Bed-linen revamp

I had a beige set of bed linen passed on to me from my Grandma, which was really good quality, but didn't quite go with our bedroom interior.

So I dyed the whole set navy, fairly cheaply...

...and used some spare striped fabric I had lying around to liven up the plain navy...

 

...et voila - stripes are the future!

Quick and easy window blind

It doesn't seem an obvious time to make a window blind for the bedroom now that the days are getting shorter and the mornings and evenings darker. However, we have an annoyingly bright streetlamp right outside our bedroom window and very measly thin white curtains, so for a while now I have had one intention and one intention only - to block out the light as much as possible by making an easy window blind.

Before:

Granted, it is daylight coming through the curtains there, but it's not too dissimilar at night!

Having never attempted a blind before I Googled some techniques and came up with the following equipment needed:

• 2 identically sized pieces of contrasting fabric 2-3 inches larger round each side of the window you are fitting the blind to
• needle/sewing machine, thread, pins
• 4 x strips of ribbon the length of the window
• sticky velcro strips slightly longer than the width of the window
• doweling (I used a bamboo stick from my Dad's garden) 

And this is the rough method:

1. Cut your fabric pieces to size (remembering to allow space for seams) and pin the patterned sides together (face to face).

2. Sew along the bottom and down each side of the materials and then turn the fabric the right way out before ironing all the edges flat.

3. Sew along the bottom edge of the blind (about 1-1 1/2 inches from the bottom) for the doweling to slot into later:
 

 4. Pin your 4 bits of ribbon to the front and back of the top (the un-sewn edge) of the blind, about 1/4 of the way in from each side:

5. Then pin your furry (not the scratchy) part of the velcro strip to the front of the blind...

 

...before folding the pinned velcro over and pinning the fold so the velcro strip is now on the back of the top of the blind:

6.  Using a strong needle sew the velcro and ribbons into place:

7. Unpick a few stitches on one end of the inch strip you sewed at the bottom of the blind and gently slide in the doweling:

 

8. Unpeel the protective tape from the scratchy, sticky bit of velcro and stick it to the wall or frame where you want to hang the blind, then simply attach the blind with the furry side of the velcro:

Ta da! It's doing a great job as Jim has struggled to get up for work on two consecutive days in a row due to not being used to it being so dark in the bedroom in the mornings!

How not to re-cover a vintage armchair

This is the final result of a project that began about two years ago when my kind Aunt gave me a lovely, comfortable old vintage armchair (see original upholstery below). The original colour was so vibrant and fresh, but we don't really have a lot of velvety materials in our living room, so I planned to tone it down and blend it in a bit from the moment that it crossed the threshold into our little flat, rather than having such a bold centrepiece armchair.

 

With no previous experience of re-upholstery I googled, searched, asked friends and family, and watched numerous youtube videos to work out how I should begin the project, while the poor green armchair hid under various interchangeable blankets and throws. When I felt I had some understanding of what a vast undertaking it was and the lack of specific tools I had, I decided to just go with the flow and create a sort of throw-come-cover that would have more of a relaxed appearance than proper re-upholstery would have.

I measured the surfaces of the armchair to try and work out the total amount of material I would need to cover it, and when that proved far too numerate and difficult I simply covered as much of it as I could with make-do newspaper templates, roughly worked out how much material I would need, and visited Fabrics Galore down the road for a soft-toned and neutral fabric.

 

I found a nice, reasonably priced, stone striped material, thick enough to withstand begin sat, bounced, and occasionally slept on, and proceeded to use the newspaper templates to cut sections of fabric to cover the chair.

In order to prevent any rips or tears in the fabric, I realised I needed to cover the top of the seat seperately to the seat cushion so that the material didn't move or get stretched when the chair was sat on.

With something resembling an armchair cover skeleton, I began hemming and pinning it into something more permanent and structured.

I covered the seat cushion in the fabric, positioning the seams along the edges of the cushion and leaving a gap for a zip to be inserted in case of washing emergencies if something were to be spilled (most likely by me) on it.

I lightly tacked the cover together by hand using a brightly coloured thread, then used the sewing machine to go over all the seams, and then cut away all the tacking thread.

This is a slightly cheating blog post due to the fact that I have tacked the rest of the armchair cover together by hand, but haven't yet finished sewing it together with the sewing machine. But as you can see below, it has started to resemble a completely new armchair, one that fits with the rest of the living room and only cost me the length of the material (about £15) and time (roughly 9 months)...

Summery duvet cover

With all the greay rainy weather we've had this summer, I've had a fair bit of time to get stuck into some indoor projects, including sewing a new duvet cover and matching cushion covers.

The fabric shop round the corner were selling this fabric at a ridiculous price (I think it was about £2 a metre) so I couldn't say no really, and I'd bought the remnants of the roll before I even knew what I was going to do with it.

I measured the length of one of our other duvet covers and realised that although I had more than enough in length, the width of the fabric wasn't wide enough to match the width of the duvet cover. So, I measured the difference, divided it by two and cut two strips to add down each side to make up the width on both the front and back of the cover.

I pinned all sections together face to face (inside out) on the top ad both sides of the cover, making sure that the main underside bit of fabric was slightly longer than all other sections in order to sew it folded back on itself as pocket to hold the duvet inside. I haven't decided whether I'm going to attach buttons yet.

For the cushions, I measured the cover cases I already had, folded the remaining material into quarters, pinned them all together, measured out the cover dimensions (including 1.5cm extra for the seam) and marked them on the underside of the material with a pencil.

Then I carefully cut out the four rectangles, pinned two sections together face to face, and used the sewing machine to sew the two long and one of the short sides, before turning the covers the right way out. I then folded in about 5cm of the remining ends, pinned them and inserting the cushions.

With the cushion pads in, I then pinned the fourth ends closed, and used a simple stitch to sew them closed.