Here is a link to instructions for a simple denim rag quilt. This is posted at the blog of "Sister in the Mid-West" - Simple Inspirations.
Although gift bags are all the fashion these days and are great for reusing, some of us still like wrapped gifts upon occasion. :-) But wrapping paper can be expensive. Here are some ideas for making do or using less expensive methods.
Here are some ideas from "Sister in the Mid-West" at Simple Inspirations:
Among a number of good ideas, she shows an example of writing on paper to decorate it for gift warp. The image above is an example of this that I made some years back. I used my colored Sharpie markers to write "I love you!" in different colors on plain white tissue paper. This was for my husband for our anniversary one year. :-) As she points out in her blog post, you can save paper from packages and reuse paper grocery bags for this as well.
Here are some suggestions:
Wrap a gift for a sewist or crafter in fabric for her to keep.
Wrap bridal shower gifts or a gift for a home maker in kitchen or tea towels.
Wrap a baby shower gift in a light weight fleece blanket.
Wrap a summer birthday gift in a beach towel.
Wrap a house warming gift in a fleece throw or table cloth.
Wrap a set of bed sheets in one of the pillow cases or an extra pillow case.
Wrap various home gifts in a pillow case.
Wrap a kid's birthday gift in a specialty pillow case.
Wrap books in a lap throw (for cozy reading). :-)
These gifts can be held closed with safety pins, ribbon, or low-tack tape that won't ruin the fabrics.
I have made gift bags using old jeans. I used ones that had the hem still intact, but you could use trimmed ratty ones as well. If the jeans are worn too much around the bottom edge try cutting off the hem and washing them to give a frayed edge to work with. Do this before cutting off the legs for the bags. The hem end will be the top edge of the bag.
To make the bags I just cut the bottoms of the legs off below the knee at whatever length I wanted. I turned the pant legs wrong side out and then sewed them shut along the cut edge. Be sure to use a stout needle size for this. Also, it may be difficult to get the machine to sew through the thickest side seam on the jeans. To avoid breaking a needle I used the wheel on the side and gently worked it by hand so that the needle went through slowly and firmly. You could also sew these up by hand if you don't have a sewing machine. Add decorations as you like. In the one in the photo I added a ribbon on one side to tie the bag shut and some "yo-yos" just to pretty it up a bit. You could also paint them with fabric paint.
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While I was looking for another photo I found this one of that white tissue gift wrap that I wrote on years ago. :-)
Also, this basket came to me from my mother and she received it as a gift. The lady who gave it to her spray painted it blue, as I recall, to make it fresh. This is another way you can repurpose or re-gift a basket. A little paint can make something look quite new.
This Part 3 of how we fixed up our guest room. See Part 1 and Part 2.
Ecclesiastes 7:8 Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof…
We got it done in time for my in-laws visit! Well, almost done. :-) I still have things that I want to make or change. Also, since the paint was barely dry, I didn’t hang much on the walls. I think the lady at the store told me it would take about a month for it to dry good and hard, especially since we were painting on paneling.
My husband and I picked up the mattress and box spring at Costco on a Friday and stored them in our dining room till we were ready for them. My neighbor sister-in-law helped me on the following Tuesday with setting it up and arranging the furniture. We had it set up like this (below) at first because we thought it shouldn’t be on the board covering the weak spot in the floor on the opposite side (mentioned in the last post). But, I didn’t like the head of the bed against the windows, and it wouldn’t fit with the all the furniture against the other windows.
You can see here that the blinds and valances were not all up yet as well.
My mom came over to look and mentioned that they had had their bed on the opposite wall where the board was. This made me think, so I measured the bookcase and decided that it would all fit if we flipped the lay out. My husband confirmed that it was perfectly safe to put the bed on the plywood board, so he and I rearranged it that evening. He also got the fixtures up for the window treatments.
The next day, the day my in-laws were to arrive, I did the finishing touches. Here are the results.
I really like the pale aqua paint! It’s such a soft color that it doesn’t photograph really well, but you can see it in the pictures where I used a flash. It is a lovely cool color for this Texas climate, I think!
The bed, the “quilt”, and bed skirt were purchased. We already had pillows and sheets. Two of the blinds were really shabby, but we had practically new ones in the garage which we were able to install after buying some new brackets.
The “Welcome” picture (see top photo) was created from one of my own photos. I Photo Shopped it to match the salmon pink in the room and make it look a bit more artsy.
The bookcase was a long-term loan from my sister-in-law who was storing it in our garage. :-)
I love the way the evening sun shines into this room.
Most of the décor on the bookcase was “shopped from our own stuff”. The ‘50s items came from my dad – an aluminum cup (perfect shade of pink) made into a vase with a bit of tulle, the pink pottery dish and the three oval serving dishes. The oval serving dishes were the perfect colors for the room, so I stacked all three. I put some packages of snacks in them in case my in-laws felt snack-ish at night or early in the morning.
Since my in-laws will be using this room the most and since they and my own parents were all missionaries in Africa, I put in some African touches as well. The painting and wood carving on the top are from East Africa. [Painting: Lake Nakuru] I had wanted to line the back of the top two sections with fabric for more color interest, but the painting was so large I decided it was enough.
The framed Bible verses were made in Photo Shop with vintage graphics I found free online. We did buy the picture frames. The candle holder and feathers came from other areas of our house. (The candle is artificial – LED, so no worries about fire or damage to the bookshelves.) I still need to select and add more books from my dad’s overflow collection in our garage. :-) The trash can was also donated by my sis-in-law.
From the three storage tubs that were in here originally, I picked out the one that best complimented the décor. I hope to make a cushion to put on top for more comfortable seating. The painting is another African scene from my parents. [Painting: Tana River]
The “bed side table” is actually an old T.V. console my parents gave us. Hopefully at some point it will be replaced with something that takes up less space. It’s a bit too wide in that spot. I didn’t put anything on it yet other than a coaster because I thought that might be the best spot for a suitcase at this point.
The smaller nightstand by the door was another donation from my sis-in-law. The light was discarded by my parents.
As you can see there is no headboard at this point. As mentioned before, my husband said he might be able to fix up a metal footboard we have, but that may take some time. We’ll see. It isn’t necessary.
I’m not sure yet what I’m going to put on this wall. I’m still thinking I might install a “quilting wall”, but just try to make what’s on it attractive when we have guests. It would need to be a more finished and nice looking one, if I do that. The old tablecloth method probably wouldn’t look so great in this room now. ;-)
The valances were made with a combination of fabrics. The solid and floral came from my stash. The solid was a “mistake” order – wrong color. The floral stripe was a strip from a “jellyroll”. The Swiss dot was purchased for this room. I had to really pay attention when I was putting them together to make sure that the polka dot sections were on the outside of each set. :-)
Well, that’s it for now. I may try to do an update later if/when I get some more things done in the room. I still have ideas of things I’d like to add, change or do. My in-laws really liked it, but the best part was probably that they slept really well on that bed! That made us all happy. :-)
Photo property of Christina Lane of the Sometimes Crafter blog.
Here’s a clever way to up-cycle your unused egg cups, or ones that maybe have a hairline crack or internal damage. I don’t have any egg cups on hand at the moment, but as I sort through our garage (I think the stuff is multiplying and dividing out there) I may run across one or two. This is another opportunity to “shop your own stuff” and to use up scraps of fabric. (I’m wondering if I could figure out a way to use some cute little china napkin rings for this purpose.)
Here’s the tutorial from Christina Lane at the “Sometime Crafter” blog.
Enjoy!
Here is a tutorial for a beautiful table runner that is pretty easy to make. I really like the blue snowflake version, but this could be made for other seasons and events with other fabrics “fussy cut” for the feature squares.
One thought that occurred to me is that this pattern could be used to showcase some vintage embroidery. You could fussy cut embroidery pieces, fabrics or handkerchiefs for the 6 1/2” feature squares and then use complementing fabrics to set them off. This would be a neat way to repurpose some vintage items and get some enjoyment out of them.
Years ago my mom covered a foam cushion for me with crocheted granny squares. I’ve loved that pillow ever since she gave it to me. It was the only pillow I could stand to lay my head on when I had sever migraines in my teens and early twenties. It has even traveled with me. I use it still for my afternoon naps in the living room because it is still a comfortable cushion for sleeping on. I really wish that we could get foam pillows of that type today! It’s the best I’ve ever had.
But, as with all things, age has caused some wear and tear. Though the foam itself is still comfortable, the fabric covering on the foam is starting to disintegrate. I was afraid of damaging the the crochet cover by taking it apart to re-cover the foam itself, so I have been using a pillowcase over it. Recently, though, I decided to make a new cover for it – something that would go in our living room.
I got this pretty white poinsettia fabric on sale at Fabric.com. For some reason this fabric is nostalgic to me. My mom and Gramma Hoover both loved poinsettias, so maybe that’s part of the reason. :-) Anyway, I made a simple fold-over type cover. It isn’t tricky at all, and I didn’t even add a closure on the back, though I may later.
First, I measured and cut the fabric to the width I thought I needed – in this case about a half yard. I folded under one selvedge edge and sewed it. Then I measured again to see how much I needed to have it overlap and added some extra for hemming. I cut off the excess, then folded under the raw edge twice and sewed that. Lastly, I folded the whole thing right sides together with the desired overlap (making sure the double-folded edge was on the actual outside), lined up the sides and sewed the side seams. Then I just turned it right-side-out and ironed it one last time. Easy-peasy.
Here is what the back looks like. It is a little loose because I got it a bit too wide. This could be easily improved by turning it inside-out and sewing one end in a bit farther so that it fits more snugly. Also, I could add a Velcro® closure here.
Over all I’m quite happy with it, though, and this cover will be easy to remove for washing. I have another half yard of the fabric and I may make a second cover so that I can simply swap them once in awhile for washing purposes.
Side note: The lace covered pillow beneath is a bed pillow in a pillow sham from a lovely crocheted bed set a friend gave me. (Yeah, I used “pillow” three times in one sentence. Keep reading. I outdid myself. hehe) The bed coverlet itself was stained and I couldn’t get it clean, so I am using the pillow shams in the living room. I put a solid colored pillowcase on the pillow first then put the crocheted sham on over it. Since I have two, I swap them out once in awhile for washing and ironing. The pillow is part of my napping arrangements, and it looks much dressier and appropriate for the living room in it’s pretty sham. It’s a nice way to “upcycle” or repurpose a pillow sham, and at the same time have a bed pillow in the living room that looks like it belongs here. :-) (It’s also handy for shorter people sitting on our couch to have this pillow to put behind their backs.)
Here’s a video tutorial to help you make your own, using a slightly different method. This is a very easy project. You could give your living room a whole new look in one afternoon with some fabric from your stash. :-)
