Easy Blackout Curtains

Look, let's be honest with each other.  If you have a young child, they're probably going to bed around 8ish and wake up around 7ish (Addie is 8:30 to 6:30).  Not too bad, but it gets difficult as we get into the summer months and our days our longer.  Which is awesome, but if you have a little one, these daylight hours can be killer on their sleep schedule.  So I had been thinking about tackling another craft project and this one I kind of just "winged" it.

Totally should have been sleeping here but the curtains weren't up yet so I had to stop and put them up so she could take her nap.

So I already had the curtains in her room that I purchased a couple years back from Target.  Next, I knew I needed black out fabric so I headed out to JoAnn Fabric to find the fabric.  I purchased 3 yards at 6.99/yard plus I had a 50% off coupon so I only paid $10 and some change for the fabric.  Then I was thinking, how do I want to attach this fabric.  I really didn't want to sew it on so I purchased some velcro.

I purchased 2 of these and only applied to the top of the curtain.  I wasn't really concerned about the bottom or sides at this point and wanted to make a change pretty quickly.  If you don't have sewing skills, make sure you buy this "heat activated adhesive". 

So you line up your adhesive on your black out fabric and then match up the other piece on your curtains.  Make sure the adhesive is sticking to the "ugly" side of your fabric & curtain.  Once you have your adhesives where you want them, bust out your ironing board and set your iron on the highest setting with the steam on.

You'll see in the picture above that the adhesive is on the bottom side of the black out fabric and I used an old towel to make sure I didn't burn the fabric.  Hold the steam on for about 90 seconds and move to the next spot.  Continue until you're done with the first piece of fabric.

 Do the same thing with your curtain.

 Once you're finished, line up your pieces and hang on the curtain rod.  Trim off the bottom of the blackout fabric that you don't need.  I still had a bit more than 1/2 a yard leftover that I needed to trim off.

Here are some before & afters. The pictures below look somewhat similar but you can see there really is no light coming through on the right.

The pictures below is what the room looks like with & without the fabric.

I love the picture on the left, Addie's making faces...haha.  The picture on the right is no flash on my camera with the curtains with the fabric.  You can see a little light coming through the side, but for the most part it's a huge impact in the room.  We'll see how it helps as we get further into summer.

-stephanie

Glider Makeover

Ain't it pretty?

About 7 months ago I gave you a tour of Addie's nursery.  If you remember from that tour, there was a really ugly looking glider fabric that looked completely out of place in the room.  See under the bags and the pillow?  That's the ugly fabric that came with my Craiglisted chair.  I was over looking at it.  It was out of place and really ugly so I started looking at Pinterest to get a general idea how to cover the chair easily.  

What I found in common with most of them is you want to use your cushions as your guide.  Grab your fabric ugly side up and lay out the cushion on top.  Trace around the cushion leaving 1-2" extra fabric around the sides and top.  This part really just depends on your cushion and how thick it is.  You'll want to leave about 2-3" on the bottom so you can fold over and put your snaps on.  It's better to have too much fabric then not enough.  Another tip is to make sure you use your first traced cushion cut out and trace another piece with that same piece.  It'll help everything match up together when you sew.  

Turn your fabric inside out (pretty sides facing each other) and pin all the way around leaving the bottom open so you can put your cushion in.  Sew up your sides and the top and sew a clean hem in the bottom of your fabric (remember that extra 2-3").  Flip your piece right side out and inspect.  You can use your snap fastener to attach your snaps where you'll want to slip the cushions in and out.  I found this tutorial helpful when using the snap fastener kit.

And this is how pretty it looks now!

I love this fabric!  I got it at Hobby Lobby for about $8/yard and it comes in this faded gray, blue, yellow, and green color or you can go for the bold version if you like it better.  I bought 5 yards of fabric and probably only used 3.5 but buy extra just in case.  It's such a great, durable fabric and it's gorgeous.

Are you working on any great projects?  I've got a few I've been thinking about lately that I can't wait to get started on!

-stephanie

Adult Sized Poufs

So last week I told you about the kid sized pouf I made for Addie while on Christmas vacation.  While I was making that, my friend Katie was making an adult sized pouf and after seeing her results I was dying to make a few for our house. We found the tutorial on this site and found it easy to follow though we passed on the rug idea and went straight to a quality fabric.  You want a fabric that's a bit thicker so it's probably one of those that costs $8-$20/yard.  Trust me on this, you want the higher quality fabric.

This fun circle pattern I found at JoAnn's first and thought it was a good pattern for a playroom.

This pattern I found at JoAnn's as well.  I purchased this fabric more for our family room though it's still hanging out in the playroom.

I would suggest checking out Hobby Lobby if you have one near you. Their fabric options right now are amazing and much more modern.  Love Hobby Lobby right now!

Addie really loves these and they're rather inexpensive to make.  At 2 yards of fabric, zipper, and a huge bag of filler (found at Meijer) these cost just under $30 to make and are great for extra seating when you have people over.  This takes me about 90 minutes to create but the first time may take a little longer to get the hang of it.

PS.  Make sure you use your coupons.  Hobby Lobby has coupon's on their site, they email, they're often on the coupon app (got a smartphone? look it up. it's amazing!)  JoAnn's sends emails as well and has their own app that you can download to your smartphone.

BTW, this is so much easier to create than the kid sized poufs I think.  Maybe it's a personal problem I have with a circle pattern and the binding/ handle but this seemed to test my patience much less.

-stephanie

Kid Sized Poufs!

Let's talk kids seating and kid sized furniture. They come in all shapes, sizes, colors and fun fabric patterns.  If you're looking at Pottery Barn Kids, they also come in really steep prices.  They're super cute but come on, upwards of $120 on a chair your kid is going to spill milk on?  Sorry, not they way I want to spend my money.  So I did some searching and found this site which gave a great tutorial on how to make your own.

You'll only need a yard of fabric for this project which is awesome because you can splurge a bit on a pattern you love.  Use your coupon's and you save even more!

For a new sewer it wasn't terribly difficult to make myself.  I have to say the piping was a little tricky on handle.  I'm not a fan of hand stitching either so I do as much as possible to avoid that.  The site suggests 16-24oz of fiberfill, I'd buy the 32 ounce bag and would stuff that baby more full.  After Addie sat jumped on it a thousand times it has gotten a little less stiff so overfill and expect it to break down a bit.  It costs under $20 and will take you about 2 hours to do depending on your experience on the machine.

Addie is in love with the pouf and will drag it around the house so she can sit on it and watch Nemo.  I can't wait to make more as these will make great gifts.

-stephanie

A Christmas Craft for Your Toddler

Do you have a rambunctious toddler that you just can't seem to keep occupied?  I've got a great craft for you.  I found several of these ideas on Pinterest and thought, easy craft, cheap craft, and it requires little crafting skills.  Which is what we all need sometimes.  Something simple, cheap, easy to make and will be exciting for your kids.

So I present to you...The Felt Christmas Tree!

What you'll need:

1/2 yd green felt (I bought 1 yard but I quickly realized I could work with 1/2 yard pretty easily)

Several smaller pieces of fun colored felt

Glue gun (if you want to get creative)

Peel & Stick type adhesives (whatever won't ruin your paint when you later remove)

*Optional - poster board to glue the tree to

Cut out a tree from your green felt.  Go fancy or go simple, whatever you choose.  With your smaller fun colors, cut out circles for your ornaments, squares & rectangles for your presents, bulb type shapes for your lights.  If you want to get creative and make the ornaments, lights, and presents look more real then get out your glue gun and make fancy designs.  Use the adhesive to hang your tree on your wall.  If I did this again, I would glue the tree to poster board.  Our tree has fallen a few times for hanging too long.

Then, let your kids enjoy!

Thanksgiving Crafts for the Kids

My favorite holiday is just 6 days away and I cannot be more excited!  

I really don't know why it is my favorite.  I imagine it has a little something to do with all of the food.  But it also has something to do with spending time with your family.  You know, your family that you see only on holidays and then after spending Thanksgiving with them you think, we should hang out more often. 

Now that everyone is getting older, it's even more exciting to get together because unfortunately our family number is dwindling.  

Well I'm getting sappy and off track.  This post is all about kids and fun Thanksgiving crafts they can partake in.  So here are some of my favorites from Pinterest.

I love this craft for any age.  Via

For your old kids to help with place settings.  Via

A preschool/kindergarten age craft.  Via

So cute.  Via

A craft the entire family can participate in.  Via

Because every kid needs a place for their crayons.  Via

I can't wait to do some crafting with Addie.  She's still at an age where you can't predict how long she'll stay focused so it could get interesting.

-stephanie

Whatcha Wearin Wednesday - I Can Sew!

If you follow me on Instagram, you saw this picture I posted last week of some pretty awesome fabric I picked up at Joann Fabrics.



You see that thick black band?  It's sewn in already which is usually the most difficult part in sewing.  I measured the band around my waist keeping it pretty snug.  I wanted to keep the skirt loose and flowy but you could probably cut it down so it fits more snug.

It was so easy to sew this one.  Turn the fabric inside out.  Line up your fabric, the top band and the bottom and pin every 3 inches or so.  Run straight through the machine making sure to start/stop your seems.  The skirt cost me about $13 with the sale they were having plus the coupon.





Have you made anything with your sewing machine?  I'm a newbie but I'm trying to use it more and could use some great projects to get me started.

-stephanie

Painting Polka Dots

So  I saw this via Kathy Davis' Pinterest pages.  I stumbled upon her in the Everything section of Pinterest and I liked what she was pinning so I followed her.  I found this inspiration photo.

Though it was feeling a little bit blah to me so I knew I needed to add some color.  Being a lover of all things turquoise/teal I shouldn't be surprised I ended up with this.

It was really simple and a cheap project that literally took me 5 minutes to create. So here's what you'll need.

Canvas of your choice size

Pencil with eraser

Acrylic paint

Easy peasy, you find the paint color you like, squeeze some out of the tube and dip your eraser in the paint.  The part that's the most critical is making sure you don't have too much paint on your eraser.  You can always go over a dot again if there's not enough paint.  Make the design as sporadic or calculated as you desire and let dry overnight.  This is going on my wall of photos/art once I get it all planned that.  Stay tuned on a future post regarding that business.

Don't forget to enter our Dermagist Complete Rejuvenation System giveaway.

-stephanie