Another Project

I decided to tackle a quick sewing project this evening. I rarely write checks, but I bought Girl Scout Cookies from a coworker and needed to bring my checkbook in to pay for them. I had a hard time finding it shoved in my desk in the living room and it was pretty pathetically beat looking. I decided that I needed a checkbook cover. I had fabric and interfacing left over from the Crayon Roll that I made for Nora for Christmas and a quick Google search found me a pattern. I can’t do curves yet, so I ended up modifying the pattern a bit to accommodate my lack of any expertise and apparently I can’t really sew in a straight line yet (sigh). I think it came out good enough to use though and it’s pretty cute. If I had a button or some thinner ribbon to make a little bow I’d add something like that to the front of it – something I can add if I’m bored in the future.

Popularity: 36% [?]

Feeling Crafty

I’ve been in the mood to create lately. Fortunately for me, I am not lacking in projects to tackle. I’ve got whole rooms that haven’t been painted (or really unpacked properly) yet! On top of that, there are quite a few babies expected among our family and friends in the next few months, and I’m very much hoping that we’ll be expecting again soon, so I’ve been having a lot of fun surfing the web for adorable baby related DIY ideas. I’ve started an Evernote Notebook to collect the tutorials that I find and am, of course, having as much fun planning what I’ll do and organizing my collection as I’m sure I will when I’m actually creating.

I tackled a couple of simple projects today. I sewed a grocery bag keeper and a tissue box cover.

Grocery Bag Holder

Tissue Box Cover

I’m really just learning the whole sewing thing, so neither of these projects came out perfectly. The seams on the grocery bag holder don’t line up, which annoys me, and the corners of my tissue box cover are sloppy and not right, but I’m still pretty impressed with my efforts. My encounter with the corners today reinforced my suspicion that I’m only going to get so far on the whole self-teaching thing, so I think I’m going to look into sewing classes. I would like to just work with someone to get some of the basics down so that I could feel more confident in tackling new projects and trying to make some things for gifts.

I think the next thing I’ll tackle will be the window treatments in the family room. We haven’t decided on a color for that room yet, so I think picking out some awesome fabric for window treatments would be a great place to start out. The family room is such a low-pressure room to decorate, too, so I think I can get away with some really funky fun fabric. I’d love some sort of aqua and orange combination. I’m sure Alex will nix it, but he’s going to be away for most of the next few months so he won’t have much of a chance to prevent it!

Popularity: 27% [?]

Make Roman Shades out of Mini Blinds

clipped from littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com Shades can often cost you an arm and a leg (especially custom fabric shades). a way to repurpose the old {ugly} mini blinds Here are the basic instructions. If you need more details, feel free to comment or email. –Supplies– Tape measure Scissors Fabritac (or comparable fabric glue – NOT HOT GLUE!) Mini blinds (like the $3 Target mini blinds) Fabric (yardage depends on the size of your window) Trim (optional)

Popularity: 49% [?]