Plastic Fusion

Level: Intermediate

Time: Expect 1-4 hours

Topic: Repurpose

I'm stoked to be making a guest appearance on Sweet Rustic today! Check out my Plastic Fusion tutorial here.

Egg-Cellent Strand of Festive Lights

How many extra plastic Easter Eggs do you have lying around???? Geez oh peat, we reuse them year after year; however we seriously need like 20 for next year....not hundreds! I've come up with a couple great projects to reuse these plastic gems! Seriously, you'll want to check this out!

Level: Beginner
Time: 1-4 Hours
Topic: Repurpose

The Craf "tee" Tote

Seriously, I'm completely humbled and pumped that Megan from Brassy Apple agreed to make a guest appearance here! I have been a follower for years, and to be perfectly honest, I don't think she realizes how completely uber talented she is! Megan was given a crazy gift of creativity, and it shows in her work! She's posting such a great project, so make sure to enjoy!

-Becky

 

Chalkboard Train Track Table

Level: Beginner

Time: 1-4 Hours

Topic: Paint, Repurpose

On Charley's 2nd birthday I was insistent that we get him a train table! For goodness sakes, he adored the one at our pediatrician's office, so of course he would love one at home, right?! WRONG! Charley has spent zero to little time with this train table - mainly because we bought a double-story track that had to be glued and screwed to the table to be able to stick together....that made him mad! He wanted to be able to change things around. So I had hope that Wilson would use it.....not yet, but he's only 1, so I continue to hold up hope! Instead of freecycling the whole thing, I came up with a great idea - MOMMY-ReDO!!!!!

How to Make Curtains Out of Sheets

Happy Monday! Last week was an amazing launch week - thank you to all the followers and thank you for sharing this link. Your support and kind words mean the world to me. I have had such a wonderful time booking guest bloggers to the site and being astonished at the crazy talent out there! You wanna see talent??? Pam from Bibbidi Bobbidi Beautiful has offered a guest post for us today - thanks Pam!

Project Details:

Level: Beginner

Topic: Refashion

Time to complete project: Expect 1-4 hours

DIY Drapes and Valance from Sheets

This image from Decorpad was one of my inspiration pics for the nursery drapes (I have no idea why blogger is cutting off the right side of the photo, but if you click on it to enlarge you can see the full image):

I pulled down the valance to show you a photo of the top of the drapes:

If you were using a decorative rod, the drapes would look just fine by themselves, but adding the tailored valance allowed me to hide the cheap rod and the top of the roller blind!

How to make drapes from a king sized flat sheet:

• Cut the sheet vertically down the center (so that the top edge with the wide decorative hem is at the top)
• Finish the raw edge you just created on each panel by turning it under twice and either sewing it in place or using hem tape (you can face that edge toward the wall if you're worried about any imperfections)
• At this point you could just shirr the panels onto a rod (you may have to open the side seam of the decorative top hem part to do this) or hang them from clip rings, but I opted to make slits on the back side of the wide top hem allowing them to hang like back tab drapes which forces the drapes into nice folds. Clip rings have the same effect, but why pay for clip rings when you can do this for free?
• For each "back tab" just cut two vertical slits into the back side of the top wide hem (be careful not to cut through the front layer of fabric) about an inch long and an inch apart (make sure not to cut too close to the top edge- leave about half an inch from the top edge) with 5 inches in between the "tabs".

Here's a photo of my "back tabs"- make sense? The tabs will have raw edges, but no one will ever see that part. If you want to be able to wash them, run a little fray check along the edges of the tabs.

• Hang your panels on your rod, mark the length for hemming and either sew the hem or use hem tape. I read on a professional drapery site that you should always mark your hem line all the way across, because the hem will pull up at the edges and I have found this to be true. I don't quite understand the physics behind it, but you have to leave a little extra length at the bottom corners if you want your drapes to uniformly brush the floor.
• Lastly, add some trim! I just used inexpensive grosgrain ribbon and fabric glue.

Now on to the valance! Here's a closeup (and could you please pretend not to notice my ugly ceilings?!):

It's basically just one long rectangle of fabric, pleated in the corners and attached with duct tape to...


the very cardboard box the sheets were mailed in!!

And attached to the wall with...thumbtacks!

Now you know all my dirty little secrets.

Here are the specifics:

My window is 41" wide. I hung my curtain rod 56" wide to give me room for the panels to gather on either side (I actually hung my rod a bit off center to camouflage my off-center window.)

The first step in constructing the valance is to make a form out of cardboard or foam core for the fabric to hang from (I actually got this idea from Jenny's foam core pelmet tutorial!). You really only need a top and a back- the back edge will slide behind your curtain rod. I opened up the box completely until I had one large flat piece of cardboard and used duct tape to tape the flaps together so that I had one large solid piece of cardboard to work with.

You want to end up with a piece of carboard slightly longer than your curtain rod (mine was 56 1/2"), with a horizontal fold across the middle. The portion above the fold will be the top/overhang and the portion below the fold attaches to the wall.


My overhang was 6" and my back side was 4 1/2" so my cardboard started out as 56 1/2" long x 10 1/2". I cut away about an inch and a half of the bottom part on either side to allow it to slide behind the curtain rod.

You can kind of see in this photo how the back side of the cardboard is notched out on the side to allow it to slide behind the curtain rod...


Now for the fabric. I actually used one of the king sized pillowcases for this part. I just cut open the top and bottom seams of the pillowcase, leaving me with one long rectangle of fabric measuring 21 1/2" x 80" long. This seemed to be the perfect length for my window, but you could just as easily cut up the fitted sheet instead if you needed more length. I hemmed the long bottom edge only (the side edges were already hemmed for me- they were originally the open end of the pillowcase) and added the trim to the same edge. My finished valance has a 12 inch drop.

To attach the fabric to the cardboard:

• Find the center of the long edge, measure 12 inches up from the finished bottom edge, and temporarily attach it to the front center of the cardboard with a pin.
• Keeping the fabric straight, pull it smooth to the front corners and pin.
• Line up the ends of the fabric with the back edge of the cardboard and pin.
• Pull the excess fabric into a pleat at each corner and temporarily pin.
• Now just smooth the extra fabric over the top of the cardboard form and wrap the corners like you're making hospital corners on a bed and use duct tape to attach the fabric in the back.
• Remove the pins.

Now just slide it in place and use a few tacks to attach it to the wall. I think this looks best hung all the way up at ceiling heights. It weighs next to nothing, so the tacks really are adequate, but I suppose if you were using heavier fabric you could use a couple of "L" brackets from the hardware store.



That's it!


It's a little tricky to write a tutorial after the fact, so if you're confused about any part of this, please contact me or leave a question in the comments and I'll be happy to help!


Here are a few more fun sheet options I found...

Overstock $39.99




Smart Bargains $29.98


Smart Bargains $34.98

These last two are available in blue, brown or linen (beige)

I particularly like the first two options for the same reason that I like my Carleton Varney sheets- a) I love graphic prints and b)the larger scale makes them appear less obviously like sheets in the final product!

Love,

How to Make a Leather Wallet

Project Details:

Level: Beginner

Topic: Accessories

Time to complete project: Expect 1 hour

Hi! My name is Erin and I'm honored to be the first contributor for Liberate Creativity! Becky and I have been friends since our oldest boys were just tiny babies and we've grown closer as our children have grown. One of the things that we have in common other than our children is our need to create. Although our styles and techniques can be very different, we love to share ideas and collaborate on projects together. I thought I'd share a project that we've both recently worked on

I've certainly tried my hand at a lot of different craft "mediums", but I enjoy sewing the most. I also love repurposing materials. Repurposing can save you a lot of time by incorporating elements and details of the original item into a new creation. Plus, you'll save money on materials, and it's earth-friendly, too!

I'm sure a lot of you can agree that many crafts out there appeal more to women, but this is a project that can be customized for just about anyone. Let's make a wallet out of an old leather purse!


To begin, of course, you'll need a source of leather. For this tutorial, I'm using an old purse bought from a thrift store. When you are looking for a bag, there are a couple of things to think about. First, pay attention to the thickness of the leather. You don't want something too thick or rigid and you don't want anything too flimsy, either. Try to find something that feels like it has some flexibility, but is also sturdy. Second, for a bifold wallet, try to find a purse with some seaming detail in the middle of the bag, rather than on the sides. For example, the bag below has some seams, but they are too close to the sides.

This bag has a great seam right down the middle with plenty of leather on each side.

This is what we're looking for. We will use this seam for the outer fold of the wallet.

Cut this entire panel of leather away from the rest of the bag. Remove any lining and padding from the back.

I use a bill and a credit card to give me an idea of the dimensions I need to cut the leather. Take care to keep the seam right down the middle of the panel. I'm making this bifold wallet about 8 inches across and 3 1/2 inches deep.

Next, cut the inside panel of the bill pocket from a solid piece of leather just slightly narrower than the outside. Also, cut two smaller panels for the credit card pockets. I made these approximately 3 3/4 inches across by 2 inches deep. You should have four pieces of leather now and that's all you need! Woo-hoo!

We're ready to sew!! It's best to use a leather needle in your sewing machine, but I've forgotten to change my needle before, and it worked pretty well. You don't want to use pins in leather, but I've found that mini binder clips work great to hold all of your pieces together while you sew.

First, sew the card pocket pieces onto the inner bill pocket panel just a the two inner seams.

Next, lay the inner bill panel with the two card pockets on the top of the outer panel and stitch all the way around the entire outside panel sewing over the outer and bottom edges of the card pockets.

Tie off and trim your threads and you are done!!! Hooray! Now, go grab a bunch of money and fill it up!

There are lots of ways to personalize this wallet. Before you sew the outer panel to the inner pockets, you can applique a design or image with some contrasting leather or fabric, or hand stitch a design, name, or initials.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! After I made my first one, I started looking at old bags in a totally new way. I bet you will, too!