Pillow From a Shirt

 Hello Readers. Fall is here and that means I want some fall decor around the house. Sometimes clothing actually makes great decor. I think this shirt would make a great fall pillow for a chair. Let me show you what I mean.

Before and after.

This denim shirt was so well made but I didn't like it as a shirt. The leaves and vines felt very overwhelming. There were just too many, it was too busy. They were all over me.

I cut 2 squares from the body of the shirt. One from the front and one from the back. The buttons on the front of the shirt are going to be the opening to put a pillow in this cover. My squares are approximately 12 inches by 12 inches. You may need to adjust the size of your squares depending on the size of your shirt and what you are going to use to stuff your shirt pillow with. (More about that in a minute.)

I put the 2 pieces together with the right sides facing each other and sewed around all 4 sides of the squares. I closed up all around the square. Usually you leave an opening in one side to stuff the pillow but I am not going to need that because of the buttons on the front of the shirt.

I undid a few buttons and used the opening to turn the whole pillow cover right side out. 

This is what it looked like when it was done. It just needs to be stuffed. And I can do that because it has buttons down the front of the shirt.

I went out on my front porch and took this outdoor pillow from summer to stuff my pillow. You can use a pillow you have or buy a pillow form. My porch is covered so I don't have to worry about rain on my pillow but use a pillow form or stuffing that is right for your location. There are indoor and outdoor pillow forms. 

I stuffed my pillow cover with the pillow. 

I buttoned up the buttons and put the pillow on my chair. It adds a little touch of fall and makes the chair more comfortable. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

Hang Up the Stuffed Animals

 Hello Readers. If you have children in your house then you probably have stuffed animals. And there is never just 1 or 2, they seem to multiply. There are so many. They are everywhere and don't look neat or tidy at all. We can't get rid of them so let's find a way to store and display them neatly.

Let's hang up and store the stuffed animals in a neat way. 

All of our stuffed animals lived in a pile on this chair. They also lived on the floor because they didn't stay on the chair. We love them so they had to stay close by but this mess looked bad and made the chair useless for humans. We could do better than this. 

We needed some cord or string or even thin rope. I chose this because it was in my sewing stash but it was also a little bumpy. I don't think smooth cording or satin ribbon would work well for this project. It would be too slippery.

You can use something simple like this jute cord. It is very inexpensive too. 

I put the cording across the top of the bookcase. You could also use a dresser for this project but the taller the piece of furniture, the more stuffed animals you an hang up.

 

 I wanted the cording to go over the top of the bookcase and hang all the way down off the bookcase on both sides.

The next thing you need is a few dozen clips of some kind. These cheap clothes pins would be great. 

 

You could also use something more fun and colorful if you want.

 

I clipped one end of the cording to a soft container. This was going to anchor the cord on this side of the bookcase. 

 

This is a good place for the stuffies that are heavy, large or favorites that will be played with or slept with often. 

 

The other end of the cord needed something to anchor it too. On this side I used a large bear. He is heavy enough to hold the cord. I clipped the cord to his ear. 

 

I made sure to get the cording and part of the stuffed animal in the clip. The clip really needs to hold on to both.

 

I started clipping all our stuffed friends to the corThe. 

 

 I clipped the stuffed animals on both sides of the bookcase. I liked this storage method because the stuffed friends are visible and unharmed in this clips. The bookcase or dresser you use will be unharmed too. 

 

My child liked this set up. They could see the stuffed animals but the stuffies were not in a mess on the floor anymore. My youngest child is 10 so I don't need to worry about him hurting himself with the cord or the clips. (*This is not a good storage idea if you have an active baby or toddler that will hurt them selves with string or cord or might climb tall bookcases or dressers. You know your child, as always use your best judgement and caution.) Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 

***Year End Update***- These stuffed animals are still in a semi orderly arrangement thanks to this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kids Chalkboard Top Table

 Hello Readers. I like to make things fun for my kids when I can. Even school and study things. When I came across this decorator table, I thought it could be a fun kids table. Let me show you. 

Fun kids table!

A neighbor of mine was moving out and she left some items for us to to have if we wanted. I saw this decorator table. I know they usually have a long table cloth over them. You usually never see the actual table. But what if I did some decorating and I actually did show the table?

I got out the acrylic paint (Similar here.) I had on hand and started mixing to make enough of a fun shade to paint the table. I wanted a color my youngest child would like. This table is going in the study/school room. Let's make it fun. 

I wanted a slate blue color. This was as close as I could get with the acrylic paint I had on hand. I wanted to paint the lower part of the table with this. I put out some newspapers and got to work.

I had a little helper that helped me paint all these shelves and the outside of the table too. 

 

 I was on hand to supervise and go over all of the paint and make sure it was all evenly covered and smooth. 

 

 I even painted the underside of the table with this slate blue paint. I wanted to cover all the plywood. The plywood wasn't cute or fun. I pained everything and let this paint dry over night. 

 

I wanted to make the top of the table a little different. I used this chalkboard paint (Similar here.) for the top of the table. It was gray but the color wasn't the important part. Any color chalkboard paint would be fine. I wanted my son to be able to write and draw with chalk on top of the table. 

 

My young helper painted the table top with the chalkboard paint. I went over this paint to make sure it covered the table evenly and let it dry overnight again.

 

 The next day the paint was dry and we could draw or...

Write on the top of the table. Summer is here and school is out for a few months but this table is perfect!

This table is great for our study. It is holding our globe next to the little desk. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 

***Year End Update***-This is a fun kid table. 5 stars. Would recommend.

 

 

 

 

Making Picture Frames Match

 Hello Readers. I had a hodge-podge of picture frames that I wanted to use on one wall. I wanted them to coordinate and look intentionally put together. But they were all very different and did not match each other at all. I was not going to go out and buy all new frames, I knew I could make this work. 

I made this look like a planned collection of pictures in frames. Let me show you what I did. 

Here are the picture frames. There were brown wood frames, a gold frame, a silver frame and one picture with no frame at all. I picked one color to tie them together. Gold was the color that I focused on. I also did a few more things to connect all the frames.

This picture also shows the first way I tried to make a unified look. All these pictures are old looking. They all have a black and white or sepia color scheme. This helps make this whole group look more put together. 

This is the wall I want to hang these pictures on. There are 2 control panels on this wall. One we use a lot. One we only need to use if the alarm goes off. I thought the whole wall would look better if I could cover it up. I had an idea for that.

One of the pictures was almost like a box. I thought I could remove the back and the picture could hang over and cover the control panel. 

I used a thin knife to pry the back loose from the picture and remove it. 

That made the folds of the sides of this picture start to unfold. That was a problem. But it was OK, I had a plan.

I used some gold Duck Tape. Gold was going to be my unifying color. 

I wrapped the gold tape around all 4 sides of this picture. I wanted the color of the tape but I also wanted the tape to hold the sides in place. This worked well. 

The tape was wider that the sides of the picture so I folded the tape towards the back and pressed it down so it would hold secure. 

I simply hung this picture on the control panel. It was very light weight so it will not cause damage. I can lift it off in a second if I need to get to that control panel. 

That control panel is totally hidden. But still accessible. 

I want to highlight the color gold so I used some gold paint. This "Rub'n Buff" is like a thick paint. It can be applied on and it never drips. 

I used a sponge applicator so I could rub the paint on the frames. I wanted a thin coat that would tone down the original colors of the frames. I didn't mind if the original color showed through a little. The sponge let me apply a very thin coat. 

I painted this wooden frame with the gold paint. The roughness of the wood still shows through but the gold is dominant and will tie this frame in with the others. I let this dry over night. 

I used the gold paint on this silver frame too. I applied the gold to the sides to hide the silver a little. I let this dry over night too.

 

I started to hang the frames. I did not use a level or a stud finder. These pictures are not heavy enough to need to be hung in a stud or need a special anchor. I just eyed the pictures and marked the top center of the frame. 

Then I put in a nail where I thought the frame needed to be hung. I wasn't trying to make a precise alignment of pictures. This arrangement was not symmetrical and that helped because it did not have to be exactly even anywhere.

My new picture wall is fun and looks good all put together. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself.

***Year End Update***- My wall still looks like this. I love it. Fun family pictures are the best.