Week 44: Pillow Covers

 I have NOT been feeling crafty lately.  Sometimes I happily juggle 5 or 6 crafts at a time, eager to work on them with every free second.  Other times all I can do is stare at my sewing machine and pile-o-half-finished-projects with disgust. This is one of those times. 

I blame it on the fact that all of the projects I should be focusing on are LONG and time consuming, and some of them are boring (I may puke the next time I sit down to add ruffles to the stupid shower curtain I've been working on FOREVER). 

Also I've been feeling slightly under the weather.  Maybe that's it. 

But tonight, I forced my self up to tackle a short little job that would allow me a gold star in the craft-a-week column, without too much time and sweat.  In fact, I got this project done, while doing the dishes and folding laundry (I was sharing the sewing machine) in about an hour. 

 I made some pillow covers to cover this disgusting garage sale find, and his equally hideous twin.  I'm sure the people we bought them from are lovely and clean, but that doesn't make we want to lean my face on their cast-off pillows.

I started by cutting up the left overs from a garage sale curtain that we used to cover our dining room chairs and bench. It's such a nice neutral color, as well as being a super soft velour(?).

I cut three pieces for each pillow: 

• one the size of the pillow with an extra inch on each side for seam allowance. 
• and two that were the pillow's width (plus 1), but only 2/3 of the height. (The two shorter pieces in the back are going to be a fold over opening so I don't have to sew on a zipper.  I HATE zippers.)

For the two shorter pieces, I cut so that one of the width sides was the side of the curtain so that it was already hemmed. 

 Then I got real busy, and forgot to take pictures. Sorry. 

To sew, I started by attaching the three pieces so that they made one long panel: short piece, long piece, short piece. (Of course, sew with right sides together, making 2 seams, one connecting each piece.)

Next I folded one of the short pieces onto the longer piece (right sides facing) and sewed down the sides to make part of the pillow's side seams.  It wont reach all the way to the end, but it isn't supposed to.

Now fold over the other short piece and sew those side seams.  It should cover the opening that the first short piece left, and again only make it 2/3 of the way to the other end.  

Flip. Insert pillow.

 That was a bunch of jumbled garbage that only one who can read my mind or studies how pillow covers are made (like me) would understand.  Sorry.  Does the picture above help? This is the back of the finished pillow.  See the opening? Should I do some more pillow making and actually take some pictures?  Should I do some diagramming?  It's too late for tonight, but maybe tomorrow...

 Anyway, thank God for clean and pretty pillows I can get cozy with. 

And for a project I could do in an hour. 

Score!

Total time and cost:

Time: 1 hour

Cost:

Pillows:$0.50

Curtain: Left overs 

Total: 50 cents!

Week 41: Chair and Ottoman Makeover

A few weeks ago we woke up early for some Saturday garage sale-ing, and scored these:

 stained but super comfortable.  We were intrigued by the price ($5 for both) and sold wen we tested them out.  

 The fabric was a bit grimy, with paint stains as well as the usual old dirty sweat-like stains. But we knew we could cover it.

And then! She gave us curtains that we could use to cover them!  Granted, the curtains had a few paint smears too (she's an artist).  I was hopeful we could cut around the paint marks, and the price (4 curtain panels for a buck) made it worth the gamble.

So.  To get started on the re-upholstering, I measured all the sides, adding an inch of seams, and a few inches to anything that would need to be pulled under and stapled. 

 The chair has sides that are shaped like somewhat curvy 'L's.  I tipped the chair over, and traced those onto the fabric because I knew I couldn't measure/draw with the same ease that a simple rectangle would allow. 

I started by sewing some of the seams, and then fit it to the furniture with the seams on the outside, and pinned as if I was pinning a garment on a mannequin.

For the ottoman, I sewed each of the sides to the top (making a cross) and then pinned all the edges together, making it fairly tight. 

 The chair was slightly more difficult.  I started by sewing the back rest, the seat, and the front to one of the L-shaped sides. Then I laid it on the chair, and pinned the back rest to the seat, and the seat to the front.  After sewing those, I fit it back on the chair, and pinned the other 'L,' starting with the corners and turning points, and then pinned between. Lastly, I added the back. 

Then we flipped them over, removed the legs,  pulled the fabric nice and tight, staple gunned it, and reattached the legs.

The chair fabric was lacking a bit.  This was my put-down-the-camera-and-help-me face. 

Ta-da!  So much cleaner and fresher looking!  Happy girl. 

They aren't perfect... there's this corner...

 ...and the fact that the chair fabric is stretched so tight that every time I sit down I half expect all the seams to explode. 

But I'm feeling pretty happy with the outcome.

And I'm feeling like I might be able to tackle some clothing design after all of this pinning-to-a-figure business. 

Total cost and time:

2 hours

Chair and Ottoman: $5

Fabric: $0.50

 Total: $5.50

 

Dining Room Table. Now With Hella Character

In our quest to thrift an affordable apartment, we've picked up a bunch of free items. Free pallet+free fencing=free table, right?  Actually no.  This project was kind of a comedy of errors. When it came to all the money we spent on supplies for this baby, we could have bought something new. And not spent multiple weekends building it. 

But when it came time to calculate all of the things we were buying, and I turned to my husband with a defeated sigh, and offered to give up, he rallied.  He sweetly reminded me that this table (and life) wasn't ALL about saving money.  I had goals and ambitions that building a table would meet.  I had dreams of learning how to woodwork.  I had fantasies of a beautiful recycled fence table. If we had to spend a little more money for me to have this experience, he felt it was worth it.  Even if he kind of hated the idea of eating dinner on the gross old wood in the trunk.  Love that guy.

So I bought a blade for the blade-less saw our friend had.  Also we bought a face mask, and I donned some goggles.  Because "safety first" my friends. 

Also, when using a saw, safety suggests that one should focus on one's work, rather than the camera.  So this is my safe action shot.

I started by cutting the fence boards into manageable pieces.  The I started doing the math.  I wanted the finished table top to measure 30"x42" which would give a small overlap on all sides of the pallet. With 6" wide boards I needed 5 rows.  I cut the best parts of the boards down to 21", and then I cut those pieces somewhat randomly so my mosaic would look more lovely. I also cut one AMAZING slat 42" and then left it as is.  Alan pointed out that the holes that I felt gave it its beauty were also the places that would drive everyone setting a glass down crazy, but with it placed in the middle, I think we'll only be setting serving dishes there.

Then I laid it next to the pallet we had spray painted for this project, and all of a sudden I HATED the turquoise. I even hated it when I sanded it down a bit.  So we stopped our project there and went to pick up some navy.

Much better. 

I laid out all the fence pieces in a way that I loved, and then I flipped the whole thing over, and laid the pallet on top.  Notice that the way I cut my fencing, the pallet slats lay perpendicular to the fence slats, rather than parallel. I have a feeling attaching would have been much more challenging the other way around.

I checked all four sides to make sure that they all had an even amount of overlap...

Then I screwed it in with a million screws. I may have gone a tad overboard, but the table top is secure, which was the goal. 

I got hot and cranky right before the last slat, and Helpful Husband jumped in.  Thank goodness. 

Because this may or may not be lead-based paint (don't judge me) it was super important for me to cover it with a sealant.  First though, I would have to remove all dirt, grime, and spiderwebs...

I used an entire can of sealant, which allowed 5 solid coats.  While those were drying I sanded and painted the 2x2s we picked up for temporary legs. (I really want some super industrial looking legs like metal hair-pin legs, but those guys are EXPENSIVE, and we aren't sure how much we're going to love this table yet).

We drilled the legs in using some L-shaped brackets. And our project was complete!

I am so happy with how it turned out.  We've only had one thing tip over because of less-than-careful placement, Woo-Hoo!  If we end up LOVING this table too much to get rid of it, we'll probably get some glass cut to cover it,  but for now I have a fun place-mat craft planned. 

Total Cost and Time Spent:

  

Lots of time... 10 hours over 2 days?

Pallet: free

Ceder fencing: Free

Safety mask: $4.97

Saw blade:$19.00

Screws: $6.47

Sand paper: $9.97

Teal Spray paint: $3.87

Navy Spray paint (2): $8.98

Sealant:$3.87

Table legs: $5.48

White paint: Free (left over from chairs)

Brackets: $7.98

Total: $80.50

In the end, it's unlikely we'll ever make our money back on this table, but it was fun to build and it has "Hella character."  Thanks for saying so Bryan!

Dining Room Seating

During our last weekend garage sale-ing adventure, we stumbled upon dining-room furniture that was just too good to pass up. While we had plans to make "free benches," out of an old pallet, the cost of the legs, hardware, and stress would have actually been way greater than what we paid for these three gems. 

This lovely little piano bench was only $8.  We were in love with the fun vintage fabric, which wouldn't actually match our dining room set.  But we knew we could use the fabric elsewhere when we removed it from this piece.

And these seat-less chairs were only a buck each!

Granted, they were gross.

And missing some very crucial pieces, but that didn't scare us away.

We soaped them down, and sanded all the rough spots, and then added a few coats of paint.

Already looking better.

Now for upholstering... Alan brought the chairs and the bench into the hardware store with him and got some pieces of plywood cut to the exact measurements.  Each chair needed one for the seat, but he also got one for the bench which already had a seat.  We painted this piece white, and used it to turn the bench into a storage space. More on that later.  While he was at the store, he also got a dowel to fit between the legs of the bench to help it's wobble factor.

While the paint dried, we stapled 8 layers of quilter's batting to the seats.

Looking oh-so-comfortable, wouldn't you say?

And then we stretched and stapled some gray suede-ish fabric on top.

I know this is a crazy angle, but to get the seats to fit snugly onto the chairs I literally had to sit on them while Alan laid underneath and drilled from the bottom.

Don't the chairs look SO MUCH CLASSIER?

For the bench, Alan drilled the painted plywood into the underside, flipped it over, and attached the seat with some small hinges, to allow us to flip it open.  

Then he had a stroke of genius.  If we were going to be flipping the bench open all the time, the backside of that seat should be adorable too.

So he added some amazing, bright, vintage sheet fabric we scored a few weeks back. To avoid visible staples, he used an iron-on fusible to attach it.

PERFECT!

Total Cost and Time Invested:

 3 or 4 hours

 Furniture: $10

Sand paper: Free (already owned) 

Screws: Free (already owned)

Plywood +Cuts: $8.19

Paint: $14.99

Dowel: $4.59

Batting (garage sale): $0.50

Gray Fabric (cut from a garage sale curtain): $0.50

Bright fabric (Cut from garage sale sheets): $0.50

Total: $39.27

Our Tiny Garden

Two weeks ago, our plan was to skillfully turn a couple of free pallets into a dining room table and matching benches.  I had suprisingly little apprehension for a person who owns NO TOOLS, and possesses NO SKILLS. 

Alan had enough apprehension for both of us.  But he was managing to be supportive.  He even "blue steeled" it when I took a picture of him sawing the pallet in half by hand.  He's amazing.

A week later we scored some amazing dining room furnature and gave up on the idea to turn that pallet into benches. 

So we were left with a sawed in half pallet... and Alan's dream of a garden.

He took the two halves, flipped them on their sides, and screwed them together using some scrap wood from the hardware store.  He lined the bin with some shade material and filled it with compost and lovely eatible plants.

Red Lettuce

Pansies

Basil

Spinach

Dill

And Rainbow Chard (Yes!)

Total Time and Money Invested:

Around 2 hours

Pallet: Free on Craigslist

Screws: Already owned

Wood Scraps: Free

Shade screen: $6.00

Compost: $5.99

Plants: $10.00

Total: $21.99