Things I Can Actually Sew II

Anther post!  I love Christmas break!  Alright, so my my first installment of novice sewing tutorials was pretty popular so I thought I would do a part II with some more projects that I have taken on recently.

First of all I would like to share some sew-in labels that I made with my Silhouette Portrait.  Some time ago I made these iron on labels.

I decided that I needed some sew-in labels for things like scarves and smaller items.  I used the sketch feature and the same font on the sew-in labels and then put a simple dashed border around the words. I then reflected the image so that when I folded the labels the words would be printed on both sides.  Here they are on some of my burp clothes. 

I have been kind of crazy with the burp clothes lately but I want to have a supply on hand for when I find out that someone is having a baby

I have found that pretty much every fabric looks cute as a burp cloth!

The first tutorial that I tried was a king crown.  I teach music at a Christian school and a Nativity pageant is a part of my big Christmas program every year.  A few years ago, one of my students stepped on the plastic crowns for the wise men and broke them.  I decided to replace them with felt crowns.

I used this tutorial from the blog Small Things.

The tutorial tells how to insert elastic into the crowns but I wanted to make them really adjustable since I will have different kids playing the wise men each year.  I decided to put velcro on the backs.

I then added some glittery gold trim along the bottom and some plastic gems.  They looked so cute on my wise men this year! I am looking forward to using them for many years to come.

Next up is actually a sewing project that I created sans tutorial.  My classroom gets super dusty and my xylophones would be covered in dust no matter how many times I dusted.  My cooperating teacher for my student teaching had some adorable dust covers for her xylophones and I wanted to create some for mine.  I couldn't find a tutorial online so I decided to make it up.  I looked at a few tutorials for ironing board covers since the idea is basically the same.  I did have process pictures but since this project was actually completed this summer, they were lost with my old mac book.

Basically, I measured the tops of my xylophones with the bars on, added about 2 inches on each side to the dimensions and then made a casing for elastic.  Super simple and super cute.  Oh and I suppose I should share some pics of my classroom while I am on this subject.

The color scheme in my classroom is orange, blue, and brown.  Also, I am obsessed with owls so you can find them throughout my classroom.  The only thing you can't see from these pictures is the front of the room where I have my two white boards (one lined and one not) and my piano.

The third sewing project that I want to share is a tutorial for napkins.  This is my kind of project because it involves straight lines which I am good at sewing most of the time.  The only tricky part was the mitered corners but I found a couple of tutorials that made it super simple.  The first method that I tried was from the blog No Big Dil found here.  The second one that I tried and the one that was easier for me was from a blog that has an expired domain name but it involved pressing and then trimming the corners and pressing the corners and then the edges to create the mitered corner.  I included the first tutorial because you might find that one easier.

I made two sets of napkins from some fabric that I found.  So easy and so classy.

I may actually get one more post in before this break is up.  My husband and I are hosting our third NYE party so I hope to write a post with some decorating and food ideas.  We'll see what happens.

Three Big Future Projects

I have been posting some small projects since my completion of the furniture and walls in our bedroom but I do have some more large projects in mind.  Here is a look at three of those projects, my ideas for the completion of them, and a timeline for when I want to complete them.  I hope this post keeps me accountable and inspires me to get on them.

First up is my craft closet.  Right now this closet is a giant disaster.

So this closet may have functioned as a clothes closet for the previous owners.  It actually had another rod that was mounted about a foot under the other one.  I removed that one so that I could hang that shelf thing that is attached to the rod.  The bottom photo shows the disaster area floor. This closet does not work for me at all the way it is configured.  It needs shelves and I found a website that can cut wire shelving to custom lengths that charges by the foot.  I think it will be a cost effective solution for this space.  Here are some other ideas that I have found on Pinterest.

From Craftholics Anonymous courtesy of Lina from Fancy Frugal Life

I like the fabric storage idea in the above picture.  I also like the spray painted spool holder, so cute!

From Craptastic

Here is another cute idea for spool storage.

From Sew Many Ways...

I love the idea of using tension rods for ribbon storage.  It is so cute and so functional.

This idea came from the blog Mad in Crafts

This is a great idea for storing craft paint.  I even have some of these wire cube shelves lying around my house!

From Overthrow Martha

I love this idea for storing vinyl for my Silhouette Portrait.

From Fake-It-Frugal

Using contact paper without removing the backing is a clever way of covering wire shelving.

I hope to complete this project by March because I need to have better storage in order to continue completing projects for this blog!

My next big project will be refinishing my dining room table and chairs.  The purchase of new chairs for the ends of my table has fueled my desire to move this project up on my priority list.  I have been eying some dining chairs from Pier 1 for quite a long time.  They were a splurge for me but thanks to a Christmas gift from my father-in-law and a 20% off total purchase coupon from Pier 1, I decided to take the plunge and buy them. Here they are in the dining room.

I love the purple and gold damask on the backs.  The purple is even richer in person.  Just ignore the cat hair in the bottom photo.  My cat definitely approves of these chairs!

My plan for my beautiful table (which was a Craigslist score) is to stain it a little bit darker brown, like the legs of my new chairs.  I also would like to make 2 more leaves for the table.  The table came with three leaves but 2 of them were made by the previous owners of the table and were warped.  I would like to find a fabric that coordinates with my new chairs to recover the pads of my other chairs.  I'm thinking a dark purple or maybe a gold fabric.  I would like to start this project sometime in the spring.

My third project is the largest of them all.  Remember how I have this lovely floor in my bedroom.  

Well the rest of the upstairs besides the bathroom has this ugly, old carpet.  

I've pulled up some loose corners and there is definitely the same floor as our bedroom under there.  I want to pull it all up and refinish the wood floors.  This project definitely won't happen until this summer since it will take some significant time and will require open windows to air the floors out as they are being finished.  This project makes me the most nervous.  But I was nervous about the kitchen tile and that turned out fabulous so here's hoping it will go well.

Next up on the blog will be a post about some sewing project that I have been working on lately.  It will be part 2 of my popular blog post: Things I Can Actually Sew.

Christmas Card Display Frame

Well it is officially Christmas break.  I am so excited to have 2 weeks off after 2 busy weeks filled with two big Christmas concerts, a piano recital, and a tour with my 4th and 5th grade choir.  I am so proud of how all my students performed but I am definitely in need of this break.

The break means that I have some time to complete some projects as well as share some that have already been completed.  Last weekend I made a simple Christmas card display out of a frame, some spray paint, and some ribbon that I had lying around the house.  In the past, I have taped Christmas cards to the inside of our front door but after seeing a few different ideas for displaying Christmas cards on Pinterest, I thought I would create something cute of my own.

I started with an open frame that I bought at 50% off at Michael's.  I was originally going to paint it gold with the Vintage Gold Martha Stewart paint that I had leftover from my armoire project.  But I thought about my lovely aqua walls in the living room and knew that I had to paint it bright red.  I love the combo of red and aqua!  So I picked up a $5 can of red Valspar spray paint at Lowes.

I then applied 3 thin coats of the spray paint to the frame and stuck it on our porch to off gas.

Then I gathered some ribbon that I had laying around (most of the time I buy ribbon on clearance when I am at craft stores so I always have a nice supply on hand).  I used a glue gun to attach the ribbon pieces to the back of the frame.

And here is what it looks like in that corner of the room.

I found some cute mini clothes pins at Hobby Lobby which I used to hang the cards on the ribbons. There are a few more cards on there now. Have a Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope to have a few more posts up before my two week break is finished.