Baby Baluga

This has been the year of babies in my circle of friends and family. Lots of little precious ones coming into the world. And with that, I decided it was time to learn how to applique and whip up some cute onesies. Ok, I didn't actually "whip" these up. It was a learning process with lots of frustration, impatience, and not so nice words..among other things. But I finally got the hang of it (well, for the most part) and I think these turned out pretty cute.
Have you seen any cute onesie ideas lately?
  

gator onesie and burp cloth for baby pierce :)

baby jay is gonna be a future golf pro :) isn't he precious!

Old Blue Chair

Today I wanted to share with you a chair that I recovered for less than $50 dollars. Yep, I said fifty. I bought this chair on one my trips home a couple months ago for only $23 dollars!! I immediately fell in love with the white shabby chic details in the arms and legs. The fabric, not so much. I stripped off all the fabric and much to my surprise, found that the chair was stuffed with horse hair and hay. Ahh! I'm pretty sure this makes it an antique.

Step 1: I bought a few yards of blue fabric from the upholstery remnants table at the fabric store ($8) and some upholstery tacks ($16). Unfortunately, I do not have a "before" picture with the old fabric. Trust me, it was a sight to see! I won't go into detail about how I recovered the seat part because it was trial and error on my part. I simply tucked, tightened, and stapled the fabric up under the chair and then nailed in tacks all the way around the bottom. 

Here's the back of the chair before I recovered. This presented a dilemma because I've never done anything like this and so it sat for a few months like this while I pondered.

Step 2: Eureka! I got a poster board, traced the shape of the back of the chair, and cut it out. I covered the poster board with fabric and glued the edges down around the back. Next, I covered about 2.5 yards of very thick cording ($1.50). I used a hot glue gun to secure the cording around the poster board.

Step 3: To secure the covered poster board to the back of the chair, I used a staple gun and forcefully stapled between the crease of the cording and edge of the chair. I made sure to staple far enough down in the crease so that the cording would hide the staples. After that, I went around and used the hot glue gun to glue any unsecured places between the chair and poster board. You cannot even tell hot glue was involved in this process. See the finished product above and below.

Ta da! I usually use my little coral monogrammed pillow in the chair, but wanted to show you a picture with and without. I'll be the first to admit that this chair is by no means of professional re-upholstering quality. But for less than $50 bucks I can't complain. And besides, I was going for the shabby chic look. What do you think?!?

Skirtin' Around

A while back, I purchased this adorable little skirt above from J. Crew. This cotton skirt with an elastic waistband has become one of my favorites to wear both at work and on the weekends. But when I really started thinking about it, it's a pretty simple garment to make. Step 1 - cotton fabric. Step 2 - wide elastic. Step 3 - get out your sewing machine. Step 4 - make an elastic casing for the waistband. Step 5 - hem bottom. Tada!
    

And that's exactly what I did. I re-created this skirt with a lovely yellow cotton blend for only $7 dollars! See below. My local fabric store is desperately lacking in their choice of elastic, so mine isn't quite as wide as I would have liked it...but it will do. When I'm feeling nautical, I can pair it with my navy and white stripe tank. All aboard!!

Sew What

Sew what have I been working on lately? Just a little glimpse of some of the projects I've whipped stitched up...These bright and festive catch-all bags are being made in small, medium (*shown above), and large sizes. I'm already using the large one as my new, summery make-up bag and loving it. More styles coming soon...

Trellis Squared

Disclaimer: Some of you may have already seen this trellis print mouse pad over at Buckhead Belle...thus some of my creations may be repetitive. I've been trying to spruce up my work cubicle lately to make those "Mondays" more interesting. I had some left over fabric from the pillows used in my living room, so why not bring a little bit of home to the office? This week I created an extremely-easy-to-make matching pencil cup. By no means are either of these perfect. I seriously threw them both together in a matter of minutes when I got the urge to experiment. I love how they look so cute together on my desk!

As for this weekend, I'm heading home to the upstate to spend some quality time with friends and family. On the green planner for tomorrow is a full day of sewing lessons :) My mother can literally sew anything you can think of. Being the ADHD kid I was, I never wanted to learn until I went off to college. Now I'm playing catch up...

hippitty hoppitty Easter's on it's way!

Creative Messaging

I've had these shabby vintage frames for over a year now, sitting around collecting dust and anxiously awaiting to be used. I just couldn't seem to think of what to do with them..they're an odd size and pictures would of looked awkward. Eureka! Why don't I cover some corkboard in light weight fabric and use them as a message board? Now they hang in my kitchen beside the fridge and are great for pictures, cards, recipes, to-do lists, etc. The blue fabric coordinates with my living room and adds the perfect touch of color to my kitchen wall. Why didn't I think of this before?! Stay tuned for more lowcountry creations and "eureka!" moments...