Playing House: Curtains!

 You know who has curtains?    Grown-ups.

Grown-ups have curtains.  So it was really weird when I finished this project, looked at the room, and it looked like a grown-up's house.

(When in reality, it feels like I'm just "playing house" like any other little kid.)

I also found out that curtains and curtain rods are unnecessarily expensive!
One curtain panel is $25-$30, and of course you usually need two. Then the curtain rod is another $25-$30, so for EACH window, you are looking at $75-$100.

I wasn't seeing any patterns I liked, and all of them were too short for floor-ceiling curtains. So I decided to make my own.
I didn't need anything fancy, and fabric is expensive so I just bought 10 yards of white muslin (basic bulk cotton fabric.) After a 50% off coupon, it was only $50 for four curtain panels.

Do you know how difficult it is to wash, dry, and iron 10 yards of fabric? Imagine 4 king-sized sheets all sewn together and twisting around in your dryer, then trying to iron them!

The actual sewing part was pretty easy. I just cut the fabric to the right lengths, folded over the sides twice, ironed and sewed a straight line. I did a similar process for the top, but tucked under strips of ribbon to be used as "tabs" for the curtain rod to thread through.

Speaking of curtain rods, an inexpensive solution is to use electrical conduit. These sturdy poles are made of aluminum (light, but strong) and come in 10 foot lengths. (If you remember, I use them for tomato cages and supporting the hops.)

They were already silver, but it also had some printing and an odd visual texture. A quick spray paint coat of primer and "brushed nickel" and they matched perfectly. I was torn if painting them would be worth it, but after they were up it really did make a huge difference. I am so glad I did! 

The only problem with using electrical conduit, is it leaves an open end. No fancy finial.

I was looking for solutions and in Pier1 I ran across some fancy drawer pulls on clearance (less than $3 each!). Snatching them up, I knew I could make them work somehow. 

Initially I was just going to glue them on, but then you wouldn't be able to remove them if the curtains ever needed to be taken down. Sooo I had to find another solution. It took me quite a while to figure this one out, but I'm pretty proud of it. Wine corks!

Yep! Here, you can see three wine corks (I only needed three finials because one curtain was right up against a wall in the corner.) I used the artificial corks made out of some sort of foam so they wouldn't crumble like traditional cork. I drilled a hole in the middle, enough for the finial to screw into snug.

Turns out the corks were too big to fit into the end of the pipe, so I took a razor blade and whittled them down so they fit perfectly!

After that was complete, I took some basic curtain rod hangers and installed the rod about 6-8" above and 10-12" outside the window frame. (It's supposed to make the windows look taller and wider.)

Once hung, I marked the curtain length and hemmed the bottom.
FYI, I learned the hard way that you should mark and hem each panel individually rather than "trusting" they are the same length.

Here's the bedroom window:

And a before-and-after of the bathroom!

(I think the window looks bigger, don't you?)

On a completely separate topic, Dear Husband (DH) made his first batch of home-brewed beer! It was an Oatmeal Stout that turned out really good! I might just be able to convince him to be a guest blogger as he brews his second batch.

Easy Peasy Baby Blankie

Let me start with this: Nope, I'm NOT pregnant... I'm not ready for that chaos.

But I did recently make two baby blankets for a couple of my coworkers. Since I am still new to sewing, I followed this great tutorial here, which was super simple.

All I needed was about 40 inches of both a flannel print (nice and soft) and this new-fangled "minky" fabric, popular for baby items. It is a synthetic velure (velvet-like) fabric made from polyester (don't iron... it WILL melt.)  It is a bit slick, and quite stretchy making it tricky to sew with sometimes, but thankfully a baby blanket doesn't need to be exact. The soft-ness is worth it!

One coworker was having a baby shower for her second girl that is on-the-way.

Another friend is working with a foster-to-adopt program and just got a new 12 month old addition to their family. Regardless if he ends up being a permenant addition or not, every child needs a special blanket of their own.

The process is pretty simple:

1. Line up the fabrics, right-sides together

2. Trim the edges to create the size you want

3. Embellish if desired (I will get to this in a bit)

4. Sew around the edges (1/2 inch seam), leaving a 4-6 inch gap

5. Turn blanket inside out through the gap you left

6. Sew around edges (1/4 inch seam)

7. Admire your work!

Here are some of the "extra" things I did to make it special:

Instead of square corners, I wanted to make them rounded. I took a regular ol' kitchen bowl and cut around that as a template. Before flipping right-side-out, I cut out some of the extra seam fabric around the corners so it didn't bunch up and distort the corners. Just be careful not to cut your seam!

I appliqued (sewed on top) the first name initial. How? I ironed on "double-sided fusable interfacing" to the letter fabric, then cut out the letter (make sure it is right-side-up so your letter isn't backward!) Then I ironed it onto the blanket where I wanted it. (Don't melt the minky fabric!) To make sure it stays long-term you want to sew down the edges of the letter. You could hand-sew, but I messed around with the zig-zag stitch width and length until I found a look that I liked.

I did pre-wash the fabric, but that is totally optional. I don't know if the minky fabric was damaged before or got snagged in the wash, but I pulled it out and it had a small hole in it. Crud!

So I mended the hole by hand, then applied a little heart patch on the right-side of the fabric (in the same manner as the initial) and hand sewed the edges since it was so small. Now it just looks like a feature!

Whew. Don't tell!

 It turned out really cute, and now I kind of want one now to snuggle up in. Eva certainly approved.

 Looks like the new owner approves too!

Hot Irons and Cold Ice

Hot Irons:

This next project I worked on was so quick, I forgot to take pictures along the way.

What is it? A tray-table ironing board!

I have a little secret... I only have 3 shirts that need ironing. That's it. Nothing else.

Yes, I know how to iron (thanks, Mom!) and while I don't love it, I don't mind it either. It's just that the result is not worth the time and effort.

The biggest pain for me is trying to set up our cheapo half-broken ironing board. I know I could just get a better one, but it hardly ever gets used! 

As I am interested in trying my hand at a bit more sewing, I needed something small and convenient.  

I followed this tutorial from American Quilting which was super simple.

They used "insulated batting" but I couldn't find that. So to protect the wood and batting, I bought some "ironing board cover fabric." (I didn't know that existed until this project!)

So I placed the decorative fabric face-down on the floor, then the insulating fabric, then the batting, then placed the tray upsideown on top of all that. 

 

A little bit of folding, tucking, and stapeling later and it was complete!

 

I might have a bit too much batting because the iron isn't very stable when standing on it, but that is just a lesson learned.

 

So what about the "Cold as Ice?"

A few weekends ago, our little downtown hosted their annual ice-fest and brought in some AMAZING ice sculptors. That was the one warm weekend we have had, and many of the sculptures suffered but I got some great shots!

 

Patching Holes and Installing Lights

Holes in walls just happen.

Maybe a little roughhousing was going on and somebody's shoulder just happend to go through the wall (ah, childhood memories...) Anything from a nail-sized hole to a baseball-sized hole can be patched up pretty easily. 

First of all, the size of the hole matters.

Can you stick your finger through it?

- If no, then you can just fill it with spackle. (Here's an easy, short video if you haven't done it before.) You may need multiple coats to fully fill a hole. Just apply in a thin layer, wait an hour, sand lightly, and re-apply.

- If it is bigger than your finger BUT smaller than a quarter, then you will just need a little bit of this mesh tape (see right). It is sticky on one side, so just tape over the hole and apply the spackle like you would before. Remember: thin, multiple layers work best. Try to "feather" it out, getting a thinner layer at the edges so there is a smooth transition where the spackling starts.

- If your hole is bigger than a quarter AND smaller than a baseball, you will need a "drywall patch." There are a couple of different types, but the best by far is the thin metal plate with the same sticky mesh tape over it. All you have to do is make sure your wall is clean, trim to desired size, stick it on, and spackle like you would before. (It does take 4-5 thin coats, but the results are impressive.)

- Is it larger than  baseball? You can still repair a larger hole yourself, it just takes quite a bit more time and technique. I haven't tried this particular method, but you can check it out here. 

Once covered with spackle, always sand smooth so there is a seamless transition to the wall.

Alright, want to see all this in action? Check it out:

Remember those uuuuugly light fixtures above the master sink? Yeah, those exposed round light bulb ones that belong above a stage makeup mirror. I had a vision of our perfect bath, and it did NOT include those lights.

So out they came! The problem? The wires were coming out of big holes near the center of the mirror, and I needed them farther to the sides for each of my two fixtures.







 So I made holes in the right spots, and fished the wires though to where I needed them.
This left holes. BIG holes.



Bring out the big wall patches! Here's what I used:




I cleaned the walls then applied the patches. See the metal screens below?

 Then spackle a thin coat over it.










Let dry, sand and spackle again.










Four or five layers later... It is nice and smooth!












 Then we prime over it before painting:










Then we finally paint...

Then install the new lights.









What a difference it makes. I think we updated the bathroom by 20 years!

Before:                                                     After!

Master Bed/Bath Repaint

Our house was built in 1990.

I feel like that statement says so much more than it needs to:
- Popcorn ceilings: check (now removed!)
- Shiny brass fixtures: check (replacing/refinishing with satin nickel)
- Golden oak trim and cabinets: check (I can't bring myself to paint good wood. I just can't! So we will refresh and protect it.)
- Wallpaper borders: check (in process of removing)
- Sponge painted walls: check (this is what we are fixing now!)

Ah yes, the sponge painted wall. Ever so revolutionary and trendy in the 1990's.
Thankfully, our house only had a few (glaring) accent walls with sponge texture in the master bedroom and bathroom.

The bathroom originally had the sponged walls AND wallpaper border on top of that, (see right) oh baby!

These sponged walls are something special... I think there are 4 different colors of paint, one of which is a metallic-silver. At least I think it was supposed to be metallic. Instead it just makes the walls look kind of dirty. Ick.






Here's what we did to prepare:
- I removed the wallpaper border with the same method I used to remove the textured wallpaper.
- I finally installed a new (up-to-code) light fixture. (When we first moved in, the inspector informed us that the track-lighting above the tub was an electrocution hazard!)
- I removed all the towel bars. I'm leaning toward replacing these with hooks instead.
- I patched all the holes and dents I could find, but it is really tough to see them on the sponged walls.
- Dear Husband (DH) did a great job sanding all those textured walls down. Whew, what a job!
- Then we washed the walls (TSP is your friend.)
- Finished up patching
- One final wipe-down of all the walls, baseboards and vacuuming the floors. (No dust in our paint!)

Just remember... the preparation is 80% of a painting job.

I don't know how we got so lucky, but Mom volunteered to come up and help paint She is an expert with a paint roller.
I had gotten nearly all the paint and material ahead of time, so we were able to paint both the bedroom and bathroom over the weekend. I picked two different colors for the walls which doubles the drying and clean-up time. Fortunately, I thought ahead and bought disposable paint tray liners, which cut clean-up significantly.

Quality paint and tools are one of the most important things when painting. Here are some favorites of mine:
- Purdy brand paint brushes and rollers. Completely worth the expense!
- Disposable paint tray liners. Yes, they do add to the landfill, but they save so much water that you would use to clean the tray itself.
- The 5-in-1 tool. I am actually pretty new to this tool, but it is so handy! It was the only thing that could pry the paint roller off the handle.

The main wall color we painted was a beautiful warm gray (Repose Gray by Sherwin Williams). This color strip is what I decided would be the foundation colors for our house.  You can see the gray on the right wall in the pictures below.

(Don't mind my fashionable paint clothes.)





The accent wall color (DH) picked out was Leisure Blue by Sherwin Williams. It is tough to get an accurate picture of the color, but the one below is actually pretty close. I think it is a rich soothing blue.

Believe it or not, this is the same color, but because of different lighting, it looks a bit brighter than it actually is.

What a job! Painting was the first step in redecorating our bedroom, and there is a lot more to come. One wall didn't get painted yet because we are replacing the light fixtures above the bathroom sinks. But that is a topic for the next post.