Fireplace Makeover: Part 2

On Monday I left you with something that looked like this...

Not what I would consider a visual improvement to the green granite we started with {safer? Yes! Prettier? Not yet!}

That is when I came swooping in {I left James to build while I went to the fabric store} and started sewing.

{What we did}

How to: Cover the Facade
{one} Cover the facade in batting. To do this I cut pieces and wrapped the facade and used a staple gun to hold it into place {ok... and a little duct tape}

{two} Cut your fabric to size: This is where you are sort of on your own because every fireplace is different. However, if you are lucky you will have just a simple rectangle box to cover and not some crazy lopsided U shape thing... but I digress! I was fortunate in the fact that for the top piece I purchased upholstery fabric {which I am in love with. Seriously, I swooned when I saw this} that was just wide enough that we were able to cut a {lopsided} U shape piece and consequently not have to deal with seams for the top piece. For the side pieces {in brown, duck-cloth by the way} I cut three rectangle pieces to cover each side. I also cut long strips of the orange.

Sophia posing on our upholstery fabric before we cut into it!

{three} Sew: I cut our three brown pieces together and also used the orange to create some piping.
{four} Pin it up: I pinned our piping to our topper and pined the brown fabric to the piping and them slipped it over the top of our facade to make sure that it fit properly... IT DID!
{five} Sew: Then I sewed up all the pined sides and slipped it onto our facade

{six} Lastly we took our staple gun and pulled the fabric tightly around the back and stapled it in place. For the staples that did not go in nicely, we hammered those in.

Once we put it into place, we let our biggest critic test it out... Thank goodness, she approved!

Added bonus! I had enough leftover upholstery fabric that I was able to make three throw pillows for our living room also.

So just to remind you, here is the before and after. It is functional and pretty: Win/win!

Reusable Grocery Bags

Starting October 15th, Portland will be banning the use of plastic bags at grocery stores. The hope is that it will help the environment and reduce the hazards that these bags cause on marine life. Those that passed the ban {and those in favor of it} also hope that it will be an incentive for shoppers to bring their own reusable bags to the store with them {the ban only keeps grocers from using plastic bags, paper bags are still available to customers}. 


James' Grandma's birthday is coming up, and as I was brainstorming ideas for what to do for her, this {soon-to-be} ban was brought to my attention. I figured making her some reusable produce and grocery bags would be such a great and practical gift since she lives in the city. 


I threw around the idea of using one of my reusable bags as a pattern, but I found a great pattern at JoAnn's that was cute and different, and decided that using that would be a better idea {and cause much less grief than going at it alone}. I used this See & Sew Butterick pattern. 

It really was very easy, just like the pattern says! The most difficult part was the bias tape. Am I the only one that can not, for the life of me, sew a straight line when I am sewing bias tape! OYE! To cover up my less than perfect seem, I used a decorative hem on my sewing machine... it turned out super cute and actually made me really happy that my first hem came out *ahem* less then straight. 


After I sewed the grocery bag, I decided to also make some cute produce bags but I was having a hard time deciding how I wanted them to look. I threw around the idea of making them out of mesh fabric, but I happened to find a yard of muslim in the remnant bin and decided to just do that instead.


Once I got home I just started cutting... seriously! I went into making the produce bags with NO IDEA how I wanted them to look or what size I wanted them to be. 

The first bag I cut ended up being about the same size as a standard plastic bag you get on the produce aisle. I did the embellishment BEFORE I sewed the bag together. To do the embellishment I cut a long strip of my leftover flower fabric and sewed up the middle using the longest stitch on my machine. Then to ruffle it I carefully pulled the bottom thread. Once I got the right amount of ruffle I pinned it down in a big letter P {the P is for his Grandma's last name, but it also could stand for produce, since that is what will go in there}. I sewed the P in place with my sewing machine {word to the wise... when sewing your ruffle into place the quicker you sew the better your ruffle will stay evenly ruffled. If you go to slow, the machines foot will push the ruffle out of your material}. Next I sewed up the side and the bottom right side out, and then put it inside out, pressed it, and sewed again {making a french seam}. Lastly, I sewed the top by making a little pocket for the cording by folding the top over twice and sewing close to the edge... you know what I mean, right? Then I added the cording by attaching the end to a safety pin and sliding it through the pocket. 

The second bag I made is a bread/baguette bag. This bag is actually the exact same size of fabric as the produce bag, except I folded the material the hotdog way versus the hamburger way. I also added the ruffle before sewing it together. I did the ruffle the same way as before, but instead did a little stripe of the flower fabric. 


These bags turned out so cute, that I was very tempted to keep them for myself and just bring his Grandma some flowers for her birthday!

The wrapping turned out to cute that I had to share as well. I folded and wrapped all three bags in tissue paper, and then cut two large rectangles a little bigger than the biggest wrapped bag. 

I sewed up three sides of the brown paper, put the three folded bags inside, and then sewed up the fourth side {be careful that your paper is big enough that when you sew up the final side, you don't accidentally sew into your gift}. 

Lastly, I made a cute bow out of the leftover scraps {I attached the bow to a hair clip and stuck the clip through the paper to get it to stay}. 

Then I made a card out of some leftover ruffle and card stock.  To finish the card off, I sewed a leaf pattern to hold the two pieces of card stock together, and attached the card to the gift with the bow!

I even made a bow for Soph's hair to match. This bow took about 10 minutes, from start to finish. And all that was required was a clip, hot glue and fabric... THAT'S IT!!!! 


Easy+adorable= winning combination! 


Check back Wednesday for a tutorial of how I made the bow for her hair!


I linked up to Someday Crafts... go check it out for even more inspiration!

Didja miss me?!

So, what is my lesson learned from the past week? DO NOT CLICK ON ANYTHING on my computer that I am not positive is not filled with the funk that will cause my laptop to go coo coo la roo! Luckily Rachelle has enough fabulous ideas for the both of us because my laptop was down with an awful virus and the desktop and my camera were not trying to connect with each other. Lesson learned :) Thanks Sis for taking such fantastic care of our new {blog} baby!



Okay, enough of that and on to craftiness!!! We went camping this last weekend {a disaster btw, story to come in a few days} and I decided {luckily because I NEEDED it} that this was the PERFECT time to make a blanket that I had been wanting to make to take with us. Turned out it was super simple to make and was just right for the excitement that we will refer to as "camping" in later posts ;)


Supplies needed:
2 sheets
yep, that's it! Dig around in the closet for two that are the same size. Even better, dig around in your mom or grandma's closet because more than likely there is a surplus of sheets and they have been washed and loved to perfection! I am sure your local thrift store is full of tons of lovelies just waiting to come home with you at a wonderful price. I chose two that did not any sort of match {cause that is just how I am I suppose} and one of mine was a nice lightweight cotton and the other a super soft {pre-loved} flannel.

[fyi, these sheets happen to be twin sized. This seemed to be just right for just me and my kids have been using it to snuggle up with in the evening and it is a great size for them also]




I laid both of my sheets on my living room floor, right sides together, and pinned them all the way around. I left a good foot long section open to flip it right side out when I was done sewing it. Before I flipped it out, I snipped off the the corners so there would not be big bulges when I flipped it. Then I flipped it right side out and sewed all along the top with just a basic straight stitch.

[world's worst picture! sorry! you can sort of see the top stitch that I did... new camera got here this week, picture quality HAS to go up ;)]

Here it is all done. I may go ahead and add little knots all over it. Not because it needs it, I just happen to think the little knots are cute. But I sorta love it just as is!

[kitty loves it too and he would prefer that I did not take his photo showing so :)]



That's it! Easy enough, right? I am thinking of making these for each of my kids for Christmas. We are a bit of blanket obsessed in this house, but living in Southern California does not really require us to have heavy blankies often. Have fun and let us know if you make one!

Oh Baby! Bedding

I told my friend Patti that I would help her sew some crib bedding for her baby boy, Everett {even though I, myself, have never actually sewed crib bedding... ever}. A few weeks ago she came over and we did the fitted sheet, which was so surprising easily! So, when I headed over to her house the other day to sew the crib skirt and blanket, I was going into it thinking, "piece of cake, this won't take long". Fast forward 6 hours later and my tune had changed quite a bit. Oh.my.word! Sewing stuff like that is a time consuming and tricky little endeavor. I had high hopes for doing this cute little tutorial on how to do it, but about 5 minutes into the project I realized that this was not something I was ready to take on. So, I decided to keep the sewing tutorials to the "professionals" {for now anyway}. 


Here is the tutorial we used for the crib skirt, the blanket, and the crib sheet {we made a few modifications to fit our needs but in an effort to keep this post simple I am not going to include those...)


I will leave you with a few tips {also known as stuff I wish I would have known/thought through BEFORE starting this project}:


{one} Unless you are an expert sewer, don't use a accent color as your thread choice {unless you want every.single.mistake you make on display for all to see... from across the room}


{two} If your sewing machine is not working correctly check to make sure that everything is threaded correctly FIRST {don't start taking apart the whole machine, only to realize your thread was not on correctly.... and then only to realize you are not quite sure how to put the machine back together}


{three} Measure two {or three or four} times before you cut your fabric...


{four} Have fun and don't take it all so seriously! Sewing is supposed to be fun. So grab a friend and some good music and have at it. It's not supposed to be perfect, it's handmade {and rustic}


{five} You are your own worst critic. No one will most likely notice the crazy "Z" you made when you were sewing, so don't point it out everyone that comes over (that one was for you Patti). 


HAPPY SEWING!