A New Slipcover for my shameful couch

Several years ago I inherited this ugly, schizophrenic yet comfortable couch. 

She sat in the unfinished basement for a few years and was never used.  Then about 4 years ago, I moved and didn't have an unfinished area to hide her in.  So, I am embarrassed to say this, but she has been sitting in my house just as ugly as can be and I didn't do a thing about it. 

Finally, I have gotten my act together and made my very first slipcover...

Doesn't she look so much better?  Now I don't have to be ashamed when people come to my house.

Did you notice the adorable embroidered throw pillows?  Aren't they great?  These were a gift from my mom and you can read all about them here.  Stop by her blog and check them out!!!

  

The Ruffled Rose Petal Pillow Tutorial

I knew when I recovered my chair, I wanted to make a cute, fun and flirty pillow to decorate it.  It seems like everywhere I look, there are ruffles, ruffles and more ruffles.  And who doesn't love ruffles? 

So, I decided to make a Ruffled Rose Petal Pillow...

...and now you can too!!

Materials Needed:

White cotton fabric for pillow form (amount depends on size of pillow you want)

2 yards white (or whatever color you want the flower to be) jersey knit

Batting to stuff the pillow

Thread

Step 1:  We start out by making the pillow behind the rose petals.  Determine how large you want your pillow to be and cut two circles.  I decided to go big, so my circles are 18 inches diameter.

Step 2:  Now it's time to make some ruffles.  Cut jersey knit into 3 inch strips.  I used my serger  and serged the outer edge with a mixture of threads in blue, light blue and gray.  If you don't have a serger you could use a decorative stitch or leave it untouched.

Next you want to ruffle the opposite edge of the jersey knit strips than the one you just serged.  My serger has a built in ruffler, so I used that.  If you don't have a ruffler foot to attach to your machine, you can hand ruffle the strips as you stitch it on to the pillow.  Also, if you don't have a ruffler foot....get one!  They are amazing!!

Step 3:  Time to create a rose!  Now that we have all the ruffle we need, it's time to stitch it on the pillow.  Starting from the outer edge of one of your circles you cut out in step 1, pin the ruffle all the way around until the entire edge is covered and stitch in place.  Without cutting the ruffle, pin another circle between 1/2 inch to an inch in from the outside ruffle.  It isn't necessary to be exact here...I just estimated as I went. 

Continue stitching each circular row down, one at a time. This can become a little time consuming, but it's worth taking the extra time to pin one row at a time. 

Eventually you end up at the center.  I folded in a few extra inches of my ruffle to give the center some fullness.

Step 4:  Put the pillow together!  Now that you have created your rose, you want to create your pillow.  With right sides together, stitch the other circle to your rose petal.  Leave a small opening so you can flip the pillow right side out and stuff it. 

Step 5:  Flip the pillow right side out and stuff with batting to desired fullness.  Hand stitch the opening closed.

Viola!!  You now have a fun and flirty ruffled rose petal pillow!

My Cozy Little Nook

Don't you just love a little cozy nook?  Someplace to relax and take a moment for yourself....

I don't have the largest bedroom, but once I saw this chair I knew I needed to give it a little makeover and then find a spot for it in my room. 

I bought it awhile ago, so I am not 100% sure on this, but I think I paid $6 for it.  It had some stains on the seat and some markings on the arms.  No problem since I was planning on painting it and recovering it.

I didn't apparently take a picture in between start and finish.  But, here is the finished chair...

Isn't it beautiful?  I might be a little biased, but I am just in love with how it turned out.  Plus, I got to use my new double welting foot to make the covered rope trim.

How did I ever live without this foot before?

Check back soon for the tutorial on my fun rose petal jersey pillow....

  

Aeropostale inspired sweatshirt, and a tutorial

I don't normally shop at Aeropostale...in fact I am not sure I had ever been in the store before this past Christmas.  However, I was lured into the store last year to shop for my twelve year old niece.  Apparently, the only clothes worth wearing are the ones sold at Aeropostale.  Anything else would be too embarrassing to be seen in public wearing. 

In my opinion, it isn't all that different from Old Navy...except for the prices are higher.  But, I did discover this really cute sweatshirt when I was there. 

When I say cute, I am talking about the method of design...not the actual design.  It might be hard to tell from this picture, but the applique fabric is frayed are weathered.  I wish I could find a better picture to show you, but trust me it was cute.  So, I decided to make one for myself.  Since I graduated from KU and it is almost time for March Madness, I designed a Rock Chalk Jayhawk sweatshirt.

Now it's your turn...

1. After designing your applique, cut it out in felt.  I used a Cricut to cut my design out of freezer paper and ironed it on to the felt.  If you don't have a Cricut you could print your design on paper, cut it out and trace it onto the felt.  (Be sure to trace the reverse of your design on the back side of the felt so you won't have any ink marks showing when you are finished.) Then cut the felt design out.

2. Once you have all the felt pieces, lay them right side down on top of your applique fabric and using them as stencils, trace the design onto the fabric.  Cut each letter/design out of the fabric.

3. Lay the felt pieces out on a piece of cardboard and cover with spray adhesive.

4.  Attach each fabric letter/design to each corresponding piece of felt.  Make sure to have all ink markings on the back side.

5. Lay your design out on the sweatshirt and pin each piece in place.  Carefully stitch each piece down making sure not to catch the back side of the sweatshirt. (If using letters in your design, stitch both the inside and outside seams of each letter...i.e. stitch around the inside circle and outside circle of the "O".)

6. Wear your new sweatshirt and enjoy all the compliments you will be getting!

...and a Bread Box to match

I found this amazing breadbox at the thrift store for $1 and at the time I had no idea what I was going to do with it.  I figured with a little clean up and a paint job, I could sell it.  Maybe make a few bucks on it.  Then once I got the turquoise canisters in my kitchen, I decided I had to have a turquoise breadbox.  HAD TO HAVE ONE!!!

Sadly (or funnily...if that's really a word), I had several thrift store breadboxes to choose from.  (Once I got to four, I decided it was time to stop buying them.)  Anyway, I chose this one because I really liked the shape around the top and the base.

Once again the turquoise paint has worked it's magic and transformed this old, forgotten breadbox into a beautiful piece of counter top decor.  I used the same Cricut cartridge to cut out the letters for "Bread" as I used for the numbers on my canisters.

I really, really love how it turned out!!  And I just can't stop here...next addition will be a turquoise paper towel stand, a turquoise dish rack and ultimately I will be repainting my Kitchen Aide mixer to either turquoise with white accents or white with turquoise accents. 

...more on that later.

Turquoise Kitchen Canisters

I have had these great canisters in my kitchen for years.  Then lately I started to notice that every time I saw canisters at any store, I was intrigued.  I was constantly talking myself out of buying them.  This obviously meant I was bored with the ones I had.

Time for a change...

Now I don't even notice all the different canisters at the store.

Isn't it amazing what a little paint and and some decorative numbers can do?

Cuddling up with Thomas the Tank Engine

Last May I made my nephew Connor a Cars themed bean bag for his birthday.  It was the first one I ever made, so it wasn't really my best piece of work.  But, it was kind of fun to make.  I collected old worn out bean bags at thrift stores and combined them to make a full bean bag.  I stenciled several of the characters on each side with fabric paint using this technique and gave it to him for his birthday before I realized I never even got a picture of it. 

It was quite a hit. 

In fact, his father (my brother) Mike said he wanted one for his birthday.  So, that started a little streak of everyone getting a bean bag for a gift.  Mike's bean bag was almost twice the size and it was a KC Chiefs/KC Royals themed bean bag.  Also another big hit.

Several bean bags later I finally have a picture to share.  My nephew Charlie is a huge Thomas the Tank Engine fan, so I wanted to make a Thomas bean bag for him.  I had the perfect fabric in mind for this project.  I had several (just barely enough) scraps of blue and white engineer ticking stripe denim.  Then I used iron on transfer paper to put Thomas and his friends on each side of the bag. 

I think this one turned out pretty good...it is so far my favorite one I have made.  But, something tells me I am not quite done making them.