sewing

For seating in my office, I use dining room chairs that I bought at a used furniture place a few years ago.  I painted them gray, replaced the foam, and upholstered them in some white fabric that I had used previously for drapes. But these chairs were incredibly uncomfortable and I sit on them a lot!  So I usually put a pillow on top of the seat which is rather unattractive.  Since I want both comfy and pretty, I pulled two 16 1/2″ x 15″ foam pads out of one of my storage trunks and created French cushions.

Before there was Pinterest, I had to actually read magazines, clip out articles, and store them in a paper file.  What a waste of time!  So glad I don’t have to do that anymore.  (Now I just spend 3 times as much time scanning Pinterest whenever I want to start a new project.)  But I have made French cushions a few times and always follow an article from a Better Homes and Gardens from way back in October 2000!  While the article is for a bench cushion, you can use the directions to cut it down to any size.  I’ve attached the tutorial here:

End-of-the-Bench Cushion

While the directions are easy-peasy, I did make a few changes to get the look I wanted.  First, my idea of a French cushion has fat piping, big running hand stitches that show, and covered buttons.  This tutorial calls for one layer of batting that is cut to the size of the cushion but I used two layers and made them about an inch bigger on all sides so I could push batting into the edges.  I also waited until I was completely finished hand-stitching the piping before I closed the open end.  When I did sew the opening shut, I used an invisible closing seam.

The tutorial calls for tufts but I made cover buttons with a contrasting fabric.  Also easy, especially since Terry’s here and he’s strong enough to get the little pusher to snap the backs into place.

All done and on my chairs, so pretty, so comfy!

Almost have all of this fabric used up.  One more DIY project featuring the black and white Premier Prints for next week!

Continuing in my efforts to have a pretty and organized work area, I finished the shelves in my sewing corner with these cute DIY fabric baskets and Ikea magazine holders.

I painted the holders the same color that I used in the “hutch of pretty things” and finished them up with Martha Stewart stencils.  Now they are the home to sewing patterns that I’ve collected over the years.

I started figuring out the dimensions I would need to make storage baskets but then came across a tutorial on Sew4Home for these little lovelies.  So much easier to follow someone else’s instructions than create my own!

Grabbed a graphic from The Graphic Fairy and made these tags.

One corner done, three to go!  My cutting table slides right under the shelves and now I have a pretty and organized sewing corner.

Although it usually looks like this!

Next week I’ll tell you about those cushions sitting on my sewing table!

As I mentioned in last week’s post about the Music Room, our first update many years ago was replacing the bucket lights with chandeliers.  Very inexpensive shiny brass ones from either Lowe’s or Home Depot.  But I was going for a modern cottage or beach chic look and shiny brass wouldn’t do! With a little spray paint, some shiny crystals, and a cord cover, I had the look I wanted.

But that was the look I wanted ten years ago.  Now I’m over that and want to make it more shiny like a baby grand.  So down came the chandeliers.

Now, if I was Michelle, these would have been done up very fancy like what she did for her chandelier over her enormous tub.  But I’m more the “hit it with a spray can” type. And that’s what I did!  Off to my “spray booth” where they got a liberal dose of Semi-gloss Spray Paint from Valspar.

I changed out the light bulbs for a little inexpensive update.  Terry hung the chandeliers back up but that chain was REALLY ugly!

I’ve made cord covers a few times and usually use dupoini silk.  This time I found a remnant of black cotton for 44 cents at Wal-mart so used that.  And they were hideous–they just didn’t lay right.  So I went to Jo-ann’s and bought a 12″ piece of black “silkessence” fabric on sale for $1.00.  So much better.

You can get cord covers at Ballard Designs but they are a little pricey and so easy to make.  Just take 2 or 2 1/2 times the length of the chain and wide enough to go around it.  These particular chains are very short–due to the change from dining room to guest room a few years ago.  We were afraid one of our guests would run into them.  Or a grandchild would be hanging from them when they jumped on the sofa bed. So Terry shortened them quite a bit.  Which also happens to be the perfect height for over the piano. So this chain is only 9″.  I cut two pieces 18″ x 6″ then narrow hemmed all four sides.

I usually use Velcro to attach them to the cord but this time I just attached it by hand stitching.  Just got up on a chair and stitched them on.  (My arms got a little tired but not as bad as when painting a ceiling!)

So much better!  And another step completed in my music room renovation!  Tomorrow there will be more!