Monday, June 4, 2012

How to make easy hanging shelves for kids room: What I'm Makin' Monday

I saw the cutest image on Pinterest of these hanging wall shelves. I followed the link and found pictures of an adorable little girls room, but no tutorial for these cute hanging shelves, but it looked simple enough so I decided to try it myself.
Source: Bees Knees Bungalow via Order in the Court! -Organization on Pinterest
My first idea was to use fabric like in the picture, but after a long week of work I was too lazy to cut and sew a bunch of fabric so I decided I'd make it even easier--A four-step process that'll get you some cute shelves for less than $5.
I like it because it's a quick and easy way to decorate a wall and hang stuffed animals and other light things we might want on display. I've never been good at hanging real shelves on the wall, with all the extra mounts and screws needed, big gaping holes my husband hates, so this works great! And they look like fun little swings for your stuffed animals.

All you need is some wood planks, ribbon (or fabric), and D-rings.
I got about 1.5in D-rings (you can get these at craft stores or online for way cheaper, I got brass as Home Depot which ended up costing a bit more-Like $1.50) and used 1.5 in wide grosgrain ribbon, and since I have SO much tulle I'm trying to utilize, I used some of it for these shelves. I started to buy paint to paint some 2x4s for planks but then found some 1x4in-ish primed wood that was 8ft tall in the trimmings (like baseboard area) section of Home Depot (is it just me or is everyone here SO helpful?!). I had it cut into four 2-foot planks. That was $6. So I didn't need to paint it (I may add some fun color to the sides later with my craft paint).

So once you have all of your supplies here's what you do:

1. Cut your ribbon/fabric. I did mine about 35in long, because once it's folded in half, and the board is placed inside, it'll hang about 15in.

2. With right sides of the fabric/ribbon together, sew a straight stitch across. For safe measure I went back and forth a few times.

3. Place the D-Ring upside down, between the two halfs of fabric/ribbon and sew another stitch across just below the first line of stitches, sandwiching the D-Ring between them. Go slow, if your needle pounds the ring it'll break. One of my needles fell victim to the D-Ring.

4. Turn the ring and fabric/ribbon right side out, repeat process with another strip, hang with some little nails or hooks, add wood plank and enjoy!

TADA!

What do ya think? They aren't perfect, but they're good enough, and that's my style when it comes to crafting.

Please excuse my horrible photos. It was bedtime, so no sunlight, and harsh lamp lights. I'll try to take better ones for examples today.

If you made something this week (or any week) and blogged about it I'd love to see. Let us know in the comments so we can check it out!

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posted by Unknown @ 4:53 AM   2 Comments

Monday, May 28, 2012

DIY Kite Hair Bow Organizer: What I'm Makin' Monday

Finally got the craft bug again. Moving took it all out of me, but a huge blank wall in Lil' J's room was driving me nuts and I had to do something about it.
Something else I needed help with? My bow addiction. I've realized I have a bow hoarding problem. It's ridiculously hard for me to get rid of any bows because right before I do I think "but it'll go great with X-outfit" or "I can make a skirt to go with this."And I hang on to it. Unless I'm giving them away to friends, I can't bring myself to toss them out or even donate them yet.

I've already made a headband tree, used oatmeal cans to make more headband holders, and a picture frame to hold some clippies, but we still have more that need a home.

Thanks to Pinterest, I found another bow organizing tutorial that would also fill the annoyingly blank wall, and give a solution for her growing bow collection.

So I've seen ribbon bow holders. Simple strips of ribbon hanging from a doorknob or such, that you can clip your bows to. I found a genius tutorial that took it a step further and made the strip into kite tails and the bows clip to the tail.

With the amount of bows she has, and the amount of wall space, I decided to make four kites with long kite tails to string across her room.

Here's how I did it.


I used: Hot glue, scrap fabric, wire hangers, coordinating ribbon.

Step 1: Bend the wire pulling the bottom part of the hangar down so it becomes shaped more like a triangle. Straighten out the hook too (I kept mine slightly curvy since I wanted to look like it was flying across the wall.)

At this point, Lil' J already knew they were going to be kites. She ran around yelling "Kites! My kites!" After wrangling her I moved to step 2.
Step 2: Cut the scrap fabric to be about 1/2-1" wider than the kite shape.


Step 3: Hot glue the fabric to the wire one half of the kite at a time. Pull it tight as you glue the second side down.

Step 4: Cut and glue ribbon strips 1" longer than the length and width of the kite and glue them around the back side of the kite.

Step 5: Cut the ribbon for the kite tails/ bow holder and tie a knot with extra slack at the base of the kite, then glue the ribbon on each side of the hanger hook.

Hang on the wall and enjoy! What do ya think? Link up, I'd love to see what you've been makin'!
What I'm Making Monday

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posted by Unknown @ 9:30 AM   0 Comments

Monday, March 26, 2012

Ruffle Mini Skirt: What I'm Makin Monday

I made Lil' J the easiest little ruffle skirt right before St. Patricks Day. Sadly, I didn't take photos during the process, so this post isn't a tutorial, but I hope to make one this week. I didn't follow a pattern but I used some sewing tools that made it easy breezy, and I will share that when I post it.
It was all made with scrap fabric I had that could have been thrown away. Instead I turned it into what my mom called a little "cheerleader skirt."

She even looks like a mini cheerleader being tossed up by daddy.

We celebrated my husband's graduation and had a blast with family visits, now it's time to pack and prepare to move. Sorry I'm not very chatty around these parts lately, promise I'll be back to my normal self soon.
Shirt from Maddie's Bowtique
In the mean time, I leave you with a preview of the skirt tutorial I'm going to work on. Don't mind the name "Journey" on Lil' J's shirt. That's her "stage name" for when she does Etsy and boutique modeling. It's a cute name, but not what hers really is.
What do you think? Adorable, no?
What I'm Making Monday

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posted by Unknown @ 4:33 AM   0 Comments

Monday, March 19, 2012

How to fold scrap fabric into equal sizes and make mini fabric bolts

I went fabric shopping Saturday and was so excited to get home and... No, not sew, put my fabric on the shelf. It's a little sad, I know. I've started to hoard the stuff. Just when I think I have enough I get a new pattern and then want to get new fabric and start the vicious cycle all over again.


 I fell in love with some cardboard fabric folders but they are something like $6/ board. I decided I'd cut up some cardboard boxes to the sizes I want, until I realized that would take forever. After a few Google searches I found some comic book boards that would work. I got 100 for about $11 on Amazon.

I had scrap fabric stuck in a corner of my living room and decided to wrap them and conserve space by settling them on my book shelf.
Here are some photo demos of how I did it for fabric and scrap fabric, let me know if you have questions.
 

 

 


 
 
I hope this was helpful! If you did a craft this week, link up, I'd love to see!

My craft button.
What I'm Making Monday

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posted by Unknown @ 1:17 AM   0 Comments