{Fabric Rosette Tutorial}

Remember my new sink and my dog that is as obsessed with working on my projects as I am?  Well, put them together and we have our first bath in the new sink!



He was SOOO mad at me after this.  He's over it now.  What a cutie!



I love teaching, but let's be honest:  it sucks the life out of you.  That means I can really only work on my "projects" on weekends.  UNLESS it's Spring Break, which is now!

Woooo hoooo!

I hope to be project-filled all week.  A busy bee I will be.  

Anyway, I've been so obsessed with furniture and home furnishings lately that my wardrobe has been neglected.  Hopefully you haven't noticed.  I searched for a project that was A. Cheap, B. Fast, and C. Wardrobe related.  It was so fast I taught my students how to do this and made some at work.  What is it you say?

This project was totally FREEEEEEEEE- I used scrap fabric, already had the glue, and embellished a sweater from The Limited that I have had for years.

Here is the tutorial:

You need:

• Glue gun with glue sticks
• Fabric 
• Felt/fusible fleece (that you won't fuse.  A girl gotta use what she already has!)

Soooooo, what do I do?




1.  Cut a strip of fabric that is 3 in. wide and 45 in. long.  You may or may not use all of the fabric strip- it depends on how long you want the diameter of your flower to be (state assessments are coming up- gotta add in that math vocab word!  Ha)

2.  Tie a knot at one end.

3.  Twist the fabric around itself like a candy cane as you wrap it around the knot like, well, a rosette!  As you twist is around the knot, glue it to the previous "row" as you go along.  You do not want to be able to see the glue!

 

    5.  Once your flower is the size you want, glue your last row in place, turn your flower over to the back, apply glue, and cover the back with your remaining fabric "flap".  If you have too much fabric, just trim it!

Perfect size!  Fabric flap not yet glued down.

6.  Make as many more as you want- I really like the arrangements of 3 that are slightly different sizes.  Here are mine:

7.  Arrange the flowers that way you want them to be on your shirt/pillow/necklace and glue them to your felt or fleece:

8.  Trim the fleece away so you can't see it anymore:

9.  Hand sew to your attire of choice!

 

Old Navy was having a sale on some basics, so I embellished a t-shirt, too. 

Shirt:  $5

Fabric:  $1

Total:  $6!

TIP:  Try on clothes before buying and sewing on them.  Turns out this shirt is too big, so I have to return it.  Bummer!  Oh well.

Coffee table redo is JUST about done... should be posted Tuesday at the latest!

Can you make me somethin, too, Momma?  =)

Sink or Swim? Sink!

I. Love. My. Kitchen.

What do I like about it?  There is lots of room to socialize, lots of storage space, is totally separate from the eating area, and is my favorite color scheme:  Neutrals!

Don't mind the window treatment- it was left here when we bought and house and I haven't replaced it yet.  Shocker, I know.  Also, our oven handle is broken.  We're getting that fixed asap.

I put these pot holders up (which I made with my students last semester for about $1 each- there is 4) when we first moved in on these CUTE cast iron tea pot holders, which I found on clearance at Hob Lob for $1.75 each.

The sink, however, is the one thing I do not love.  It is a white porcelain enamel sink and scratches/stains at the drop of a hat.  Being the clean freak that I typically am, it drives me nuts.

SOOOO I started a sink fund.  In a wine glass.  By the sink.
I "encouraged" Daniel to contribute to it when I was being "good".
Let's just say he made no contributions.  (Kidding- he did =D)

All excess funds (i.e. my birthday money, gift cards, house warming gift, and health insurance "rewards" for being healthy) were collected and taken to Home Depot to buy......

Granite Composite Sink!

I absolutely love it!  Stain and scratch free.  The bowls are also deeper and bigger.  Thank you to our friend Paul for working on his Saturday night to put it in for us.  Oh, how I love it!  I was going to take some process pictures, but Paul's wife, Ellie, and I sewed a precious little dress for their daughter and we were busy busy busy.  Sorry!  (I'll make another and put it in a tutorial=D)

Here is what our kitchen looks like now:

 Looooooooooof it!
Who knew a sink could make a girl so happy?

On another note, my coffee table redo is primed and I'm off to paint it.  Reveal will be posted this week!

Staple Gun Setback

I've been in the process of refinishing and reupholstering a Salvation Army Family Store chair this week and I've been waiting ALL week to finish it.

I take a Zumba class with some of the teachers from school once/twice a week (THE MOST AMAZING WORKOUT EVER!  So much fun- you should totally try it!) and it is typically on Thursdays.  I packed my workout gear in my shower curtain tote bag from posts past (ha!) and was looking forward to it all day; HOWEVER, I was talking to one of the other teachers in the powder room and she reminded me that we didn't have it today for some reason.  I knew that when I signed up, but I forgot.  Bummer.

Oh well- that just means I was able to actually leave at 3:30 from school, which never happens unless it's Friday (during which case I am counting down the minutes!), and come home to my project babies!

The reason why this post is called "Staple Gun Setback" is that I went through two today.  Daniel bought me my first "gun" this weekend and I picked out the right staples, or so I thought.  I felt so independent setting it all up myself (Daniel has class on Thursday nights), but the staples wouldn't come out and I ended up getting mad and ripping a spring out.... on purpose, fully aware of the fact I was ruining it.  Long day?  You bet.

I found a random Home Depot gift card in Daniel's office after dinner and went to Home Depot to get another gun and more staples.  My elderly sales associate informed me I had previously purchased the wrong staples.  Welp, too late now.  I purchased a new gun and staples, came home, loaded the magazine (wow.), and it worked PERFECTLY.  Go figure.  Annnd I'm a pro.  Anyway, it is finally finished.

Here's the transformation:

 Here is what I did:

• Take off original cushion.  My strong husband used a screwdriver to undo some..screws..that keep the cushion on the chair.

•  Take the old fabric and padding off of the original.  To my surprise, I think someone actually reupholstered this recently because the padding was #1 pure white, without stains and #2 very fluffy.  The stapling of the fabric to the chair was super sloppy, so I know it was a product of a DIY project.  I don't really care if this is gross, but I kept and reused the padding.  It didn't even have a scent (yes, I am that brave and gross to take a huge whiff).  Squeaky clean.

•  Paint or stain the chair.  I painted it with this oil-based paint.  It's a semi-gloss black paint.  You are either supposed to sand the furniture or prime it, but I did neither.  The chair was so scuffed up to begin with, I didn't need it.  Give it two coats.

•   Reupholster cushion.  I bought this fabric at Joann's during one of their clearance sales.  It was originally expensive.99/yard, clearanced to $6 per yard, then all clearance was an additional 1/2 off.  SO that means $3/yard!  I bought a lot so that I could do this and make pillows for my living room.

I love when they put it on a roll for me. I feel so legit!

•  Place the cushion bottom (made of wood) on the fabric.  I cut around the wood piece with a 3-4 inch margin all the way around.



There is my pup again!  Little helper.

• Put your fabric face down on the floor, place the padding on top, then put the wood on top of the padding.  Pull the fabric up and onto the wood and staple in place.  I used a lot of staples. 

•  Here is what the cushion will look like on the front and back:

•  Put back on chair and replace screws so the cushion doesn't fall off.

 Voila!  New chair.  Love it!  This weekend it will get a pillow =)

Again, here is the start to finish transformation:

 Cost, you ask?

Chair:  $8

Padding:  Free!

Fabric:  1/2 yd @$3/Yd=$1.5

Paint:  Had it (only $8 new)

Total:  $9.50

Let me know what you think!

My next project will be glazing furniture... we'll see how that goes!