Shady Business

We bought this (Jugend styled?) lamp a couple of years ago from a Fall Market in Tartu. It was put in storage after that since we really didn't have a place to hang it in our apartment back then. But now we have moved and we had a perfect place for it over our dining table. It only had one problem...no shade what so ever. At first we thought that maybe we could make it work without the shade, but the light was too harsh and very...in our face ;P

So I searched through my fabrics, found something that i liked and got to work. I tried out a couple of different ways to drape the fabric and decided that the best way was to sew a rectangular piece of fabric to the top rim of the lamp and then gather the fabric at the bottom.

It took some time to sew the fabric to the top since I did it by hand and standing on a chair (since we couldn't be bothered to take the lamp down ;P...which probably would have been easier to do than sew everything while the lamp was hanging..well ..live and learn :D).

I really like the end result (as usually with the projects I show here...the ones I don't like so much don't usually get much broadcast ;P). There is enough light coming through the fabric and the light gets defused nicely around the room.

Ciao-ciao,

Easy DIY Ruffle Pillow

Christmas came and left and so did New Years Eve... I can't believe it's the year I turn 25 already ;P
We are also kind of in the middle of moving right now so the last few weeks have been quite an exciting and busy time for me and my little family :) Luckily i have had this post waiting or some time so I can publish it now :))
Do you remember the post about the duvet cover I made? Well anyways I had some leftover ruffles and of course I couldn't just dismiss them and throw them away. So I decided to make a little ruffle pillow. And I even took pictures of the process (for once!) ;D so I can share it with you and try my best to explain all the steps.

First cut out the pieces, for my pillowcase I cut out a square that was 40cm x 40cm and two pieces that were 40cm x 30cm. I used these measurements just because I already had a pillow and those were the measurements that I thought would suit best. You can always alter the measurements according to your needs.

Turn back the edge twice on each of the smaller pieces of fabric, so you will have a "clean" edge. This will be the opening for inserting the pillow. Pin first and then stitch to place.

Then take your ruffles (if you don't have leftover ruffles like I did, you can always make some and then come back to this step) and arrange them on the larger piece of fabric (40cm x 40cm) in a way that pleases you. I just arranged them in (relatively :P) straight rows and pinned them down.

After pinning go in with your sewing machine and stitch them in place (instead of a sewing machine you could do this whole project by hand, it will just take you more time to finish but it is absolutely doable if you don't own a sewing machine or are not familiar with using one).

After sewing on the ruffles it's time to assemble the pillowcase. Lay the larger piece down so that the ruffles are facing up (right side up). Then lay one of the smaller pieces so that the "raw" edges are lining with the larger pieces edges on one side and the other smaller piece so that the edges are lining on the other side (as seen in the picture below). Both of these pieces have to be laid down so that the wrong side is facing up.

Pin the pieces to place and then sew all of the sides together.

Now the last step would be cutting off the corners as shown on the picture below. This step is not necessary but it makes it easier to push out the corners after you have turned the pillow case right side out. After you have turned the pillow case right side out, insert your pillow and...

Voilá! You have yourself a cute ruffly pillow :))

If you're not yet a follower then feel free to click the follow this blog button or go and like my Facebook page, it would literally make me jump for joy!

I hope you have an amazing day, at least I'm loving it because we finally got snow yesterday!
Ciao-ciao!

Do a Redo: Women's shirt into a dress for children

It's been a loooong time since  last posted anything but I want to get back on track again :))
And what would be more suitable than a very summery post about a very summery dress...ok i can think of many more suitable things to post about now that it's getting colder and we're nearing Halloween etc, but the truth is that i was supposed to post about this dress before the summer started and then...the summer started and I forgot...
So I'm posting it now and if not for anything else then at least as a reminder that the summer will return in about ...9 months ;D

But anyways let's get to the business...
So my sister in law gave me a bunch of really airy and light white blouses and at the time I was planning on wearing them during the summer...and then I cut them to pieces and made children's dresses :D




















I used a pattern from a craft magazine I had in my stash. This differs from the post I made about re-purposing a men's shirt into a girl's dress in a couple of ways. Firstly the bodice and the skirt are two separate pieces. I wanted to maintain the interesting look the fabric had originally so I cut the front piece of the bodice out of that and then I wanted the skirt part to be quite gathered and flowing so I pleated the skirt to the bodice.

I left the sleeves loose instead of shirring them like I did with the other dress.It came out pretty much exactly as i wanted it and I will definitely make her a couple of these for next summer, too :))

Hope you have a beautiful autumn day!!
Ciao-ciao!

PS. Looking at these pictures I realized HOW MUCH Tindra has actually grown during the summer :))

Do a re-do: men's shirt into a girls dress

So some weeks ago my hubby and I decided to clear out our closet. And although we donated quite a bit of the clothes that don't fit anymore or we just don't wear anymore we I ended up keeping a bunch in my "I-have-such-great-redo-ideas-I-will-definitely-make-so-I-keep-way-too-many-old-clothes-we-don't use-anymore pile".
And I have actually been trying to make stuff out of those garments in that huge pile. Now that we have a child, it's easier to redo old clothes into new ones because you can just make a smaller version of everything :D
I'm also more motivated to make clothes for my daughter because I love seeing her in cute clothes :))
Anyways let's get into the business.





I took this shirt that didn't fit my hubby anymore. I used the basic guidelines of this tutorial. But I made it a bit easier by taking one of my daughter's dresses placing it on the shirt and tracing around it. I did the same for the sleeves.

 I made the neck casing and put a rubber band inside but I didn't put a rubber band into the sleeves or the waistband. Instead I just shirred the sleeves and also the waistband, much easier in my opinion :))
The little lady is walking on the grass bare feet for the first :)) She didn't find it very enjoyable ;P


















I already have a couple of other dresses in the making, I'll keep you posted on those :))
See you soon!
Ciao-ciao!

Two Sided Duvet Cover

I have long wanted to make a Duvet Cover for our bed and when I was searching for inspiration for making one I found two which I loved.
The first one was quite minimalistic and modern and the other one was very romantic and quite girly.
Both of the posts have instructions for making the duvet covers, so if you'd like to make one the instructions are there.
I wasn't able to decide which one I'd like to make and so I combined the two and made a two sided duvet cover. I didn't follow the instructions too strictly but I got my basic guidelines from them and then I just made some modifications to suit what I wanted to make.

For the minimalistic side I bought a bunch of linen in different shades of grey and also white. I cut it all up and organized the pieces according to the directions. After this it was all sew, sew, sew.

Seems relatively easy but it took me a looooooong time to do all of that. It was partially because of the pattern and partially because I just got tired of doing the same thing all over again and again and I'm not even talking about the times I messed something up and had to take it apart and start again. But I pushed through and got it done :)).

For the romantic side I bought a 220cm x 220 cm bed sheet to use as a "base" and for the ruffles I used some old cutup cotton sheet I had lying around. I started by cutting the base piece to fit the minimalistic side I had already finished (so about 200cm x 180cm). Then I cut out long strips of fabric in different widths. After this I hemmed all the long sides of the strips with the zig-zag stitch on my machine because I don't want the pieces fraying too much. And then I started ruffling the strips. I made the ruffles just by gathering the fabric while sewing at the same time, I found this to be the most efficient and fastest way to do it. I also made the ruffles in different widths to add some more dimension and versatility.

So I ruffled and ruffled and ruffled away until I felt that I have enough.(I ended up making some more ruffles after I had pinned the existing ruffles on the "base" because I felt that it needed at least 3 more rows of them) This was actually the funnest part of this project, to see the pile of ruffles grow bigger and bigger.

Then I placed the ruffles on the base piece and pinned them to place. After this I stitched all the ruffles in place with my machine. Some of the ruffles needed two rows of stitches to hold them in place the way I liked it.

After this I also made a long continuous ruffle by stitching 6 2m long (13cm wide) strips of fabric together. i did this to make the ruffle edge to the duvet cover because I felt that it needed some kind of trim or edge to finish the look I was going for. So I placed the minimalistic side right side up, then I placed the ruffled trim around the edges so that the edge of the trim that I wanted showing was towards the center of the cover and the other edge was even with the edge of the cover. And then I placed the ruffled side on top with the wrong side up. Ok, I know this all sounds very confusing, but I tried to do a little illustration to make things (maybe?) a bit more clear :P Please keep in mind that I really can't draw at all ;D The yellow parts indicate the ruffles.

Then pinned everything to place and sewed along the edges leaving approximately  a 30cm opening to the upper edge (where I didn't place the ruffled trim) to turn the whole thing right side out. then I just stitched the opening and ...

TA-DAA!!

 I absolutely LOVE how it turned out. I've never been so happy to finish a project :)) It gives our bedroom a very idyllic and kind of a fresh feeling. Anyways I love it!

Oh, and did I say already that I love it ;))

 

I hope you enjoyed and have great weekend!
Ciao-ciao!

A Summer Bonnet

I found this tutorial for making a bonnet and I knew right away that I want to make one for my daughter Tindra. And because we've had quite warm weather here in Estonia I thought it would be quite appropriate to also write about it.

I had bought this fabric from our local fabric store a while ago just because I liked it a lot and thought it was pretty. And when I found teh tutorial mentioned above I knew I would use this fabric for making it. (I only used a small part of the fabric so I still can make a dress or something else for the summer ;D )

I love the embroidery on the fabric.

There are much better instructions in the blog I referred to before but I will briefly take you through the process, too. Firstly cut out the pieces for the bonnet. The bigger crown piece is 18cm x 36cm, long side on fold. And the two smaller brim pieces are 9cm x 23cm, short side on fold. Also cut out two pieces of interfacing for both of the brim pieces. (Lets see how many times I'm able to write the word "piece" in this post ;D ;P).

After this iron the interfacing pieces on the brim pieces. Note that you will iron it on the wrong side of the fabric. I accidentally ironed it on the right side on one of the pieces, fortunately my fabric looks almost the same on both sides so it's not very noticeable.

Then sew the two brim pieces together with the right sides facing each other and leaving the long straight side open.Turn the brim right side out, cut the corners.

Fold the edge inside and press so it will be easier to attach the gathered crown piece between the brim.

Hem the crown pieces neckline (the straight shorter side of the crown piece). 

I forgot to take pictures of the last steps of making the bonnet, sorry.
Stitch the crown pieces unhemmed sides (from the neckline on one side around the curve to the neckline on the other side), pull the yarn so that it gathers the fabric. The gathered fabric should match with the pressed side of the brim. Then put the gathered fabric between the brim, attach it with pins and sew along the brim.

I attached a rubber band to the neckline (from one side of the brim to the other) because the bonnet was very big for my daughter.

Lastly I attached some ribbon so we could tie a nice bow and keep the bonnet from slipping off her head.
I really like the way it turned out, it's super cute and I can't wait for summer so she can wear it all the time :))
Also I think this will fit her at least two summers if not three, because of the gathered fabric and the rubber band at the neckline.She will definitely get a lot of use out of it :))

I secretly want to make one for myself also ;P. Too bad I'm not a cute baby who can pull it off ;P ;D

Hope you enjoyed it! Ciao-ciao!

Sleeping Bag for Baby Stroller or Car Seat

I saw a picture on Pinterest of a car seat blanket (unfortunately the blog post doesn't exist anmore) and thought it was a great idea. So I made one which can be used for the car seat but also in a baby stroller which has straps.

I used a sleeping bag for babies that I already had at hand (we actually have 3 of those, so I didn't mind making a few alterations to one of them), I also used my rotary cutter, some pins, a water erasable pen and some bias tape.

Firstly I roughly measured how long the cuts have to be for the straps to fit through,  made the markings with my water erasable pen. After this I took my rotary cutter and cut two long slits vertically and one shorter one horizontally (according to the markings I had made previously).

Then I pinned the bias tape all around the sides of the slits.

I also decided to hand stitch the bias tape before sewing it with the machine just because sewing a bias tape is one of the things i don't have the talent for ;P

This is what it looks in our stroller with the straps pulled through the slits.

And this is what it looks  with a baby in the stroller :)) The sleeping bag has a zipper so if she falls asleep we can just zip the sleeping bag up and she's nice and cozy :)) This will definitely get a lot of use from us :))

I wish you a day full of sunshine and positivity!
And don't forget to like and follow if you enjoyed it.

Flower headbands

Hi everybody!

I decided to make some cute headbands for our little princess. For the band I used some stretchy lace ribbon and also some jersey fabric. I crocheted some of the decorative flowers and stitched together some fabric for the others.

I used THIS pattern to make these small pink flowers. After crocheting them I stitched them on the lace ribbon and voilà the headband is ready :))

For this crochet flower I used the instructions from HERE. I should have dip the flower to water and pin it to let it dry, then it would have stretched a bit and would look more clean and structured like the one in the instructions. I don't mind it looking a bit floppy though ;P I attached a button in the middle of the flower and stitched the whole thing to the charcoal jersey.

For these flowers I just ruffled some lace fabric, attached some white buttons and stitched them to the lace ribbon. I think this is my favorite of the four headbands I made :))

And last but not least for this flower I used some linen fabric (the leftovers from the bridesmaid dresses that I made for our wedding), ruffled it a bit, attached a button (again ;P) and stitched it to the lace ribbon. Note that she is currently eating one of the headbands ;P

I just had to include this picture in the post because she looks so adooorably chubby on this picture ;D

I hope you're having a beautiful day!

Owl Toy

We have kind of an owl-theme going on with our little daughter. For some reason i've been obsessed with owls, i just find them so cute :))
So I made this owl toy out of some pieces of fabric i had lying around. I decided to fill the toy with rice because now we can put it in the microwave and heat it up. That way when she goes to bed she has something warm cuddling her :))

I think i might take some of the rice out to make the toy a bit lighter, right now it's quite heavy and bulky but still so adorable ;D

Have a beautiful autumn day!