Saturday, April 30, 2011

Anthropologie Brilliant Gathers Lampshade Knock Off...The Finished Product

I am really happy with how the lamps turned out.  I didn't take a before picture of the shades.  They were this waffle type old fashioned shade with gold trim.  I bought both sets of lamps and shades for a total of $14 dollars at D.I.    The Anthropologie lampshade alone without the lamp base is $98 a piece.  Their lamp bases run about $130 for a cheaper one.  That is about $450 in lamps from Anthropologie.  Yeah, like are you SERIOUS???? Does anybody spend that much for lamp?  Please, not me!!!!!.  I spent about $50 for both lamps!!!!!!!!!!!



These are the finished lamps in our partially finished bedroom makeover.  I was able to use some of the same material from the headboard in the lamps.  It's cool.  You can see the two pillows I made on the bed that I have shown on a previous post.. Sooooooooo Cute!  I am so happy that I have a cuter bedroom.  So much more that I can do...the possibilities are endless.

Anthropologie Brillant Gathers Lampshade

I am working on this knock off for my bedroom...It's from Anthropologie for $98.  Do you think I paid that much???? No WAY Jose!!!!!  For the lamps and shades it is about $25 a lamp.  I am doing two.  I can't wait it looks soooooo good...I should be finished this weekend.....It has involved way more sewing than I prefer but it's totally worth it!!!!!

Shabby pleated pillow

I wanted to re-feature this pillow cause it was at the end of my headboard post and it got lost in the crowd.  I didn't do a tutorial on this pillow but I love it and wanted to give it some attention.  I saw a grey one at Target for like $35 and I said to myself "I can do that for cheaper and in the color I want to match my room".  Because it's all shabby and the pleats are uneven it's great for people like me who don't like to sew neat and straight and perfect and pin everything down.  You just fold and sew crooked on purpose to give it the look.  I want to make another one for my bed and will do a tutorial then. 

The Target Flower Pillow Tutorial



Okay, here is the tutorial on how to make the flowers for this pillow.  I didn't take pictures on how to make the pillow.  I forgot and was so excited to start.  I just bought a pillow for $2 at thrift store.  I bought a yard of each material, the front and back are different fabric.  You probably don't even need that much, you could make two with a yard.  I measured my pillow and cut the fabric to fit and just sewed the sides together inside out and left a big enough hole to stuff the pillow into.  I turned the material right side out and stuffed the pillow in. After the pillow is in, I then just did a whip stitch and sewed them together.  It's not the prettiest but I'm too lazy to do an invisible seam. Learned how to do these flowers on somebody else's blog and I can't remember the blog to give her credit. This is my first tutorial so please give me feedback on whether it was too hard to understand or if I explained well enough.  thanks.                
                                                                                                                                                   
Then I measured and cut my squares of fabric for the flowers.  I cut 19" squares of fabric because I wanted my flowers big.  They are about 4-5" flowers.  The smaller your flower the smaller the square.  I cut out 9 squares for my pillow.
  

 Then I folded and ironed 4 pleats.  For smaller flowers you will probably only need 3 pleats.

 
So, here are your 4 pleats, folded and ironed. 



 Then we are going to sew a 1/4" down each side.
Now turn the fabric the other way and fold and iron 4 more pleats.  You will have pleats going each way.  Nice toes in the picture. 

 Then sew a 1/4" down the other two sides and make sure not too sew too close to the other pleats cause you don't want to sew down the pleats going the other way cause when you pop out the fabric later it won't work.
 Here is what it looks like before you pop it out.  4 pleats each way and sewn down on all sides. 

 Now just pop out the fabric.  It seems weird and you are like how will this work. 


Then take the top of the popped out fabric and begin to twist it.  This is the tricky part.  It doesn't have to be perfect and will feel really awkward like it's not right.   Just twist and press down and iron down the corners as you move from the outside of the flower in.  You will finish with the top of the flower.   

  
  
 Here is the finished product.  It will help if you use steam in your iron or a spray bottle cause it will help flatten the flower better.   
Give them all one more press with the iron before attaching them.   
 I also made sure to iron the corners of the flowers under so the didn't stick out.  When I sewed them on I made sure the needle went up through the flower as I sewed around to make sure it didn't pop out and was tightly sewed down. 
 Here is the back of the pillow. 

  

 The finished product.  A beautiful pillow that was more than half the cost of the Target pillow, which is $35.  You can even do it cheaper if you can get your material on super sale which I didn't because I had a hard time finding the colors I wanted for my bedroom.  


Wednesday, April 27, 2011

I WANT This!!!!

I saw this desk for sell but it was $500 but I am coveting it for my office..If anybody sees one like this that is a fixer upper please let me know.  It is a secretary desk...sooooooooooo pretty and awesome...

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Epic Giveaway that I am trying to win!!!!!!!!!!! Vote for me on May 1st

Need to Must Have to win the EPIC ROOM MAKEOVER GIVEAWAY by Vintage Revivals

Okay so Mandi from Vintagerevivals.blogspot.com is giving away a makeover to the lucky person who wins this.  I need it bad...my basement family room and office are a disaster..remember I told you I sold a bunch of furniture at the yard sale.  Well, that was most of my office furniture...and now it's a clean slate ready for glory and glam.  First is my basement family room.  We just got an awesome flat screen but it looks like a movie star in the slums right now.  You will notice in the picture some of the pieces I have redone for me or to sell...they are cute but I need help putting it all together..

 Here is the sad office.  NOtice the baby decorations on the walls.  Do you think a baby lives in this room?  Ya, NO.  notice the ugly some renter before us tore off the sliding closet doors...and ugly yellowy color on the walls...that's what sucks about renting.  We can paint the walls but why pay and do the work?  Unless, You have somebody awesome like Mandi coming to do a makeover with some cash from sponsors to pay for it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YipppppppppppeeeeeeeeeeeeeKiayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!

So, starting on May 1st she opens up voting and people have to vote for their favorite room and I need my peeps to pick me!!!!!

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Purging My House!!!!!

I am purging my house of unwanted and ugly and useless furniture that just makes me depressed and replacing it with beautiful and lovely new furnishings that I have re-done...this will be a work in progress but it feels so good to get rid of all that ugly wal-mart furniture, handme handme downs, and just plain junk.  I am not in college anymore and I am ready to have a cute house that I love to just hang out in....Now I know that I can do it without costing a fortune.  My newfound skills have given my hope for my house! 

Here is the Target pillow that I knocked off....Tutorial on how to make it coming soon....hopefully tomorrow or someday...

Okay so I have been too busy to post...here are some of my latest PROJECTS

Oh my gosh this is one of my most favorite things...I almost don't want to sell it but I am working to save up for an awesome flat screen it will be worth it...Beautiful Giraffe patterned bench with copper color on the wood base...
 Look at the beautiful corners and the cording around the edge...who knew I would learn how to do this..I was so intimidated before...
 OKay, so I love doing tufted buttons...they really are not to bad...I need to start showing more pictures of the process of re-upholstering....would peeps be interested????
 I love this adorable shabby chic little nightstant...Imaging it next to a cute white twin bed in a little girls room...so adorable...

 This is on my top list of favorite things I have done...The picture does not do the color justice..it is a deep cherry red...and antiqued with black glaze...it is so red and shiny....I LOVE IT!!! I have it for sale but I secretly hope nobody buys it so I will keep it!

 This was a super fun project...I saw this pillow at Target and it was like $35 buck and I am like I don't have that kind of money...I bought some fabric at wal-mart for like $4 or less actually the green was a little more cause it was a bigger bolt.  I will put more pictures up and show a tutorial on how to make the adorable fabric flowers for the pillow...much easier than I thought they would be...so, that tutorial will be coming soon..I just need to write it all out....So cute...you could do all sizes of these flowers...

Monday, April 11, 2011

Fun Finds to make-over!


Here are some fun things I have found to give a new look to....So, keep an eye out to see how they turn out..They could be crap or they could be treasures...Ya never know!   I need to post a picture of the piece O hud lampshades that I did...I was so disappointed...they can't all be gems I guess..


Project Binge over the weeekend!

Man did I go on a binder...I am in project detox from this weekend.  My friend and I each made headboards, I worked on teacup lamps, started pillow projects...and cleaned my house after all the chaos ended....here are some fun pictures of the headboard project and some others. Can you believe that we made the headboards out of old doors we found in our basement???? So cool, the most expensive was the Z bar on the back used to hang it and my fabric...My friend got her fabric for $18.  So, a door, 3 yards of fabric and a few other items you can have a beautiful headboard in no time for a fraction of the cost. 








This is a super cute pillow I made.  I went to Target and I could not believe how outrageous the price of pillows were so I went to wal mart and for like $4 a yard I got this cute silky cream fabric and did this shabby pleated pillow to add to my new bed makeover.  I love it!!!!