A Stitch In Time...

Good afternoon all. Today I am reviewing a slip cover project, but first a few updates. 

 

I have been enjoying a little downtime, and by that I mean putting aside the blog to handle a few things that have fallen apart around the house.  My oven bit the dust just in time for my 12 Edible Gifts of Christmas idea.  I was in a panic about what to do, until a friend pointed out that changing the element is super simple.  I ordered the part online last night and it should be here by the weekend.  I predict an appliance repair post coming soon. 

Not to be left out the kitchen faucet decided it needed attention as well.  The faucet was leaking copious amounts of hot water and when I disassembled the handle to replace the washer in the valve, I realized it was too cheap to be repaired and had to run out and get a new faucet.  I didn’t take detailed pictures of this project because I don’t want to fess up to my 1970’s brown porcelain sink just yet. 

I wanted to take a moment and give a shout out to the nice people I met in the grocery store yesterday afternoon.  Welcome, I hope that you enjoy the recipes we were discussing in the grocery aisles. I’ve never really met a stranger; I know that good conversations and ideas can come from anywhere. 

Today I am going to talk about a little slip cover project I finished recently.  I say finished because this project started a couple of years ago with my search for barrel chairs for my den.  After scouring the blogosphere for months I had a pretty good idea of what I was looking for. I love the chair in the corner of this den from Young House Love.



Young House Love-House Tour

I stumbled into the Goodwill store on my lunch one day at precisely the right moment to swoop up two barrel chairs in good condition for $10 each.  I remember the employee telling me I was never going to get them in my Mom Mobile, little did he know I had stow-n-go seats and chango-presto I popped them in the back of my minivan. 

I had no idea back then I would start a blog, but I took these outside before cleaning them to commemorate their transformation.  I began by taking the skirt off the bottom and exposing the modern looking legs. Next I used my Bissell Little Green to give the chairs a thorough steam cleaning and left them in the sun to dry (Quick Note: If you have kids or dogs you should have one of these, splurge a little and get the heated model). 

After searching high and low for the right fabric I came to the conclusion that all of them would cost more than I wanted to spend, especially given that I was chicken about sewing slip covers.  I happened onto on the Ikea website one day when the light bulb went off. 

The EKTORP TULLSTA slip covers were very similar in shape to my two chairs; I thought I could modify these to fit my chairs without having to slipcover from scratch. As a bonus they were only $30 each so I wouldn’t be out much money, this fabric would have cost much more than I wanted to spend spiffing up my new-to-me chairs. The premade covers were thrifty and efficient. I went home to check the measurements of my chair against those on the website, and they were close enough I could make it work.  The cushions were the perfect size I removed them from the old covers and slipped them into the new ones no problem. 

Since you all know how much I love to confess, let me disclose that a friend came to the house two years ago just before Easter and helped me get started modifying these slip covers.  We put the slip covers on the chairs inside out and she pinned the profile of the arms until they were snug.  Then she whipped stitched them with a needle and dark thread to be sure they fit. We pulled them off and ran them through the sewing machine.  Once she was satisfied with the contour she would pull the dark thread out easily.  I liked this technique; it saved the fingertips from the unnecessary pin pricks.  

Now for further cleansing of the conscience I will say that we took a break from our sewing for lunch and pedicures and by the time we came back to the covers it was quite late and we called it a day.  I tucked the extra fabric at the end into the arms and had every intension of finishing them later.  Fast forward 2 years and some months to this past weekend. I was hold up inside during nasty weather and decided to scratch this one off my to-do list. 

I began once again by removing the covers and placing them inside out on the chairs so I could see where we left off.  You can see the fabric that would have been the front arm of the chair; this is what I used to bring the arm together to the seat of the chair.

I pulled the seam together all the way down to the edge and decided to rip a seam on the front seat to sew the extra fabric from the arm. 

I pulled the edges together to create a new seam at the base of the arm.   I realize that is hard to describe in words, have a look at the pictures, because the general idea is the same even though each project is different. 

The finished product is pictured here. My plan is to live with this a while longer and decide if it needs any further tweaking before I cut off the excess and commit to the changes, just to be sure.

Come back later this week to see what I pull out of my grab bag of ideas. Let’s all relax and celebrate not knowing what comes next shall we.  

Labels & the Lost and Found

Well hello out there, I hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday. Mine was very nice, although after a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner the youngest spiked a fever. To be safe we packed up and went home so we could pamper him in his own space, nothing major just a little sinus.  Plus my sweet and thoughtful mother who saw how upset I was at having to leave sent me home with 2 whole pies. Mm-mmm a pumpkin pie and a pecan pie, what a consolation prize. 

Today I am going to share a little Mommy’s Corner post.  Let’s take a moment and discuss labels, and the lost and found.  My oldest attends a private school where all the kiddies are dressed alike. My sister lives not far from me and her three children attend the school as well.  As you can imagine they spend a great deal of time together and with all the pick-ups, drops offs, and sleep overs uniforms can get quite mixed up. 

Not to mention the jackets, pull overs and sweat shirts that go to school in the morning, but never quite make it home in the afternoon.  I decided this year something had to be done about it.  The solution presented itself with the “sew in” label. 

 

Until I Googled this one I had no idea that they were so affordable.  I envisioned the embroidered tags and putting out a bit of money.  Boy did I have it wrong they are quick and easy to order and so affordable. 

After considering the options I went with The Name Label Company, and ordered some for each of the boys.  They have many different styles and types.

I chose the printed sew in labels, the pirate for my oldest and the baby for the little one.  They are as cute as they are functional. 

They have a ton of picture choices and even options for children with allergies. 

 

They were shipped to me in no time and I gathered up the uniforms to start sewing.  For the white uniform shirts it was straight forward sewing into the collar over the tags.  For the navy pants and pullovers I used white thread through the needle and navy thread in the bobbin.  This gave me a nice clean look inside and out.  

 

They say confession is good for the soul, so I will tell you we had a cold front come through before I sat down to sew.  So in a rush one morning I grabbed a label, folded it in half and stapled it to the tag in a sweat shirt.  I got the idea from all the dry cleaning labels that I find inside our clothes.  So there you have it sometimes and supermom has to improvise. 

Come back later in the week, I will begin the 12 edible gifts of Christmas, plenty of delicious homemade goodness to give to others this holiday season.

Let’s Play Guess The Sheet Size

Don’t you just hate it when you have to unfold sheets in the linen closet to guess the size? Well you may not have given it much thought, but it is one of those things that drives me a little bit nuts. 

Not to mention when you are grabbing one from the bottom and the neatly folded stack falls to the floor.  Argh!  Years ago I used a laundry pen to write a T, Q, or K in the corners of the sheets.  I found I still had to unfold the sheets because the letter was rarely ever visible after I folded them.  Next I placed the folded set inside one of the pillow cases to keep a matched set together, but again this wasn’t ideal because even though I tucked in the edges the pillow case was too large to keep them neatly stacked.  My next method included me whipping out some elastic from the sewing kit and tying pieces around the folded set with a big chunky knot on top.  This worked for the last several months, but this doesn’t solve the problem of identifying the size without opening them up.  

Lying in bed one night, moments before drifting off to sleep it hit me…I need to sew tags!  I of course proclaimed this out loud and startled my husband moments before he drifted off to dream land.  He groggily replied, “that’s nice dear,” and kept is date with the sandman. 

This is what my crafting mind came up with to solve the folding, stacking and identifying conundrum. I used a couple different fabrics, ¾” braided elastic, and some Sharpie Stained fabric markers.  In truth I was inspired by these Stained by Sharpie fabric markers that I purchased off the clearance rack at Office Depot.  I sometimes wander their aisles on my lunch break as a form of meditation during my workday.  You’d be surprised how rows and rows of paper products calm the nerves.

 

I began by scribbling the words using different colors and style until I found a few I didn’t mind.  I then cut the fabric into 4” square around each word.

 

 

I used the iron to press a narrow hem on each side of the tag.  The iron works better than pins when you are sewing a hem this narrow. 

 

 

I then folded the fabric right sides together and hemmed along the long edge.

 

 

 

I used a large safety pin to turn the tag inside out.  I put the pin through one end and pass the pin back through the center until it is right side out.  I discovered this trick when making scrunchies in the 90’s (don’t judge me; we all had them it’s nothing to be ashamed of).

 

 

Next I used the same pin to fish through the elastic, which I then overlapped and sewed closed. UPDATE: For the elastic I used 24" for kings, 20" for queens, and 18" for twin sized sheets.

 

 

I finished by slipping the tag over where I connected the two ends and stitched both sides of the tag.  This holds it in place and give it a more finished look.

 

 

I made several more using the same technique and proceeded to give my new invention a try.  They worked beautifully to keep the sheets sets together and make them easily identifiable.

 

The possibilities are endless here, you can be as fashionable as you’d like. 

 

I think they would be lovely if you have access to a machine with and embroidery feature. I hear those machines cost plenty of money and take up tons of space.  For now I am pleased to have solved another organization dilemma in my home.  Thank you for stopping by and be sure to come back to see what I’ve got going next.