home {made} mobile

It's Monday! Hope everyone had a great weekend and New Years! I can't believe how time is flying. I feel like I'm on a huge merry-go-round and no one will let me off. Oh well.

Today I'll show you how to make this! I'm pretty particular about how little E's room is going to look, so I knew that I would have to make the mobile for her crib because I knew I would never find anything to match the theme.

 My awesome sister in law was great enough to give me the mobile off her son's crib who has now outgrown it. I needed the plastic pieces and even though the mobile was cute, it was all boy. I used the original pieces as a pattern. I measured out the fabric for the piece that would go over the mobile stand.

It curves out at the bottom to allow room for the bend in the plastic. The original fabric piece was actually longer than the piece I cut because the original piece allowed for a lot of bunching on the stand. I didn't want it to do that much so I cut it shorter. I also cute the piece on the fold which is important. I finished the ends of the piece and then I folded and sewed right side together using 1/4 inch seam and then flipped it right side out.

 It slid right over the stand and fit perfectly.

 For the next part I used the original cover of the mobile for a pattern. Sorry I didn't get a picture. I actually just used one square piece of fabric a little larger than the original piece to allow for the ruffle seam. I cut 4 strips of gray suede leftover from this project and matching this project about twice as long as the square sides. I then used a basting stitch and gathered them in, pulling the bobbin thread.

 I then pinned them to the sides and sewed them down.

 For the back of the square piece I cut out four triangles matching the corners of the square and pinned them to each corner creating a little pocket. The mobile legs will go in each pocket.

 I also sewed the ribbon I wanted for the mobile into the seam and the triangle pieces when I did a top stitch over the top of the square. It looks like crap a little rough when you flip it over but no one will see that so you're good. ;)

For the mobile pieces I wanted little birds so I free handed a pattern out of felt, cutting two pieces. I cut little wings that are petal shaped out of leftover fleece.

 Sew each wing where you want it to each of the two pieces. I sewed it right at the top so it would be able to move and appear to be 'flying' when it was stuffed. You could use any pattern you want.

 Then take your two pieces and pin them together with the ribbon inset and top stitch. I also put a feather in the back and top stitched over it.  Leave a little hole at the bottom and stuff. I used scrap pieces I had laying around to fill them. Then just top stitch over the opening.

 For the middle I tied a ribbon to the center of the mobile and glued rattan balls and feathers to give it a fun look. We did have a cat about three days ago and it only took her 2 minutes to sneak into the nursery and have feathers all over the place. I had to replace the feathers on the balls. The cat is now being 'babysat' permanently at our friends. :) At least till the baby is a bit older.

 Step back and admire! My friend recently visited and saw the nursery and said the mobile was 'very me'. I decided to take that as a compliment. :)

Let me know if you have any questions and what you think!! I'd love to hear from you! Comments (and followers) are most welcome. Happy Monday! Linking to THESE PARTIES this week!

ruffled {table} runner

I feel like I'm back from the dead now sitting at my computer. I spent the good part of Christmas night and all of Sunday in bed trying to recover from some sort of flu/food poisoning. It was not choice. The abdominal cramping  got so bad I thought I was contracting for real. What do I know, I've never popped a baby out before. TMI? Probably. It did help my husband and I realize that we are officially not prepared for this baby to come so on the to do list today is putting the hospital bag together and making the flannel receiving blankets to take her home in. Yeesh. Ok, since I know you didn't come for my personal life, I'll get back to crafting.

I finally got to work on the runner for the nightstand in the nursery before Christmas. It was pretty simple to put together and free since I had all the material on hand. I started with a piece of material that runs through the nursery. It was about 12" wide and I'm not sure how long.

I sewed a basting stitch to both sides and gathered them in. Make sure you don't back stitch so that the bobbin thread can be pulled through.

I laid it out so that the piece was how I wanted it to look.

I then took some gray suede that was leftover from this project and cut some strips about 2" wide and about twice as long as the ruffled center piece. I sewed a basting stitch down one side and gathered. Then I laid it out on top of the center pieces and pinned right sides together.

Then just sew over the basting line, removing pins as you go.

When that was finished I flipped it over so that right sides were up. I made sure the seam was flat in the back and did a quick seam over the top so it would lay flat. You could also iron at this point if you don't want the seam on top, but I like the look of the stitch. Plus I don't have that great of a track record with hot pointy metal objects so I avoid them when I can.

Do the same on the other side and your done! Put it wherever you want it to be. Of course.

Pretty simple project and super fast. I didn't finish the other side of the suede as you can tell, I tend to like the look of unfinished suede. Or I'm just lazy. Let me know what you think! Comments (and followers) are most welcome! Have a great Monday!

Linking to these parties this week.

personalized {stockings}

I finally got around to making these as I've had this idea for a while now, and since there is a torrential blizzard outside right now I have no more excuses. I found the great muslin for 25% off at Joann's. I found the hounds tooth for $1.50 a yard at Walmart so I bought a bunch since I have other plans for it too. The tulle and felt I had on hand. Even though this was SUCH a simple project, my ocd kicked in after the first stocking, so I have yet to complete the other two. Also, do you know how weird it is to make a stocking for yourself as 'mom' when you never have been one up to this point? Yea. Weird.

The first thing I did was find a stocking in storage that my hubby and I had bought at the dollar store last year, cuz that's how we roll. Nice and cheap. I cut the muslin around the stocking just a little larger in order to allow for a seam.

I then used the muslin cutout as the pattern for the next two. I only needed three stockings, so I probably used about 1/2 yard on them. I did buy more muslin, because our family might *possibly* be bigger in the future.

The muslin stockings were about 8 inches wide, so I cut the hounds tooth into a strip about 4" by 15" long.

I put a basting stitch on both sides of the strip and gathered it loosely, then pinned it to the top of one side of the stocking.

I cut a small strip of tulle- about 20 inches long. When you sew the tulle will typically gather itself if your strip is only about an inch wide which mine was. I put that under the hounds tooth and then re pinned, because I was pretty much just making this up as I went along. All I knew was that I wanted muslin stockings, so...yea.

Sew your pieces down. Then pat yourself on the back. Then continue.

I cut a strip of felt about 9" long and 1" wide. I placed it over the seam and sewed lines into the felt so it would get that cute stitched look. At least that was the intention.

At first I was going to the back the exact same, but then I thought, "How cute would it be to do a pocket for notes from Santa on Christmas night?" See I don't need kids yet to still be a total five year old sometimes. It could also be a note from Mom and Dad if you've got some 'non-believers' in your home. ;)

I sewed a line across the top of the piece of felt I cut out then pinned the felt to the muslin.

I then stitched the other three sides with the machine.

I wanted to personalize the stockings so I attempted to make stencils from a font I liked on word. After I realized how dang long that would take that it would be better to just free hand cut them, I did so. I then pinned down the letters where they looked best on the stocking.

I stitched over each letter carefully and called it good.

Then at the top of each stocking side I folded it over and did a quick seam to finish them.

Then I put wrong sides together and sewed the two sides.

Trim any excess so that the sides are smooth when it's flipped.

I made a quick strip out of felt, looped it and then pinned it over the side seam.

Then I just sewed it down over the seam.

Flip it out and voila! You're done! I would have finished the other two, but I didn't. Apparently facebook was way more appealing than sewing. Don't worry, they'll be done shortly. Probably.

Note from Santa!

My parents used to leave us a 'note' by the cookie plate, I mean, SANTA used to leave us a note and we loved it as kids. How fun to have your own!

Happy sewing! Let me know if you have any questions, and if you like it! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

dollar store {table runner}

Right now at Dollar Tree they have table runners that are 72" long for $1.00. (Of course they are a dollar, it's dollar tree). I found them in the thanksgiving shelf they made in order to make room for the mounds of Christmas items. I picked up a couple because I figured they could be the base of something cooler. I needed a runner for my coffee table which is only about three-four feet wide so the runner was too long. I cut a section out near the end of the runner (it was all folded up to sell so I just followed two fold seams for the cuts). Then I sewed the two pieces back together with 1/4 inch seam and pressed it down. I then took the section I cut out and cut the two surged sides of it, and zig zag stitched the other sides, so I had two pieces about 3 inches wide. I then placed them over the seam I had just made, and folded them how I liked, pinned and sewed. I put the other one on a fold line on the other side just so they matched. So here is a revamped dollar store table runner, which I still can't believe I only spent a dollar on. Huzzah.

Sorry no tutorial on this one, please comment if you have any questions or thoughts, but I promise, it's simple! And if it's not...there's probably no way on earth I could have done it. ;) Have a great weekend, see you Monday!

epic {fail}

Sometimes I get really awesome ideas. Around 1:00 in the morning. Usually it would be a pain getting ideas that early, but I get so excited I forget that logically most ideas that come at 1:00 just really aren't that good. I even made a tutorial on this idea. Then I got to the end. And chuckled. Then laughed a little because of the outright badness. And then I put it on the couch because I'm too lazy to make something else. And really, the ugly duckling now holds a place in my heart. And it's not too bad... just for sure makes it to the failometer. So here is the rosette pillow I so awesomely thought of at one in the morning. Who wouldn't think that toile, tulle, and burlap would make an awesome combo? I mean seriously.

I had some old pillows laying around. So I cut two squares out of toile about 1/2 inch bigger than my pillow form. I then sewed them together in preparation for putting in the pillow until I realized I needed to put the rosette on one side before I could do that. Commence un picking. And no, this isn't my first rodeo, I just have a seriously pregnant brain.

I started with a layer of tulle. It was leftover from the center pieces at my wedding, so it's a little sentimental, hence, I couldn't throw away 12 yards of red tulle. Sad, I know. To make the ruffle I cut a strip about 5" wide, folded it in half and then sewed the two edges with a basting stitch. Commence gathering. I like the word commence.

I also did that with the burlap, but no ruffling because the material was so thick. Instead I folded it into a octagonal shape (is that a word?) and pinned and sewed the edge. At this point I kind of liked it; it actually looked pretty cool.

This is where the epic fail sets in. I had a big hole I needed to fill in the middle that I thought the tulle would be great for. Wrong. You can see through tulle. Duh. I should have used the toile. It would have looked a lot better. But by the time I came to that conclusion I was way too 'I don't care' to turn back. So I sewed another ruffle in the middle. It didn't make it all the way, and I really didn't want to have to sew another layer of tulle. So I found some gray suede. I thought I love gray! I'm sure it will look good. Oh boy.
And here it is in its glory.


In the grand scheme of things its not too bad, but next time I'm whipping out more toile. You will also notice my living room has undergone another transformation, from this post which I think is here to stay, except for the addition of some creme pieces with the dark ones. I just sometimes have the habit of seeing a fabric I love and then thinking it should be all over my house when my style can be WAY too traditional for that. Yikes. I'd love to see if you make a rosette pillow using burlap! Message me your link! Happy Wednesday!