Recliner Redo

When I was pregnant with Athaiah we got this wonderful recliner.  It truly is wonderful, it is big and comfy.  It just had a hole in the side arm rest and was the wrong color.  But when has that ever stopped me.  That just means it will become a project at a later date right? Well the later date has arrived and now it goes perfectly in the basement!

To recover this we bought a set of queen size red sheets that were on sale for $9. (We bought the recliner for $10), this means this project was $20 and a very well spent $20(rounding up here people, I promise I can do math!) at that.  It is one of my favorite seats in the house, not only does it recline, but it also rocks. Perfect in this house filled with small children who love to climb into laps for story time, or just for some good old fashioned rockin'!

What you will need:
Old Recliner
Queen size sheets(clearance preferred to keep cost down)
staple gun and staples(a lot of staples)
Extra batting if you feel it is needed(we used extra in the arm rests)

Ok it is a bit hard to explain, but we started with the fitted sheet, we cut all the corners and trimmed off all the elastic. Easy enough!

Next we took the recliner apart, top off, and the arm rest removed.

Then, we just laid it over top of the back of the recliner, stapling and pulling it super tight as we went. (Make sure it is centered so you have plenty left to wrap over the front. We started stapling along the bottom(as you can see below), and then worked our ways up the sides and eventually over the back.  Also, for positioning purposes, we laid the fabric out super straight on the ground and then laid the top on it, wrapping one end around to staple.

Flip it over and continue to straighten everything out, pulling tight and using lots of staples!

*before front was stapled

*After front was stapled

For the bottom half of the chair we put it in the up position(legs up) and started at the bottom. Make sure you take the lever off first!

Make sure this is centered because this will also wrap around the arms and down the sides.  Make sure to pull it tight and staple as you go. (We didn't remove the old fabric, we just put everything on top of it). This project also involved no sewing!! YEAH!  Now pull it tight. I know I keep saying that but it is important that it is pulled tight everywhere.  Wrap it around the arm rests and down the sides, and staple all along the bottom. Staple well! There is no such thing as too many staples in this project.

*Bottom before the arm rests were attached

 

For the arm rests, we used one pillow case for each arm-handy enough right?! We filled the arm rests up with some extra batting we had lying around just for some extra cushion.  Then we pulled it tight(LOL) and stapled it all up so it was closed.  Do this for both pieces.  Now to attach it to the chair.  Staple away my friends.  Just make sure it looks nice and neat and you will be all set! We did this all by looking, no real pattern or directions, just a lot of pulling fabric around everything, and lots and lots of staples from our staple gun!

Now just put the chair back together.  We cut a small hole in the fabric where the lever came from so we could attach it back on.  Oh yeah...for the lever we just took off the old fabric and there happened to be a nice plastic lever underneath.  We had planned to recover it or to paint it, but turned out it needed nothing, SCORE! So lever goes, back on the bottom, the arm rests are already back on, and then put the top back on the bottom.  Close up any loose seams that may need stapled up last minute. and you are done!

This took us an afternoon during nap time to complete.  My wonderful husband helped me with this project, he is great at fixing things and being my other half and helping me come up with my wonderful, crazy ideas that have no pattern! Looks pretty good-what do you think?

Thankful Turkey

We decided to make a Thankful Turkey this year.  I want my children to learn how to be positive and thankful people. We decided to help them recognize the season and being thankful-we would do a month long project.

Elijah helped me make this, and he thought it was so much fun! Got love craft time with mommy! (too bad I didn't get a picture of him helping me, I need to be better about that)

What you need:
2 Foam Balls-1 small and 1 large
Brown spray paint
yellow paint(just a dab)
orange pipe cleaner
2 googly eyes
small wooden sticks(toothpicks)
construction paper(all colors)
glue

 Take your foam balls and spray paint them brown. This took 2 coats!

(this was the 1st coat)

 

Attach the two balls, do this using 2 of the small wooden sticks

Glue the googly eyes onto the small ball, paint a yellow beak on.

Attach a small portion of the pipe cleaner around the beak-attach it using glue

 (don't mind he eyes, they kept getting a glare on them from the light.)
 

Put two of the wooden sticks on the bottom to help hold the balls up in a standing position!

Cut out the construction paper to make your feathers and attach a small wooden stick to each with glue. 

Then for each day we will write something we are thankful for on a feather and place it in the turkey.  Look for a full turkey at the end of the month.  I am so excited to do this with my kids.  I'm hoping it will just help them put thankfulness more into practice.  I can't wait to make this a November tradition leading up to Thanksgiving.

Burlap Wreath

I decided to make a very simple burlap wreath for fall/winter.  I chose a burlap ribbon with some red woven thru it so it would be good for fall or winter/Christmas time.  We will see how long I keep it up! I just felt like doing something small and quick and crafty.  With 3 kids in the house the crafts around here have to be quick!

I took a wire wreath and simply wrapped the burlap around it nice and tight. (I'm not a fufu kind of girl-that would be my mom and sisters, if you are looking for fufu you would have to ask them!) Do this starting about 15 inches into the ribbon(do you have an end to make a bow with!).  Keep wrapping it around until you get back to the beginning.  Now tie a bow! And your done! Simple, fun, and easy!

 Note: This can be done with a small child in your lap-I would know!

Lost Socks

Does any one else have lost socks?  I once heard that someone was convinced that the dryer lint was the cremated remains of all the lost socks, I would like to agree with this statement-because where on earth could they have possibly gone?

Anyway, I saw a sign on pinterest that said lost socks...Amazing!  I knew this was something we needed for our laundry room-just because I loved it so much and thought how useful!

I took another piece of spare wood from our pile and got to work.

 

I painted it brown(that is the color my husband wanted it to be)! 
I put a bracket(may not be the correct term, sorry) on the back to hang it to the wall.

I painted Lost Socks on the front.
Last but not least, I glued clothespins to the front of it to clip the socks to.

Yeah! I now have somewhere to put all the non matching socks besides laying on a dresser! Best of all, it was free!

Tie/Bowtie Onesie Revisited

I absolutely loved the tie and bow tie onesies that I made for Elijah.  Problem was that with the red felt and the white onesie it bled a bit when washed.  Not bad or anything...but just enough to notice slight pink color on the onesie.  I also really wanted more, but didn't want to sew them all onto the onesie, although it is by no means hard to do there had to be an easier way!  Well I found it, so here it is! I hope you like it as much as I do because I love it. I found out I'm going to be an aunt for the first time and am thrilled beyond belief.  I wanted to make something special for my new little nephew and these onesies seemed to be the perfect thing!

What you are going to need:
Sewing machine
Snaps
Thread
Fabric of your choosing
Onesies

Take your onesie and near the top of it(neck line), place a snap!  I used the pointed end of the snap on the onesie so that it matched the rest of the front of the snaps on the front of the onesie.  Mainly because I'm just OCD like that(feel free to use whatever end you prefer!) I placed the snap about 1" down from the neckline, and right in the center. (I really shouldn't say I put the snap there because to be honest, my husband is in charge of attaching the snaps!)

Next make all of your bow ties and ties.  This really is easy to do.  I'm going to have to explain it to you as I forgot to take pictures during this part-must be the mommy, post surgery brain I was having while making these! 
To make the tie: I folded a piece of fabric in half, so that you can make it nice looking on both sides.  It was about 4" in length as this was for a 0-3mo onesie so it doesn't need to be too big!  I just took a stencil of the tie, similar to how I did it the first time around,  cutting it out in the shape of a tie-just make sure when you make the stencil that it is about 1" wider than you need it to be so you have 1/2" seam allowance on either side.    Putting the right sides of the fabric together I sewed the whole outside of the tie together, leaving the top unsewn so you can flip the tie right side out.  Iron the tie so it is all straight and neat, then sew the top part of the tie together tucking the top edge like 1/4" under so you have a nice straight edge!  You will then slide the knot part(see below) over the top of the tie and down to the section that goes in bit(where you would normally see a knot on a tie) It is now ready to be attached to the onesie!
To make the knot: Cut out a piece of fabric about 1" wide and 2" long so that you can make the knot part of the tie. This knot part is where I attached the other side of the snap. For this to look nice, I put a seam on both sides about 1/4" wide so that you have nice straight edges that are not going to fray.  Next turn your fabric so the right sides are together and sew it together using 1/4" seam allowance again.  Turn it right side out again and now you should have a circle.  Attach a Snap to the bottom area where the seam now is, as this will go on the bottom side of the tie and attach the tie to the onesie.  You will make one of these for the tie know and for each of the bow ties.  I won't explain this part again, just an fyi-so when I say put the knot on it is this section and the circle that you now have is the knot!

To make the bow tie: Fold your fabric in half so you will have 2 pieces of fabric to sew together.  Cut your fabric so that it is 2.5" wide and 4.5" long.  You are going to use 1/4" seam allowance on all sides.  Put the right sides of the fabric together and sew up 3 of the sides.  Turn the fabric right side out and sew up the last side, tucking 1/4" of the fabric on the inside so you have a nice finished edge. You should have a rectangular shaped piece of fabric.  Now you just slide your knot over the fabric and place it in the middle, it should pull the fabric together so it looks like a bow tie.

Simple! Quick! Easy! Amazing!  Maybe I'm just partial but I love that you can now interchange the ties and bow ties to create whatever look you want and you don't have to use as many onesies.  I made baby Oliver a red, blue, grey, and camo bow tie! Red and blue since those are mommy and daddy's school colors, grey because well it was a dressy fabric, and camo because his daddy likes to hunt.  I also made a camo tie just for kicks and giggles!

Dog Bed

I made this quite a while ago, but now that I know how much he liked it I decided to post it.
Our dog and our two cats used to all sleep in our bed.  Can you say a little too crowded?  We now shut the door at night to keep the cats out, but our dog cried all night long and caused us not to sleep so we let him sleep in the room.  We just needed to figure out a way to keep him off the bed.
Let me preface this by saying he had a dog bed when we first got him, and he was so scared all the time he was constantly peeing on it, so I threw it out figuring it was doing more harm than good in the long run.  With that said I didn't want to go and spend another $20 on a dog bed. (we have to get the big kind since we have a chocolate lab).
As I was making the bed one day I noticed how torn up our mattress pad was getting so I came up with this idea!

I cut all the elastic off the sides of the mattress cover and snipped all the corners so that it would lay flat.  I then found a fleece blanket of mine that I used in high school on my twin bed-which doesn't fit our queen now I just never threw it away because it was soo comfy and it was purple my favorite color.
I then folded the mattress pad so that it was 1/4 of the size(this because my stuffing for the dog bed).  Then I folded the fleece blanket in half around the mattress pad, tucking in all the edges so the seams were nice and neat.  Sew all this together(I had to sew slow as it was really thick).

Guess what you are done.  My dog sleeps on this every night! I never thought we would be able to get him out of the bed.  I think it helped that it had our smell on it from being an older blanket.  Now when we go downstairs he goes straight for his bed, and it hardly took any training at all! (by training I mean that it took us two days of telling him to get off the bed, and when he got off the bed he went straight for his new dog bed).  Made me feel like doggy mom of the year, that is since he likes it so much!

White Board-Homemade

Well now that this baby is finally here and I don't feel so exhausted I will catch up on a couple of my posts.  I was so busy trying to get them all done, I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked so I apologize for that.  I'm just excited to finally get them all on here for everyone to see.  So keep your eyes peeled for more of what has been going on in the kitchen and the basement!
I decided to put one of my old frames to use, since I was just going to throw it away. But it was still in good condition.

I have wanted a place in my house where I could write a different verse each week just to give us all a small reminder of God's promises to us, and all that He has done for us.
I took the back off the frame and cleaned both sides of the glass really well.

I then found a piece of scrapbook paper that I liked, and cut it to the size of the frame.  I also took some of my flower pieces and put two flowers on the paper just for kicks and giggles. The frame before just had a paper backing and that was torn up from me removing it and since I have a ton of cardboard boxes from cleaning out the storage room I decided to cut one of those to size and place in the back of the frame.  I cut it so that it would fit really snug and I wouldn't have to hold it in with anything else.

What do you think?  I love it and got right to work with writing on it.  I think it goes nicely in our newly finished basement and really adds a family element to the family room.  Since we want our family firmly based on God and His Word this is a perfect reminder!

Mod Podge

I also found this link on Pintrest and was really interested since you can use it on quite a few crafts, but it is very pricey.  I was having a hard time wanting to make those crafts to spend that much money on the "glue" for the craft. So I sent to work making it and it works great!

Here is the quick and simple recipe on how to make this marvolous mixture.
Mason Jar
Elmers Glue
Water


You are going to put half glue and half water in the jar, and shake it all up.  Guess what you are done.  Now that was really simple wasn't it.  And Elmers glue is a lot cheaper than a huge jar of mod podge. 







Have fun crafting I know I will!

Chair Cover

With everything getting moved around and being in a new place, my one cat gets finicky.  Needless to say how she usually repays us is by peeing on something.  So of course she picked my Ikea chair to pee on because we have one no where near us to be able to get a replacement cover at.
We decided to make one since we just finished the basement.  I really wanted some red down there, but not too much.  A chair cover was the perfect place to add some pops of red!

We found these super soft sheets on sale at Walmart and since a couple things needed recovering you will probably see this same design pop up in a lot of places.  But I like things to match so I have no problem with that!
I am not going to give you measurements because if you decide to recover something yourself it will probably be a different size.  This will just give you the basics on how to do it.

Part 1: Measure the top part (where your head rest).  Cut the fabric to that size(adding some for seam allowance).  I then had some old batting I put in there to make it fluffy since this is the head rest of the chair. Sew all this up making sure to sew the batting into the seams so that it stays and doesn't move around when you wash it.  Also make sure the right sides of the fabric are together and the batting is on one of the back sides.  I then place batting side down on the sewing machine so the needle doesn't get stuck in it.  I have some batting spray so I sprayed this on the fabric to make sure it sticks(it is like a glue for fabric and batting). Set this piece aside.

Part 2. I measured the second part of my cover, and cut that about 3 inches longer than needed.  I did these because I needed some room for seam allowance and also to sew the other two pieces to this one piece.  I then followed the same steps as above.  I placed the batting on one of the wrong sides and put the fabric right sides together.  Make sure you don't sew it all the way around so you have room to pull all the fabric through.  I left the whole bottom open as I was not quite sure how I was going to attach it to the other pieces yet, and needed to come up with a way to put the foam back into the chair.  I didn't really want to do a zipper not that it's hard I just didn't want to have to go and buy one, too cheap for that! 

Part 3: Same as the last 2 parts.  Measure and add room for seam allowance and some extra so you can attach it to the middle piece.  I added 2 inches to this one from the original measurement.

Part 4: Now we are going to attach all these pieces together and close up all those last seams.  I was still deciding how I wanted to do this in the process because I wanted to make sure I could remove the cover if it needed washing and then I wouldn't have to wash the foam pieces that go inside of it.

I attached them with some the top side of the fabrics sewn together-the parts that would be touching once on the chair.  I sewed this with about a 1 inch seam and I sewed about 1/4 of an inch in on either side just to make it lay flat and look nice.

Now all that is left is the back side of the chair cover which is left open.  I decided to put some snaps on this side so I can easily remove the cover if it needs washing.  So I attached three snaps-they are the hammer in kind and they work great! Last we stuff the foam back into the chair, and snap it closed and you are done!

It looks really nice and really adds a nice touch to the basement. The cat likes it:)

Coffee Sign

For those of you who know me quite well you know that I love coffee.  I worked in a coffee shop for 5 years and loved it, but I also grew up around it.  My parents and grandparents were always drinking coffee, I think it has become more of a comfort item then a necessity.  When I was pregnant with Elijah I couldn't drink coffee for the first 3 months because it made me nauseous, and then all the sudden one day I craved it, and yeah I was able to drink it again.

Any way, now that my kitchen is done I am going to keep the coffee theme going in there.  Since I changed the colors though I need some new decorations.  Since I would prefer to make something cool, then go buy something really expensive I came up with this idea!

What you will need:
Canvas
Old Floor Tiles(mine were peel n stick vinyl so they were not too heavy)
coffee filters
Hot glue gun/glue

First, on my canvas I laid out all the scraps of tile that I had left from putting the flooring in.  I didn't really want any of them to go to waste, and they made a nice background and obviously matched the kitchen.

Next, I went to town scrunching up all the coffee filters, so they looked pretty.  I found for this project it worked better if I cut them in half since I was going to be writting out of them.  The full coffee filters were a bit too big.

Then, I set to work spelling out coffee on the tile with the hot glue gun(I only did one letter or half a letter at a time so it wouldn't dry), then I placed the coffee filters on it.

On the bottom underneath the word coffee I put a coffee cup.  I centered it under the "f" so that it looked like the fs were more of the steam coming out of the cup of coffee.


Now since I already had the tile(as it was scraps), I already had the canvas(it came in a two pack and I had already used the other one for a different project), the only thing I needed to buy were coffee filters(since my coffee pot has a reusable one).  Which means I made this project for a total of 1.50-can't beat that in my book and I really like the way it turned out.  This will look wonderful above my arch in the kitchen!

Quilted skirt-Adult

Fabric Strips: 3"x21"

Bottom wide piece:11.5"x(1.5x your waist measurement)

Bottom Skinny Piece: 3"x(1.5x your waist measurement)

Waistband" 2"x(how ever big your waist is)

Elastic: I used 1/2" and then 2" less than my waist measurement.

I decided to make this skirt because I had a lot of leftover black and white fabric but not enough of any of it to make a skirt for myself.  Soo I decided I would give it a quilted look and piece them all together.

To start out I cut out all my strips of fabric. I needed 15 strips.

I had a very good helper!

Next, I placed them all out to make sure that they looked evenly spaced with not too much black background in a row. I know they are not all the same length. I cut them all even later(I just started with the length that I had of each fabric to see how long I could get it)

Now you set to work on sewing all these strips together. I used 1/4" seam allowance on these.

 So now you should have what looks like a block of fabric. Make sure it will be wide enough to fit all the way around you! I trimmed the edges all even after I had all the pieces attached.

I then took the pieces I had cut out for the bottom pieces of the skirt and I gathered them at the top click here if you need directions on how to do this.  I then sewed both of these pieces together to make the full bottom.

Take your bottom piece and sew it to your block of fabric scraps, make sure you do this with the right sides together so that you get a nice clean seam.  Also sew it right above the gathered stitch so that the messiness of it is covered.

Now for the waistband.  Take your elastic and put it in your waistband.  I did this by adding it before I put the waistband on the skirt.  Make sure the elastic is 2" shorter than the fabric so that it will hold it better. 

To insert the elastic waistband, fold the top part of the skirt over, and tuck in the bottom so you have a nice clean edge. Now sew up the side.  Make sure you pull on the elastic as you go, so that it will bounce back into place when it is finished. (I forgot to take pictures of this step I'm so sorry and this is a complicated piece to explain)

Once your waistband is made, attach it to the rest of the skirt.  Make sure when you attach it the elastic is at the top and that you sew it with right sides together, this just always keeps everything looking neat and tidy!Turn the fabric so it is right sides together and sew up the side seams.  This will make it a circle.  You are done. Enjoy!

Ruffle bottom skirt pattern

First cut out a piece of fabric that is 18"x8".

The first thing I did on this one was to put in the elastic waistband and it worked so much better than putting it in last.

To do this you are going to make a "pocket" for the elastic to go into.-this means I folded the top part of the fabric 1/4" down and ironed it flat(this was so there were no rough edges in the skirt). Next, Fold 1/2" of the fabric over and iron it so it lays flat. Now you are going to put the elastic in the 1/2" fold that you ironed.  The elastic should be 1-2" shorter than the width of your skirt so that it will stretch.  Sew this up, while pulling on the elastic while you are sewing. Now your waistband is done!

Next cut out a strip of fabric that is 1.5xs the width of the skirt and 2" wide.   First hem the bottom part I used a 1/4" seam for this.  You are going to do a gather on the top of this so that it ruffles.  If you want to check out how to do that follow the link here and it will show you.

Now attach the ruffle piece of fabric to the bottom of the skirt.  Pin it so that it stays and you can then make sure you don't need to adjust the ruffle lengths anywhere. (Make sure the right sides of the fabric are together so you won't see any rough edges).  I used a 1/2" seam make sure that the top part where you gathered will be hidden once you turn it the right way.

Now that your bottom is attached to the skirt, sew up your side seam so that it makes a circle and you are done!

Easy and cute right??

Storage Boxes

I was needing something to put all of Eli's toys in since they seem to have taken over the living room.

So I pulled out an old diaper box (I was trying to think of something creative to do with them), and got to work.  I cut off the top pieces so that it would stay open.

I then spray painted 3 of the sides blue.

Then because of my new found love with chalkboard paint, I painted the front of the box with that!  Yeah, now I can write toys on it. 

I'm so very excited to have somewhere to put all his toys instead of just scattered all across the floor! Greg is too, as the clutter I think gets on his nerves more than mine. Below is what the room looked like before!

It sits so nicely on the bookshelf and now it is a bookshelf of everything Eli instead of just some random stuff!

Much better don't you think??
Now I just need to find my chalk so I can write on the box.  You have to wait for 24 hrs before you can write on the surface, so maybe tomorrow I will try and find the chalk!

Roll up Car Mat

We couldn't find a good car mat that we liked and I wanted one that could roll up small and fit nicely in a closet and not take up a whole room.  Greg wanted one that the roads were the correct size so that one car could drive on each side of the road.  So I decided to make one.  This is going to be one of Eli's birthday presents since it is at the end of this month, and he got some match box cars for Christmas.  He is still a bit young to use it, but it sure was fun to make!

1/2 yard Green Felt
1/4 yard Black Felt

Red, Blue Felt- small amount of each as I made the structures out of my scraps from making the trains.

Hot glue gun/glue

I took my Green felt and cut it in half length wise, so like where the natural fold in the fabric was from the bolt.  This is the size piece that I used since I wanted it small.

Next I cut out my road pieces.  I decided to make them a square, with a one way street going each direction down the middles so it forms a t shape in the middle of the square.  I then hot glued all theses pieces onto the green felt.  (Note: when you hot glue them don't put any glue down the middle, this will make it really difficult later when you add your middle street line) I put them mainly off to one side because on one of the short sides I am putting a storage place for some of the cars so we can take it with us if we go somewhere.

Next I made all of the buildings that I wanted.  I made a lake(really small with a boat and some fish), a car wash, a house, and of course a gas station.  These were fun to make.  I put one in each of the small squares.

 

I then attached the blue felt to the side of the mat.  I sewed this on, but make sure you keep one of the long ends open so you can slide the cars into the slots.  I then sewed on the blue piece, to make pockets each one is about 2.5 inches wide so the cars can fit inside with ease.

I then attached one last strip of felt to the outside so that I could roll the mat up and tie it all together. I sewed it on first, and then I hot glued it on either side of the sewing just to make sure it stayed in place.  You could always use a cute ribbon, or put a nice backing on it, but I liked it simple! The last step that I took was I quilt stitched a line going all around the outside road down the middle, for the dividing line in the road. If I wanted to do it correctly I would have used yellow thread, but I only had white available so I used that instead of running to the store.

In case you want to make one the same size as the one I made here are all the measurements for everything I made (with the exception of the buildings)

Side road: 4"X11.5"

Top/bottom road: 4"X20.5"

Middle road horizontal:2"X13

Middle road vertical:2"X11.5

Blue car holder:4"X19" -each pocket is 2.5" wide
Green mat: 19"X 27.5"

Tie: 3"X32"

I hope this helps, and I hope if you have a little one that they may enjoy it to, as I know my husband is looking forward to playing with Elijah by the hour with this! Now we just have to wait until his birthday