That’s when I come in and look for the potential through all the crumples and rumples.  This baby shirt was one of those finds.

When I first grabbed it I thought it was cute, but noticed the flowers were all pilled up and smooshed from washing and drying.  It gave the otherwise decent item an old, dingy look.

As I started to put it back on the rack I realized the flowers were made of felt and, for the super low price, I might be able to save it. After washing and line drying I simply snipped the pilled edge of the flowers with a pair of super sharp embroidery scissors.  That’s the beauty of felt, you can trim the edge without the fabric coming unraveled.

Wholla!  It looks nearly brand new.  So, next time you are about to skip a cute article of clothing at the consignment or thrift sale because it appears to be damaged be sure to take a closer look.  Sometimes the worst looking things can have the most potential.  It’s also sometimes worth asking for a discount if the item looks really bad.  What’s the worst they can say, “no”?  ;o)

Have you guys ever “saved” anything in your closet or that you found on the cheap with a simple tweak?

Erika

This project involved adding a strip of fabric down the center of the hand towels to give them a little charm and make them more than just a hand towel draped over my shoulder. I cut and pieced some of the fabrics I wanted to use to make them work, but you would just need to measure your towels and decide how much of the center you want to cover with a cute fabric. I cut my pieces, pinned them in place with the edges turned under and then ran a straight stitch all the way around the top edge to secure them in place.

It was all really that simple.

I have loved using these with my little burper and already gave a pile to my sister-in-law with the twins. Now I’m thinking my friends that just delivered might like some too.? Better go dig up some more fun fabrics.
Erika

Via

To be honest, I am not a big fan of tie dye and it brings back memories of high school, Lollapalooza in the early 1990′s and the weird ride that a lot of kids around me during that time wanted to take back to the 1960′s. I definitely wore tie dye clothes, many of which I dyed myself and even slept on a set of sheets I made in Home Ec my last year of high school. I guess it’s just a been there and done that type of look and I’m not interested in repeating it for myself.

However, I am not opposed to hooking the Little Guy up with something different and fun (plus dirt hiding) whenever possible and I thought it might be fun to make him a green tie dye shirt to wear for St. Patty’s Day. It all started with a sale at Jo-Ann’s (don’t they all?) when I came across T-shirts and the dye at a discount. I decided to try out some Dylon dye this time around. I have only used Rit in the past and there were just so many types of dye to choose from at Jo-Ann’s that I felt like trying something new.

I read through the instructions linked to the Mickey Mouse T above and then went from memory. Mistake numero uno! Using a Mark-B-Gone pen I drew a large shamrock across the chest of the shirt, then ran a simple stitch along that line using extra wide waxed beading thread.

Then, as per the instructions, I gathered up the shamrock design and tied it off with the excess thread.  Mistake numero dos!

Next, I twirled and twisted the rest of the shirt, wrapping it with the thread and tying it off tightly.  Mistake numero tres!

I had to laugh at what appeared to be a little voodoo doll made from the T-shirt.  The scrunched up shamrock section is pulled to the top of what appears to be a cross shape in the picture above.  I followed the dye packet directions almost exactly.  I veered off a little because they were for dyeing a piece of free-flowing fabric and of course this was  a bundled, bunched up small-sized shirt.  So, I figured that if I eliminated the sink full of water and just submerged the shirt into the mixed dye I would get a deeper color.  First I dribbled a little of the color into the middle of the scrunched shamrock section, then I sunk the rest of the shirt into the container of dye, keeping the shamrock above the dye bath.  The directions said to leave the fabric in the dye bath for at least 45 minutes and I did not touch the shirt for about 1.5 to 2 hours.  When I pulled it out, unwrapped it, rinsed and wrung it out, this is what I ended up with:

A very subtle tie dye shirt in very light green with weird brownish green areas.  The color is really nothing like what was on the package and the area with the shamrock is pretty inconspicuous.  Looking really closely, you can see a slight outline of the original shamrock shape, but it was not going to suffice for the big day.  That is when I brought out the cheater….

Yep, I used a green highlighter to draw trace the shamrock outline.  It looked lame and the shirt was enormous on my Little Guy.  In fact, after pulling it over his head….and down to his knees…he asked to wear a different green shirt for the preschool St. Patty’s Day celebration.  I eagerly obliged since I did not want this failure of a shirt to end up being the reason he fell and busted his teeth out during play time.  You win some, you lose some.

After my disaster, I reread the instructions and realized all of my mistakes.  I should have used rubber bands to get a much more secure area around the shamrock design.  I should have twirled the shirt around and then used more rubber bands to secure it into a bundle.  Then, most importantly, I should have used the squirt bottle method of applying dye to get a much richer color with more accuracy and more distinct tie dye effect.  So, there you have it!  Learn from my Pinterest Phail!

It turns out that highlighter washes right out of cloth, or at least this one did.  So, maybe next year this shirt will fit a little better and maybe I can come up with a better shamrock design to celebrate the day.

Did you guys make anything special for your or your kiddos to wear for St. Patty’s Day?

Erika

Don’t forget to leave an opening for turning it right side out when you are done! Then I ran a stitch along the edges to smooth out the seams, hold it in place and catch and close the opening left for turning.
Once the edges were closed up with was just a matter of laying the whole thing out on a flat surface and smoothing the layers as I pinned around the areas I wanted to quilt. In both designs the animals and insects were outlined, begging to be quilted.

And, that is just what I did!

The end result was a soft, very malleable quilt, perfect for a play mat and a customized gift for several sweet new family members.

What are your favorite handmade baby gifts to give and/or get?

Erika

I had already transformed a wooden wall plaque with hooks for my son’s room three years ago to make better use of a gift that was not our taste.  Wanting to add his initials to his space in a fun way, I took what had been a space for pictures and made a base for those cool alphabet cards by Jenn Ski.

Again, I wanted to personalize something for our new arrival, so I decided to tweak this very handy piece.  Using the same method as I outlined in the How To Make A Monogram Flag I pulled together a little patchwork of vintage fabric letters to round out the handmade and vintage feel of our little girl’s space.

After stitching around each letter I folded the fabric around rectangles of thin cardboard and then using loops of masking tape, popped them into place.  Wholla!

It was a sweet way to bring more fun vintage fabrics into her room, plus the hooks are great for holding items while changing our squirmy little thing!

Happy Tweaking!

Erika

PS – If you want to read more about our nursery transformation please click over to my home/DIY site Kitsch Designs.

This time I wanted to reuse those same pillows, but help them stand out in the new space for the right reasons.  After finding some sweet fabric in my stash in shades of pink and green with vintage reproduction prints, I knew I was in business.  This time around I wanted to add a ruffled edge to the side/casing of the pillow.  I figured that doing this would help camouflage the thick piping that would be just under the surface.  After measuring the width of the casing and around the pillow, I cut out strips of fabric.  In order to get a lot of ruffle, I think I nearly quadrupled the measurement from around the pillow when cutting the length of the strips.  Once the strips were all sewn together I commenced basting the edges and then gathering….

….and gathering, and gathering, and gathering.  I think it literally took me an entire afternoon of gathering the edges to get it down to the actual length I needed.  Once I had the length I went back and ran a stitch along the gathered edge to make sure the whole thing did not come undone.  I had visions of my toddler finding the piece and pulling it all apart!  He would have had a field day, while I simply had a heart attack.

For the front and back cover I decided to do a middle square framed in a contrasting fabric.

To keep things simple I did not miter the corners- it seemed like a bit much along with the ruffled edge.  The border is about 2″ all the way around and I attached two pieces on opposite sides cut to the same length as the middle panel.

Then, I just made the other two opposing sides long enough to run the length of the middle panel of fabric, as well as, those two border strips.  Easy-peasy!  Once the middle panels were put together I attached the ruffled casing.

If you want to make something similar, just be sure to put right sides together and take your time at the corners to be sure you don’t end up with offset corners running from front to back.  When stitching the last side up leave a small opening so you can turn the whole thing right side out.  Insert (or rather STUFF) the pillow through the hole, smooth it out and then whip stitch the hole closed by hand.  Done!

A very easy update and this pillow continues it’s usefulness in the nursery, complementing the rest of the space without being to matchy-matchy.

For the neck roll pillow I decided to only cover the blue middle section.  Doing this allowed for the brown trim to still show through, again keeping things from being to much of a matched set, and it also left the ties available for looping over the back of the chair.  I’m all about making things work in the easiest way possible.  So, I measured the length of the blue section and then around the pillow.  Using those measurements I cut a center piece of fabric and two strips of contrasting fabrics to border the edges.  The middle fabric is similar to the other vintage reproduction “children at play” pattern seen in the regular pillow tweak above.  The pink border is the same as the ruffled edge of the regular pillow, as well as the curtains in the background.  And, the very edge of the neck roll cover was made from the same fabric as the middle panel of the regular pillow and the border of the curtains.

Since the neck roll was still sporting the brown ends and ties I wanted to make sure that the edges of the cover did not become frayed.  So, I was sure to fold those over and stitch them up like a quilt binding.  That way when I need to throw it in the wash the whole thing does not unravel.  Once the tube cover was made I just slipped it over the neck roll pillow, lined up the edges to cover up the entire blue section of the old pillow and that was it!

Here’s a little side by side before and after:

Nothing over the top, but definitely a different feel.  Have you guys tweaked anything for your homes lately?

Erika

PS – For more details about the rest of the nursery renovation please click on over to my home/DIY site, Kitsch Designs.

This project was probably one of my most favorite ever!  For many years I collected old flower brooches and would use them on hats, bags and most recently they adorned my bulletin board in place of thumbtacks.  After searching for inspiration for some floral touches to add to the nursery I came across photos of pressed flower art on good ol’ Pinterest.  Those pics gave me the idea to mount my vintage pins specimen style.  Here is how the process transpired….it’s a super lazy easy project!

First, I gathered my supplies:

I pulled together the vintage pins and brooches that I had readily available, along with some 8″ X 8″ canvas boards and some linen fabric.  After fiddling (that is a scientific crafting term) with the pieces I knew I wanted to add batting for depth.  In this instance I used heirloom cotton batting, which is pretty thin and in plentiful supply in my scrap closet.

Using the canvas boards as a template on top of the batting scraps, I cut around each canvas leaving about 1/4″ of overhang.  This helped soften the edges of the canvas as I wrapped the fabric around.  I then laid both the canvas and the batting on top of the linen fabric and cut out a piece with about 1.5″ to 2″ of overhang.  Then I started wrapping the edges.

As you can see from the photo above, this is also where the lazy part came into play.  To finish off the edges around the thin canvas board, I simply used wide masking tape.  After getting everything smoothed out and taped as flatly as possible I flipped the boards over and slipped the pins into place.

In order to hang each little square up on the wall, I looped some satin ribbon and taped it along the back edge at the top of each piece.  Then I used a flat thumb tack inside that little loop to actually attach each flower mount to the nursery wall.

In the end I decided to add a fourth picture and had to buy the two leaf pins at a local antique mall in order to round out the theme.

The white one has always been my favorite with the little red ladybug.

So, that is one of my latest quick and easy projects using mostly what I have around the house.

Thanks for stopping by!

Erika

PS – For a more detailed look at the whole nursery transformation please head on over to my home/DIY site, Kitsch Designs.

PPS – For all you budget minded folks, here’s a craft cost breakdown:

Fabric – About 1/3 yard of Osnaburg                                     $2.33 ($6.99/yard at Joann’s)

Canvas Boards – Already Owned                                             Free

             Used 4- Would have been $5.32 ($7.99/6 pieces at Hobby Lobby) if having to buy for this project

Batting – Already Owned                                                          Free

             Truly just used scraps, so the cost was really only pocket change if you had to buy new.

Vintage Pins and Brooches Already Owned 6                     $5.00 for the two additional leaf pins

             These vary greatly.  My collection consisted of under $5.00 purchases over the years.  However, in searching for the two new pieces I found prices from a few dollars up to $15.00 a piece. Yikes!

Ribbon – Already Owned                                                           Free

Total Cost:                                                                                    $7.33

Via Vogue Fabrics 

Umbrellas – Blue by Natalie of Olive Manna on Spoonflower

She had two others that made me think of spring and the warm weather ahead.

Clothes Pins Blue

Pennents Blue Dark

Blue Dala on Blue by  Carinaenvoldsenharris.

I hope you all have a sunny weekend with blue skies!

Erika

Target Home, Basketweave Window Panel

You see, my son’s “Big Boy” room is going to be primarily gray, including the bedding.  The color will come in later with accessories that are much easier to change out as he grows and his tastes change.

Of course my initial reaction was that I really would love at least two of these panels so I could create curtains, but after some quick thinking about other uses I realized this would be the perfect weight for the bed skirt.  The process I used to create the skirt was my usual, eyeballing, pinning, eyeballing again.  I started by measuring the length I would need for the skirt to drape all the way to the floor, adding a couple of inches along the top edge so I would have something to stitch to the middle panel that lies on top of the box springs.  Since I was covering a twin bed this panel was exactly the length I needed if I laid it on its side and draped it over the edge.  After measuring and getting a feel for how it would look, I laid the panel out across the floor and made marks with tailor’s chalk down one side.  I ended up using a width measurement of 15″ and cut the grommet end off about 1/2″ below the stitch line of the top hem.  In order to make the sewing on this project extra easy I measured and cut up from the hemmed edges of the panel.  That way I avoided having to re-do any measuring and hemming; it was done already.

After cutting the sides out off of the panel I laid them along the box spring edge and used pins to hold it in place at the correct drape to the floor.  Using the left over middle section from the bottom edge of the curtain panel I cut pieces to fill the gaps along the two ends of the bed.  I laid these out along the ends and pinned them in place too just to be sure everything was still measuring up to the plan.  After checking and double checking everything I pulled the pieces off the box spring and stitched the strips together, serging all cut edges.  Then I took the whole thing back to the bed, laid it out and pinned it back in place.

Since I had actually had more length in these strips than needed I was able to add some pleats on each corner, which not only added some interest, but also helped in ease around the bed frame and wheels.  After creating the pleats and pinning them into place along the box springs I used a piece of utility cotton and cut it to fit the top of the box springs.  Of course, I made sure the cotton fabric overlapped the curtain fabric along the edges so that there would be room to sew it all together.

The next part was probably the most daunting simply because I had to pin the utility cotton along the edges of the curtain panel fabric, remove the whole thing and stitch it into place without shifting the edges or the pleats.  I started by running a stitch along the edge to connect all the pieces, then I put the whole thing back in place along the box springs to be sure the skirt hung correctly.

Lucky for me there were no major issues, so I pulled it off again and added another row of stitching to reinforce the edges.

Wholla!  Bedskirt from a curtain panel!

Now, don’t judge too harshly!  This room is still in progress and I have yet to purchase the quilt, but this gives you the gist of what I accomplished with just one $4.99 thrifted curtain panel.  I would say it’s a pretty good win and I look forward to tweaking the other textiles I have found to go in this room.  More to come as this project progresses.

Erika

After searching for appropriate spring fabric for a boy I finally came across a pale green seersucker cotton and decided it was time to attempt this pattern.  I knew going in to this process that I would be eliminating several elements right away.  I wanted my son to be able to wear these on Easter Sunday to church and dinner, so I thought it would be best that they not be too casual.  The first details to go were the side pockets and then I also nixed the tabs and buttons for holding up the rolled legs.  So, I was left with a simple pair of pants that had flap topped back pockets, side waist pockets and an elastic waist band.  It made the fabric purchase a little less expensive and lucky for me I already had the elastic, thread and a button for the waist detail on hand.

The pattern was easy to follow and I moved right through it very quickly.  But, just as with the PJ pattern that I followed a while back, the sizing was all off.  Although the measurements listed for size 2T matched up to his measurements the pants ended up being enormous!  The entire time I was working on the pants I kept thinking they were going to swallow him alive, but I kept going because so often things end up considerably smaller once the seams are all finished.  I will admit my child is extra skinny, however I was not prepared for how much too big these ended up being.  I did a fit check and made some more measurements before proceeding to rework the entire pattern.

In the end I removed about 10 inches from the waist and about 3 inches from the length of the hem.  Since the waist came in so much I decided to remove the back pockets and flaps because they were just too large once everything was cinched up.  I also added a waistband made from the same seersucker fabric (the pattern called for a knit waist line from contrasting fabric with elastic or a drawstring), overlapping it with the faux zipper flap and stitching a button in place after threading the elastic through.  Once all these changes were finished I cut the back pockets down and stitched a smaller, patch pocket in place minus the flap tops.  The finished product had a much tighter fit along the top portion with wide, straight legs.

I had hoped to use some of the extra fabric to create a matching necktie, but I ran out of time.  Plus, it ended up being a chilly morning which necessitated a sweater, so the tie would have just been lost behind the zipper anyway.  My Little Guy really liked them and he received lots of compliments.  When I picked him up at Sunday School after Easter Service I smiled at how all the kids in the room matched in their pastel Easter clothes.  They were like little Easter eggs running around all hyped up on candy!  Cute!

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend!  Did you make anything special for the big day?

Erika