Category Archives: Fun with Fabric

Unique DIY Lighting for a Loft-Inspired Teen Boy’s Room – One Room Challenge Week 3

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I’m really excited to be a Guest Participant again in the One Room Challenge! This is a great way to get inspiration and motivation for your home. This spring, I re-decorated our boys’ bathroom. For this fall’s challenge, I’m transforming our teen’s bedroom. His new space is inspired by an industrial loft, with an exposed brick wall and other great features! Thanks for following along!

Recap:

  • In week one, I shared my favorite inspiration spaces and mood board
  • In week two, I added a (faux) exposed brick wall

This week, I’m so excited to show you the lighting projects for this space. These are both moderately easy DIYs, and that’s exactly what I need right now with everything else going on at home and work!

Macrame Cord Hanging Lamp:

TOTALLY in love with this project. More details, including materials and instructions, in this post. For now, just enjoy the pictures!

Stenciled Drum Pendant Lamp Shade:

This is actually one of the first projects I did, when I started blogging. The detailed instructions are in the original post. This room used to be my craft room, so I gave myself some license to use more feminine touches. Kai’s not picky, but I did want to update this lamp for him. I originally thought I might be able to just change the shade, but it was fixed in place.  While changing out the light bulbs, I realized that the room looked a lot brighter – and the light looked a bit less feminine – without the bottom glass and finial, so I left it that way for a little update.

Here’s an earlier before-and-after of the light.

And here’s how it looks without the bottom finial and with some fun Edison-style bulbs inside.

Oh, and one more look at my friend the macrame cord light…

Not sure what I’ll tackle this coming week. The answer might be nothing, because I’m co-hosting a big crazy birthday party this weekend…

A huge thank you to Linda for creating the One Room Challenge community, and high fives to all my fellow bloggers whose hard work and creativity were great inspirations! Be sure to go back to the One Room Challenge page to check out all the other projects!

Julie aka “Jewels”

Dyeing to DIY… Shibori!

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I love the look of shibori – which is hardly surprising, since I love all things blue and white, and fabric. I finally overcame my skittishness about dye and tried this technique… now, I am 100% addicted! I’ve got lots … Continue reading →

That Spells DNA – Nerdy and Beautiful Baby Quilts

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“DNA, you’re in my heart
DNA, in fact you’re in every part of my body
Each cell has a nucleus, each nucleus has chromosomes
And DNA, baby, that spells DNA”

-That Spells DNA by Jonathan Coulton

I can thank Steve, who is at the forefront of all things nerdy, for introducing me to Jonathan Coulton over a decade ago. Of course, as a genetic counselor, I have a particular soft spot for “That Spells DNA.” If you’re as nerdy as we are, and you don’t already know and love this song, you will want to check it out!

So, when we found out we were having a mini baby boom in our work family, with two babies due within two months, it wasn’t too hard for me to decide on DNA-themed baby quilts as gifts.

I found the DNA-themed fabric, Color DNA stripe by Melissa McCulloch, on Spoonflower. The fabric in the quilts is actually left over from a few Halloweens ago when our group dressed up as (if terrible puns cause you pain, skip this next part!) Gene-gnomes. The colors were a perfect jumping off point for this colorful gender-neutral patchwork of yellow, blues, greens and coral-red.

Here are some close-ups of the beautiful fabrics. I wanted to use every last scrap of the DNA fabric, so there is one patch in each of the quilts that I like to call “CRISPRed.” Can you spot one?

And here are a few more pictures of the quilts during their photo shoot, before they went off to their new homes!

All the colors and patterns together make me so happy! I am excited to meet the newest babies of our work family and give them their quilts, so they can start their genetics lessons early!

“Jewels”

The Neutral Pillow Project

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Whether you lean towards Scandinavian-inspired, Modern Farmhouse, or California Casual, everything light, white, and wood is in right now – and I love it!

While I’m always excited to incorporate new looks into my home, it takes some creativity to do this – we’ve had most of our major furniture pieces for a decade or more.

One strategy that’s easy on the budget and environment is to change out accessories like pillows. Here are some light and bright ideas that you can use to give your room a new look!

Admittedly, my “things I have in the house already” is rather extensive, but I’m still proud that I managed to make all these pillows with them.

Here are the links to a tutorial on making simple throw pillows and tutorials for the window seat pillows, including bolster and flanged pillows.

Starting with: Ribbon-embellished geometric pillows:

  • I started by sewing lengths of ivory ribbon onto a linen-like fabric in diagonal stripes
  • I then cut out panels to create a chevron or herringbone pattern for two bolster pillows to add a neutral accent to my teal armchairs
  • With the leftover sections of ribbon-embellished fabric, I created one more throw pillow for our living room loveseat

Mudcloth-inspired contrast stitching:

Neutral doesn’t have to mean boring! I took some plain canvas fabric I had and, inspired by the oh-so-popular mudcloth trend, cut it into panels and sewed it together with contrasting navy thread:

There are a million more ideas for sewing simple pillows to change the look of your space – and when I try them all, you’ll see it here!

“Jewels”

Kids’ Bath Grows Up – Customized Bath Towels – One Room Challenge Week 5

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I’m really excited to be a Guest Participant in my first One Room Challenge! This is a great way to get inspiration and motivation for your home. For this challenge, I’ve decided to re-do our kids’ bath. It started out with a cute beach theme that seemed perfect when the boys were little, but now I am ready for it to grow up with them. Our new look features neutral colors, natural touches, and enough personality to stand up to three boys! Thanks for following along!

Recap:

  • In week one, I took this room back to a blank slate, which involved cleaning, repairs, and a new wall color!
  • In week two, I started adding accessories to make the room functional again
  • In week three, I built wall shelves to create storage and display space
  • In week four, I added whimsical printed artwork

For week five, I am personalizing towels for the boys. I wanted the look of matching towels, but I still wanted to be able to tell their towels apart, because there are some things that even the closest family doesn’t want to share…

Fortunately, I remembered how I had added trim to our master bath towels, so I adapted that project for the boys. I started with solid grey towels and white grosgrain ribbon in 1.5 inch and 5/8 inch widths. I sewed on one stripe for our oldest, two for our middle boy, and three for our youngest.

I’m showing the towels folded nicely, but I actually have robe hooks for the boys to make it easier for them to hang up their towels.

Time to head back to the One Room Challenge link-up page to check out the progress on all the other exciting projects!

Final stretch this week! Hint: I am enlisting Steve to do play with electricity!

“Jewels”

DIY Hanging Pillow Headboard

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This is a great idea for a compact DIY headboard you can use in a small space – or anywhere you want! This idea first caught my eye when Emily Henderson featured Shwa Style’s version of this pillow headboard. A Pair and a Spare DIY also has a lovely version of this idea. And now, for my own take on this easy and stylishly funky headboard!

When I first created our tween boy’s room a few years ago, I made a DIY bed from Ikea bookcases, and the headboard was an Ikea floating shelf mounted on its side. These days, this room is home to different tween boy, and it was time for a cozy upgrade to his bed! I was thinking of buying leather straps for this project, but when I was at the Flea Market with my friend Ariana of Act 2 Decor, I saw these vintage belts and loved the idea of doing a twist on this project!

Upholstered headboards are really popular, but there’s part of me that just isn’t quite sure how to keep a fabric headboard clean. If you’re with me, then you should like this project, and you should also check out the washable quilted headboard slipcovers I made for our master bedroom in grey velvet and navy velvet!

What you’ll need:

  • Foam cushion. (Mine is actually leftover from our front hall bench, which I replaced with a console table.) It’s 1.5″ thick by 15″ wide by 40″ long to fit over a twin bed
  • Fabric to cover the foam. I lucked out that the green-blue fabric already on our hall bench cushion also works for the headboard. I just had to trim it to size
  • Two extra-long (54″) leather belts. I found mine at the flea market, but this belt is very similar
  • Four screws and four drywall anchors
  • Diaper pins or large safety pins

Here’s how to make it:

  • Cut your foam to size
  • Wrap the foam with your fabric. I originally sewed the cover for the cushion, but when I trimmed it, I admit I used safety pins in back to hold the extra fabric in place
  • Measure the height and placement of the belts
  • Put in drywall anchors at the top of the belts and screw in your screw, leaving the screw head out a little bit from the wall
  • Fold your belts into a sling for the cushion, leaving the tip sticking out the top of the buckle
  • Hang the belts on the top screws

  • Mark the location of the top hole in the belt and insert a drywall anchor behind it. Screw the belt into the wall through that top hole
  • Hang your cushion on the belts and secure in the back with diaper pins through a belt hole. This step isn’t in other tutorials, but it quickly became evident that this is needed, when your bed’s occupant is a twelve-year-old boy…
  • Enjoy your new headboard!

Our tween loves to read in bed, and he is really enjoying the comfy new addition to his bedroom!

“Jewels”

Feeling Blue (Velvet) – A Quick and Easy Headboard Slipcover

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I love little changes that make a big difference! No, this is not a new bed – just an easy-to-sew slipcover for our headboard. I have been creating a light and neutral look in our bedroom, but something wasn’t quite … Continue reading →

It’s in the Bag – Stenciled Totes

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Most years, I try to make something creative as holiday gifts for our teachers and coworkers. There’s so much joy in giving, but we’re also living in a time and place where it feels like everything is at your fingertips, so something handmade feels like a good way to express how much we appreciate those around us. When I can manage it, I make a few extra to last through the year as hostess and grown-up birthday gifts. I’ve linked to previous years’ handmade gifts at the bottom of the post, if you’re looking for more ideas.

This year, I decided to make stenciled canvas tote bags as our holiday treat. They’re so pretty and unique, yet also practical, as we’re trying to minimize our use of disposable shopping bags. I had so much fun trying different combinations of colors and patterns.

What you’ll need:

How to do it:

  • Prewash the bags
  • Choose a stencil and use blue painters tape to hold it in place
  • Put an eye md magazine inside the bag, so the paint won’t go through to the other side
  • Mix paint with textile medium according to the instructions
  • Use the spouncer to apply light coats of paint
  • Once thoroughly dry, iron the pattern using a press cloth to set the paint
  • That’s all! Unless you’re me and repeat it many, many times!

Here are just some of the combinations I made!

Tile stencil in navy and in ombré blues:

Arrows, with a contrasting accent color and (bottom left) ombré blues:

Feathers,with a contrasting accent color or (bottom) ombré blues and greys.

I really liked the feathers!

I loved the tile in this mix of copper and gold paint. The metallic paints were very thick and made very crisp designs.

A close up of the feathers:

The birds were fun to arrange in different patterns and colors.

My mother-in-law likes gingko leaves, so I made this one for her:

And I got to keep this one for myself!

No matter how I plan, the holidays are hectic. I definitely all felt worthwhile when I went to give out the bags. Our teachers and friends were so excited – it definitely put me in the spirit of the season!

it made me happy to make the people I care about happy. My friend Liane took this great photo of her bag:

Looking for more handmade gift ideas? Here are some from past years:

“Jewels”

Festive Boho-ho-ho Christmas Stockings

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Yup, I have become one of those people who does a themed Christmas each year. I am still not sure if this is a sign of greatness of madness! While I admit to having accumulated many boxes of decorations, I … Continue reading →