Hooray for me!

July 5, 2008 1 Comment
Okay, not really, but here are some pics from the Ikea fabric projects that I did (gulp) months ago.  We’ve moved for the summer and somehow I think my camera cord had the same fate as Angie’s did a while ago so I have to get the pictures put onto CD before I can use them.
This is the table runner I made (when I say “made”, I really mean I just had to hem the two ends… that’s right, not even 4 sides, just two ends):
p.s. I really do have 4 chairs for my table, I’m not sure where they were when I took this picture!
And here is the 2nd wall hanging I made.  After making it I decided it is a little too dorm-roomish for my likings, but it at least makes the wall a little less big and white for now.  Plus, I don’t even live in that house right now, so maybe absence will make the heart grow fonder?!
Filed Under: Ikea, sewing, table runner, wall-hanging

Ikea Fabric

April 11, 2008 2 Comments



I went to Ikea today to look for fabric. When I asked the lady at the cutting table how long they’ve sold fabric by the yard for, she said forever! I can’t believe I’ve never seen it. It’s probably a really good thing (Martha Stewart, is that you?) actually, cause I would have had made a lot more trips to Ikea in the past few years if I had known. I don’t know how I missed the fabric before. I couldn’t decide exactly which fabric I wanted for my 36″x48″ wall hanging. I was choosing between three different prints, but the first (it was a really cute blue on blue damask) was sold out, and the second, which was the red and orange, ended up just being a remnant (luckily there was a yard and a half left, which would be just enough to do my wall hanging). So I thought I better get the two that I could while I was there and while they were in stock. The girl at Ikea told me that they sell out fast of the cute prints, so I didn’t want to take any chances of missing out on either print.


The trees on the one design are probably a little over a foot tall, so I think it would work great for a large wall hanging. And I just loved the colors on the red (it’s almost coral) and orange, so I’m not sure which I’ll do first, or where I’ll put either of them in my house, for that matter! Actually, now that I think about it, I think the red and orange print would be great for my sewing room.

The navy and green fabric is also from Ikea, and it’s great cause it’s already hemmed to an 18″ width on the sides. It was also on sale for only $1.99 a yard, so I knew I had to buy it for something. I think I’m gonna make a table runner with it. I’m usually anti-table runners cause even just the name makes me think of something unattractive, but I think it will be cute. Plus, all I have to do to “make” it is hem the two ends, so if I hate it after, no skin off my back. Let’s face it though, pretty much everything I make it awesome, so I’m sure it will be fancy schmancy. I hope you catch my sarcasm. Otherwise, this would be very awkward.

I’ll post pics of my finished projects which will hopefully be soon!

Can I just say that I love blogging? It’s so fun already.

Filed Under: fabric, Ikea, table runner, wall-hanging

Fabric Wall Hanging Tutorial

April 10, 2008 16 Comments

Yay! I’m so excited to finally put a project on my blog! I’ve been wanting to but I’ve been so busy with my little stinker (and my big stinker too if you count Joel) that I have had to wait. The only problem is that it is not a sewing project. Awkward. But it is a fabric project (I say “project” instead of “craft” because I can’t do crafts due to my lack of artistic ability and I can’t stand when things are not symmetrical). There may be a touch of OCD involved.

I found this fabric above online one day by Amy Butler. I often find fabrics I like but I never end up buying them because I never have a specific purpose for them and don’t want to be one of those ladies with yards and yards of fabric in their basement that is never used (you know who you are). So when I saw this fabric, I for once loved it enough to buy it without a plan. It’s such a big damask print that I wanted to display it somehow, because it makes me happy just to look at it! To me, that’s what art should do.

On with the project… I decided to make a wall hanging with the fabric.

Here’s how to do it:

You need two pairs of wooden stretcher bars. That’s their real name for any other non-artists, and I found them at Michael’s in the canvas isle. I bought two 20″ and two 30″, because that fit my print the best. I’m gonna be doing another one that’s 36″ x 48″ soon. I just found out that Ikea sells fabric in large prints that would be perfect. You can check them out at Ikea.com. You also need a saw tooth picture hanger and your fabric, of course! My fabric was 100% cotton, but something like a lightweight canvas would work great too.


Assembling the stretcher bars into a frame is easy. They just interlock at the corners.


You can secure the bars with a couple finishing nails in each corner or use a heavy-duty staple gun in each corner.

Next, cut your fabric about two inches wider than the frame to give room to wrap it around the back of the frame. A little extra is better than a little bit small because you can always trim the excess later.
Position your frame over the wrong side of the fabric, and begin to staple the fabric to the backside of the frame with a medium or heavy duty staple gun. It works best to staple one spot on one side and then staple the exact opposite side, and then continuing that way around the frame so it all stretches equally. Make sure to stretch your fabric tightly as you staple it or it will not hang nicely.


When get to the corners, which should be the last to be stapled, fold them like you would with wrapping paper. If you do it so the that folded part is on the top and bottom of the frame rather than the sides, it will be less likely to show when it is on the wall.
Trim the excess fabric on the back if you need to, and finish it off with a saw tooth picture hanger which can be attached using small finishing nails. Voila! That’s it! I think for my next one I’ll serge the edges of the fabric first but I wasn’t quite sure how much fabric I would need to wrap around the back of the frame so I ended up applying fray-check to the edges, although it’s probably not necessary.

Filed Under: damask, fabric, home decor, tutorial, Tutorials - Home Decor, wall-hanging

Sew I guess I’m starting a blog…

March 21, 2008 Leave a Comment

Okay, I know the whole “sew” wordplay thing is both cheesy and overused on the web, but I figure if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em! This is my first blog, and I’m dedicating it to the wide world of sewing. I plan to include random tips (especially things that I myself have had to research or learn about in the past) and project ideas too.

I learned to love sewing when I was young, probably at age 5 or 6 or 7 I think. My mom taught me the basics and I would always sew skirts which basically consisted of a tube of fabric with elastic casing at the top. I used them for play skirts at home, and I thought they were so cool. I felt quite ravishing in them, in fact. Unfortunately, my mom must’ve thought they stunk because she would always throw them away. Luckily they were easy and fun to make, so I’d just make another one. I wish I had a picture, but I probably never was able to keep one out of the garbage long enough to have my picture taken in one.

Anyway, needless to say, I love sewing, and I hope you do too! I’m gonna kinda play this whole blog thing by ear, and see what it turns into. Hopefully something that others will find helpful (or at least entertaining), just as I’ve benefited from so many others blogs. So I’m sorry if it’s kinda random for a while until I find it’s exact purpose.

Filed Under: Uncategorized