Sewing Room Refresh

My office / sewing studio has gotten out of hand.  I am one of those people who cannot work let alone be creative in a room that is cluttered and doesn't function.  Sometimes I feel like no matter how often I clean, the walls are still closing in on me.  I decided that it needed a refresh and a better way to store all my supplies.  Here's a lovely view of how my sewing room was before...

Why did I think an L-shape would work??  So much space is lost in that corner.

While my desk has been working out pretty well, I feel like it's taking up too much space on this wall with all the natural light.

Ok, so this is mid clean-out for this redo, but honestly, it normally doesn't look much better...

Off to Pinterest I went to find some sewing room storage inspiration.  There are so many cleaver ideas out there, but the one that stuck with me was after seeing this image:

Photo from Sew Caroline

Pegboard, the perfect solution!  Now all those things that are cluttering up my precious table top space will be gone!  And I can paint it in a cute shade of turquoise!  Ha, maybe not because I am impatient and want this project finished during my child's nap, so we have 2 hours!

The pegboard was an easy purchase from the hardware store and cuts pretty well with a circular saw (just don't cut thru the little holes unless you enjoy having debris thrown at your face.  Learned that one the hard way.)

We slapped it up on the wall and I just started to hang EVERYTHING I COULD.  I also did some serious decluttering and threw away at least 1 contractor sized trash bag full of half done projects and other random things.  Why did I keep so many empty plastic bags??   I moved my work tables over to the wall that originally had my desk and bookcases.  I ended up losing the smaller bookcase - I just didn't need it or all the things it was holding.

LOVE pegboards, I just may put them all over the house!

Sorry printer, you live on the floor now.

These pieces had to stay in their place, oh and don't mind my intern.

All in all, an easy project, more or less done in 1 afternoon, and under $25 for the pegboard and a hanging kit with all the little hooks and doo dads.





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Baby Clothes!

Sorry for no posts, between being pregnant (and having a baby a month early!) and thus being easily distracted from getting actual work done, I have had little time for anything else.  But when I wasn't working or snoozing or now racing around trying to do laundry (babies go thru a ton of laundry!) I whipped up these little numbers for my baby girl.  The sizing is a little off, but at least she can grow into them.  I am hoping to do a couple of tutorials on these little dresses, but until then, here they are!

The front - monogram in french blue thread.

Pink gingham with bow back.

White Pique with Taupe Appliqué Monogram.

Close-up of monogram.

Purple gingham with pink ruffles.

And the back with a big bow.

Latest creation with the help of Spoonflower and some leftover Lilly lace.

These designs may find their way into my Etsy shop just as soon as I get this whole sizing thing figured out…grow baby grow!

New Product Inspiration!

I’m always looking for cute new ideas for products or monogram styles.  I never have enough hours in the day to create all these wonderful things but a girl can dream!  My Pinterest boards are all over the place, but I’m thinking these next couple of days should be devoted to trying out some new ideas.

1.     New placemat styles – monogrammed of course

These are by Kate Spade and are adorable…and I love stripes!  I’m thinking something similar to this, just two stripes with a monogram would be darling.

Bold patterns and bright monograms.  Perfecto!

2. Something nautical

These shirts come from a sweet little shop on Etsy, Sweet Tea Monograms.  Maybe some flags on cocktail napkins?

 

Ahh so stinkin cute!  And they come in long sleeve...may need to go purchase these.

3. Ah cocktail napkins.  And pom poms. What’s not to love??

4. Pot holders and oven mitts.  Monogrammed, obvi.  Fun fabrics, definitely.  Thanks for the tut A Beautiful Mess!  Check them out for the full instructions.

Have a product idea or something that is lacking a monogram?  I would love to hear about it!

Guest Bedroom Part 2 - Upholstered Headboard

I made a headboard! 

This was a pretty painless project.  The only pain I felt was more of a freaking out sensation as I stapled the first side of the fabric hoping for the best.  I scowered the internet for a quick and easy tutorial but ended up taking advice from a few and winging the rest.  They were all so different and no one had really precise measurements for the headboard or one particular way to hang it on the wall.  Some anchored it using hardware, others built legs…it really all depends on how you will be making up the bed when it’s all finished.  My guest room is not ginormous, so saving space is key – meaning lets mount this thing to the wall!

Ok so I started with one ginormous piece of plywood and cut it down to 4x5 feet.  My queen mattress measures about 60 inches across, and after studying pictures on pinterest I decided I didn’t want much headboard peeking out around the sides.  Also, since I am mounting this to the wall and it’s not standing on it’s own two feet, I decided to go with one of the least expensive types of plywood available.  In the plywood section they had about 15 different kinds, ranging from $12 to $80 a piece. 

 Next step – attach some hanging stuff.  We used 2x4’s for this part because that’s what we had lying around, but you could use something thicker if you wanted.  After cutting to size, we screwed them to the ends of the plywood and then one piece running perpendicular to them in the center (which you don't see because I forgot to photograph...too excited to start stapling!). 

My brother cut the center piece on an angle all the way across so that it’s matching piece or better half could be attached to the wall and they would sit together so nicely like two people holding hands – but instead just two lifeless pieces of wood holding a wonderful headboard.  Make sure to do all the attaching before upholstering.

Upholstery – much easier this time around because squares are great.  I don’t care how that saying goes about “don’t be a square!” or “what a dork, she’s such a square”, you are wonderful squares, as are your cousins the rectangles.

 Base layer is batting.  I bought this in the craft store and the twin size was more than enough for my headboard, and I ended up folding it in half so my headboard is extra fluffy.  Just simply stapled, nothing too fancy, but be aware of how far in your staples are for the second layer. 

Next is the fabric.  Mine is a wide navy and white cabana stripe upholstery weight cotton.  Next time I think I will probably use some white muslin or something underneath just to give it a little more umph.  Freaked out slightly about keeping the stripes on straight but I think it worked out okay.  To keep things flat I always work one side (doesn’t really matter which) and then to the opposite of that one, pulling it tight to keep things from shifting diagonally.

Once it was done we hung it up!  The center wood piece thingie does a great job of distributing the weight and it is not moving at all. 

I haven’t completely finished the room, but here is a sneak peak of how it’s coming so far J

Oh and I needed new monogrammed shams...

Remember this chair??  Still needs a cushion.

Desk Chair Before and After!

So I’ve been looking for a new desk chair, something with arms and upholstered so I could put a bright fabric on it since most of my office is white, and after at shopping one of my favorite flea markets in Atlanta, I stumbled on this little beauty:

I actually got to meet the former owner, well, the former owners granddaughter, who was sitting in the booth trying to play and hold a full size electric guitar.  She was probably all of 6 years old and very sassy.  I liked her and her chair immediately.  In it’s former years, this chair belonged in a dining room and witnessed many dinner parties and bridge games.  Its life is about to be turned around!  Yes, I am giving the chair feelings and a life – just roll with it.

I think I paid around $50 for the chair – I bought a bunch of other things that day and they start discounting with the number of items you buy so I’m not sure the exact amount, but either way, for a sturdy wood chair with a great shape, I thought that was a pretty good deal.

First step is to tear off CAREFULLY all the current upholstery.  I used some small-nose pliers and a flathead screwdriver.  It took some serious elbow grease to get some of those staples out.  Not to mention the last guy who upholstered this chair was seriously staple gun happy!  I probably had to pull out 500 staples.  And that made my fingers hurt – and then I drank a glass of wine.

Millions of staples in there...you can barely see them, but they're there...

I saved all the pieces of fabric – the two arm pieces, the seat, and the two from the back of the chair – two because there is a pad and piece of cardboard type thing to give it a little more support so the fabric will end up sandwiching this part.

Put them in a very safe place – I did not do this at first and someone who shall remain nameless (but photographed here) easily grabbed them and started gnawing at the decades old fibers and fill that were left behind.  Gross.  You are a seriously gross dog.  But very cute, so I shall keep you.

Who me?  

Moving on.  I knew that I wanted the chair to have a completely new look and love the way paint can do that.  So I went out and bought 1 can of Rust-Oleum high gloss paint and primer spray paint in bright white.  It went on like a dream.  I didn’t really need to, but I kept painting layer and layer of paint til the can was empty.  I love shiny – and that is what I got.

Make sure when you decide to paint that you haven’t recently had any rain or are expecting any.  This might seem like a “well duh” tip, but I have done so many projects that never seem to really dry (even after months!) all because it looked sunny outside but was going to rain later that day or night.

Okay, so chair is all pretty and white and now here comes the tedious part – cutting the fabric.  You’ll want to use the fabric that was just taken off as a template, but add a nice size border – like 5-6 inches extra.  I kinda screwed this part up.  I thought giving myself a good 3 inches extra would be enough and it wasn’t.  It doesn’t seem that obvious with the finished product, but would have made a huge difference while upholstering the chair.   Save yourself the headaches and profanities and cut way more than you think you’ll need.

I use a regular hardware store staple gun, the hand powered kind.  I think for my next project I will definitely be looking into those compressed air powered ones.  The only issues I had with my gun was the awkward angle I had to staple.  The staples wouldn’t go in completely flat, so I would have to go back and finish them off with a hammer.  But eventually I got a better feel for it and didn’t have to do that quite as much.  This also would have been smoother with an extra pair of hands.  Pulling the fabric and trying to staple all by your lonesome is tricky.  To keep the fabric tight I always start with some foundation staples at the very front then staple the opposite side that way as you work your way around the chair, the fabric won’t be all wonky and off-center.

To finish off this project I ended up ordering some double-welt piping (since no one sells it in stores and in fact looked at me like I was crazy when I asked for some).  I had worked with the stuff once before and remembered just using my all purpose foot on my sewing machine, and it worked okay this time, but I think in the future I’ll just use this tutorial and make my own double welt cord.

Here is where I got a little bit lazy.  The original piping was held on with staples, but I decided to use hot glue.   Even though it doesn’t adhere to fabric particularly well and will eventually start falling apart, like I mentioned, I got lazy and wanted instant gratification.  I ended up needing about 5 yards of fabric covered piping for the entire chair and I think it really helped finishing it off.  

All in all a pretty good amount of time went into this project.  A day to take it apart, a weekend for painting, a few days to cover, and another afternoon for piping and finishing.  But I love my new chair and the way it turned out.  Especially since something similar would have cost me $450!!!!  That’s just crazy.  

Taa-daa!

Here’s what I spent: 

Chair – Flea Market in Atlanta - $50

Fabric – fabric.com - $12

Paint – Lowes - $6.50

Piping – DIY Upholstery Supply - $3.50

Finishing this has gotten me more pumped for my next project – upholstering a wing chair….any advice or motivational words would be great!!