Heart it Up

One of my most popular posts last year was my Valentine's Rag Wreath.

Tutorial here

These wreaths are so simple to make.  When I found a wire hanger hiding in the back of my closet during my most recent closet reorganization, a new Valentine's Wreath was born - this one in the shape of a heart.

I grabbed the scrap of silk panne leftover from this year's Halloween costume(I was Little Red Riding Hood,) and cut it up into 3/4"  wide strips.

The tying process can be done in front of the tv, it's pretty mindless work.

After an hour or so, the entire hanger is covered in fabric.

And here it is on our door.

Thanks for popping in and crafting with me.

New Pillows

I'm always one of those shoppers who hits the clearance racks first.  50% off?  Pfffft.  I don't even consider buying unless it's at least 75.  The other day I was at Kohls with coupon in hand and the promise of Kohls cash back when I spied these pretty placemats.

They were part of the St. Nicholas Square holiday collection and were 80% off, but there were only 2 and I never set a table for less than 6(there are only 4 of us, but the dining table looks lonely with only 4 chairs, even with all the leaves out.)  Still they were very pretty and marked down to $1.59 each.  With my 20% coupon, that brought them down to $1.27 each.  They went into the cart and once I got home, I ripped out one of the side seams, and grabbed some Poly-fil from my craft room to stuff the placemats.

A simple slip stitch closed up the open seams.

Voila!  Easy throw pillow.  I love that the silver ties in with the wingback chair that I covered here.

Easy, peasy new throw pillows.

Thanks for popping in and sewing with me.

Mullet Style Wingback Chair

You may be scratching your head over my post title, but you all have to remember the horror of the business up front, party in the back hairstyle epitomized by Billy Ray Cyrus.

The mullet isn't just for men stuck in a time warp anymore.  Look how fun this dining chair is with the whimsical fabric on the back.  The pretty fabric is a nice surprise from the backside and it stays clean while the utilitarian fabric is the workhorse.

via 12 devonshire

This project started with a $15 craigslisted wingback chair.

It sat like this for close to 2 years.  I'd bring home swatches, but nothing felt quite right.  Actually I did love one fabric, but it was $$$, so the search continued.  Last month, I was helping a friend clear out her attic, and ended up coming home with a boat load of random fabric.  One of which was this.

It was love at first sight.  Unfortunately there wasn't enough yardage to cover the chair.  Enter the mullet.  I could have used the fabric for the seat of the chair, but I'd rather have it be a fun surprise.  Plus I have the chair away from the wall in the middle of the room by a walkway and it's nice to see it from the other side.  I needed a complementary fabric and this heavy upholstery velvet in a business grey was perfect.  I snagged it off the red tag flat fold section at JoAnn's for less than $4.

I started to deconstruct the chair, but then thought I'd just make a slipcover instead of reupholstering.  I do have 2 boys, and being able to toss it in the wash will help it's longevity.

If this was a real professional tutorial, there'd be lots of measuring, pattern making, and muslins.  I'm more of a jump in, fly by the seat of my pants type.  I lay my fabric out on the chair, pinning directly to the chair, cut my pieces, and basted them together, before taking them to my sewing machine.

For a slipcover to fit properly on a piece of furniture with curves, it's usually necessary to create a zipper or some other type of closure.  The party girl in back let loose with a corset.  Additionally there are some ribbon ties underneath.

Here she is all dressed up mullet style.  Business up front, party in the back.  I still might paint her legs or stain them darker.  With the brass buttons, I'm toying with the idea of a shiny metallic gold paint on her legs.  What do you think?  A little too much party?

I love her new look, and for less than $25 I have a whole new chair and matching pillow.

Thanks for popping in and sewing with me.

*Edited to add* I took Cassie's suggestion to paint the bottom few inches of the legs.  You can see them here.

Scrabble Wall Art

There was a lot of interest in the Scrabble Wall Art that I used in my Autumn Mantel the other day.  It took me a little while to post this tutorial, because my computer caught a bug, and CG had to come to the rescue and de-bug it by blowing out the harddrive and rebuilding the computer.  Unfortunately I had erased the pics off my camera's SD card, so there are a few gaps in this picture tutorial.

I wanted this piece to look a bit like a tapestry, so I started with some fabric from my never-ending fabric stash.  I picked a printed floral jacquard upholstery weight fabric.

The front was pretty loud, but the backside was perfect.

I cut a rectangle of fabric, and ironed it.  I created a 1 3/4" x 1 3/4" square stencil from a piece of acetate.  Every time SB receives a toy with a clear plastic front to the box, the piece of plastic gets saved for future use as a stencil.

SB sees a cool new toy, I see crafting material.

After pouncing on some light tan, and painting on some darker tan swirls, I let the squares dry.  I used a black sharpie to write the letters and corresponding points on each square.

I pulled enough threads from each edge of the fabric to create the frayed edge tapestry look.

I love this piece and it was so easy to make, all with stuff I had on hand.  You have to love $0 decor projects.

Thanks for popping in and painting with me.  And don't forget to back up your files every single day.  I'm linking this up to Kate's Fall Craft linkup party.

Felt Flower Wreath

Sorry about the spotty posting lately.  Flood cleanup is still going on here, but my schedule has finally started to normalize.  To learn more about the historic Susquehanna flooding click here.  Autumn is my favorite season of the year and one of the reasons why I choose to live in NY.  I love the changing leaves, apple picking, fresh apple cider, and the crackle of a fire.  I usually start my autumn decorating as soon as school starts, but the flood pushed back my schedule a bit.  One of the first things I do, is put out an autumn wreath.  Last year I made both a rag wreath and a grapevine wreath in this post.  This year I attacked my overflowing fabric stash and made a felt flower wreath.

This is a completely no sew project.  I showed you how to make fabric roses with a needle and thread for this rose pillow, but this is a project for the non-sewers.  I started with a basic wreath form.  This is one of those dollar store willow forms.

I covered it with some yellow polyester double knit.  I like using both felt and double knit fabric in crafting, because the edges don't fray when you cut them.

To make the felt mums, I cut a 3" x 12" strip of fabric, folded it in half lengthwise and snipped along the folded edge every 1/4" or so.

I rolled up the strip(sorry about the color change, I forgot to continue to take pics with the first strip,)

keeping the base tight,

and put a dab of hot glue on the base to glue it to the wreath form.

For the larger open flowers, I cut scalloped circles of felt, layered them, pinched the bottoms and glued them in place.

The colorful flowers were 2" x 10" strips of polyester double knit glued to a felt disc.

I put a dab of glue on the felt,

and scrunched up the double knit,

continuing to glue and scrunch the fabric into a circular bloom.

I filled in any empty spaces with tight felt buds.  These were made by rolling up 1/2" x10" strips of felt, and placing a dab of glue on the bottom.

Voila!  Easy no-sew autumn wreath.  This entire project was made with random fabric on hand, and only 2 sticks of hot glue.

Thanks for popping in and crafting with me.  Don't forget to leave a wish here for the chance at an Amazon giftcard.  I'm linking this up to A Glimpse Inside's Catch a Glimpse Party, Home Stories of A to Z's Tips and Tutorials Tuesday, Southern Hospitality's Fall Door Decor party, and the parties below.