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Before and After: Loveseat

Today I thought I would show you a little before and after of our loveseat. When I was searching for a loveseat I really only had a few requirements. 1. I wanted white. 2. I wanted it to be a slipcover so I could wash it (see #1). 3. It couldn’t cost an arm and a leg. I didn’t think it would be terribly hard to find something I liked, I mean, the internet is a vast place! I was super close to buying the Karlstad from Ikea but for whatever reason, something was holding me back. I’m not sure what because it’s super similar to what I ended up with :)

And then I found a crazy little mid century modern sofa on Craigslist for $30 and I was sold. But it desperately needed a cover which was perfect because that’s what I wanted anyway. For several months, we just did this:

Not pretty.

Another thing the loveseat lacked was the bottom cushions. But for $60 I got some custom cut online. Sorry, I can’t remember the source but it was great because it told you how to measure for the right fit. So, here is the loveseat in all its before glory…

I originally planned to have the slipcover made by a local upholsterer but they were really busy and it wouldn’t be done for several months. They were able to make the cushions quickly but for the body of the loveseat, I decided to tackle it myself. I took the loveseat to my Mom’s house so I could have another opinion when needed and I spent a couple of days working on it.

Here is a little in progress shot:

One thing the Ikea sofa lacked was piping on all the seams. I really wanted piping but I had never done it before. A little bit of trial and error and some google searching helped me in this area and before you knew it, it was done.

Here is a photo from when we first brought it home:

And here it is today:

And if anyone is interested to know, I spent about $200 and that includes the cost of the loveseat, fabric, cushions, and paying to have the cushions made. And the finished product fits all of my criteria!

Some of you may also be wondering if I like having a white couch. The answer is mostly yes. It’s fine for the two of us but we do have a gray cat. And let’s just say you can always see where she has been sleeping and she has pretty much claimed the left side as her territory. But it’s just fur and it is easily removed. My husband might not agree but I would do it all over again.

For my first experience making a slipcover for a loveseat I’m pretty happy with it. There are a few little errors here and there but I’m probably the only one who would notice them unless you knew where to look. Next time I make one, I think I will tackle the cushions too. Sounds like a fun challenge :)

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Tagged: Before & After, DIY, Sewing

Sewing: Tassel Pillow

Ever since I got a new duvet cover for my bedroom, it has sadly been bereft of throw pillows. The pillows I had been using on the bed no longer worked and I have been slow in replacing them. Recently, I added a new pillow and took one step closer to having it complete. And this new pillow? I love it!!

Just curious, how many of you make your bed everyday? I will admit, I don’t. But my husband does. Why? Because he is seriously awesome… and I’m lazy :) That is probably why I have been so lax on making new pillows. He makes the bed but he doesn’t usually add all of the throw pillows anyway so it’s only when we are having company (or I’m taking photos for the blog) that I take the time to make the bed look complete. On a day to day basis I don’t think about it that much. Last time we had people over, I was frustrated by the incompleteness of it. It just looked kind of sad! That is how this new pillow came to be. And hopefully, there will be more on the way.

I have been super into tassels lately and my bedroom was the perfect place to add some since it needed color. I saw a tutorial on Design Love Fest and pinned it for later. That pin came in handy when I went to tackle this project a few weeks ago. Tassels are easy to make and so instead of making them for just the four corners, I decided to add a bunch of them to two sides of the pillow. So first, I made a bunch of tassels using the tutorial in different colors of embroidery floss. Then, I laid them out in what order I wanted them to go in.

I used some bias tape to attach them together and then hand sewed the tassels to it.

Once that was complete, I made the pillow. The measurements I used were 12″ x 18″. When I got to the sides where the tassels would go, I just sewed the bias tape right into the seam. Super simple!

The fabric is from Joann’s and it’s by Dwell. Really, this project looks harder than it is, it was super simple. I promise!! Just make your millions of tassels while you are watching TV :)

One step closer to a completed bed set. I will get there. Just in time to change it up again! Haha!

It’s really bothering me that I didn’t adjust the lampshade to make it straight before I took this photo. Oh well…

A funny side note. I made this pillow 2 or 3 weeks ago. Just yesterday I saw this sheet set at Anthropologie. I don’t remember seeing it before. That doesn’t necessarily mean I didn’t, I just don’t remember it. I thought it was funny that I made pretty much the same thing without meaning to. So if you don’t want to go to all the trouble of making one, you could buy something similar at Anthro.

One down… a few more to go :)

And speaking of pillows… doesn’t this one from Urban Outfitters remind you of the recent pillow I made for my living room?! I think so :)

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Tagged: DIY, Sewing, Tutorials

Sewing: Pillow From A Jacket

Whew! Last week was ca-razy! We had a women’s retreat at church on Friday and Saturday which meant I was working on it all week last week. I kept hoping I would be able to sneak in some time for blogging but the week was packed. This week, I’m still trying to get my head on straight but I am getting there :) I should have some photos to share with you soon of the party and how I decorated it. With all the recent hustle and bustle, I’m kind of glad there is a holiday tomorrow! That means we can just veg out. Ahhh… How great that sounds!

It’s been a couple of week ago now but I made a pillow for my living room out of a jacket. I mentioned in a Thrift Finds post a while back that I found a cool jacket that I wanted to turn into a pillow and I finally got around to doing it. I forgot to take a before photo of the jacket so I took a picture of it afterwards, once I had already cut out the back, but you get the idea. Here it is…

When I saw it at Goodwill I immediately loved the pattern but I knew that it was something I would never wear. I have been wanting a pattern like this for my living room though, so it came home with me. When I’m thrifting I always look at clothes for the fabric as well as for something to wear. If you see a skirt or jacket with fabric you like, it might just work for a sewing project :)

And the after… I don’t usually crowd chairs by putting a million pillows on them but I really liked the graphic punch of the pattern with the stripes. Plus, no one really sits there anyway :)

I gave it a bit more pizzazz by adding some velvet trim that I had been saving for just the perfect project. Turns out, this was the one and I really like the added color it provides.

Not bad for a $4 jacket!

All this talk of thrifting makes me want to go find some more treasures. And I think I shall!

I hope you all have a safe and happy 4th of July! As usual, I’m spending my holiday evening at the lake and I excited for it. In my opinion, the only cure for the heat of the South is a lake or a pool. And I have every intention of enjoying myself and staying cool :)

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Tagged: Before & After, DIY, Sewing

Sewing: Double Sided Napkins

Whew! What a busy week it has been around here! Remember how I told you I am redoing our windows outside? Well, it has been quite the project and I have been working on it non stop. Which has caused any other fun projects to fall by the wayside. This week I was especially working against a deadline because I had to remove all the panes in the large window in the kitchen. For 3 days we didn’t have any glass in our window. We kept covering it with plastic through the night to hopefully keep out the bugs. Once the panes were removed, I had to clean up the window, prime the frame, and put them back in. I thought putting them back in would be the easy part. Oh no. I was having trouble putting the glazier’s points back in place without breaking the glass. Not to mention I had already broken some panes while taking them out, now I was breaking them when replacing them. I ended up breaking 10 panes out of 24 and had to order some new glass. We are now waiting on the last four panes to be cut to size and we will pick them up and I can install them. And I hope I don’t break anymore :) Thankfully, glass is cheap. What a project this has turned into! Good news though, this should be the only window that I actually have to remove the panes from. This particular window had mildew under the glass which is why I had to remove them all so I could clean it up. None of the other windows have that problem. I am so thankful for that or I would start to feel very discouraged. Instead, I am envisioning how nice it will all look when it is done :)

Today is the first day all week I have taken a break from my window project. You can imagine how dirty the house was (especially the kitchen) after a week of sanding and paint scraping. So today was house cleaning day. It’s probably one of the few times that cleaning was fun. It allowed me to put my project on pause and boy was I ready for a break! So now that the house is on its way to being clean, I figured I would blog and try and get caught up here too.

Enough rambling… let’s move forward onto more exciting topics. Like napkins. Surely that is more exciting, right?!

Several weeks ago I saw some napkins at Target that were double sided. I thought they were so cute and I couldn’t get them out of my mind so I decided to make some of my own (big surprise!). I gathered some fabrics from my sewing room and got to work. I figured I would make it easy and keep them small. I made the pattern 12 x 12 and used a scrapbook paper as a template.

I cut out squares from each of my fabrics using my pinking shears, cutting 2 different fabrics for each napkin.

Next, I placed them in pairs, right sides together and sewing around all four sides except for a few inches in the middle on one side. You can kind of see it in the photo where I left it open.

Then I snipped the corners and turned it right side out and ironed it flat.

Lastly, I ironed the opening to match the rest of it and then sewing all around the outside, sewing the opening shut. Super easy, right?!

I wanted to use lots of different prints for fun. Look how cute they are!

Stripes and florals together are wonderful.

Since they are double sided, when I create a place setting I want both sides to show. Here is how I used them. Fold the bottom up first…

Then flip it over and fold one side over.

Then fold the other side over and flip it back to the front.

Ta-da! You have created a little pocket for the silverware. And, even better, you can show off both patterns at the same time.

I think they all look pretty cute :)

I have already used them when we had some friends over last week. And the best part is, since none of them match, it’s easy to add more to my collection if I end up needing more than 8. Even though I completely adore stripes, I think my favorites are the floral on floral. So fun!

And that concludes my week. One of these days I will get around to posting my Instagram photos again. I sort of can’t believe it’s been so long since I’ve posted them. I haven’t even been taking very many of them lately. I guess when you are doing the same thing every day (i.e. scraping paint), there isn’t much new to report :)

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend. I know I will because I am taking the whole weekend off from my windows. I’m not even going to think about them :) Haha!

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Tagged: DIY, Sewing, Tutorials

New Potholders

Way back in 2008, I made a bunch of potholders for my kitchen. Does anyone remember that? I loved them. I used Amy Butler fabric and they were great. In fact, I had so much fun doing it that I made some coasters out of the same fabric. Well, fast forward 4 years to the present and those potholders aren’t looking so good anymore. In fact, they got kind of nasty. They have burn marks and food marks and are kind of lumpy. Ya, not so pretty anymore. After all, it has been 4 years. How long is a potholder supposed to last anyway?!

Here is an example of one of the sad potholders:

Gross, right? And this is actually one of the good ones :) I think I need to do something about this. Agreed?

Yay for pretty new potholders! I went to Hobby Lobby and bought my supplies. This time I used patterned cotton duck so it was a little bit thicker and hopefully will hold up a bit longer.

I didn’t really care if they matched anything because at our house they just hide out in a drawer and only come out when something is hot.

I kept them pretty simple with just a basic pattern and basic stitching. In no time at all I had 8 potholders done. I bought 1/3 of a yard in 4 fabrics. I had a bit left over so I made some little coasters that matched.

The potholders are great… but the coasters are just so cute :)

And when you flip them over, you get to see even more of the cute patterns. I love them :)

So, I made 8 potholders and 5 coasters (I could make a few more coasters but I ran out of time that day) and the grand total was only $9. If I had bought potholders at the store I probably could have only bought 2. Not bad for an hour or so of work :) Plus, I made them just in time because we bought new pots and pans this past week and now I have shiny new pans to go with my pretty new potholders! Love :)

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Tagged: DIY, Sewing