How to Make DIY Blackout Curtains

Remember back in February when I posted about my snow day project?

It's still not done.

Not the curtains. I finished those up in four-ish days working during naps and after Norie was in bed.

That sounds really quick now, but at the time it felt like forever. I ran out of thread and bent two needles including one as I back-stitched the very last seam of the very last curtain.

Grrr.

I even hung them, as long as you count thumb tacking them to the wall hanging them.

I had to. Norie will not sleep in a well lit space and snow plus lots of windows equals a super well lit space.

The part I can't get done is the curtain rods. I'm way too cheap to buy them so I'm going to spray paint some EMT (à la this tutorial) and add some finials you might recognize, but it's been too cold.

No curtain rods means no curtain reveal, but since my blog buddy, Crystal, (like my real, bi-directional blog friend who knows who I am) wanted to know how I made them I figure I can give you the run down on the sewing part of the process and how cheaply I made them.

I had been trying to figure out what I was going to do for curtains in the play room for a while. The room could seriously use some temperature moderation (it has two huge windows and no heating vents) and I knew eventually the light factor would be become an issue with Norie's 7pm bedtime. I found some king sheets on super clearence at Target and bought two sets (I checked the dimensions listed on the package and did some mental math to figure out how many I needed to make six 84" curtains). They were $11.38 each. I couldn't wait to chop them up.

I used Ana White's Tab Top Curtains which I've done before, but this time I added the blackout fabric. I got it for a steal too. No really, 60% off home decor fabrics at JoAnn's with a President's Day coupon. Since I needed 14 yards of the stuff and it usually runs $6.99 a yard I saved like 60 bucks.  My total was only $42.65 including tax. Woot! I bought so much they put it back on a roll for me and I had to unroll it on the living room floor to cut it.

I didn't have to make any changes to Ana's Tab Top Curtain Plan to line them. I just cut the blackout fabric into 84" sections and lined the curtains with them. To make sure I sewed the blackout fabric in the right place I folded the fabric over 5/8" (the plan says 1/2", but I have this thing about 5/8" so I guess technically I made a tiny change) at the top and sides and ironed it. Then I folded the top down 4" and ironed it to make a crease to follow.

When you unfold it will look like this.

I laid the blackout fabric up next to the crease line and even with the fabric I folded over so that it would be inside the finished edge, but not all folded up in the finished edge. Hopefully that makes sense. If not, let me know.

I took a close up so you could see what I mean.

Then I just folded the fabric over again around the blackout fabric and pinned and stitched it at like 1/2" because I'm a little neurotic and I like finishing seams like that to be 1/8" from the edge instead of a 1/4".

I did the same thing on the other side and just wrapped the blackout fabric in the same basic way in the top and bottom hems.

Sheets - $11.38 x 2= $22.76

Blackout fabric = $42.65

Thread (because I ran out and had to buy more) = $3.22

Total = $68.63

That's only $11.44 a curtain. Austin says I should figure in my time and they would become really expensive, but DIY is meant for people who have more time than cash, right?

Flat Wall Book Holders

Here's another flashback project post. I really love these shelves so I'm not exactly sure why I never posted about them. They hold a ton of books, fill some wall space, and we made them out of scraps from the Dream Dollhouses.

We used these plans from Ana White to make two 24" shelves and one 36" shelf. Yes, Austin helped with this building project. Usually I'm way to controlling to get help, but I was pretty pregnant at the time and rational choices had to be made. If only I was that functional all the time I we would probably get more done.

To attach them to the wall we just screwed them into the studs (after pre-drilling with a counter sink bit).

The whole project took maybe an afternoon and most of that was spent waiting for the paint to dry.

And yes, I'm prepping for a full nursery reveal someday soon. I'm shooting for before Norie's first birthday. :)

Nursery Shadow Box Wall Art

Hopefully you're ready for a blast from the past. Now that Norie is nine months old I feel compelled to finish my pregnancy scrapbook (or at least finish the pregnancy part since she has been an independent life form for just as long as I was pregnant). In going through my pictures to figure out which ones were going in the scrapbook I found several projects I never posted about.

First up is this fun and easy little heirloom display.

When Austin's mom found out I was pregnant she gave us this box.

Inside was a handwritten note from the Desk of Joelline Stoller.

I thought such a precious heirloom needed to be displayed. I was also really pregnant at the time so I didn't get crazy. I just  the note so that it would stand out and from the background and attached both to a full sheet of acid free scrapbook paper inside a shadowbox frame from Target.

I probably spent half an hour deciding exactly where they should go.

I love it.

 Cute. Easy. Heirloom. Done. Yay!

How Tuesday: Super Cheap Baby Name Nursery Wall Art

A couple of months ago I posted about my plans for wall art in the nursery. I've been meaning to post about this one for a while. It's one of my favorites AND I made for less than $2.

Yep. I said TWO dollars. I really wish I'd taken pictures throughout the process, but it just really didn't take that long or involve that many steps.

I picked the frame up off my mom's driveway several years ago. It's been waiting for me to put something in the middle ever since. My mom painted it with ASCP in Provence while she was here for Hibbs House Project Week back in March. That paint is super expensive, but it didn't take much. I'm figuring a dollar and I'm sure that's high.

I bought the cardboard letters at Hobby Lobby when they were 50% off. The whole alphabet was originally $4.99, so I got it for $2.50 and I only used 5 of the 26 letters, $0.48.

I glued a fancy sheet of polka dot scrapbooking paper I got for a quarter at a second hand store (it was a leftover from the Dream Dollhouse) to them. Then I remembered I should take a picture, a blurry one with my phone.

I wasn't sure what kind of ribbon to hang them from. Thank goodness for picture messages to my mom.

She was totally right about the yellow.

I hung the letters from the frame's wire with about two yards of ribbon I bought at Wal-Mart. Ten yards for $0.48. Let's call it 10 cents.

Total Cost: 1.00+0.48+0.25+0.10 = $1.77

Super easy. Super cheap. Super cute.

I really like it next to the piece I got from my sister for Christmas. :)

DIY Quilting Hoop Wall Art Reveal

First, a confession. I'm writing this at 9pm in bed after a meeting that, while valuable, meant I missed all of Norie's awake time tonight and it is taking every single tiny bit of my strength of will not to go pick her up out of her crib and snuggle the crap out of her. Like I'm actually hoping she wakes me up a lot tonight so I can see her even though I'm sick and really need the sleep. I basically want to skip all evening activities from now until she's old enough to be obnoxious so I can spend all the possible time I can with her.

Moving on.

Remember way back in October when I posted this about my DIY Quilting Hoop Wall Art? I promised you pictures of it up, but never delivered. I'm working on doing what I say I'll do so here you go. I gave it some little embroidery hood friends too. One has a cut of piece of a gift bag from the baby shower and the other has a doily and a piece of a sheet Austin's grandmother gave us.

I think Norie really likes the bird. I hung them over the changing table so she stares at them sometimes while I'm changing her diaper. Other times she tries with all her might to roll off the changing table, but that's another story.

DIY Quilting Hoop Frame Wall Art

I love a "how to" post. This one isn't super complicated, but I love how it adds some interest and personality to a word print.

This is where a picture of the finished product would make sense.

Notice it's not there. That's because I haven't actually taken a picture of it hanging up. I assure you it is. I just don't have any photographic proof.

I got the print months ago for donating to Love Without Boundaries after Ashley of Under the Sycamore started the Incubator Project. The print was designed by her sister Lesley of Recipe for Crazy. Then I gave birth and it just sort of hung out in our spare bedroom with some other prints I need to frame.

I finally got motivated when I saw some quilting hoops at a nieghbor's garage sale not two days after I saw this picture from the Whatever Craft Weekend House. http://megduerksen.typepad.com/craft/2012/08/always-awesome.html

First I mounted it on a sheet of scrapbooking paper with these dots that I'm just totally in love with. It has the same super bright orange as the small lettering and really brings it out.


See those little words? They say

a bird doesn't sing

because it has an answer,

it sings because it has a

I'm so in love with the paper that I cut out the part that would be entirely behind the print with an Exact-O knife so I could save it for something else. They have matching fabric at Hobby Lobby. It makes me smile.

 

Isn't it lovely?

Anywho, I started with this big ol' hoop. You should go ahead an ignore the fact that I obviously forgot to document the print with paper until after this step. :)

That's the paper I saved to the left. :)

I cut a piece of some fabric I've had lying around for a while big enough to leave some excess and stretched it in the hoop.



Then I realized I needed the ribbon under the hoop too. Or at least I wanted it that way. I measured some ribbon I had leftover from some another project and re-stretched the fabric. Then I trimmed the edges so I had just an inch or so of fabric left all the way around.

Yes, those are baby feet in footie pajamas. I was working on this little project while home alone with Norie. Note to self: baby plus scissors is probably a bad idea.

After that I just taped down the fabric around the inside rim and used a couple of clothespins to hang the print from the ribbon.

It was done-ish, but I thought it needed something. This is the state it's been in the whole time that "Finish the wall art I started for the Song print I got for donating to Love Without Boundaries" has been on my list.

Then it hit me.

I used the bird silhouette from way back when Layla put a bird on it.

I managed to grab a blurry shot with my phone while it was still on the dining table.

1. Buy a bracket and rehang the blinds in the bedroom
2. Plant the mum by friend Nancy gave me
3. Write something on my DIY Chalkboard
4. Finish my fall mantel
5. Take Norie's four month pictures before she's five months old
6. Finish the wedding plate wall art
7. Make some bunting for my office
8. Build a pallet bar/wall art to cover up the attic fan switch
9. Make a DIY ribbon chandelier for Norie's room
10. Do something with the shutters my aunt got me last year
11. Put the label plates back on the enormous drawer thing and label the drawers
12. Finish the wall art I started for the Song print I got for donating to Love Without Boundaries
13. Finish my desk
14. Finish the table scape for Campbell Family Thanksgiving 2012
15. Hang the awesome owl latch hook my sister gave me at Norie's baby shower
16. Clean up the porch
17. Finish the October page in my pregnancy scrapbook (yes, that would be last October)
18. Fix the leg on the coffee table and finish repainting it
19. Sell the coffee and end tables
20. Make a coffee table
21. Create a gift wrapping/gift wrap organizing space
22. Start working on fun holiday decorations
23. Finish the other Dream Dollhouse from last year's Make Two Challenge
24. Make some DIY cake stands from wedding plates and candlesticks.
25. Make map mats for vacation photos

Changing Table Reveal: Hibbs House Project Week 2012

I've been having a little trouble posting a reveal of the changing table my mom created for me the baby. It's been done for almost two weeks (like ever since that Hibbs House Project Week (HHPW) I promised to post about), but it's so fabulous I haven't wanted to post until I could take pictures that would do it justice. I've been busy during times when the light was right and I never quite got around to being ready until it was dark and the lighting was atrocious. As a result, I keep pushing it off.

Until today. I'm posting about this bad boy today if it kills me. I'm writing this post before I even take the pictures so I know I just have to take them and stick them in and it will be done.




It's been a long time so here's a refresher on the whole changing table situation. 


My mom brought this dresser with her when she came for HHPW.

It has all the drawers, but I forgot to take a before shot until after we had already started painting and I wanted the before to be pure before. My dad had already put some serious effort into improving the functionality by making the drawers actually work and slide in and out easily. He's a genius when it comes to stuff like that.

She painted the whole thing out in Old White Anne Sloan Chalk Paint. And I got this crazy hair to paint the inside of the drawers with some hot pink paint I had leftover from the Dream Dollhouse project. 

I think its part of the ongoing battle between my love of pink and my hate of girl's nurseries that are swimming in it. I like pink a lot more than I ever thought I would, but seriously people, your child having two X chromosomes does not necessitate her living in a room that looks like Strawberry Shortcake threw up all over it.

After I got done I was a little concerned that it might be too pink, but since its only the inside of the drawers I figured I could give it a bit and see how I felt about it later.

Once the inside of the drawers had so much attitude it became clear to us both that the outside needed to have a little something more than off white going on. We talked over several ideas and settled on a chevron pattern in Provence. Pink was discussed, but we determined that would be just a little too much.

Could that be the result of Anne Marie's recent (it was recent when we were making this decision) guest post on Perfectly Imperfect? I think yes.

I did a little google image searching of my own and came up with this fab dresser on ampirlot's flickr.

Source: theoldpostroadblog.blogspot.com via Amber on Pinterest

LOVE.

The dresser had the same basic shape and I liked the proportions of the stripes so I used it as a pattern for the chevrons on the changing table. I taped off the stripes and my mom painted them. She was a little concerned about my taping technique at first. Apparently my plan wasn't immediately obvious when she looked at the dresser and she thought I just wasn't super careful in my taping. Once I clarified that the neat lines where around the spots to be painted and the random torn tape ends where in the part that was going to stay white she was on board. I didn't remember to take picture until after she'd gone over the tape edges with a layer of white (which is a great thing to do if you want super sharp tape lines).

It took every bit of self control I had to leave the tape on long enough for her to finish two coats of paint on the stripes. I wanted to see it so bad it literally hurt. Seriously, I'm pretty sure I bit my lip a little.

Isn't it just the cutest little thing you've ever seen? And check out the hot pink inside the drawers.

The next day I went to Hobby Lobby and picked up a couple of potential knob options you might remember.

We both thought the polka dot would win out, but when I put them on the whites didn't quite work and the knobs seemed a little small given the scale of the chevrons. We settled on the clear glass ones.

I came up with a great of idea for a couple of the polka dot ones though.

Here's the finished product.

Nursery Wall Art

We've lived in our house for over and year and it still doesn't look like us. It has all our furniture, but really, anyone could live there. I think that has a lot to do with the bare walls. Seriously, we have like maybe 8 things hanging up in the whole house. The only exception is the collection of framed photos in the stairway.

An inventory of our wall art would go about like this:

Front room without a clearly defined purpose - 1 huge painting of the Plaza San Marco I bought at a junk shop with my mom before I went to grad school
Media room - nothing
Dining room - 5 plates
Kitchen - some stuff on top of the cabinets, put nothing with a clear vision or purpose and nothing on the walls
Master bedroom - blank walls although there is one piece we got for our wedding leaning against the wall
Guest bedroom with the exercise equipment - Sea painting actually hung up and another leaning against the wall
Other guest bedroom/my office/craft room - 6 whole pieces on the wall. I hung them once and I think I meant to post about them. I also have a collection on the floor waiting for me to finish the hutch for the desk so I have a better idea about the overall layout of the wall.

That brings us to the nursery. I haven't shown them to you yet, but Austin encouraged me to sketch up what I was thinking about in there so I could have a better idea of the projects involved. My sketches had no less than 11 pieces of wall art.

Kind of a lot for a woman who hasn't gotten around to making or hanging much in the rest of the house, huh?  Since I'd like to get the nursery finished before she heads off to college I think I'll just try to push through and get it done before she's born. Otherwise I think it may end up languishing with the rest of the unfinished projects in the house.

My Pinterest Nursery Board has several pieces that are also on our registry. Like this one from Wallfry.

I have spots picked out for them just in case someone decides to gift them to us.

This one I got from The Wheatfield by Katie Daisy, had matted in fushia, and framed.

It also has a bunch of ideas for pieces I would like to create and hang. I started one last night and was going to post about it tomorrow, but Target's website lied to me and the shadow box frame I need wasn't actually in stock in white. I hate it when that happens. I'll save the details for the post.

I'm going to go ahead and tell you all about the details of another project though. I can't help myself. It draws from three pieces of inspiration.

First, this lovely letter decorated in a Katie Daisy print. I know, you're shocked. 

The full name in landscape idea that was inspired by this image from Chic Channel Inspired Baby Shower from On to Baby

And the bright colors of all these frames from Megan's Home Made Lovely tour inspired me to go with something other than brown or white.

I have the perfect frame just waiting to be filled. I saved it from my mother's dumpster pile one day. It's currently gold, but I think I'll paint it aqua and distress it like this one I found on Etsy (sorry, it's already sold, but Swede13 Inspirations has lots of other lovely items you might want to check out).

There you have it. I'm sure you can envision it perfectly, but I'll go ahead and post once I have it done. Maybe next week. :)