My Next...

As you know I've been doing all lot of sewing projects for the past few months and have gotten better at sewing, practice makes perfect right? I'm a novice self taught sewer, my mom taught me the basics threading the bobbin and sewing a straight line a few years back, since then I've been learning as I go. I bought this book a few years back when I was first leaning to sew Sewing 101 for $ 16 bucks via Amazon. The project pictures are dated, but it really gives you the good basics. It really helped me and me be a good resource for any one beginning to sew. It also added words to my vocabulary: like bobbin, zig zag stitch, blind hem etc. 

I came across this book, The Complete Photo Guide to Sewing recently on Amazon its the same price I as the one I already own and looks to be worth every penny! If your interested in learning to sew, check out either book. And, nope I'm not getting paid to promote these books! It's my opinion that there helpful and may be helpful to you. 

I have a simple sewing machine a Singer Prelude, I bought on sale at Target 4 years ago the day after Thanksgiving ( Black Friday ) its a good sewing machine has the basic stitches with no bells and no whistles. I think I paid around $ 60 bucks for it? Here's my sewing machine below.

It's a good little sewing machine and every now and then we have words when my thread jams due to tension issues. But I like I said its basic and I've been wanting to get a new machine to tackle more and more projects. I want my next sewing machine to be heavy duty. I really like the look of the Singer Heavy Duty sewing machine and love that it can handle heavy materiel and as 23 stitches and it sews faster too!! Pretty stylish for a sewing machine huh! 

I'm pretty sure this will be my next sewing machine, even though some of the reviews are mixed, which is to be expected. I think it will be fun to tackle larger projects on and be really helpful when sewing outdoor stuff like cushions for our patio. Now that I've shared whats on my Next List its your turn! :)

What's on your Next List? New sewing machine? New Phone? a New Laptop??? 

Easy DIY Fabric Napkins

Now not our dining room got a recent update with the new floral drapes a I sewed, I wanted to bring in a bit more color in with napkins and just in time for the upcoming Holiday Season. Instead of going to the store and spending some moolah, and I decided to look though my fabric stash. I'm always buying a yard or more of fabric here and there for pillows or just in case projects. I was happy when I came across a pretty yard for fabric I originally intended into sewing into pillows, but the yellow citron shade wasn't a good fit with our living room. However I loved how the shade complimented our dining room curtains. I decided to sew 16 in square napkins, the perfect desert size. 

The fabric I used has a cool geometric print, and I like how a portion of the design would be in each napkin. I told my inner Martha to shush and not worry about cutting each napkin to 'match.' I iron and pinned each side of the napkins using a 1/2 inch seam allowance. The longest part in diying your own napkins is ironing and pinning. I trimmed the excess fabric on each corner to create a cleaner look. I estimate each napkin took about five minutes to sew. I spent around 20 mins or so on these napkins, most of the time I spent was on ironing and pining. I spent much less time it would have taken to buckle Avery in is car seat, find a parking space, drive to the store, get out the stroller and troll the isles. Yeah when you add all that at, it was easier to sew these napkins while the little guy took his nap. 

I have some darling napkin ring holders { a wedding gift } I used to see how the napkins look. In my opinion very cute. I also like how there's a hint of a pattern, that's not fully seen until after they are open. I'll mostly use our new napkins for desert time or when my girlfriends are our over. I still have some left over fabric, so most likely I'll sew two more. 

The napkins are a super simple diy sewing project, for those of you curious about learning to sew, this would be a good 'testing the waters sewing project.' This project could also be done very easy using no sew hem tape. I also like the idea of giving a set of napkins along with pretty napkin rings to a friend for a house warming gift. One of my girlfriends just recently moved into a new apartment, so she just might receive a set as a present!

What do you think of my super simple diy napkins? Have you done any simple sewing projects lately? Are you thinking about learning to sew?

* ps: I've been working on our Craft & Sew Page, Hopefully it will be 'live' soon!

Large Floral Print Drapes { Dining Room Update }

I really like our simple white Ikea Vivan Curtains with the Dahlia Fabric I added to the bottom, it added extra color to our otherwise pretty white dining room. After we completed out Dining room head to toe makeover, I wasn't ready to commit to anything to bold, so the bottom pattern  fabric was perfect. I thought about sewing full length Dahlia Curtains but at $ 26 bucks a yard on Sale for 5.5 yards for fabric would be $143 bucks plus shipping. I wasn't feeling the price. I decided if I came across some pretty fabric for under $15 bucks a yard, I'd go for it.

Well months passed and nothing. Enter Home Fabrics, I've heard about them on different blogs and my girl friend Summer (she just started a blog, check it out!) that lives in So Cal shops there all time. Anyways they finally opened a new store in Northern Cali, praise the Lord. So one after noon a few weeks ago Avery and I stopped in to check it out. Within in minutes I was in fabric heaven, they had a ton of fabrics. Originally I was there shopping for Navy Linen fabric for my living room, I mention wanting to change the look a few weeks ago.

I didn't find any navy fabric, I got distracted when I saw the large print floral fabric, I like the shades of aqua and teal mixed with the greys and browns. It was perfect for my dining room, except one minor problem. Hasani wasn't with me and I was afraid he'd nix the fabric because it was floral. We make it a point to agree on major changes and going from pretty much all white to a floral print was a major change! I texted him the picture, and 10 minutes later with no response I went with my gut and purchased 5.5 yards of fabric. Lucky for me he texted back saying he liked the fabric and to go for it. The best thing of all is the fabric was only 5.99 per yard!!! I paid $ 33 smackaroos for 5.5 yards of fabrics which breaks down to 198 inches of material!! Can I get a high five! Woo Hoo!

Before I share the afters, here's how I transformed 198 inches of material into two back tab style drapes for our dining room. Cutting material that long can be a challenge, so first I folded the fabric in half width wise, then folded it in half. I then cut the fabric in half leaving me with two 99 inch pieces of fabric. I decided I wanted my panels to be 93 inches each.

I sewed the sides of each panel first, then I folded the hem over one inch two times. Next I ironed the hem flat and then pinned and sewed each side. For the bottom hem and folded the fabric up two inches pinned and sewed.

I really like the look of back tab drapes, they look clean and almost like pinch pleat drapes without the fuss. It's the same style curtains I had in the dinning room, they can be back tab or you can use the rod pocket. I decided to sew the same style. I folded the top hem down four inches and iron then pinned. Instead of sewing individual tabs, I used ribbon as the tabs. I got this idea from Jenny at Little Green Notebook. I bought two rolls of dollar ribbon from Micheal's and spaced the ribbon five inches apart and pinned the ribbon top and bottom to the fabric. Next I sewed the ribbon onto the fabric.

I really like how the new drapes for the dining room turned out. The pretty large floral drapes bring in so much color into the dining room. The new panels are 93 inches long, 3 inches shorter then our old curtains. Hasani moved the new curtain rod down and the new drapes rest on the floors perfectly. I love for how finished the back tabs make the panels look, so pretty. Here's our new panels. Sewing the panels was super easy, the longest part of the whole process is pinning and iron the panels.

Here's how the fabric looks pulled out, I love the fabric. The fabric is super heavy and like a woven style. I forgot to mention, before I began sewing the panels Hasani and I had decided which way the print would hang. Either the leaves up or down, after much discussion we decided we liked how the leaves looked down.

Sorry for the bad lighting in this pic!

Here's a quick breakdown of how much the new back tab drapes cost to make. I spent $ 33 bucks on fabric and $ 2 bucks on two rolls of ribbon, total $ 35 for a pair of custom back tab drapes. Each panel only $ 17.50 crazy affordable!!

What do you think of our new drapes? Have you sewn drapes for your home?

Piping Ain't Easy

Ok, I'm cracking up over my blog title today, blame it taking care of a newborn and getting little sleep last night. Anyways I love how  tweaking a song title, works for a blog title :) Today I'm finishing up a sewing project that's taking a little longer than expected. Remember my beloved { to me } Key West print lumbar pillow covers I made for our armless chairs in our living room? If not here's a reminder. I'm still loving the print, just wanted to add a twist.

So I've been sewing new pillows with left over fabric I have and adding an unexpected pop of color to this already colorful print. Yup, I'm adding turquoise green piping to the pillows!

The turquoise green piping looks works well with the new fabric I bought for living room. I'm loving how the piping is looking so far and I'm sewing invisible zippers to, so its requiring a whole bunch of extra work. Piping ain't easy, lol. Hopefully I'll be a piping pillow master by pillow # 2 if so, I'm so adding piping to the cushion I'm making for our outdoor dining room bench.

Hopefully I'll have these pillows along with the new ones I just finished up, can't wait to share the amazing { to us } fabric I just bought and turned into pillows.

What do you think so far of the color combination?

Sewing Zippers, Not Hard

Remember last week when I planned to sew two new pillows for our living room, only to realize I didn't have enough fabric. That super sucked. Lucky for me Joann's carries a dark navy fabric that worked well with the fabric I originally bought. I'm addition to making pillow covers, I decided to try using a an invisible zipper. Usually when I sew pillow covers I do an envelope style closure, because the zipper scares me. I love how the pillows turned out! The deep the print and dark indigo looks good on our sofa. Love it!

Not only to the pillows look good, I was able to sew-in the invisible zippers. Can I get high five! Oh yeah, I'm still doing my happy dance.

I conquered the zippers (kind of) Let me explain. I have a standard zipper foot, but invisible zippers turn out best when you use an invisible zipper foot. Well my Joann's sells invisible zippers, but no invisible zipper foots. Which makes no sense to me at all. I used this Zipper How To and improvised on installing the zipper doing and inside stitch and outside stitch. The zippers were actually pretty easy to install, just made sure I pinned a lot and they came out NICE!

For the pillow insert, I used Ikea's 20x20 feather and down pillow. I love this pillow inserts, so affordable yet well made. Next I'll be on the lookout for an invisible zipper foot for the next set of pillows I'm sewing for the living room. Just waiting on the fabric to arrive! So like the blog title states, sewing zippers, not hard and I'm pretty sire they'll be even easier with a invisible zipper foot.

Now that I've conquered my zipper fear.  What's your fear about sewing?

I Need a Sewing Closet STAT

Lately I've been getting my sewing on, I've been making stuffed giraffes, burp cloths, a blanket, pillows etc. And only a few days ago I realized I need a place for all my sewing gear. No longer can my sewing machine, piles of fabric and thread just lay around on the dining room table, making family dining 'fun.' I'm in need of an actually little space to keep my gear organized. Yup, I've been bitten buy the 'Nesting Bug' The overwhelming need to create a dozen projects 2.5 months before our little June Bug arrives. Like life isn't busy enough! 


So there's really not too many options for a sewing area in our tiny Rancher, but I can figure it out. It's only fair too, since my husband recently created a nifty organized tool area in the garage for himself. I figure the best spot in the house to keep my stuff nice and tidy is our small coat closet in the our hallway. When I say small, I'm really giving it way to much room, its freaking tiny. I know for sure, the ironing board / iron will have to stay, but I'll come up with a better storage solution. Other than those two items, I will find another spot in our Casa for the rest { I hope } coats, x-mas ornaments etc. 


Here are my 'musts' for this tiny space. 


1. Hang Iron board on back of door, along w/iron, spray starch
2. Add more lower shelves to hold Sewing machine 
3. Containers / Drawers for sewing supply storage { thread, needles, bobbins, patterns }
4. Spot for misc. fabrics 
5. Color ? Why Not!
7. Small swing arm lamp next to sewing, to see supplies better { it is a closet after all }
8. Spot for Sewing Books 


I don't plan on using this space for my actual sewing spot I'm lazy and like to watch TV or listen music while I sew but the closet does have an electrical outlet & if I found a cute fold-able chair I could hang inside, hmm. It would make a cute spot for sewing


To keep my self grounded in reality, I only looked and teeny spaces for my sewing closet inspiration. But 1st this is my sewing work space!! But I'm cool with just using wooden hangers instead, if it means all the pretty fabric will be on display.

{ No Source, Came Across this image eons ago }

Okay Back to reality, am I the only one humming the song { Back to reality back to life, back to the here and now } Yeah I'm goofy sometimes :)  I love this sewing / craft closet below. Oh, how I wish my coat closet had two doors. Here's but I like { besides the Chandy, pretty wall paper etc } I like the peg board used for indoor storage, we have one in the garage and we love it. I like all the shelves and how this space is tucked away all pretty and special.  

{ via here }

I also like this peek at sewing / craft storage ideas. Plenty of boxes to hold supplies, jars to hold smaller items. I also like the use of the clips on the doors to hold ribbon and papers.

{ via here }

I also like this one a lot, its very piratical and every inch of space is used wisely.

{ via here }

I plan to start working my sewing closet soon, in-between working on the nursery & various household projects. I know I'll be so happy once I have a designated spot for all my sewing and craft goodies.


Where in your home do you work on Sewing or Craft Projects ? 


Or where would you like to create a spot just for you in your home?

DIY Chevron Baby Blanket

Last week, I shared the fabrics I planned on using to make my son a baby blanket. I thought it would be fun to make a modern Chevron print blanket. I wanted the blanket to be cozy in the winter and fun to play on in the summer months. I wanted the blanket to be a nice size but not too big, so I did a little research on the net and found a happy size for the blanket 36 x 36. Making this blanket couldn't be easier, its actually the first blanket I've ever made. So picture me patting myself on the back. I only had one mishap during my sewing, I broke a needle, so did have to make a quick run to Wal-Mart for replacement needles. I cut my fabrics 37 x 37 and allowed for a 1/2 inch seam allowance on either side.


Next I pinned my fabrics with the Chevron and Minky facing each other. I used all purpose white sewing thread and  worked my way around the blanket.

 I left about a 6 inch gap, so I could easily turn the fabric inside out. Next I did a simple hand stitch and closed up the hole.

I wanted to give the blanket a more finished look, so I did a simple top stitch 1x on top of the chevron print. I am by no means an excellent sewer, so I just took my  time keeping a straight line.

Here's the modern Chevron blanket, I made for my little baby boy. It's the perfect blanket for him to play on and for cooler evenings out. I love the Chevron print has many colors that all look so cute together.

I held the blanket up against the nurseries new wall color Silver Drop and love how it looks in the room already.

I love this blanket, and it was made on the cheap. The Minky fabric was only $ 4.54 for one yard and the Chevron was $ 8.98 - Total $ 13.52 plus I found a coupon online taking 10% off my purchases, so I spent around $ 12 bucks, not to shabby. I bought this fabric from Fabric.com 


What do you think of the Modern Chevron Minky blanket I made?