Let's Get Crafty: Tufted Ottoman

I saw a tufted ottoman on Pinterest and thought it was SO cute, I just had to make one.  I started scouring Craiglist for the perfect base.

I looked and looked on Craigslist for the perfect coffee table base that I could add a tufted top to and I couldn't find one that I just LOVED.  I saw this one with the scalloped edges and thought it was too cute.  The top wasn't the perfect size but for $20 I figured it would do.  I went to Lowe's and got some plywood cut to my dimensions. Then I drilled the top onto the base.

Once the top was on I had to do something about the color, much too yellow for my taste.  I slapped on some Miniwax Red Mahogany stain that I had left over from another project.

Here you can see the difference between the stained and non-stained side. SO much better!

Once I had the base done I Google'd for several tutorials to figure out different ways I could do this project.  Some of the sites I visited were: Five Days Five Ways, Little Green Notebook, and Addicted 2 Decorating. The last link has really detailed pictures of each step.

Now, let's get prepped for tufting! 

Materials:

1- Base to tuft on - I used a coffee table

2- Foam- can be purchase at JoAnn's or other sewing stores

     I used 3 inch thick foam, but you can use whatever you think will look best for your project.

3- Adhesive Spray

4- Decorator/Upholstery Needles - the bigger the better

5- Upholstery Thread- this is kind of sticky thread that is wound in a ball, not on a spool.  I picked it up at JoAnns near the pre-made zippers/roman shade cord

6- Buttons - TONS of options. Just get the amount you need for your design.

7- Batting

8- Fabric- I used an old tablecloth for this, double duty since it is water repellent!

9- Optional: Decoration for trim - braided rope or nail heads

First you have you draw out your design, I chose to do a 3 x 2 x 3 x 2 x 3 pattern - 13 tufts....quite a lofty goal for a first timer.  If you are doing this for the first time I would suggest starting with a smaller amount of tufts. It can get QUITE frustrating and you may want to have a bottle of wine  patience handy, as long as you are 21 of course (Hi Mom :D look at me not staying the youth of America down the wrong path).

Now, drill your holes into the wood. Make sure you drill forward and backwards through the wood until you have a smooth hole, tufting is hard enough as it is without splinters getting in the way!

Once you have the holes drilled it is time to attach the foam.  Cover both the wood and your foam with adhesive spray.  Wait a few minutes until the glue is tacky and then press them together firmly.

The foam I bought was nor the right size so I had to cut it into the right shape and then glue each piece down separately.  Does anyone have any idea where to get cheaper foam? That stuff is so pricey.  My mom suggested calling army surplus stores and getting their sleeping mattresses but no one around Raleigh has any in stock.  Let me know if you have any other ideas.

       

Once everything was glued into place I drew lines to make sure my buttons would be in line with the holes.

Did you know you could dye buttons?  I bought white buttons and dyed them taupe...they ended up a bit too gray.

Now onto the hard part!  This will be much easier if you have friend to help you!


Most of the other sites pre-drilled holes in the fabric.  I started to do this and it ripped the foam (EXPENSIVE FOAM!!) so I gave up on that idea and just went with no pre-drilled holes.


Step 1: Thread the needle with the upholstery thread.  Pull it a good ways through so you have enough to double back with.


Step 2: Starting from the BOTTOM of the table push the needle up through the top.


Step 3: Thread the button on. It will have 2 threads across the top if you are using enough


Step 4: Get your wine patience handy.


Step 5: Push the needle back through the fabric, batting, foam and plywood.  Take deep breaths because this isn't the easiest thing in the world but you will feel accomplished each time you get one done! If you really can't seem to find the hole *insert that's what she said joke* you can take one of the other needles in the package and push it up through the hole, this way you have a guide of where you need to be. It's amazing how crooked the needle can go when you push it through the foam.


Step 6: Tie a knot in the thread and staple it to the board in a zig zag fashion. 

Picture taken from Addicted 2 Decorating blog linked earlier.

Step 7: Celebrate your first tuft and keep it moving!

Six buttons in.....

Nine buttons in....

Step 8: Once all your tufts are secured staple your fabric to the base.

Step 9: Get Fancy! This is optional.  I used nail head trim on this project but have used braided rope trim on others. 

- Nail head trim- I used 2 boxes of nail head trim (found near the upholstery thread) and spaced them out 1.5 inches apart. Hammer away. I have seen other people use a rubber mallet for this but I used a regular hammer.

Ta Da!

Top view

Another top view

Side view with Nail Head Trim

Let me know if you do this project :) Send me pictures!

Chevron (Zig Zag) Quilt

  While perusing Pinterest I came across this zig zag, chevron, quilt.  My brother bought me a sewing machine for Christmas so I decided this would be my first project.  I followed the tutorial on Bee Square Fabric. Obviously this lady can SEW! I on the other hand am an absolute novice so I will try and give you a few extra tips along the way. 


When I started making the quilt I thought it was going to be SO huge, apparently this is a CRIB size quilt when it is all done.


For this project you will need:
- TIME! This is my first project so I have learned a lot, but it probably took me a solid 15- 20 hours! I didn't keep track of time and worked on it sporadically but this is not a quick project for a beginner.
- OKAY IDEA: Good scissors ( I have scissors that I ONLY use on fabric)
- BETTER IDEA: Rotary Cutter/ Mat set (approx $50 from JoAnns, just look for a 50% off coupon -- this is a life saver)
- 9 quarter yards of patterned fabric
- 1 3/4 yard solid fabric
- 1/2 yard for binding
- 2 1/2 yards of backing ( I had to cut this to fit -- details later)
- Batting (crib size will be fine, I got full size because I use batting a lot in other projects and I didn't want to not have enough)
- Thread
- Sewing Pins
- Wine Patience


Instructions:
1. Cut strips 3 inch wide along the width of each patterned fabric.  
You will need 2 3 inch strips of each pattern.  For each patterned strip you will need 2 solid strips.  
Note: You will need good scissors for this. A BETTER idea would be to get a rotary cutter and mat -- I didn't have these tools on this quilt but have since become wiser and purchased this.  It will make life so much easier AND it will be MUCH easier to have perfect blocks, which will then make for a perfect quilt. 


2. Put the front of your pattern and the front of your solid (sometimes with the solids it is hard to tell which is the front) together and sew along the side.  The Bee Square Blog site says 1/4 inch allowance...I'm not that talented so I just sewed as close to the edge as I could.

I cut all my patterned strips first.

Then my solid (gray) strips.

Then sewed them together.

3. Iron your sewn strips.

4. Cut each strip into 5.5 inch blocks.  You will need 14 blocks.

Note: Do NOT let a boy do this, if you do watch them like a hawk or your quilt will turn out wonky like mine did!

5. Lay your entire pattern out on the floor. If you make 7's with the pattern it will make it much easier.  

6. Sew the "7's" together pretty side of fabric facing the middle.

7. Start sewing your strips the same way you did in step 7, pretty sides facing in when you sew

8. Once you have completed the entire rows, sew them together.

In this picture the left side is still in the "7" blocks, the middle is sewed into strips and then right corner is sewed all together. 

 Once you finish sewing everything together it will look like this.  If you used a rotary cutter your zigzags might even match perfectly :P


9. Cut off all the triangles so you have a clean rectangle quilt front.

  You can choose to either buy quilt backing or batting + another fabric for the back.  I chose this option and got the same gray color for the backing,

10. Place top patterned part of the quilt you have sewn, followed by batting, and finally backing on the ground or other large work space.

11. Sew along the diagonal lines to hold all 3 fabrics in place.  If you just sew around the edges the batting will get bunched up and look ugly.

I don't know why this picture is sideways and I don't know how to fix it, just turn your head :D

Okay you are SEW close to being DONE! *har har* don't encourage my jokes!

  Binding - you can buy binding already premade or you can just buy fabric and make you own.  We made our own.

12. Cut the fabric as wide as you want your edge to be plus a little extra to seam.

13. Seam both sides of the fabric so it looks clean when it is all sewed together.

14. Pin the binding onto the quilt making sure to get all 3 layers pinned.

15. Sew the binding to the edge of the quilt!

TA DA! Final product.

Send me pictures of your completed quilts :D

Special thanks to my friend Will who sewed a considerable amount of this, unjammed the sewing machine for me several once or twice, and listened to me whine about this taking so long :)

Weekend Recap: Estate Sale!

Last weekend my friend Megan invited me to go to an estate sale in a pretty fancy neighborhood in Raleigh.  The house had been foreclosed on and apparently there was a "crazy lady with a credit card" who used to live in the house.  The house was huge, around 10,000 square feet and decorated with horrible country gingham wallpaper and other equally appalling choices.  The house obviously hadn't been updated at all but someone purchased the house for $600,000 and will be renovating it, I'm sure it will look AMAZING because it had great bones.  The woman had an enormous closet, probably the size of my BEDROOM.  There is also a pool house out back with a HUGE pool! Enough about the house....let's see what treasures were hidden inside.

Okay so these aren't quite "treasure's" but they were pretty hilarious. Cosby Show and Saved by the Bell were some of the shows that these may have been featured on....this lady obviously hadn't thrown away anything since the 80's.  The sweater on the right actually had a tag on it for $110.   That was an EXPENSIVE sweater...that she apparently found enough sense to never wear it!

 Cowboy print with cinched waist and turtleneck.

Can't you just see Will Smith or Zack Morris wearing this?

I picked up this bar/cabinet for $25!

The end tables were listed for $30 each, I picked them up for $25 TOTAL.  The stool was $2.

I loved the detailing on this table but the man working the sale told me I didn't want it because the leg was broken....I offered him $3 and he accepted.  Nothing a little wood glue can't fix!

After my shopping i did what any reasonable person would do and headed straight to Lowe's to pick up supplies to revamp my new finds.  The end tables are going to be mint green and the stool is going to be coral. 

Sneak Preview: Fabric for my second quilt for Will's niece, Aubry,

Let's Get Crafty: End Table

Before

After

Clean Eating: Whole Wheat Bread (Bread Machine or Oven)

Clean Eating Whole Wheat Bread

      -          1 ½ teaspoon sea salt

-          1 ½ teaspoon dry yeast (in the packet)

-          3 cup whole wheat flour

-          1 banana (the more brown the better)

-          3 tbsp honey

-          1 1/8 c warm water

-          1 tablespoon coconut oil (comes in a jar and looks like wax, I got mine at Trader Joes)

o   You could also probably use butter/margarine/canola-vegetable-olive oil)

You can make this several ways:

1-Mix all of these in the bread maker and cook it on the light or medium whole wheat bread setting

2- Put all ingredients in bread maker and run on dough cycle, then cook in the oven at 350* for 40 minutes.

3- Mix all ingredients by hand.  Cover with a cool cloth and wait about an hour until the bread has risen.  Cook at 350* for 40 minutes.

I ate one piece with Skippy Natural peanut butter (peanuts and <1% salt and other ingredients) and 1 slice with strawberry spread, no sugar added. Both were DELICIOUS.

I found the recipe below and changed it up at bit:

http://cleaneatingmag.com/Recipes/Recipe/Clean-Whole-Wheat-Bread.aspx

Let's Get Crafty: French Provincial Buffet

My dining room needed an update, and QUICK.  It had random, cheap furniture I had acquired through college and tons of alcohol bottles and random clutter.  I wanted a credenza/buffet/sideboard/insert other fancy word here.  Of course I turned to trusty Craigslist and found a dresser that I thought would work with a little help.  The French Provincial style is so feminine and pretty.  The hardware is gorgeous with the curves and detailing.

Once we got to the house to check it out we realized it was not solid wood but had a veneer finish. We almost left it because we weren't sure we could paint over it but I REALLY wanted it and decided that if there is a will, there is a way.  I whipped out my phone and did some Google-ing (what did we do before Google, and GPS for that matter!). As long as you prime veneer furniture with OIL BASED primer you are good to go. YAY!  We loaded it up in Rhiannon's truck and I had a new project!

After and accessories.  The pictures above were my mom's mom that died before I was born.  The ballerinas go perfectly with the soft, feminine mood of the room.

Original hardware.

Dresser primed and painted with cream.

Drawer primed and painted cream.

Drawers painted gray with cream trim.

Spray painted hardware with black lacquer.

So much better than the dingy white and gold.

Before and After!

Dining Room Before and After

Let's Get Crafty: Trash to Treasure Dresser

I often look on Craigslist under the Free section to see what people are just giving away.  I have seen so many amazing things and can't believe what people give away - buffets/credenza, sofas, tables, etc. 

This guy was listed on there along with a bed frame.  They weren't too far away and I was able to con one of my friends into going to pick it up (thank Will).  Not being able to fit things into my little car makes me miss the Jeep, but then I go fill up my entire tank for $40 and drive it for 10 days...then I don't miss the Jeep as much!

I always prime any furniture I paint, it makes the paint stick SO much better and give a much more even finish.  I just primed this with gray spray paint.

I painted the entire dresser a cream color and put the hardware back on to see how it was looking.  The handles are extremely thin, pliable metal and I wanted something more substantial.  I decided I wanted to have antique spoons as the handles!  The search for these took a while because I wanted to PERFECT ones, I ended up finding some I liked at Shabby Lane Antiques in North Raleigh.

My brother bent the spoons with a vice into a rounded shape and drilled holes into them so I could attach the spoons to the drawers.  The holes in the drawers didn't match up so I had to use wood fill and wait for that to dry and then drill new holes.

                                     
Here I am marking the drawer for new holes. (Yes I have a onesie on, judge me.  It was cold!)

                                    

Drilling holes.

I painted another dresser with a gray, black, and creme color scheme and decided that this dresser would look good with a similar scheme since they were going to be in the same room.  Goodbye cream drawers, hello gray drawers!

After the paint dried I attached the spoons! Ta Da!



Before



After

                                                                           

 

               

 And finally, here is it all set up in the dining room!

What a difference a fresh coat of paint and accessories can do!