Armoire project

I finally found an armoire on craigslist that would fit perfectly in my sewing room. I'm excited to sand it down (or strip the paint) and put a new coat of paint on this baby!

There is no glass on the doors and so I've been browsing pinterest to get some ideas. I might use chicken wire to cover the doors and paint something beautiful in the back. Or I might use wainscoting to add texture and closure.

New hardware is needed and I would LOVE my husband to help me with adding some nice wood trip to the top. After he did our fireplace I'm sure he could do it :) I'll have to see if he's on board with my plan.

I just need to figure out a color for this and my sewing table. Paint color for the whole room might also be in the plans . . . oh man, this might be a lot of work.

Here's to a fun project ahead. I hope to get it done sooner and later. I have all kinds of things that need a home (i.e. need to de-clutter my sewing room).

Charlie Brown Framed

A few months ago my mother in-law sent my son a paper Charlie Brown. He loved it! He wanted to carry it around everywhere. I however didn't want him to ruin it. I loved it and loved seeing how much he enjoyed having Charlie around. I decided I would try and find a frame and put it in his room.


I know this isn't a sewing project, but I thought I'd share anyway :)

ABC Wall

I've been busy on Pinterest getting ideas for decorating my home. There have been lots of great ideas. The key is getting my husband to agree with me on style/colors/etc. The boys rooms are a little more up to me than, let's say the living room and kitchen.

One of my favorite findings for a child's room was an alphabet wall. I found a variety of wooden letter at Jo Ann Fabric and painted them with craft paint.

After we painted the light green walls brown we wanted to do something fun for the wall decor. I think this was a great colorful addition. My son loves to look at the letters.


I probably should change the color of the "z" to yellow or bright blue. It's a little dark on the lower right corner. I can easily fix that though. I could also add some polka dots or stripes to some random letters to spice things up a little more. I'm content with the finished product right now though.

This is the room I made curtains for during the summer. You can see the post HERE . You can kind of see the pale green walls. I have since changed out the curtain rods.

Fireplace makeover

Things have been a little crazy on this side of things for the past 6 months! We moved across the country just over 7 months ago and we're still trying to get settled. Life just doesn't slow down. I thought I'd share what we've been up to. Last week we did some updating to our living room.

Fireplace before: Old painted white brick with old wood mantle. There was a large mirror attached to the wall screaming 80's!

Fireplace After: We painted our whole room green with satin white trim/molding throughout. The fireplace is also brand new, thanks to my husband. We painted the little bit of brick still showing black to help it blend into the fireplace cover. I absolutely love it! It looks completely new and changes the feel of the room drastically - at least to me.

Curtains - room #1

It has been somewhat of a whirlwind, these past 2 months, after moving into our new place. The first thing I wanted to take care of (Ha! I say that often, "the first thing") was the curtains. We have many outdated curtains.

In my oldest son's room the curtains weren't even dark enough for him to sleep - or block out the hot sun. This is a before shot. (If I were to have taken a picture of the whole room, you would see our tub, vanity and toilet that went into our "new" bathroom.)
The curtain rod really was fine to keep. The curtains needed to go. This window faces east and the first half of the day the sun cooks this room.
After:
I used a sheet! Honestly. It was cheaper to buy a set of twin sheets from Target and use for fabric than buy the yardage of fabric I needed for three windows in this room. I sewed blackout fabric behind the sheet. It's amazing what blackout fabric does. It really does live up to its name.

(This picture shows a little too much of the messy room)

A close up of the blackout fabric sewn into the curtain.

I used simple drapery hooks to attach to the wooden rings. this tutorial showed me exactly what I wanted to do.

A closer view of the fabric (i.e sheet ;)

These curtains cover 2 of the three windows in the room. I finished the third window's curtains last night, but need to buy a new matching curtain rod. They are hung on the old rod now, but can't open and close yet. The old rod is a pull cord and one panel can't exactly split in half to open.

I am also planning on making some pillows for my son's bed using some of the extra curtain fabric and a navy blue fabric to match his new bed spread and sheets. That will probably take me another 2 months the rate things are going over here. . .

Side Door Curtians

Our new house has SO many windows. It really has been a big - expensive - project to cover them or recover them. The curtains when we moved here were a bit outdated (i.e. lace gathering or screaming orange plaid). I described them to my sister as "church" curtains. They really are nice curtains quality wise, but they aren't modern or attractive.

We don't have air conditioning in our house and so at the end of the day when the sun comes in the west side of our house, things start to heat up. I purchased some blackout curtain fabric from Jo Ann Fabric. I started with the side door (below).

Before - Bad lighting, but this is our side door before I switched out the curtains. The heat at the end of the day would pass right through the glass. Also our neighbors could see right in at night if the light was on. Privacy and light coverage is what we have now!

After - Much better! That blackout fabric really does what it says it will. I was impressed. I have 11.5 more yards to help some other windows with heat and privacy. I'm planning on adding two strings/ties in from each end to tie the curtain up and make it more attractive in the winter months when the heat will be wanted. For now I just needed the window to be covered.

Pouch Received!

I got my pouch in the mail from my partner!! (really it was a few days ago but I'm just now getting to post about it) Isn't it beautiful? I love the colors and the shape/size.

I opened it and was pleasantly surprised to see ANOTHER pouch inside! (below)

Isn't it beautiful, too? I LOVE the natural colors and the smaller size. Here's some pictures to show the inside fabric. Blue in the larger one and a nice tropical floral print in the smaller polka dot pouch.

The zippers have ribbon tied to the ends. What a useful embellishment, don't you think?

I have so many ideas for how to use these pouches. My first idea is for a travel toiletry bag. I'm always looking for something just the right size to put everything in for trips.

Partner's Pouch Finished!

You may remember my Post about a pouch swap. I've finally finished! Here's the link to the blog hosting the swap. You can also view the flickr account here with lots of fun pouches!

This is the BLOG where I found the tutorial for this pouch. Super easy and super cute.

There are some handy pockets inside for credit cards and cash. You can put other items inside if it's not used for a wallet.

I loved Amy Butler fabric and has this in my closet waiting to be made into something. I paired it with some khaki colored fabric.

I was really happy how the zipper turned out. All I had on hand were invisible zippers so I decided to use them. I think they worked out okay.

Back and front of pouch. Simple rectangular shape.

Black and White Damask Bag

Recently I flew to upstate NY to look for a house to buy. My husband and I are moving from Washington state to New York this June. Kind of crazy to be moving across the country - literally. While home searching we stopped by my sisters house. It just happened to be my nieces birthday the day we were there.

I made her this bag as a gift. She's a small petite 10 year old and I wanted something small for her to carry, yet large enough to put some books and things in. I looked at a few different bags I liked online and then created my own pattern.
It's made with home decorator fabric and duck cloth for lining (that's what I had that was white in my fabric closet).

I also made a cute little pouch to go inside. I figured she could put loose things inside and then put it in her bag - or really whatever she wanted to do with it.
Every since the pouch swap, I've been on a pouch making kick. Trust me you'll see in future posts.

The cute set together. I was happy with how they turned out.

Lickety Split Bag

Here's another project that's been in the works for a while. I used Made By Rae's Lickety Split Pattern. Instead of tying the handles together at the top, I decided to sew the handles together. It makes the bag a little longer and allows me to cross it over my body comfortably.

I really love the orange/yellow/brown fabric. My sister was the one who spotted it at Hobby Lobby. We had a hard time trying to find fabric to go with it. I also like the blue and figured they matched well enough to put them on the same bag.
I put one larger pocket on the outside of the bag and two smaller pockets inside. Granted it is a reversible bag, so there really isn't an inside and outside right? I figure I will use the orange fabric for the outside most of the time though.
It was a very simple pattern to follow and I like the bag. I would however like if the fabric were thicker (home decorator fabric) and perhaps include some interfacing to help give the bag more of a shape and support. Other than those two things I love the bag!

Birdie Sling Bag - Amy Butler

Remember THIS post? I finally got around to taking some pictures of the finished project.

You can slightly see the inside fabric. It's the same as the outer fabric of the bag I made for myself.I decided to make two bags since I had extra fabric. (You can only order fabric in increments of half a yard on Fabric.com.) One for me and one for my sister who is having a baby in another 2 weeks!! The top bag is for my sister and the lower bag is for myself.

I used the outer fabric of my sisters bag for the handles on mine. The inside is the same as the handles. I decided not to use the zig-zag stripes on my bag.

It was fun to make two different versions of this bag with putting different fabric in both places. I'm happy with how they both turned out.

Snack Bags

I've added another batch of snack bags to my Etsy Shop . I think my favorite fabric is the blue and white fabric (pictures directly below). Many of these bags match my reusable lunch bags, also in my shop.

These little bags can be used for more than just "snacks". You can throw your personal things inside one of these bags and toss inside your purse or hand bag.

They can keep your keys and phone together so they don't get lost in the bottom of your bag.
Here are the new additions! Find them HERE .