Fabric | It's Great To Be Home

‘Round The Table

November 23, 2009 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 8 Comments

You should have seen us last night, cruising down the highway in a big truck packed to the gills, with blankets and rope flapping in the breeze to tie down our cargo. We were quite a sight!

Look what we brought home with us:

Isn’t it gorgeous?!?

Remember that table that made an appearance last week in my video for Thanksgiving . . .

. . . and Christmas?

Well, we have now parted ways with that $100 table that I bought from the Scratch ‘n Dent store when I was in law school 6 years ago (and the chairs have made their way back into the breakfast room) – and now we have this beautiful mahogany table and chairs, and we’ll even have room for 6 people when we put in the leaf! Oh goodness, I’m so excited!

The table and chairs belonged to my uncle’s mother, and he and my aunt are so lovely and offered to let us use it. The word on the street is that the table was crafted back in the 1920s – how cool is that?

Now all I need to do is pick out some fabric so that I can reupholster these seat cushions . . .

Got any suggestions on fabric?

P.S. There’s a holiday decor blog party going on over at The DIY Show Off – head on over there to get some serious inspiration! I added my video about transitioning your decor from Thanksgiving to Christmas, and I can’t wait to see what everybody else has to say!

Blog Party: Inspiration Tuesday!

August 31, 2009 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 8 Comments

That’s right folks, it’s that time of the week again – let’s party!!

This week I’ve been totally inspired by all the goodies I’m finding on Craigslist. I haven’t pulled the trigger yet and actually bought anything, but I’m seriously thinking about it. Here are some of my faves:

If this $50 coffee table doesn’t scream, “Make me into an ottoman coffee table,” then I don’t know what does. I would paint the base white, slap a thick layer of foam on top of the coffee table, and then cover the foam with batting and one of these three fab fabrics from Joel Dewberry – I can’t choose between them, they’re all too beautiful!

Which fabric would you pick?

And what about this conga line of barstools? I know they look fugly now, but with a little DIYing, they could be total showstoppers. And at $150 for 8 barstools (that swivel! and have arms!), that’s a deal that can’t be beat. I’d spray paint these babies black and add some sassy Amy Butler fabric like one of these:

I love the brass accents on this $75 matching dresser and night stand set. I’d polish those babies up and paint the drawers and cabinet doors a lacquered teal blue while leaving the wood natural around the frame. Love!

But enough about what’s inspiring me – let’s hear about what you’re inspired by today! We’d all love to swing by your blog for some inspiration – if you’d like to join in on the fun, just add your link below. Here are a few pointers:

(1) Make sure that you add the permalink to your specific blog post (like www.itsgreattobehome.net/inspiration-tuesday-craigslist), instead of your general blog address.

(2) Give everybody an idea of what you’re inspired by in parentheses after your blog name – like Liz @ It’s Great To Be Home (Craigslist finds).

(3) Make sure that your link works – otherwise it might get deleted (no fun!!).

(4) Try to include a link to this party somewhere in your post so that your readers can get in on the fun!

(5) Click on the other participants’ links and let them know if they’ve inspired you!

And remember, if we have enough participants this week I’ll feature my faves from the blog party on Wednesday – and it could be your post! Now grab your post and this button and let’s boogie!

These Curtains Are Sew Awesome

April 20, 2009 By Liz - It's Great To Be Home 17 Comments

I’m ashamed to admit it, but there are definitely a few (and by a few, I mean a lot) of rooms in our house that have yet to be visited by the decorating fairy. These rooms are bursting with potential, but have been neglected while the hubby and I have been completing various random homeowner tasks such as dealing with leaking pipes, laying sod, and all that other good stuff.

Take the third bedroom, for example. It has great bones – pretty linen-colored paint, crown molding, nice nightstands, etc. – but it’s pretty blah, wouldn’t you agree?

While I love the sage green bedspread, those white and black floral curtains were doing absolutely nothing to give the room any character. All that changed when I decided to whip up some fun, colorful curtains for our sad little bedroom with this gorgeous fabric:

I know what you’re thinking – Huh? I didn’t know this chick could sew??

Well, you’re right. I’m no seamstress. The last time I touched a sewing machine was during a summer in college when my mom taught me how to make some pillows for my dorm room. Lucky for me, it turned out that sewing curtains is just about as easy as it gets!! Here’s how I pulled it off:

1. Decide how long you want the curtains to be. With this particular window, we had already hung a curtain rod with 85 inch long sheers, so I knew that I wanted the curtains to also be 85 inches long. I checked all of my measurements before I ordered the fabric so that I could make sure that I would have enough fabric – patching random pieces together to make the curtains long enough was definitely something that I wanted to avoid. Since I was making two 85 inch curtain panels, that meant that I would need 5 yards of fabric – and I went ahead and ordered an extra yard “just in case.” I can use any extra fabric for another project.

2. Give yourself a little wiggle room. Once I was ready to start making the curtains, I laid out the fabric on the floor and measured 90 inches. I decided to cut each curtain 90 inches long to make sure that I had ample room for hemming and the rod pocket top. If you’re going to hang your curtains from curtain rings, you can give yourself a little less wiggle room.

After I measured out 90 inches, I folded the fabric over itself (with the non-printed side facing up) so that I had two matching 90-inch pieces of fabric, and a little left over. I cut off the extra material and set it aside, and then cut the two pieces of fabric apart right at the fold.

3. To pin or not to pin. Being new to sewing, I decided to pin the hem on the first curtain. Since the fabric was already laying face-down, it was easy to get right down to work. I just folded the fabric over so that the non-finished edge was completely hidden and only the printed fabric would show on the finished curtain. A pin every few inches did the trick.

After I sewed the first curtain, I realized that I could easily skip this step – by just holding the fabric taut while I pulled it through the sewing machine, I was able to maintain a pretty even hem. Once you feel comfortable using the sewing machine, I definitely recommend skipping the pinning step, as it will save you a lot of time on an easy project like this.

4. Sew easy. Now it’s time to hit up the sewing machine!! For me, the most intimidating part of this whole sewing process was setting up the sewing machine (winding the bobbin, threading the needle, etc.) – luckily, my machine came with pretty great instructions and I had the machine up and running in no time. I just used the default stitch (a hem stitch) and pulled the fabric through the machine, taking out pins as I went along. Seriously, that’s about all there is to it!!

5. Make a rod pocket. Once I had the entire curtain hemmed, I folded over the top edge of the curtain to form a pocket for the curtain rod. I measured three inches all the way across the top of the curtain and stuck in a few pins to hold everything in place. Then I ran it through the sewing machine and the pocket was finished in a jiffy!

6. Admire your handiwork. It’s not often that something so simple can make such a transformation and give you a ton of satisfaction. The quick and easy addition of some DIY curtains quickly gave our third bedroom a dash of personality that we can build upon in the future when we finally get around to decorating. In the meantime, it’s a welcoming space that any guest would enjoy.