DIY Book Sling

I received a great little Christmas present from my brother and his girlfriend last year, the 2011 Sewing Calendar, which is full of over 100 easy sewing projects, 99 of which will make it to my to-do list and never get done!

Many of the projects were gathered from crafty DIY blogs and websites and I thought it might be fun to feature some here every now and then.

The first one that caught my eye is from Penny Carnival.  Click HERE for the full tutorial on her blog.  Below are the detailed instructions for this cute Book Sling from the calendar:

What a great project for a child’s room or nursery.  Since children’s books come in all shapes and sizes, this is a great organizational solution.  It would even look nice in a den, family room, or study with the appropriate fabric choice.  You can even make it “no-sew” by using an iron-on adhesive.  Many versions of this project can be found on the web just by searching for “Book Sling.” 

Have you made something like this lately?

A Fresh Start: DIY Memo Board

Well, it is a brand new year and for many that means a time to make a fresh start.  I typically don’t make New Year’s resolutions, but I know for many one goal is to get organized.  This was the case for a good friend of mine who wanted to de-clutter the front of her refrigerator.  So I knew the perfect Christmas gift for her would be a “new” memo board where she could display photos, her daughter’s artwork, and other important information. 

I had just the thrift store frame in my stash to transform:

Sorry little angels, but you’ve got to go bye-bye!

The first thing I did was remove the artwork from the frame and give the frame a couple coats of brown spray paint.  Then I distressed the frame a bit with some sandpaper.  No photos of those steps, but I’m sure you get the idea.

Then I purchased a piece of sheet metal from Lowe’s.  Make sure you don’t get aluminum because it’s not magnetic.  They sell pre-cut sheets, but I had to trim one with tin snips to fit my frame’s measurements.

I found some cute fabric at Hobby Lobby and just hot glued it to cover the sheet metal.

Then I popped the whole thing back in the frame and used some small nails to hold it in.

The finishing touch were these coordinating magnets:

You can find the glass marbles at any craft or dollar store, and then modge podge scrapbook paper to the back and hot glue on a magnet.

Voila! Instant organization!

Here’s another look at the

BEFORE:

and AFTER:

What are some of your goals for the new year?  I’ll be linking this post to the following parties:

Wordless Wednesday: Play Time!

Burlap Table Runner

Yesterday I featured one of my friend’s before and after projects with one of our treasures from Canton.  You may have noticed her fabulous table runner:

She made it using burlap and some fabulous Pottery Barn fabric I won from a recent Project Pretty giveaway. 

I also won this gorgeous frame that looks perfect in my bedroom:

I loved the fabric, but I really couldn’t figure out a way to use it in my home.  When my friend said she wanted a burlap table runner, but needed a way to make it pop against her dark table, I knew the fabric I had won would be perfect.

So I thought I would show a few basic details on how she made it.  She used the textured linen fabric as the base, cutting it and piecing it together in the middle:

 

Next she laid out the burlap on top to determine how wide she wanted the middle piece to be. 

She sewed the two pieces together and lined it and hemmed it.    

She added a ribbon trim between the two fabrics to finish the seam.

Of course ruffles make everything better, right?  After a series of trials and errors and many battles with the sewing machine, she ended up hand pleating it and sewing it on with her machine.

Another look at the finished product: I think the combination of the burlap and softer, lighter fabric gives the runner a real shabby chic appeal, yet it is very modern at the same time. What do y’all think?

I’ll be linking to I Made It, Strut Your Stuff, Show Off Your Stuff, Get Inspired, Weekend Wrap-Up, and other great parties seen HERE.

More Fabric Flowers

I’ve been meaning to post the little hair flowers I made to coordinate with the appliqué fleur de lis t-shirts I made a couple weeks ago.

These were so fun to make with fabric and felt scraps!  And of course I had to accent them with some glitter fleur de lis!

For this one, I just wound the fabric around into a rosette like I did the first ones I made:

 

For the next three, I cut graduated circles out of fabric and felt using my pinking shears:

 

I layered in some tulle on this one.

I ran out of the fleur de lis, so I used a fun button for the center of this one:

These were so fun and easy, anyone can do them!

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Be sure and check out my tutorial for DIY textured art over at Tatertots & Jello! Next week I’ll share another version with y’all.