Knock-Off Party

 

Welcome!  This party is for those of us with champagne taste, but more talent and resourcefulness than cash.  If you knocked it off, you can link it up.   The party is now open to any home décor catalog/store knock-off.  There are a few basic rules (more details here):

1. the knock-off must be made by you
2. please have a photo of the original item so we can compare
3. please link back to me in your post (why? read this)  If you like, just copy and paste this into your post:  Partying @ Homebody

 

This month, I recreated the Deux Ruban Linen Panel from Ballard Designs.  The 96” panel sells for $89 each.

 

I already had drop cloth drapes in the family room.  While not linen, the color is very similar.  It’s been a couple of years since I put these up, but I think each panel is one 6x9 drop cloth (about $10 each at Lowes).

 

 

I bought 24 yards of black 1½” grosgrain ribbon at 82¢/yd (that was 30% off at Hobby Lobby) and sewed stripes to the bottom of my panel.  I didn’t even take it down; I just set up my sewing machine next to the window.  Procrastinator that I am, I did this at about 4 pm this afternoon, and I’ve only done the one so far.

 

 

I had decided to only do three stripes, instead of Ballard’s four, partly to save a buck because I have another set of these panels to do in the adjoining dining area, which will be another 24 yards.  But now I don’t know; I think that fourth stripe adds a little oomph.  (I also think I need to raise my panels a smidgen so that they are just grazing the floor instead of resting on it.)  Other than that, I like it!

 

Your turn!

I’m going to leave this open until Sunday night, but will do a highlight post on Friday.

How to Hem Jeans So It Doesn’t Look Like You Hemmed Them

I’m short.  There’s no getting around it, and I came by it honestly.  I’m 5ft even, and that’s just a wee bit taller than either my mom or my grandma was. 

One of the repercussions of being vertically challenged is that virtually every pair of pants I ever put on is too long, even the petite length.  So, I hem them.  Usually that’s not a big deal, except for jeans.  If you hem jeans like a regular pair of pants, you lose the original hem and the fading that came with it, and it just doesn’t look right.  When I was a teenager, I used to just cut the bottoms off and let them fray.  During some phases, I tight-rolled them.  Neither one is a look I want now.

Some time ago I got looking online and found an ingenious and quite simple solution to this problem.  I don’t know who originally figured this out, or even where I first found it, so I can’t give credit to any one person.  However, I found another tutorial here in case you would find it helpful to have more than one voice explaining it.

First, determine how much length you want to take off.  You can do this by putting on the jeans and putting a pin or chalk mark at the desired length.  (I like my jeans to hit just above the floor at the back of my heel; that gives me enough leeway that they aren’t dragging the ground if I’m wearing flip flops, and they aren’t riding high when I wear shoes with more height to them.)  Next, take them off and measure from the mark to the bottom edge.

Divide that measurement in half.  I needed to take 1.5” off, so my number was 3/4”.  Cuff the jeans and pin all the way around, measuring as you go.  Do not count the existing hem in your measurement!

As you pin, be sure to line up the vertical seams. 

Next, you’re going to sew the fold.  The needle should run right alongside of the manufacturer’s hem, without sewing through it.

 

Once you have sewn all the way around, you will have created a fold of fabric on the inside of the leg.

Press this fold up into the leg.  You will most likely have to iron this every time you wash the jeans.  You could try tacking it up with a couple of hand-stitches and see if that helps.  I haven’t done that, so I can’t say whether that would eliminate the need for pressing or not.

 

Now your jeans are the right length, and unless you show them, nobody will be able to tell that you hemmed them yourself!

 

If you are a tall person who never has any trouble finding jeans that are the right length, you will not be able to appreciate how awesome this is.  If you are taller than the average woman, and can’t find jeans that are long enough, I’m sorry, but I can’t help you.  If you are shorter than average, I think I may have just rocked your world!  I know I’m still geeking out about it!

Shower Curtain Pillows

I hope those of you who’ve seen this already don’t mind a bit of a rerun.  I’m reposting part of an old post for today’s pillow challenge at the CSI project.

Back in the summer I whipped up some pillows for my living room.  The area rug in that room is green, and so I wanted to carry that through to the accent pillows for the sectional. I started with some feather-filled pillow forms, a shower curtain, and a silk skirt, all picked up for a buck or two at thrift or consignment stores in the last year.

When I was originally planning this out in my head, I  knew I wanted to use a button closure for the shower curtain pillows, but was not excited at the prospect of making button holes (my sewing machine has become very temperamental of late).  But guess what?  Fabric shower curtains have a row of button holes along the top edge for the hooks.  It was brilliant! Basically, I just cut the shower curtain into strips, folded them over envelope-style with the button-hole edge positioned as the top flap, and sewed up the sides.  I made two of these.

 

 

For buttons, I went through my old button jar and picked six, all of them pearly white, but different designs.

 

I cut the skirt into front and back panels and sewed up three sides, and used a zipper from one of the original pillow covers for the fourth side.  I kept the skirt's contrasting edge for interest. The polka dot pillow (there are two of them) came from Target.  For a time they were selling just pillow covers for $4.99.  I decided not to worry about whether or not all the different greens work together, and instead think of it as fresh and fun.   Nature puts all different colors of green together, right?

I like my pillows cheap and comfy!

 

 

 

Shower Curtain Pillows

Yesterday I whipped up some pillows for my living room.  The area rug in that room is green, and so I wanted to carry that through to the accent pillows for the sectional.

I started with some feather-filled pillow forms, a shower curtain, and a silk skirt, all picked up for a buck or two at thrift or consignment stores in the last year.

When I was originally planning this out in my head, I  knew I wanted to use a button closure for the shower curtain pillows, but was not excited at the prospect of making button holes (my sewing machine has become very temperamental of late).  But guess what?  Fabric shower curtains have a row of button holes along the top edge for the hooks.  It was brilliant!

Basically, I just cut the shower curtain into strips, folded them over envelope-style with the button-hole edge positioned as the top flap, and sewed up the sides.  I made two of these.

For buttons, I went through my old button jar and picked six, all of them pearly white, but different designs.

I cut the skirt into front and back panels and sewed up three sides, and used a zipper from one of the original pillow covers for the fourth side.  I kept the skirt's contrasting edge for interest.

The polka dot pillow (there are two of them) came from Target.  A few weeks ago they were selling just pillow covers for $4.99.  I decided not to worry about whether or not all the different greens work together, and instead think of it as fresh and fun.

Because it's also about pillows, and doesn't warrant its own post, I'm going to show you my other couch as well.  I had gone back to Target to get one more of the green polka dot pillow covers, and they were out, but what was left of the other colors was on clearance for $3.49.  Thinking of my red accents in the family room, which is now back in its warm weather furniture arrangement, I got a few covers to add a bright summery punch.  I think that does the trick!

Cover-Up

Linking up with DIY at A Soft Place to Land.

We have a built-in desk in our dining area where we keep the family computer. The kitchen/dining/family room are all open to one another, across the back of the house. Although I wouldn’t call it a great room, because size-wise it’s not that great. Anyway, I like having the computer out in public where I can keep an eye on what’s going on.

Photo taken as we were moving in; from family room looking toward dining/kitchen, desk on right.

The problem is that it’s a mess magnet, and even if the mess is cleaned up, the computer and printer and all the cords create their own visual clutter.

You may notice the drawers pulled out with a board laid across for the keyboard. That was our solution to one of those what-was-the-builder-thinking problems: the desk surface is too high to use comfortably. When I sit in the chair, the original desk is at chest height. Typing was giving me lots of neck and shoulder aches. So while this may not be beautiful, it’s more functional. Theoretically, I can put that all away when it’s not in use. Realistically, it stays out pretty much permanently.

Today I had two goals: hide the mess, and recover the chair seat. Remember this chair makeover

using my garage sale fabric that was also used on the kitchen windows,

but that fabric on the chair seat literally shredded, just from normal daily use.

This time I used the garage sale fabric to sew a little curtain to hide the mess behind. Four straight seams and a tension rod did the trick. Originally I was going to use the small check to cover the seat of the chair, because the scale of the large check was too similar to the scale of the garage sale fabric.

But as Craig and I looked at it, the small check began to kind of quiver and do something weird to our eyes; I seriously felt a little nauseous. So, the big check it was, scale or no scale. But I still think the small check would look better.

The cool thing was that Craig got on board while I was working on the fabric, and he drilled a hole in the desktop and fed all the cords down through it. Now that mess is all under here behind the curtain

instead of all over the top of the desk. Perfect? No. Better? Definitely!

Up to My Old Tricks Again

Can you stand another post about a repurposed thrift store sweater?  I hope so, ’cause it’s comin’ at ya.

You may have noticed that the country is being hit by a cold snap.  I am currently wearing 4 layers of clothing and a hat…in the house… and I’m just comfortable. 

Our dog Lila is cold-blooded, I’m convinced.  When I saw her sitting on the kitchen floor this morning, shivering like a leaf in the wind, I decided she needed a sweater.  We’ve tried coats for her in the past, but she’s not too bright in some ways, and stands frozen like a statue when we put one on her, chained by her own mind.

I looked at Walmart this morning when I was there stocking up for tonight’s big storm.  You know there’s always a run on milk and bread when snow is forecast.  They were out of dog sweaters bigger than teacup.

That’s when it hit me, I’ve got a box full of thrift store sweaters at home.  I’ll just make one!  I picked one that had already been felted:



Cut the sleeves off, turned it inside out, and marked my sewing lines with chalk:



Sewed a seam down each side, cut a piece out of the underside for the “business end” and slits for her front legs:

he looks so sad!

I didn’t get fancy and finish the edges or anything like that, because for my dog, good enough is, well,  good enough.  She’s actually been wearing it all evening with no complaints and is moving freely!



In other related news, puppy Sophie went to the vet today to get “tutored”, if you catch my drift.  She’s looking kinda dopey herself.


Keep warm, my friends!

Thrifty Gifty #11—Hat and Mittens from Sweater

Joining Works for Me Wednesday because up-cycling sweaters WFM!
Second Thrifty Gifty link-up party this Friday! Please join me with your thrifty gift ideas!

I told you to stock up on sweaters, didn’t I? This was actually a bit of a flop for me, but just because it turned out too small for the intended child. The idea is doable, and I’ll probably try it again, because Skippy really liked it.

I had this thrift store lambswool sweater in my stash. I washed and dried it once, so it wasn’t tightly felted because I wanted some stretch left.

Skippy wanted me to replicate his favorite hat. We tested it out, and the neck of the sweater was a perfect fit for his head, so I wanted to keep the neck intact to use as the bottom edge. I think that’s what caused the problem, because in order to avoid cutting the neck, I ended up with this weird shape.

Once I sewed up the sides and turned it right side out, it looked kind of like a gnome hat. The sweater wasn’t quite big enough to make it as long as the original hat.

For the mittens, I had traced Skippy’s hand, and I used the bottom edge of the sweater along the side seam to cut them out. They actually turned out pretty cute, but unfortunately, still a little small for Skippy. I guess I didn’t leave a big enough seam allowance.

The boy likes them a lot anyway, and took them to bed with him.

Well, the idea was good; the execution, not so much. I may try a different style of hat for Craig next.

Cost for this one, $2 for the sweater.