Studio Progress

     So, for the first time in my life I'm going to have a room of my own. I don't have to share it with anyone, I can do what I want in there and I can decorate however I want! It's such an amazing thing.

     This is my space, it doesn't look like much but it's gonna be amazing. The big windows face south, I can see the water! It's a great size 14' x 12' with a large closet. Since the space will be my studio, it needs to be practical, so the first thing that needs to happen is the carpet has to go!

     Ciao carpet!

I want the flooring to be durable, easy to clean, not expensive, and fun to look at! After an unhealthy amount of research I decided to go with a tile product, VCT  - Vinyl Compsition Tile. This is a commercial glue down product designed for high traffic areas. It's really easy to put down - basically you put down a layer of adhesive, wait 20 minutes and set the tiles down. They cut with an exacto knife, come in a ton of fun colors and truly are indestructable.

                                   But first.... as long as the room is empty - let's PAINT!

     I chose this incredible, dark teal - it's going to be perfect with all my white cabinets and tables! But back to the tile....

     I simply found the center of the room, snapped chalk lines in both directions and layed the tiles along the lines - really is that easy!

BEAUTIFUL!! Now, on to those cabinets....

Pillow Case - The Easiest E-V-E-R!

     Sometimes you just luck out and the project you need to get done literally takes less then 30 minutes! I needed to make up a pillow case for my DIL's niece, who is moving into her first 'big girl' bed. We found a remnant of Hello Kitty fabric - perfect for a little girl, right?

     Now to get to sewing....

     First you need to figure out the size of pillow you will be making. Since this is for a small child, we're making a 'standard' size pillow - for a twin bed.

     I started by measuring the finished dimensions of a finished pillow case. Mine measured

28.5" x 19"

     Then I measured the band for the opening of the pillow case - 4"

Time to do a little MATH! 

Length + 4" (band) +1/2" (seam allowance) = 

28.5" + 4" = 32.5" + 1/2" = 33"

Width x2 (front & back) + 1/2" (seam allowance)

19" x 2 = 38" + 1/2" = 38.5"

     Cut one piece of fabric 38.5" x 33" - This will be folded in half lengthwise to form the pillow case.

Turn down 1/2" at the top edge, press. 

Turn down 3.5" and press again.

Stitch close to the folded edge, stitch again 1/4" away from the first stitching. This will fix the seam in place and make it look a bit tailored.

Fold the pillow case, right sides together stitch 1/2" seam along the open side and bottom edge.

If you're lucky enough to own a serger you can finish the seam with a serger. If you don't have a serger, you can use your zig zag stitch to finish the seam. This will keep the seam from fraying in the laundry and during intense hugging!

Turn the pillow case right side out, press and slip over a pillow - done! This is the perfect project for a complete novice sewer. You need very little fabric, almost no skills and only basic sewing equipment. In very short time you end up with a finished project and you've sharpened your skills!

#MIRL

A monthly REAL WORLD math blog link-up hosted by

 4mulaFun, The Teacher Studio, Teaching to Inspire in 5th, AND MissMathDork,

It's All About the Legs

     I have been looking for months and months for the perfect coffee table for the living room. I love Mid Century Modern patterns and colors but I'm not completely in love with all the furniture. I could see in my head, sort of what I wanted, but couldn't find it anywhere.

     I saw a table in a magazine that someone made that was soooooo close - and I decided, what the heck.... how hard can it be? The idea was simple, I would make and paint the top and purchase hairpin legs. I started smurfing around the internet for the legs and came across these...

   
     Are you serious? These came from Spiral Cone Legs - a husband and wife company. Each leg is custom made from welded steel and powder coated. It's the only place in the world that you can get them. I was immediately in love - and had ordered mine in about thirty seconds.

     Next step was to get the rest of my supplies which were pretty simple. I bought a half sheet (4'x4') of 3\4" plywood. I didn't get the top quality because I was going to paint the table and put a glossy finish over the paint. I used a big sheet of cardboard to make a template, once I had the size and shape worked out, I traced it onto the plywood and used a jigsaw to cut it out.

So far, so good! I spent the rest of the afternoon sanding the edges, mostly because I'm really not great with the jig saw and the edges were crazy crooked! I didn't want the edge to be straight, I wanted it to angle back from the top to the underside. I got a router bit and stood nervously by while my husband routed the edge. Maybe I'll be brave enough to rout the next project!

Then it was back to the sander....... I sanded the routed edge and the top of the table, filled in a couple of places with wood filler that were too deep to sand smooth and tried to get the top edge just slightly softened.

Now we get to the scary part... paint and putting on the design. Up to this point, I could pretty much sand out any mistakes - the paint was going to be harder to fix if I hated it.

I knew I wasn't going to need that much paint so I got a Valspar sample - $2.98 at Lowes - it only took one little tub to put three coats on the table top. The color is called Sea Mist - I painted the edge and the underside several shades darker. I played around with the colors and shapes for the design on paper until I was happy. There are hundreds of pattern references on the internet for Mid Century Modern designs. I wanted something clean, simple and sort of Sputnik looking.

I penciled the circles very lightly onto the table top and painted them using craft acrylics.

The black line work is done using a Sharpie brand permanent marker.

The legs were really easy to attach, they have tabs with holes for the screws. One of the tabs is longer then the others so that you can get the legs positioned correctly. The long tab should point outward. You can get these legs either straight or angled, mine are obviously the angled style. Thanks to the Spiral Leg guys for thinking of the details!

The legs are attached with a washer and 3\4" wood screws.

Final step was to put a finish on the table. I wanted it to be very glossy. I used a Valspar spray on varnish. It worked great and dried in about 15 minutes, but because it was an acetone based product I had to spray it in the garage with the doors open.

I love it when an idea works! Now I'm gonna try to figure out how to re-upholster that ugly little ottoman in the background!

Laundry re-Visit~

Last March I did a laundry project that turned out really well. If you missed the post, it looked like this:

It still makes me happy every time I open the door! If you have to do laundry, you should at least be able to smile while you work! This was done with wallpaper pieces. Easy and fast and it's holding up really well. The whole project might have taken me an hour and cost under $20.

So,  while I'm at home recovering from hip surgery, I have have a lot of time to surf and plan new projects. While I was following the blue links... or Smurfing as my son calls it... I found a really great idea for a laundry upgrade for almost NO MONEY! I had to add a link to share this great idea. The blog is called East Coast Creative and they do some awesome projects - definitely worth a look, even if you aren't recovering from surgery!

Here's a sneak peek at the finished project - to see the complete process, click the link below ~ Enjoy!

Snappy Black n White

Utility Apron

     I've been searching the internet for patterns - I've been wanting to make some utility aprons. I found a really simple pattern here: http://www.sugarbeecrafts.com/
 Her pattern is very simple, but seemed like a good place to start. I wasn't sure about where I wanted the pockets, length etc...  I decided that I would figure it out as I went. What I ended up with is a practical apron for lots of different uses. It looks like this:

 As you can see there's a ton of pockets.  Small ones for business cards, narrow for pens and scissors, specially sized for glasses and cell phone or small camera. The pockets on the top are deep and wide, great for patterns, note books, your E-reader etc... My DIL actually used this one at a teachers conference she attended and it worked out great. 

     So, here's how it goes.......

1. Make a pattern ~ cause you know you can't just make one!

     Whenever I'm making my own pattern I write all the sewing instructions on the pattern as well as how many to cut and any tips that I figured out that I know will be helpful to remember.

2. Select your fabrics.

I always add interfacing to each piece - it helps maintain the shape and keeps your project sturdy.

3. Cut three sizes of rectangles, based on how large you want the finished length to be. You'll need 2 of each color.

4. Now for the easy part - stitch the fronts to backs wrong sides together for each color. Layer them according to size, decide where you want your pockets and stitch them in place, sew them together, fold the entire thing in half, right sides together, bringing the unfinished edges of the large rectangle together, sew up the sides, turn it right side out.

5. Make the ties the same way you make binding sew the ties to the apron encasing the top edge of the apron - Piece of cake!

These are great for all kinds of situations, cafeteria workers, sewers, crafters, conference attendees, teachers... the list is endless!

A Day Off

     So, life has been crazy this year. Lots of changes and very little free time - which translates to no time for fun house projects *sigh*...

     I realized that if I keep waiting for some free time it'll never happen and I'll never get to do any of the ideas that are percolating around in my tiny brain! Even though I don't have days and days to do anything elaborate I did manage an entire day off and decided that was enough time to perk up my entryway.

We have a very small entry - the house is open concept so as soon as you walk in, you're seeing almost the entire main floor. I decided that a little punch of color and whimsy was in order.

So I taped off a huge rectangle... painted it purple... 

Taped off 12" stripes - cause everyone looks thinner in stripes, right?

Then, painted those stripes a darker shade of purple - oh, yea.... lookin' snazzy!

Now to start the finishing part... let's add a shelf!!

Trim around the edges gives it a little depth and looks more finished.

Not bad for a days work! And it really brightens up the entrance to the humble abode!

Mr. Chuckles looks so much happier now that his view has been improved!

Creating Creative Space!

Basement... ugly word.
When we moved into this house the basement was unfinished. We weren't completely sure what we were going to do with the space, so I've been pondering, thinking, planning... ! Eureka! It's going to be space for the computer on one end and my Create Space on the other. I'll finally have a place to do my sewing, painting, beading and whatever else I get into. No one else will have to see it - I won't have to start a project that I can't finish, pack it up and clean everything and set it up again when I can find a few free minutes to work on it again. Such a wonderful thought!

So - we hired an awesome local handyman who came and ran all the electrical and framed it in. Then we hung the drywall, my brother came and fixed my mistakes (thanks Joe!! Love YOU). Flooring is the next part -- waffled between laminate, hardwood, tile and carpet for a couple months. Decided that carpet was the best choice because the floor is cement and cold on the feet. I picked a beautiful Shaw brand carpet in the palest grey. Very short, sculpted wave pattern - unbelievable!

Now back to pondering - where to put everything - how to hide the ugly utility closet in the middle of the room - lights! - curtains? - cutting table? (YES!) - the color - and on and on and on....

Custom Drapes (with grommets!)

   In which the saga of finding the perfect fabric continues...

I seem to be doing this master bedroom make over all out of order - I still need to move my workroom stuff to the as yet not built work room, I've only painted one wall, I changed my mind about the color of the dresser (again!), and instead of continuing with the paint, I made the curtains ~ this sounds like the making of a disaster, right?

Not exactly - the curtains are AWESOME! ...and I learned how to make grommet drapes! High five me!! It goes like this.....

1. Make the curtain panels
2. Figure out the spacing of the grommets. You want to start about 1 1/2" to 2" from the edge for your first grommet and about 1" down from the top. Then evenly space the grommets across the fabric. After I marked the locations with pins I folded the fabric to make sure I was happy with the spacing, using the pins as the hole centers. I used the 1" (2.54cm) grommets spaced every 5.5" on 54" wide fabric. This will give you an idea of the size of the folds your going to end up with.

3. Using the template that comes with the package, mark your circles in pencil or chalk all the way across.

4. Then came the scary part - cutting holes in my expensive fabric! Cut the holes one at a time, installing the grommet and then moving to the next hole. The grommets are two pieces, one side has a little raised lip which goes on the back of the fabric. The other side has small raised pins, this one goes on the front. The two pieces snap together. There is a small slot on the front piece, if you want to remove the grommet simply put a flat head screwdriver in the slot and twist. It pops right open.

5. Pretty simple. I ended up using 10 grommets per panel. The package said I would need 8. It depends on how full you want the panels to be, the size of the rod your using, weight of the fabric, etc... I bought the grommets at JoAnne's, they run about $8.00 per package for the 1" and $12.00 for the 2".

6. Then comes the fun part - hang 'em high!

 This is pretty heavy drapery fabric so I simply turned a 3" hem at the top. If you're using a light weight fabric adding an interfacing would be a good idea to keep the shape and support the weight of the fabric.