Showing posts with label Inspired by Pinterest. Show all posts

An Inspired by Pinterest Win

We have a very large cold air return in our living room.  Seriously, it's close to 24" square!  You can see it almost immediately when you enter our house.  Several years ago I saw a Pin on Pinterest that linked to friendly-home.net, showing how to replace a standard ugly white grill with some trim and a piece of sheet metal from Lowes in a union jack pattern.  

I showed my ultra-handy and talented husband the link and begged for him to make a better cover.  While he was not enthralled with the idea, he agreed to make me a cover.  He did not use the directions provided on the website I showed him since their setup did not work for our situation.  We ended up with a pricy (the three foot by two foot piece of sheet metal runs close to $30) but attractive replacement cover that I absolutely love.  It's so much better than the standard cover the HVAC guys installed!

This is one Inspired by Pinterest project that totally worked.
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Faux Roman Shades from Mini Blinds, Part 3

I finally have both shades finished and hung.  Are they perfect?  No way.  They look okay--definitely better than the temporary paper shades that we had before.  Even though I lined them, you can still see the mini blind slats through them, which isn't ideal.


 Would I recommend this project?  Maybe.  

 It can be done.  It is not easy.  It is not quick.  It is not inexpensive.  Time will tell on how well they hold up.

 I think it would be easier if you have separate windows instead of a very large set of windows side by side like I have.  It was really difficult to get the blinds to line up and hang somewhat similarly. You will notice in that I still have more adjusting to do in the photo above. 

 Tip:  cut out the panels at the same time so that they are exactly the same.  Seriously, like put one on top of the other and cut to make sure they are exact.  Repeat with the lining if you are using it.

How did this happen?!?!?!
I really don't think the shades would hold up well if you were raising and lowering them on a daily basis. They feel really fragile right now and they are new. I'm also not wild about the strings from the blinds hanging down. It just doesn't look that nice having them there.

 The cost was fairly high--I spent almost $100 between the fabrics, blinds, and notions. I had to buy custom blinds to start with because of my window size, but everything else was bought at a 40% discount and it was still expensive. However, If I had made full-blown Roman shades, it probably would have cost more and taken even more time.  

 Bottom line--it is doable, but is it durable?  Time will tell.

 Update 1/1/2015:  After three months, one of the slats on one of the blinds had glue failure. After five months of very light use, the blinds feel very fragile.  It is very difficult to pull them up evenly.  It feels like they are going to break every time we move them up and down.  



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Faux Roman Shades from Mini Blinds, Part 2

In my last mini blind post, I had just calculated how big to cut the fabric panels.  Luckily I waited and ran things past my husband, because he pointed out that in the tutorials I was using the people had a different type of mini blind mount than we do.  In other words, their measurements for the top were completely different than what I need.  Our blinds have brackets at the back to snap the blinds in to.  I can't have a bunch of excess fabric at the top back because then the blinds won't fit securely into the brackets.

So I remeasured my dimensions.  I figured that I only need 1/2" of fabric to wrap onto the back of the bracket.  My new calculation looks like this:  72" (length of blind) + 1-1/2" (bottom wrap) + 1/2" (top wrap) = 74".  So my decorator panels will be cut at 74" long by 30-1/2" wide.  The lining should be cut at 74" by 28-1/2".
Here is my method for taking a picture of a measurement.  Scotch tape is so useful!
Next I opened up my cardboard work surface and tried to get it flat.  That took a while.  
Finally!  It's mostly flat and lined up.
I pressed my fabric, cut it, double checked the measurements, and repeated for the lining.  I decided to serge the top and bottom edges of the fabric and lining separately because I figured they would not come out exact.  That ended up being a good decision.

Next I pressed each long edge 1/2" to the wrong side.  I used my handy dandy Dritz Ezy-Hem, which you can tell I love based on its condition.  

Then I folded the long sides over another half inch and pressed again.  I also pinned because I was working with such a long length and didn't want it to fall out or lose its alignment as I shifted the fabric on my work surface.
Like my pincushion?  It's from Etsy shop MeadowMistDesigns.  It's nice and sturdy because
it is filled with a combination of stuffing and crushed walnut shells.  No rolling off the table.  :)

After everything was pressed, I double checked the measurements again, unpinned the hems, and then placed the lining onto the wrong side of the fabric, tucking it under pressed edges.  I had to do a little adjusting, and the top and bottom serged edges did not come out exact, so I was glad they were separate and I was able to adjust as needed.

Once everything was adjusted and measurements checked yet again, I pinned everything in place and ran a hem down each of the folded edges.  Then I placed the completed panel face down on the cardboard surface and lined it up.  My cardboard had measurements up to 72", so it worked out perfectly for the length of my blind.  

We cut the ladders out of the blind and removed them.  My husband broke off most of the extra slats in the blind--we needed only seven, but we left nine on in case of mishaps while gluing.  Then we placed the blind right side down onto the fabric panel.  After much debate about how to proceed, I finally stuck pins every nine inches down the hemmed edge on both sides so that I knew where to line up the remaining blind slats.  


Then we attempted to glue the top of the blind to the fabric.  We were using an old bottle of Fabri-Tac. Apparently it can dry out, because it came out more like rubber cement.  I tried to spread it with a foam paintbrush, which DID NOT work.  We ended up pulling off the bad glue with our hands, opening a new bottle of Fabri-Tac, and trying again.  This time I just smoothed out the glue with my fingers.  We pressed down on the bar so that it would adhere, let it sit a few minutes, then applied more glue to the rolled rim at the back.  We were concerned it wouldn't hold, so we used a bunch of clips to hold it in place and let it dry for several hours before removing the clips.  


Then I applied glue to the slats, lined them up with the pins I had in place to mark each placement, and pressed them into place.  Finally, we spread glue onto the bottom piece of the blind and clipped it into place.  I ended up using the glue bottle to prop up the bottom piece so that it would dry how I wanted it to hang.  
We still have to remove the extra slats that are located between the last slat and the bottom of the blind.
Right now the blind is drying.  We will let it cure for 24 hours before moving it off the cardboard. Because my decorator fabric and lining are separate, I will probably have to go back through and either glue or hand stitch the pieces together at the top and bottom after everything is dry.  We'll see how it looks.  Stay tuned for part 3!






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Faux Roman Shades from Mini Blinds, part 1

Last year I found a tutorial on Pinterest on how to make faux Roman shades using mini blinds.  I really wanted to give this a try and went right out and bought supplies.  I even wrote a post about it.  Well, as you know, I am really slow on getting projects done.  This year I have been making a greater effort to actually finish things I've started, and it is finally time to get these blinds knocked out.

 Part of the reason I put off making the blinds is that I wasn't really sure the tutorial I found gave enough information for me to fully understand the process and I didn't want to ruin any of the materials I purchased. So I surfed for more tutorials and found a second one that showed more steps.  I think that between the two of them, this project should be doable.

 I really want these blinds to be lined.  Neither tutorial used lining, but I really don't want the slats showing through.  I think I was originally going to try to sandwich the blinds between the fabric and lining--this was given as a suggestion in one of the tutorials' comments.  I'm really glad that I took the time this year to read through EVERY comment, because someone tried it and it did not work.  So I will be making a lined panel first and then proceeding with the steps.

 When I purchased everything last year I bought lining--heavy black out lining.  Reconsidering it this year, I decided that it simply weighs too much to be attached to only a few plastic slats, so I purchased some lighter weight, non-black out lining instead.  I also got some cheap foam brushes to spread the glue and a cardboard thing that I can use to measure and glue on and not have to worry about being super neat.
Some of my supplies.
This is the type of lining I am using.

I had my husband hang the blinds and took some measurements.  Each of my blinds is 28-1/2" inches wide and 68-5/8" long.  To make the math easier on myself, I will be using 72" for my length.  I plan to have a fold every 9", so 72" divided by 9" gives me 8, which will be the number of slats I will use.  I am not overly concerned with the length being several inches longer than the window because these shades are in our office and will rarely be let out to their full length.

This is the office window with the blinds in place.
Here is my decorator fabric.

 The tutorials say to give yourself 2 - 3 inches extra beyond your measurements to allow for hemming.  I am going to allow 1" extra on each side (fold under 1/2", then another 1/2"), so I will cut my fabric to a width of 30-1/2".  One of the tutorials hemmed the tops and bottoms, and one didn't.  I think I will do at least a small hem so that no raw edges are showing--maybe just serge the edge and then tuck it under, which would be a single 1/4" hem.  

 My top piece will need 2" to wrap around, plus my 1/4" hem.  My bottom piece needs 1-1/4" to wrap, plus the 1/4" hem.  Sooooo....2.25 + 1.5 = 3.75" extra in length.  That means my cutting dimensions for each panel of decorator fabric is 75-3/4" length by 30-1/2" width.  My lining pieces will be slightly smaller so that they fit within the hems of the  decorator fabric.

 I'm off to start ironing and cutting my fabric.  Stay tuned.


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Gift in a Jar--Inspired By Pinterest

I recently attended my cousin's bride-to-be's bridal shower.  While I usually only shop the registry, I felt like branching out this time.  I was inspired by this post I found on Pinterest.  I went a little overboard and it took me quite some time to fit (almost) everything into the jar.  Here are some photos of what I included and the finished product.  
A shot of everything that was in the jar:  napkins (handmade), baker's
twine, plastic silverware, dishtowel, paper straws, note pad and pen,
cake tester, cookie cutters, ice cream scoop, cupcake liners,
mini spatula, microfiber cloth, monogrammed  dishcloths (why not!?), scrubbie, seeds, recipe cards, and thank you cards.  The recipe card maker 
is available at Skip-to-My-Lou.  I used some family recipes and a few of 
my favorites as well.

Close-up of fabric used for the napkins.  She likes to bike.

Close-up of monogrammed dishcloths.

View one.

View two.

View three.

I added a chalkboard label and piece of chalk.  While my
intention was to use the jar as the wrapping, I ended up
buying a reusable shopping bag so that she could
open the gift and throw the contents into the bag.
It took me about a week to get almost everything to fit,
so I figured it would be easier this way.  The label and chalk
are Martha Stewart products available at Staples.

The bride-to-be.  : )
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Current Projects/Inspired by Pinterest

It seems like when you get a new house, there is a never-ending stream of projects you want to complete.  We, like most people, have more ideas than funds.  Good thing I've found Pinterest and that we are pretty handy.  : )

 Our house is seriously lacking in the window treatment area.  We did get black-out blinds right away for the kids' rooms so that they would sleep longer--is it too much to ask that they sleep past 6:00 am?!  The rest of the windows are either bare or have temporary paper blinds.

 I thought that I would like some Roman shades for the office, but didn't really want to deal with all the stringing and the hand sewing on of tiny rings.  Plus my office window is quite wide and I wouldn't be able to buy fabric wide enough to cover it without making two matching shades.  Enter Pinterest.  A quick search found numerous tutorials for converting a cheap mini blind into faux Roman shades.  After taking measurements, we headed to Lowes and Jo-Ann.

 While I was unable to find really cheap mini blinds in the widths we needed, we did find not-so-bad customizable width mini blinds.  I also got lucky and found some nice bamboo Roman shades on clearance (cheaper than my office blind project) that will fit my dining room windows.  Hopefully I still like them once I take them out of the packages!

 At Jo-Ann we chose a fabric and got black-out lining so that if need be we can use the room for a guest bedroom and I don't want the slats to show through the fabric.  Also, the back of the mini blind/Roman shade in the tutorials is not very pretty. This is a large window right on the front of my house.  I think if I line the shade with white, the white slats may be less noticeable on the outside of the house.  

 The tutorials I found all just glued the hems in the fabric.  I will be sewing mine because I am not a fan of just gluing a hem.  I will have to wing it a bit since none of the directions include any lining instructions.  They are all glued, after all!  I have about $60 in blinds and fabrics.  Not bad for custom shades for a 5 ft x 6 ft window.

 Here is the fabric we agreed upon:

 The fabric is laying on top of a quilt top I just finished piecing. This was also a Pinterest project.  Here's a link to the instructions.  I was lazy and didn't iron after each seam.  Don't make the same mistake!  My top came out a little wavy.  I know better.

 One more project in the works, besides my ongoing doll clothes piecework projects and cutie pie & me doll clothes, is a pincushion.  I have had my current pincushion for close to twenty years and it is just worn out.  Pins fall out of it if it rolls over--it's a little turtle that's not very balanced.  I want to make one in the "pinnie" style (on Etsy).  However, instead of just stuffing it with fiberfill I want to add some emory to keep my pins sharper and to give it some weight.  I can't find one pre made that I like, so I'm going to have to make one myself.  I'm having a hard time deciding on a pair of fabrics.  A few years ago I bought this fabric to make one.  Since I can't decide on anything different, I will probably just use this fabric and call it good for now.

 Yes, I work very slowly!!  I'll share pictures of these projects as I complete them.
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The Owl Birthday Party

We recently hosted an owl-themed slumber party.  I used Pinterest and Etsy to find inspiration.  My first challenge was to make owl-shaped lollipops.  I found some owl candy molds on eBay and combined several recipes I found online.  I did a trial run using root beer flavoring and brown gel food coloring.  I found that I needed to work much faster at pouring the flavored candy into the molds because I had to reheat it several times in the microwave in order to get all the candy poured out.

 For the party, my daughter wanted hot pink, cherry flavored lollipops.  Here's my process:
Waiting for the sugar/cornstarch/water blend to heat up.  Takes forever (or so it seems)!


Prepared molds, flavoring, coloring, and measuring cup with spout.

Oops, my cherry flavoring mostly dumped on the counter.  Also, I didn't put in enough food coloring because they came out red.  Finally, I had to reheat the mix in the microwave and apparently I got it too hot because the first one in the right tray burnt the cooking spray and came out way darker.  The second one in the right tray was from the same reheat and it came out okay.

After I was done.  I put my candy thermometer onto the paper towel right from the pan and it stuck to the paper towel.  My scraper also stained this time, although it didn't on my trial run with the brown coloring.
Finished lollis.

Gift bags!

I monogrammed washcloths for each of the guests with their favorite colors.  We purchased owl soaps from Elizabeth at Imaginary Bee on Etsy (http://www.etsy.com/shop/ImaginaryBee).  We chose the color and scent.  Elizabeth was fantastic to work with.  I recommend her highly!

Close-up of soap.

We ordered cake pops from Sugar Daddy's, a local bakery as a surprise.  These were so delicious!



We created a follow the clue scavenger hunt for the girls.  After they finished our clues, they had to make a hunt for us.  After we found all their clues, they got the cake pops for a reward.  The extras were bagged and put in the goody bags to take home.

We made bottlecap necklaces and key chains.  Each girl made two necklaces and a key chain.  We had different owl images and customized chevrons with their names for them to choose from.  I purchased the owl images and the customizable chevron images on Etsy.  The necklaces were a kit and so were the key chains, again both purchased from Etsy sellers.




Finally, here are our owl centerpiece and owl cupcakes.  Both ideas were found on Pinterest. You can follow me on Pinterest at this link.


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How To Make a Mattress for the Ana White Farmhouse Doll Bed


Over Memorial Day weekend, my husband and father-in-law made me an American Girl doll bed using the plans available at http://ana-white.com/2010/11/doll-farmhouse-bed.  It sat in our garage at home for a while because our weather this summer was not conducive to painting.

The bed finally got painted and it is beautiful.  Please note that my bed is a little different than the plans show because my woodworkers used beadboard paneling instead of the slats of wood shown in the plan.  Here is the bed.

I wanted the mattress for my bed to look realistic without taking a huge amount of time or money.  I used a regular density (white) foam square from Jo-Ann.  The dimension of the foam is 2" x 22" x 22".        

 I measured the inside dimension of my bed and decided that I wanted the mattress to be 13" x 18.75".  The easiest way to cut thicker foam is to use a straight edge ruler and a serrated knife, such as a bread knife or an electric knife.  You can see that I used a bread knife to cut my foam to 13" x 18.75".
Cut foam with serrated knife

Mattress foam in bed

I found some fabric at Jo-Ann that I thought looked similar to a mattress pattern.  If you want to use similar fabric, it was in the 45" bolted upholstery fabric at my local store.  Here are the steps I took to create the mattress cover.

1.  After you cut out the foam for your bed, cut out a rectangle of fabric that measures 8" bigger on each dimension than your foam piece.  My foam was 13" x 18.75", so I cut out a rectangle that measures 21" x 26.75"  Cut 4 inch squares out of each corner.  

*Note:  If your mattress foam is thicker than 2", the math is similar.  Multiply the thickness by 4 to get your add on number.  Take half of that number to determine the square size to cut out of the corners.  Clear as mud?  Contact me at cutiepieandme@gmail.com if you need help with the math!  I'm happy to help.


Fabric with corner squares cut out
2.  With right sides together, match each corner and sew seam at 1/4".  Serge to prevent fraying.  If you don't have a serger, you can zig zag over the seam or run several lines of stitching close together in the seam allowance.

This photo illustrates how to fold the fabric

You will sew the 4" seam at the bottom of the fabric pictured here.
All four corners sewn
Detail shot of sewn corner
3.  After you have sewn all four corners, you will turn up the hem.  Turn up 1/4" all the way around and press.  Turn up 1/4" again and press.  Stitch close to the folded up edge all the way around.

 * Note:  Be sure to use a temperature that is compatible with your fabric. I had my iron a little too hot for my fabric and it pressed the raised pattern right out of my fabric!  Oops.

Ready to sew hem in place

4.  After your hem is stitched in place, put your mattress cover onto the foam, taking the time to make sure corners are lined up and filled in nicely.  Adjust as needed.

 5.  You are now going to miter the corners and hand stitch them in place.  Use straight pins to hold the fabric in place nicely.  Firmly smooth out one side of one corner.  Try to line up your seam with the edge of the foam.  Pin in place.  Fold up the other edge of the photo to create a nice 45 degree angle.  Make sure the hemmed edges match up.  Adjust as necessary until you are happy with the placement.  Hand stitch miter in place.  Repeat on all four corners.
Pin first side in place
Fold second side into place, creating a tidy miter, and pin
Hand stitch corner in place, making sure to knot thread securely
All four corners hand sewn 
If you are not into hand sewing, you could try sewing elastic around each corner instead, as if you were making a fitted sheet.  I tried that first, but was extremely unhappy with how the heavier fabric gathered.  It was lumpy and just looked sloppy.  So I ripped it out and hand sewed the corners in place.  Voila!  A nice, taut mattress for my bed. Here's the finished mattress:

Next up:  sheets, blanket, and quilt.  Stay tuned!  I will post tutorials for each item as I finish them.




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