A Little Project: The Letter "N"

Last year with my birthday money I bought a Silhouette Portrait on a screaming deal. I had ideas of what to do with it, but mostly I've used it to cut out paper to frame.

I've done a couple small vinyl projects, but when a friend found a letter "N" at Hobby Lobby in the clearance section for 90% off making it only $3, I could see exactly what I wanted it to be:

And now, working backwards...

This was just before the Krylon Short Cuts Gold Leaf Spray Paint was applied. Putting on the vinyl and figuring out what I wanted and how to do it took about 7 hours. Had I known, I may not have done a design that was so complicated.

This was just after the Krylon Dover White Spray Paint was applied.

 And this is what it looked like when I bought it (for $3). Gross.

 And this is what it looks like on my wall. I know the wall needs work, but I like the "N."

And here is a detail of the pattern...imperfections and all!

And here is how my visiting sister kept James out of the vinyl and spray paint. And being his photographer is how I kept her busy.

I love how it turned out and how it adds some sparkle into my decor!

A couple quick tricks:

• Your X-acto knife is your best friend! By the end of the "N" you really can't tell I pieced strips together because it took me so long figure out that an X-Acto knife was exactly the right tool for the job.
• I tried to use a cardstock stencil, but the lines were just not as clean as with vinyl that stuck all over and not just on the edges where I would have taped it.

A Little Project: DIY Window Seat

Nick has been working late pretty much every night for the last 3 weeks...and a girl can only read so many books (especially when she's in a bit of a reading slump -- more on that later). Anyway, as I've been clearing out our home of stuff not going to New Mexico with us, I came across a little shelf in the garage, decided it was serving no practical purpose and decided to re-purpose it. This is what I came up with:

And this is what it looked like before:

 My thought was that if I'm going to try my hand at upholstery, I wanted it to be a no regret situation, just in case it went south. So this is actually a Walmart shelving unit we bought years ago for our specific needs and has been collecting dust and junk in our garage since we moved to our condo. If I ended up destroying it, nothing lost!

Which brings me to what I did and how I did it. Well, I followed this tutorial which was featured here and then I adapted it to my needs (like sanding everything down and then painting the unit because there was scuffs and chips and exposed particle board on the bottom of each shelf and the unit itself...we're cheap like that).

About the paint: I got a quart of Glidden Smooth Stone in Satin from Home Depot which ran me about $13. I wanted the color to have both grey and cream in it so it would mesh with whatever room we put it in (and there's quite a bit left in the can). I also took the 1/2 yard of fabric I got at Hobby Lobby for $2 so I could see them side by side.

The rest of the project was just like the tutorial, except I did end up buying the 1" thick roll of 6' long foam from Hobby Lobby, and using my 40% off coupon it ran me like $11. So the total cost for the project ended up being about $30, which I can do on my budget. Plus, I'm just pretty excited about how it turned out!

I know it's nothing really to write home about, but it filled two needs in our house (de-cluttering the garage and a small place for a few books in Alexa's room). It also filled a creativity and exploration bug in me, so now I'm cured for a while (until we move into a new place hopefully). Plus, with all that extra foam, it looks like I'm going to have to try another upholstery project!!

And now I can say I pretty much can woman-handle a drill. BAM!

AND I also proved once again that Pinterest can actually be a useful endeavor! YAY Pinterest!

(Speaking of...did you see our new social media buttons I put up on our sidebar?? Now we're a little social!)

Car Seat Canopy Tutorial for Sewing Dummies

Being a sewing dummy myself, I thought I would try to help those out there who may be new to sewing and want to do a fairly simple, cute, and useful project for their bambino (or a nice shower gift). I do link up to four different tutorials I used to make mine, so jump around to those ones if you'd like!

Notes to begin:
• the car seat I'm working with is a Baby Trend Flex-Loc Infant Carseat. Here is a link to a tutorial that fits a Graco car seat, and here's another one.
• I've inserted personal sewing-related notes in italics throughout the tutorial. Feel free to ignore them.

Needed Supplies

Coordinating Thread

1 Yard Top Fabric

1 Yard Coordinating Bottom Fabric

2 - 6"x8" Coordinating Fabric Pieces

2 - 2.5" x 8" Coordinating Fabric Pieces

2 - 1.5" x 3.75" Velcro Strips

2 Coordinating Buttons

 (thread not pictured because I forgot...oops!)

The Blanket Portion

(This is the fairly easy part, so let's start here.)

Step 1: Wash your fabrics on cold and dry on highest setting

 As a sewing dummy I have forgotten this step and cut my fabric first and then had to re-cut after I washed them. It's annoying. 

Step 2: Cut both fabrics to 33"x42" 

 When cutting, I find that it's easiest to lay one piece of fabric (right side up) on carpet, smooth it out, then lay the bottom fabric (right side down) then smooth them out together. Then I pick up both pieces and move them to a wood surface to cut with scissors. If using a rotary cutter and cutting pad, you could stay on the carpet to do your cutting. 

Step 2 (Optional Rounded Corners): Fold both fabrics together in half and then in half again so all corners are touching. Then get a plate and either (a) use your rotary cutter to cut off corners of your fabric or (b) mark where the plate meets the fabric with a pencil or fabric marker and then cut off corners with scissors.

Step 3: Unfold fabric pieces and pin the fabric pieces together.

 (Pinning not pictured because I forgot, and even for dummies, pinning fabric is pretty straightforward)

Step 4: Using a straight stitch on your sewing machine and a 1/4" seam allowance (the edge of the pedal), sew the two fabric pieces together leaving an 8" opening to turn it right side out.

When I need to turn fabrics, I pin all around the fabric, then reverse two of the needles and pin them backwards. Then, using the picture below as a reference, I began at the yellow needle, stitched all around the fabric to the pink needle, back-stitched, stitched to the yellow needle, and back-stitched. Then I just pulled out the thread between the two needles.

 

Step 5: Clip notches out of the corners of your fabric or use pinking shears to do the same thing. Be careful not to clip the stitches!

As a sewing dummy, I strongly recommend you invest in some pinking shears! At my local craft store I got them for 40% off with a coupon and the total price was about $10. Such a good investment and it has saved me so much time and agony by not having to notch out every corner I turn and tuck! For this project I also just cut around the entire fabric to minimize bulkiness, but that probably isn't necessary.

Step 6: Iron the un-sewed portion of the fabric open. This will keep that portion tucked in nicely during the top-stitching in the next step.

Every time I turn a fabric I use this trick. A huge time-saver!

Step 7: Turn the blanket right-side out, top-stitch around the edge of the blanket with a 1/4" seam allowance, and admire your handy-work!

Have fun with the top stitch and use a fun color or a new stitch on your machine! On mine I used a grey thread on top and a blue on bottom and the stitch I used can be seen in the pictures of the straps.

The Straps Portion

 I used velcro to connect my straps because I wanted buttons, and I liked the multi-fabric-layered look, but there are tons of ways to do your straps. Here are some other strap tutorials I found: 

Tie Straps 

Simple Velcro 

Fancy Velcro

Step 1: Iron all four straps length-wise in half with the right-side facing out. Unfold them and fold the long-ends into the middle and iron again.

Clear as mud, right? Hopefully the pictures can explain better than I can.

Step 2: Place the wider straps with the ends face-up and the thinner straps over-top of them with the ends face-down. The edges of both of the fabrics should match up, but don't stress if it's not perfect.

(The pieces on the left just show you how each of the pieces should look after ironing, and the one on the right shows how they go together.)

Step 3: Sew the two pieces together by top-stitching the lengths of the thinner strips (be sure your stitch is wide enough so it catches both fabrics). When they both strips are secured together, fold the shorter ends of the strips down under and do a simple stitch straight across to finish them off.

This is where I really went rogue with my version because I had a hard time following the other tutorials. Admittedly it's not the most beautiful thing ever, but it's cute, does the job, and the ugliest parts are on the underside of the straps, rarely seen anyway.

Step 4: Sew the velcro onto the ends of the straps. Be sure the opposite ends of the velcro are on opposite ends of the straps. If you can wear it like a bracelet you have the velcro on right! 

Step 5 (Optional Decorative Button):  Sew the button onto the top of the strap through the velcro.

 

The Putting Everything Together Portion

(This is the hardest part of the project, but it's going to work out, I promise!)

Step 1: Lay your blanket out flat with the side you want on top facing up and position your straps about 12" in from each side (about 8" apart) and about 17" from the top. Pin them in place.

This part takes some guess and check work and can really takes as long as you want to get them as perfect as you want. I got one of my straps where I thought it needed to be, sewed it on, and then folded the canopy in half so I could match the other strap be

 (As you can see, the strap on the right isn't perfectly straight, but I didn't even know that until I took this picture. You really can't tell when it's strapped on.)

Step 2:  After you've pinned the straps on for placement, attach your canopy to your car seat to make sure you have them in the right place. Make adjustments if necessary.

I really wish I knew how to help you more with this portion, but it's really a guess and check type of thing. My only advice is to not stress over perfection, because the biggest lesson I've learned sewing so far is that small imperfections are not noticeable to anyone or are covered up by cuteness anyway.

Step 3: Sew the straps onto the blanket by going around the edges and then making an "x" in the middle for reinforcement. (The picture from this tutorial shows that best.)

Step 4: Attach to car seat, insert baby, and enjoy your handiwork!

Please post any questions you may have and I hope everything goes so well for you and all your sewing projects!