting fabric for another curtain project elsewhere in the house and I looked at the leftover strips of muslin and wondered what use I could find for them.  

And here's the answer.   : )

I just simply draped the strips over the rod and overlapped them slightly, then added another extra strip of checked fabric as the tieback.  The edges are unfinished so it gives it kind of a fun shabby look, and the thin muslin lets in plenty of beautiful light.

Walking up to the house is so much more cheery now!  

And it gives a much better first impression of what you'll find within the house.

My hubby doesn't tend to notice things I do around the house unless I specifically point them out to him, but this one he actually noticed all on his own and made a point to tell me how much nicer it looked when he came home!  Big smiles.  :D

I love how much soft light comes in, and doing laundry isn't so depressing now.  

So there ya go, 5 minutes, no cost or sewing involved, and it made a huge improvement in this little room.

I hope you have a wonderful day!

  I'm off to pick up some barstools for the kitchen that I found on Craigslist.
 I'll be sure to share a picture later.  : )

                                                                 

* If you haven't heard yet, we've started a new Facebook group where there can be more interaction between all of us and you all can share pictures of your projects and thrifty finds with the rest of the group.  Come join the fun {here}!  The regular Facebook page can be found {here}. *

Painter's Dropcloth Becomes DIY Grain Sack Shower Curtain

Hi everyone!  Long time no see!!  

Can you believe it's been a month since I last posted anything?!?  Craziness!  But life around the "farmhouse" has been pretty busy with homeschooling, projects, cooking, housework, and yada yada yada.  

I'm just trying to hang on for dear life.  :)

One of the projects I've been working on is the 2nd bathroom.  This is the kids' bathroom and when we have company it's also the guest bath.

The above is a picture I snapped of it before we bought the house.  The electric wasn't turned on, but even still you can see that it's pretty dark in there with absolutely no natural light (therefore, very hard to get decent pictures in here).  The dingy orangey-yellow walls and dark trim just sucked the light right out of the room.

When we moved in I put up a shower curtain we had from our last house, but the yellow ribbons on the curtain only added to the "depths of despair" theme this bathroom had going on.  It was purely functional.

One day inspiration finally hit and I knew what I wanted for this room.  Little by little during the kids' nap/quiet time I tackled the trim and got the walls painted.  I put together an inspiration board on Pinterest where I pinned rooms with gray walls, white trim, and black accents.  It would be very easy to end up with a more modern and chic looking room using these colors, so I wanted to be sure to include some items that would keep it more on the rustic farmhouse side.  One of those things was a shower curtain I had pinned that had stripes that were sort of grain sack looking.  Nothing says 'farmhouse' more than a grain sack, right?  But the problem was that this particular curtain was $40...more than I wanted to spend could afford for a shower curtain.  So I went searching to see if I could find a basic white curtain for much cheaper and just paint the stripes on my own.  Well, during all of this research another idea hit me and my mind started racing 100mph.

A couple of weeks later, with only $14 invested in the project, I ended up with this.

A giant shower sized "grain sack!"  :D  

I love it so much!  

And it will most definitely keep this bathroom from looking too modern.

I even put in my own grommets, a first for me!

Here's a little comparison of the before and after.  Quite the change, huh?  It took me 5 tries before I got the paint color on the walls right, but finally settled on Benjamin Moore's Rockport Gray at 50% (although it's actually a different brand of paint, just their color.)  You can see we put up beadboard on the left wall, we still need to get the baseboard up as well as the chair rail on the top.  Eventually I want to replace the vanity and flooring as well.  But all in good time.  One project at a time.  :)

So, if you're here just to see the pictures, then feel free to move on to the next blog at this point if you want.  But if you're curious as to how I accomplished this DIY farmhouse shower curtain, then stick around.  I'm about to explain the details.

I started with this 6' x 9' canvas dropcloth that you can pick up from Walmart for about $9.97.  

I followed Miss Mustard Seed's directions for bleaching it since I wanted it to be a lighter cream color versus the tan color it was originally (if you follow the link to her blog, the directions on bleaching are in step #2 I believe).  

On the left you can see how it looked straight out of the package, and on the right is after being washed and bleached.

I kept the width of it the same, but cut quite a bit off the length and sewed a wide double layer tab/seam along the top where the grommets would be placed.

Next I had to come up with the image I wanted to put in the center.  I Googled "grain sack images" and "feed sack images" and came across {this one} that I loved.  Of course, theirs is for sale and I didn't want to steal their image, so I redesigned it and made it more personalized for us.  (The Suwannee River is nearby, and we actually lived less than a mile from it for about 6 months before we bought this house.)

Once I had the image designed, I had to figure out how to get it onto the fabric.  Image transfer methods with freezer paper and such weren't going to work because I needed it to be on such a large scale.  I knew I was going to need an overhead projector.  I remembered that a long time ago I came across something about a DIY homemade projector so I went searching, and sure enough, you can make your own!

I used a cardboard box and cut an opening on both ends.  I didn't have any transparency sheets, but I do have a small laminator that I use for homeschooling so I ran a laminating sheet through the laminator to make it clear.  Then I put that in my printer and printed the image directly on it and taped it to one end of the box. (The curtain was nailed to the wall.)  I used the flashlight app on my iphone as the light source.  We tried a few other things for the light, but nothing worked as well as the app did.  So we propped up the phone to be sure it wouldn't budge even a centimeter, and made sure it was plugged in to a charger.  The setup wasn't as strong as a real projector, and it had to be very dark in the room for it to work, but work it did!

If you look close you can see my pencil tracings on the fabric.

Once I had the entire image traced onto the fabric, my next step was to put in the grommets.  Walmart had these, and the setting tool as well, in the sewing section.  The grommets were about $4.47 for 10 (I needed 12 so I had to buy 2 boxes), and the setting tool was $3.47 I think.  I didn't include these in the price of this project because I had Walmart gift cards from a rebate a couple of months ago, so I essentially got them for free.

I measured out and marked their placement and pounded them in.  (I made sure to put a sturdy wooden cutting board in between the fabric and the floor to protect my purdy floors.)   : )

Once the grommets were in it was time to start painting.  I was SO nervous about this part!  I was so afraid I was going to drip paint or smudge it or somehow mess it up and have to start all over.  But, I just took my time and worked very carefully and it was all just fine.  The painting part of it took me about a week, working on it little by little.  That canvas is actually a little difficult to paint on.

Once I had the image completed it was time to add the grain sack stripes.  This was the most aggravating part of the whole project.  This fabric has so much "give" to it that it was incredibly hard to get them lined up nice and straight.  And even though they looked really straight on the floor, once I washed it and hung it up they looked absolutely drunk.  They were so crooked I was ready to cry.  But then I remembered the "give" factor and started tugging the fabric this way and that and got it all straightened out.  I hung it up damp so the tugging was easy and it allowed it to dry how I wanted it.  

 I actually used different shades of gray and black, but once it was washed they all kind of look the same. I just used regular craft paint for most of this.  I tried adding a textile medium to the paint, but it didn't seem to make any difference when I did a test swatch and ran it through the washer.  So I just stuck with straight craft paint on everything except the words at the bottom.  On those I used an oil based Sharpie paint pen that I already had from my Sharpie mug project.  The final washing served to set the paint as well as give the whole thing the faded aged look I was going for. 

Here's a breakdown of my costs:

Dropcloth canvas - $10

4 bottles of craft paint - $4 

Grommets and setter - $12.50 

(I got these for free with gift cards).

My cost was only $14, much more affordable than $40, and now I have an absolutely unique and original shower curtain that I love.

So what do you think? 

 Is it a little over the top, or is it fun and quirky and perfect for a farmhouse bathroom?  

I'd love to hear from you!

* Update - these customizable shower curtains are now for sale in my Etsy shop and can be found {here}. I'm currently taking names on a waiting list so if you'd like to purchase one let me know and I'll add your name to the list. *

                                                                 

Here's a set of 10 grommets with the setting tool included, as well as a 6 x 9 drop cloth
.

                                                     

Linking up over at:

Party Junk #228 - Funky Junk Interiors
The Scoop #108 - Cedar Hill Farmhouse
Wow Us Wednesday - Savvy Southern Style
Centerpiece Wednesday - The Style Sisters

Fall Pillow Cover Tutorial

  We've had our couches for about 5.5 years now I think.  For a long time I loved how the plaid pillows looked with the gingham fabric and had no desire to change them up.  But...then after a couple of years I began to tire of the same ol' same ol' all the time.  At some point I bought some coordinating floral fabric and covered one of the pillows using basically just a gift wrapping technique held together by fabric tape. (Mad skills right there!)  Later on, I added a smaller pillow that I had made a faux grain sack pillow cover for.

But I what I really wanted was a set of covers that I could slide over the pillows and change up for the different seasons.  With 2 kids, and a dog who loves to lay on top of the pillows to sleep, they get dirty quick.  The idea of being able to easily take them off to wash them really appealed to me.  Plus, if you just have covers they can pack flat in a storage box and take up no room at all.  Trying to pack away a tub full of pillows that are just for fall or just for Christmas takes up way too much valuable space.

  This is something I've been wanting to do for over a year, so finally I just went for it.

I found a "before" picture and cropped it down so you could see what the pillows looked like.  By themselves they're just fine, but add in a vintage wool plaid blanket with fall colors and it began to clash horribly (or look kinda Christmas-y when you're going for an autumn look).

A few hours of sewing later and I had this.

Ahhhhh....so much better!   A lovely change.

Now let me share how I made these, because I'll be the first to tell you that I have very minimal sewing skills.  I wasn't about to attempt anything that needed a zipper or a button hole sewn in.  But these envelope style covers are as easy peasy as it gets I think.

I followed {this video tutorial} for the cover itself.  It's explained very well and SO simple to do.  I actually didn't sew it completely at first though.  I did the hem on the short ends and then sewed my leaf pattern on before I finished sewing the cover.

For the leaf, I printed out an image with the shape I wanted.  It actually wasn't quite big enough so I ended up tracing around it to make it bigger.  Then I laid it over the wrong side of the fabric and traced it pushing down firmly so that it would leave an imprint on the fabric.  Every few inches I would carefully lift the paper and trace the impression left on the fabric with a pencil.  (There may have been an easier way to do this, but I couldn't think of one at the time.)

Here you can see the pencil outline.  I edited the picture so that it would stand out more.  After that I cut out the shape, laid my tan fabric over the pillow so that I could see where to position the leaf, and then pinned it in place.  (After the fact, I realized that it would have been much easier if I had sprayed the back of the leaf with some spray adhesive so that it held in place smoother and more tightly.)

Then I got to sewing.

You know those pictures you see on Pinterest of dreamy craft rooms that are as big as my entire living room and kitchen combined?  You know the ones that have a scrapbooking table, a sewing table, and tons of adorable organization going on?  You know, something like this...

(source)

Yeah....that's not mine.  I could only wish for something like that.  Here, on the other hand, is my "craft room."

Yep, that's reality folks.  We had to eat supper in the living room that evening.

Anywhoozy...I sewed the leaf on leaving a space at the edge so that the fabric would become raggedy after washing.  I also clumsily sewed some "veins" on the leaf as well.  I've never attempted anything more than a straight stitch before so this whole leaf sewing thing was a new adventure for me!

I followed the same tutorial for the smaller brown checked pillow, just using different measurements.  I added the strip of tan before sewing the cover shut just like I did with the leaf, and left the edges of it raggedy as well. 

 I assumed I was going to have to wait awhile until I could get to a big craft store to find cute buttons to put on it, BUT on a whim I decided to just check and see what our Walmart in town had and low and behold they had these adorable buttons!

Don't they look like little crocheted doilies?  SO cute I tell ya!!

I have enough fabric left that I plan on making another leaf cover for a 2nd pillow, only using a maple leaf design this time around.

 If you've been wanting to attempt pillow covers, but aren't sure because of a lack of sewing skills or some other such fear, I'm here to say, "If I can do it, you can do it."  Just go for it!  Mine aren't perfect by any means.  Some of my stitches are a little wobbly, and my envelope flap actually ended up the wrong direction, but you probably wouldn't have known that if I hadn't told ya.  And neither will anyone else if you make some.  Find some cheap clearance fabric and do a practice run with that first if you need to, but just go for it.  It really is quite simple and you'll be incredibly happy with the new look and so proud of that fact that you made it!

If you'd like to see the rest of my fall decor you can see that {here}.