Reupholstered Folding Chairs + Card Table

The other day as I was sitting on my deck listening to the boys play in the yard, I glanced over at the folding chairs sitting on our deck. They had been in storage all winter and after eating off our laps outside, I figured it was time to pull them back out so we could have a table to sit at. So while I'm looking at these chairs, I realized that the pads are only held on by bolts. Then I wondered how hard it would be to reupholster them. After dinner, I asked Perry if he cared if I messed with them. He didn't. (I probably would have anyways...)

If your not on Pinterest, good for you. Stay away because it will suck you in! And if you have a Pinterest account, you can follow my boards here. When I have a project in mind, like when we updated the bathroom, I go to Pinterest for ideas. I did the same for this project too. Why would I try to figure it out myself, when someone else already has?! For those wondering, I used the tutorial that Adventures at the Orange Door Inn posted. Her version was very helpful!

This is the set I'm working with. There is nothing wrong with any of it, other than they were in the wrong place at the wrong time when I was feeling crafty. 

Materials I used:

1/2 yd outdoor fabric per chair (or home decor if they're staying inside, but make sure it's thick)

1 yd out door fabric for the table

Light duty staple gun

1/4 in staples

Philips screwdriver

Flat-head screwdriver

Pliers

Sewing scissors

Water resistant spray

Optional: Babysitter. A full day project can be easily shortened into a few hours with one. Just saying.

 Let me begin by saying I took the easy way out, and didn't take off the original covering on the chairs or the table. I just stapled over it. 

First remove the cushions from the chair. I had two screws on the top cushion, and four on the chair pad. I had a little plastic piece that was stapled on, which covered the fabric edge. I used the flat-head screwdriver to lift the staples up, and then used the pliers to pull them out. Even though between all the chairs, I only was required to pull out 16ish staples, I probably pulled out closer to 50 because I wasn't pushing hard enough when I was stapling. Trial and error with the staple gun!

 Next lay the top cushion on the fabric, ensuring that it is straight (otherwise it'll drive you nuts when it's done - take my word for it). Once it's placed how you want it, fold up one of the short sides and staple it in place. Do the same to the other short side, being sure to pull it tight. At this point you can cut off any extra fabric you have for the long side. *When you're stapling the curved side, I found it's easiest to hang the cushion halfway off the table so you can press on the staple gun without bending the cushion.*

When you get to the corners, pleat and staple.  Then cut off any excess fabric. The top cushions are 10x harder than the bottom square cushions, but the process is the same. The key to success in this project is making sure you're pulling all sides tight. Once you're finished screw them back into the chairs and TAH-DAH!

 You have these cute things! I'm spraying them down with a water resistant spray because most likely they'll be outside. 

 I am in love with my chevron chair! When I was fabric shopping, I wanting the chairs to have color to them, but knew that whatever patterns I chose, one of them had to have green on it...

These two chairs will always drive me nuts because the blue fabric is a little slanted on the top cushion. On the red one, due to how the fabric was cut, I had no way getting anything centered on the top cushion. Maybe Perry gave me a bit of his OCD....? Either way, I'm still calling this project a success. 

Especially when they are sitting at the table. All the colors, some how match. I lucked out... I love the set so much I want to do another. How'd I do? Tell me which is your favorite!! 

Re-Styled Nightstand for Kiki

Earlier this year when I was working at the hotel, they had various room decor items they were giving away. Along with a few lamps for our basement, I was able to snag this nightstand for Charlotte's room. It matched the changing table perfectly. 

Once I finished painting her room "Deep Coral", I wanted to find a way to add the second color of the nursery room palette to her room, without it being overbearing. I racked my brain for hours on what I could do with the green/blue/turquoises color. I thought about painting a pretty pattern on her closet doors, painting the trim in the room, painting some kind of pattern on the opposite wall but nothing really stuck out. So the only feasible option was to paint the furniture.

Perry volunteered to sand it all down for me, which helped a lot. I set to work on painting it...with children coming in and out of the garage to help. I think it turned nice!

Now I want to paint the changing table to match...

Rice Pad Owls

The boys went to the cabin over the weekend so I finally had time to get out my sewing machine again. I've been wanting to make these for a while! These little owls are filled with rice. You can put them in the microwave for a minute to get them nice and warm!

Sorry this one is dark! I finished them a 1am!

Perry's back has been bothering him for a while, so he sits in the rocking chair with the heating pad. Guess what Hunter likes to do now? Tell me his back hurts so he can put heat on it : ) Which is how I came up with these! 

I had made 3 so I let the boys pick out their owl. Ironically they picked the ones I made for them anyways. 

Although he looks REALLY cranky, he was so thrilled about these! They are his "babies" and takes them everywhere. 

And now what is mommy doing every half an hour? Heating them up in the mircowave!

This one is Mommy's - It's my favorite!

Folder Car City for Boys

I can't believe it's taken me so long to post this! My boys LOVED this city I made for them out of folders and a sheet of construction paper. 

Wasn't terribly hard to make - would have been easier if I had steeper stairs though! We made it work either way! I was going to make it big enough to cover all the stairs, but they were getting too antsy and wanted to play with it!

Old Clothes Pins Turned New

I've been brainstorming ways to redo my laundry room. Right now its a cluttered, boring green and purple room. So to begin my "little" project, I have been thinking about adding a "Missing Sock" board. I haven't decided how it's going to look yet, but I began with the clothes pins. 

I bought some Mod Podge the other day while I was at the store. On a few of the blogs I follow, they continually refer to it, so I bought it to try it out. It's basically glue but the label says "Waterbase sealer, glue & finish." 

This project was so easy to do that JP and Hunter helped out. 

I bought a sheet of scrapbook paper at JoAnn's for $.49 and then cut out rectangles to cover all ten of the clothespins I could find in our laundry room. 

Hunter and JP helped with the Mod Podge. I showed them what to do and Hunter went straight to work.

JP on the other hand mostly just stood there pretending to dunk his brush in the Mod Podge, while saying "dunk dunk dunk." It took a little convincing with him but he managed to get one done!

After each one had some glue on it, I carefully placed the strips of paper on the clothespin and hung them on the cupboard, out of the way, to dry. 

No Sew Cardboard Box Cover

I have so much yarn that I'm slowing running out of places to put it all. All my little plastic storage drawers are full....not that they hold much anyways. But the top shelf of my closet holds most of the leftovers. Fairly frequently, as I'm digging around for something up there, they all come crashing down. So in an effort to begin decluttering my home, I opted to find a place for all my yarn. This is nothing more than just an old paper box! Pretty cute huh?

I would say this project took me a solid 2 hours to do. For 3 reasons. #1 I started at 1:00am, which was a bad idea. #2. I didn't have a sewing machine. #3. I was using a pattern that required sewing, a lot of it so I had to figure out a way to make it all work. I probably spent a total of 15 minutes just staring and thinking with a baffled look on my face.

Here's what I used:

Paper box (a diaper box can be used too! or really any box of your choosing)
1 yard of utility fabric (it feels like canvas)
1 yard of "fun" fabric
Liquid Stitch
Spray Adhesive
Tape measure
Scissors

This is the box that I chose to use. I think later I'll cover the lid too.

The first thing you need to do (especially if you have a large box), is to measure the box. Height, width, & length. This was a little challenging at 1:00am for some reason...

Once you have all your measurements, you need to cut your utility fabric accordingly.
Center your box in the middle of your fabric, making sure that each edge of the fabric will be flush to the top of the box (or about) when pulled up. Mark where the corners were at on the fabric. (Honestly I didn't do that part here, but it would have made it a lot easier on me!) Measure and mark out 2 inches from each corner of the box to the corner of the fabric. Using that point, you'll cut out your corner squares. 

Cut slits from your corners out to your box markings.

Using the adhesive spray, which I didn't realize was so awesome, spray the long side of the box and pull the fabric up. Press and smooth. FYI: It sprays clear so don't go overboard! Repeat on the other side.

Spray a little adhesive on the short end of the box to glue down the extra fabric on the ends.

Using the liquid stitch, fold over the fabric so the edge is even with the box and glue together.

Spray the short side of the box, pull the fabric up and smooth it out. Repeat on the other side.

 

Here is the covered box. If your fabric hangs over the top, you can trim the edges down. I had to on one side. I wasn't worried about the very top of my box showing as I was going to create a liner to cover it.

For the liner I purchased a yard of "fun" fabric. I did the same thing I did with the outside of the box, with only a couple modifications.

I measured and cut my fabric into the rectangle.
Centered and marked corner points.
Cut out corner squares.
Cut diagonal slits from corners to corner of the box.

Because I don't have a sewing machine, I wasn't able to hem the edges that show on the out side of the box. Instead I used liquid stitch and hemmed them by folding and gluing the outside edges. The hem I created was about 3/4 inch. Once the glue was dry, I used my iron to press the seams.

Just like with the ends of the outside of the box, I folded the edges in and glued so the new folded edge was inline with the edge of the box. Repeat for all 8 edges.

Place the liner in the box, matching the corners together and flattening out the edges.

If you had a sewing machine, you could sew up the sides, which in time I might do. As for now though, this is it. If you wanted you could use the adhesive spray to glue it to the inside of the box. But I ran out of time. And patience. For now I have a removable liner, which is fine for the top of my closet.

Toothy the Tooth Fairy

Not that my kids are any where near loosing their teeth...but I thought this would be fun to use when the do! Might be a lot easier on the Tooth Fairy to find the tooth rather than putting it under the pillow!

Pretty simple to make too!

Supplies:
2 pieces of fabric
Embroidery thread
2 buttons
Stuffing

1. Lay the fabric on top of each other and cut out the shape of a tooth.
2. Sew the eyes onto the top piece of fabric.
3. Sew on a mouth.
4. With some scrap fabric, sew a pocket onto the back piece of fabric.

5. Match up the fabric and sew the two pieces together.
6. Leaving a little bit of the top open, stuff the tooth with stuffing.
7. Sew closed.

I think it took me about an hour to make, but I had some distractions!

Hair Bows

I've been on a felt kick the last few days. I'm anxious to learn to make different flowers, but until then, I'm working with what I know.

These are the hair clip bows I worked on tonight. Super easy to make. And quicker than the flowers!

Using a hot glue gun, quickly glue the edges of the clip and add felt to it. CAUTION: The other side of the clip will be hot when you press the felt to it. (I learned this the hard way a few times!) I say do this quick because the cold clip cools the glue pretty quickly.

Once its fully dry, cut the excess off around it.

Next, using the same color that you covered the clip with, cut out an oval and a little rectangular strip.

Pinch the sides together in the middle and glue the crease together. Once dry, glue the strip over top and secure on the bottom as well. Glue bow to clip and your done!

I thought these were cute hair clips too!

T-Shirt Scarf

I have a TON of old t-shirts that are just packed away in boxes. Initially they get put there because I either needed more room in my dresser, or I just simply hadn't warn them in a while. Seasons changes and the boxes get shuffled around a bit but the same shirts remain in the boxes time after time. I can't throw them away because what if one day I wanted to wear it again. Ugh! Plus some of them aren't just shirts. Some of them have memories attached to them. Like the one I brought home from Odessa when visiting a friend, or the one I received at State BPA. Clearly they are all at least 6 years old and haven't been wore for about 4 years.... So now its time I start making them into something that I will wear again.

My younger sister was passing through tonight so I wrangled her into helping me out with this one. I didn't tell her what we were making - I just told her what to do to help : ) Turns out its hard for a lefty to use right-handed scissors. Initially we were going to make two scarves, but we merged them into one. Here's how we did it:

1. Lay out the shirt flat. An ironed shirt works better than a wrinkled one. Cut the bottom hem off and save it.

2. Grab a 9'' paper plate. You can either trace around it and then cut it out, or do like we did, pin the plate to the shirt and then cut around it. In total, you want to aim to make 10 circles. Using XL or XXL probably works best. I used size Large and could only get 8, which is why we ended up putting ours together. After you cut one out, place it on top the shirt and pin it. This makes cutting them out easier.

3. One you have all 8-10 circles, your going to do what I did when I made the felt flowers. Cut the circle into a long strip, approximately 2'' wide. The skinner you cut the longer it will be. Keep in mind, one of these pieces equals half a length of your scarf.

4. Once you reach the end, Hold the piece from what would have been the middle. Start at the top and gently put down on the fabric. This will stretch it out a bit and create a wavy look.

5. After all the circles are cut and pulled out, match up the lengths as best you can. (Robin had to cut one to make it shorter as it ended up 6'' longer than the rest because she cut it too thin!)

6. Using fabric glue, glue the matched pieces together. I glued the end of the strips together that would have been the middle of the circles.

7. If you used different colors like we did, mix them up a bit once they are all glued together.

8. Bunch up the strips of fabrics, holding all the glued pieces in the same spot. Using the hem strip, wrap it around the glued part to cover it up and then tie it in a pretty knot to hold it all together. 

And Wah-La! A t-shirt scarf. Good to dress up, or dress down any outfit!