Disaster Averted

I mentioned in my last post that we've had a lot of project fails around here lately, but here's one we were able to turn around. We brought some low bookshelves from Grandma's house that I thought we could turn into toy shelves for Ava. That way, I figured, I could put her toys in her room and get them out of the living room. Bonus! I knew the shelves weren't wood, but they certainly looked paintable. They were painted black, and I wanted to paint them white on the outside and green on the inside. First we tried to paint them without sanding them first. Not successful. The paint just beaded up. So Mr. Wonderful sanded them down lightly. This is what we got: You can see that some random areas just would not take paint.

We tried sanding again, but didn't get much farther. I was about ready to throw the towel in, when Mr. Wonderful said "what about covering it with some kind of fabric?" (where does he come up with this stuff?) and I thought to myself "Duh! Mod Podge!" So, I picked out some fabric (I would have probably preferred to use just one kind of fabric, but I didn't have enough of any one fabric that I liked and I wanted to do this as cheaply as possible.) I just brushed the Mod Podge on the shelves first, then on the back of the fabric and stuck it up there. Then I Mod Podged over the top of the fabric.

I ended up buying some twill trim from Joanne's (maybe $6?) to make it look more finished. In the end, we don't see too much of the fabric anyway. I like how they turned out and I love freeing up the space in our 10x10 living room!

Thanks to Mr. Wonderful for saving the day!

Uhhhh...Pennant Duvet, part 2

So I changed my plans. Originally I was going to make this into a quilt, but I decided on a duvet instead. There are several advantages of a duvet. First, I knew it would be mostly white, therefore I knew I'd be washing it a lot. As annoying as it is to restuff a duvet, I knew it would be easier to wash and dry. #2, I don't know how to quilt. That was a big one. And #3 I realized I had just donated any blanket that I could put in the middle of the quilt. And I'm trying to use things I have on hand. So anyway, as of the last post, I had pinned on the pennants. Next I sewed them on, first straight across, and then the rest of the little triangle. Last. Favorite. Part. I did it in probably 3 hour-long sessions. I decided to just straight stitch and let 'em fray, 'cause I thought it'd be cute and the zig-zag stitch and I are not BFFs.

Once I had the front stitched, I picked out a vintage sheet for the back that I had on hand and pinned the top to the bottom. I hope you're not looking for a tutorial, because I made this up as I went along! I picked up some giant red rickrack at Joanne's for a trim between the sheets. I pinned it the best I could, but as I sewed, the sheets moved along and my sides did not match anymore--groan! So, I would re-pin the other sides and hope for the best. Which brings me to another reason a duvet cover was a better choice for me: they can be rumplier and not perfect and it's OK. Whew!

Once I had them all toghether, I sewed some ribbon on the inside corners of the duvet and the corners of the down comforter I bought at Ikea. That way I can tie the comforter to the duvet and it won't shift around annoyingly. When I say this thing is not perfect, it isn't false modesty! Here you can see that on one corner the top sheet is about an inch longer than the bottom sheet. But when it's all tied up you can't tell. :0)

Aaaaand here is a hole I accidentally snipped in the bottom sheet about 2 seconds after I finished the thing. Thankfully it's right at the bottom and when I stitch it up you won't be able to tell. Oy.

Instead of risking more uneven seams, I just made ties for the bottom out of the extra fabric from the top sheet. It'll be easy to get the comforter in and out this way, too.

This is the bottom of the duvet. I used a vintage sheet instead of the fabric I originally intended to use. It was easy to use because it was already finished. Plus, I figure if the top side gets smudged, the bottom side is pretty enough to become the top side until I can wash it.

And here it is! I'm so glad I splurged on the rick rack. I think it really makes it. Can't wait to show you what it looks like on the Big Girl bed! Life has been busy, but we're making good progress on the room, and my grand to-do-before-the-baby-comes list. :0)

Cost breakdown:

Top sheet: $2.50 on consignment (bonus, it's already been washed a bunch and is super soft)

Bottom sheet: free, already had it

Pennant fabric: about $7 for two fat quarters (only used about half of them, though)

Rick rack: $11 with a 40% off coupon at Joann's.

Down comforter: $14 at Ikea

Total: $34.50.

Pennant Quilt

I have been thinking for awhile about making Ava a quilt for her new bedroom. I've seen a lot of really cute stuff online, and think I've found a way to make it easy enough for even me to do!

A few weeks ago, the fam was in Ashland, WI where there is a really cute shop that carries aDORable fabric. I got this for 1/2 price. $4.50/yd! I think it's Moda? I'm not sure how I'm going to use this fabric. Maybe as the back of the quilt and it can be reversible??? Each panel is so sweet:

I'm unashamedly copying this quilt from A Pretty Cool Life. I kinda figured I'd make pennants using all the fabrics in my stash.

But then I realized that part of the cuteness of the quilt inspiration is how she picks the colors and puts them together. So I decided to do some experimenting.


I was kinda liking this, but not getting very far with it:

I originally thought I wanted more primary colors, but it wasn't doing it for me:

Another try:

Then I remembered the fat quarters I had also gotten from the store in Ashland (I think it's called the Painted Cottage?)

I also got some giant yellow rick-rack that I kept nearby for inspiration. It may or may not be used on the bed, but I liked the general feel of it

Once I pulled out those fabrics, I found I didn't need to be limited to 4 or 5 fabrics, but that I could add more. I found that using one pattern to pull colors out of made it alot easier to put them together. I got the darker blues out of there and it started to come together. I also found that a mix of large and small patterns made a big difference.

For the main part of the quilt, I found an off-white king sized flat sheet at a local consignment store. It was 70% off at $2.50. I just cut off the embellishment. Then I cut the sheet to 68x88 (ish.)

To make the pennants, I made a template from a piece of paper. It's totally not perfect. And the cutting wheel sliced off pieces of the template as I went along, so I know some of my pennants are smaller than others. But I don't mind. I think it'll only add to the final product.

I eyeballed what I wanted it to look like, and laid out the pennants. I found that different orders of the fabrics made a difference to me too, so I just played with it until I liked it. Then I pinned it. That's as far as I've gotten. Here's how it looks now!

I'm pleased at how it's turning out so far! I won't be able to get back to it for at least a week, but I'm excited about how it's coming together. :0)