Holly's Room

I have this dear friend who is having a sweet baby girl due next month.  She picked out the Penelope crib set from Pottery Barn for the theme and my mom and I couldn't help but ask, "Can we help you decorate the room?"  She couldn't wait to get started!  Yay!  So, I found this sweet little bird pattern on spoolsewing.com, printed it out, and RAN to Joann's to get started.  I let my friend come, too.  We picked out green and white polka dot, yellow and white stripe, light pink with bright pink and green dots, and pink madras fabrics.  We also picked up every variation they had of the little bird houses that were $1 each.  I cut out three birds from each fabric and had plenty left over.  I sewed up the little birdies, mixing the fabrics for four of the birds and matching the fabrics for eight of the birds. 

A couple of hints:  Pin!  Like a ton!  I pinned the bottom to the top sides at the same time and sewed starting at one end of the tail, going up to the point, and then back down to the other end of the tail.  Then, I cut the threads and pinned the head part together.  I started sewing from the point at the top of the bottom pieces, and sewed up to the point at the beak, pulled the thread and cut it.  Then, I started a new line at the same point.  That way, I could hold on to the threads as I started my seam and the tiny little beak didn't get eaten inside my sewing machine.  I sewed up and around to the fold, backstitched and cut.  The pattern doesn't say anything about clipping curves and corners, but I did and it helped the bird fill out much better.  Also, be sure to poke out the beak when turning it right side out. 

We stuffed the birds, using chopsticks and stir sticks.  We hand sewed buttons on the birds for eyes and then I sewed along the curve of the tail to stitch them shut, about 1/4 away from the end.  I did this on my machine to save time.  Then, we pulled the threads of the fabric to create a frayed tail feather look.  I experimented with folding in the tail and sewing, but it never lied flat.  I liked the frayed look much better.

Next, we had nine bird houses to paint.  We did them all in colors from the bed set plus a little lavender.  We put dots on some, stripes on others, vines on one, butterfly stickers on another, and had an overall fabulous time making a mess and laughing at each other's ability, or inability, to paint.

Then, we moved on to the flowers.  We were going to make pom pom flowers, but decided that we wanted something more delicate.  We found this flower tute with tiny little bubble flowers and got to cuttin' and wrapping.  We didn't have a Styrofoam ball, so we used a bouncy ball.  When twisting the ends of the tissue paper around the ball, start twisting at the end, not closest to the ball and twist slow or the tissue will rip.  We also put a few of the petals inside each other and hot glued them together to look like blossoms.

My mom's awesome friend, Lori, decluttered the forest in her backyard to supply us with the most amazing branches.  We sprayed them with bleach and dish soap and water to kill any creepy crawlies that might have still been lingering. 

Are you bored, yet?  No, excellent!  Let's keep going.  While at Joann's, I found an adorable little clothes hook with birdies on it, but it was missing a hook.  It was originally $20, on clearance for $8, but because it was missing a hook, I got it for $4!  My mom painted a little wooden flower embellishment white, pink, and green and we hot-glued it over the hole.  Done!

Lastly, while on a trip to the Goodwill (I love finding steals in there), we found a picture frame/memory board made by Hallmark for $9.98.  It was all dinged up and scratched in a few places and two of the buttons on the memory board portion were missing, so we convinced them to give it to us for $1.98.  We dismantled it, pulled the rest of the buttons out, and threw away the ribbon.  My mom took it outside and smacked it with a hammer, gauged it in a few places, and then I sanded some edges and the front in a few places.  Then, my mom rubbed some pink paint over the frame and then wiped it off.  Very shabby chic!  I replaced the old ribbon with some new bright pink and green striped ribbon.  I used some of the leftover fabric to create new fabric-covered buttons.  I marked new holes and punched through the mdf.  I looped some thread from the back of the MDF through the front, through the button hole, and through the MDF to the back again.  Because of the big hole, I couldn't tied my thread tight and make a small knot.  So, I pulled the thread tight and used packing tape to secure the threads on each side of the hole.  It worked great.  We reassembled the frame and it looked amazing.

Yesterday was the big decorating day, at last!  We decided we hated the current lampshade and I figured out a way to redo it.  We cut the linen off of the metal hoops on the top and bottom and pulled it off of the plastic lining that was on the inside of the lamp.  I took the last of the fabric scraps, cut it into 8 pieces and hot-glued them to the plastic liner, leaving a good-sized amount of overlap on the top and bottom of the liner.  Then, I hot-glued the small metal hoop to the inside rim of the liner.  I put a line of glue along the fabric about 1/2 inch above the rim.  I pulled the fabric taut and over the rim.  I pushed it against the liner until it cooled.  I continued with each piece of fabric all the way around the rim.  Then I trimmed off the excess fabric.  I did the same thing with the bottom rim.  The back wasn't pretty, but hey, it's the back.  We placed it on the birdhouse lamp base and voila! 

My dad (thanks Dad!) attached some beautiful branches to the wall in the corner with nails and wire.  We used hot glue to attach the flowers and stuffed birds to the tree branches.  We hung a few birdhouses and added some sweet touches to the hutch and shelf.  We hung up the frame/memory board, the little rack, a beautiful mirror, and a cute shelf in a collage.  We were done!  The room looks amazing!  Here are the pics for your viewing pleasure, but they just don't do the room justice.  Sometimes, pictures can't capture the real beauty of things.  Anyway, enjoy!

Bottom Line:

• fabric for birds, lampshade, and buttons-$6 at JoAnn Fabric with coupons
• wooden birdhouses-$1 each x 9=$9 at JoAnn Fabric
• button covers-$2.50 at JoAnn Fabric with coupon
• frame/memory board-$2 at Goodwill
• Birdie hook-$4 at JoAnn Fabric (60% off, plus 50% off that for damage)
•  Tissue paper-$5 at Target

 Grand Total=less than $30 for an

entire room makeover!

Bug's Swim Robe-Aarrgghh!

So, I fell in love with Dana's newest pattern-the beach robe and couldn't wait to get started on one for bug.  Target was having a sale on their towels (oh darn), so I bought two; one for now and one for later.  The color I fell in love with was this bright fiery orangish-red that I thought would look fabulous with the pirate fabric I used to make his wipes case.

I brought it home, cut it up and got to work.  Turns out that I suck at pattern placement because I didn't have enough for the tie.  Luckily, I had some white terry cloth left from some burp cloths I had made and used that.  I loved Dana's pic of the robe with the striped seersucker tie and thought that to add a little more color and flair (No, the bright flaming orange was NOT enough color or flair), I could use the pirate fabric on the tie, as well.  I cut two strips 27 1/2 inches long each, then sewed them together at the ends, right sides facing with a 1/4 inch seam, making my total length 54 inches.  I did the same thing with the white terry.  I pinned my terry strip and my fabric strip together, wrong sides facing, down the middle just to keep the two together while I pinned and sewed on the bias tape.  By the way, if anyone out there knows how to nicely sew bias tape around corners, I would greatly appreciate the advice!  I was going to make it long-sleeved, until of course I realized how very little towel I had left to work with and opted to go with short sleeves.  However, I liked the idea of the sleeves still being cuffed.  So, I drew a line one inch below the large-sized robe's short-sleeved line (That makes sense, right?), even though bug's robe is a medium and cut there.  Then I thought, why stop with a fabric lined hood and tie?  Why not line the cuffs with it, too?  And so, I did.  That was a whole lot of trial and error?  Why, you ask? I'm not sure, either.  I originally cut the sleeve fabric by measuring 2 1/2 inches up from the bottom of the sleeve pattern, drawing a straight line there and cutting.  But, and you'll love this, I cut the fabric so that it was right side up.  That's right, right?  Um, no!  Once you roll the cuff up, the fabric would be upside down!  Okay, take two!  Put the sleeve pattern on the fabric so that the fabric is upside down.  Great!  Ah crap!  If only I had remembered that it was supposed to be cut on the fold.  Take three!  Success!  Now, I took one fabric sleeve piece and pinned it right side out to the wrong side of the terry sleeve, lining up the bottom raw edges.  Before I pinned the top fabric edge, I folded it over about 3/8, so the raw top edge of the fabric would be sewn under.  I sewed straight across the bottom and straight across the top of the fabric, using a 3/8 in seam allowance on the bottom, as Dana's pattern calls for, and 1/4 in seam allowance on the top, catching the raw edge, sort of like hemming.  I knew the bottom seam would be encased in bias, so I didn't zigzag stitch it.  Then, I sewed the first sleeve on and it looked awesome.  I folded up the cuff to make sure I had figured correctly (maybe I should have done that before attaching to the robe? Nah!) and was relieved to discover I had.  Yay me!  Now, where did the other sleeve go?  Two days and no found sleeve later, I rummaged through my tiny terry scraps and found a piece that would work, mostly.  It's a tad bit short, but I think I can make it work!  That was until I sewed it on, zigzag stitched, trimmed the excess seam allowance, only to discover that I had sewn it inside out.  Awesome!  I ripped out the seam as carefully as a tired angry woman can at two in the morning when dealing with fuzzy, hide the thread terry cloth and began to repin.  It was a bit difficult fitting the too small sleeve in the armhole the first time.  Now with 1/2 in less to work with?  Oy!  Let's just say the robe will fit bug fine to age three...If I make it a tank robe!  But, for now on his tiny little arms in the perfect light on a foggy day with one eye closed and the other one squinted, it looks great!  I ran out of enough bias tape on one pack to do the whole robe, so I decided, in all my sewing wisdom, to just do the edge of the hood.  Wait, you might be saying!  I thought Dana's tute said to line the whole robe, sans the sleeves and the tie, at the same time, giving you a continuous professional line?  Yeah, it does, and if I had read the directions as carefully as I should have, apparently, I would have known that.  I didn't and so I don't have one continuous professional line.  Details!  It all came together pretty darn adorable, even with all my gross mishaps, and bug loves it.  He wants to wear it as soon as we put his suit one.  He doesn't quite grasp the whole, "It's to put on AFTER you get wet, baby," concept.  I love that it stays on and he stays warm, instead of hitting the floor 5 seconds after I wrap him up and watching him toddle all goosebumped and with a bluish hue around the yard.  He loves that it allows him plenty of wiggle room for such manly things as mowing the lawn.  He's very busy, my boy; too busy to be bothered being wrapped up like a burrito until he dries.  Thank you, Dana and your swim robe for making one momma happy and one boy warm!

Bottom Line:

• Towel-$4.00 at Target
• Bias Tape-$2.50 x 3=$7.50-40%(coupons!)=$4.50 at JoAnn Fabrics
• Fabric for linings-$1.50 at Walmart                                                                                                                   Grand Total=$10