Tag: DIY

Herringbone Pattern Pillow

Published on by Our Humble Abode43 Comments

While the boys and I were wandering the aisles of Target, I spotted this beautiful Fieldcrest pillow.

The only color Target carries is this grey, and we don’t have much, if any, grey in our house.  After inspecting it for a few minutes, I felt confident that I could create something similar.  Luckily, Joann Fabric is within walking distance of Target, so that was our next stop.  I bought a relatively thick light blue fabric on clearance, then we went home and got to work. 

To make a herring bone textured pillow, you’ll need:

Fabric, at least two and a half times as much as the pillow size you want. 

Pins

An iron

Pillow stuffing or a pillow form

Optional:

Hem tape

To make the pillow, first, cut strips of fabric into rough 4 inch wide pieces.  I made strips that were the entire length of my two yard piece.  Cut several strips, then fold in half and iron to create a nice, straight edge.  I chose to add hem tape, just to make sure things couldn’t move around when I started sewing.   

Once you have your strips pressed, cut a piece of fabric one inch larger than the desired finished pillow size; this is the backing piece you will sew your strips to.  Fold in half or measure to find the center of the fabric.  Mark with a pen or pencil. 

Now you’re ready to start cutting, pinning and sewing.  Place the first strip of fabric at a 45 degree angle from your center line.  Trim the end to match the edge of the pillow.  You don’t have to do this, but it will help keep everything straight.  Pin in place.  Place another strip over the top of the first piece, but make a 90 degree angle.  Cut the bottom piece at the end of the one on top.  You will sew over it, but you don’t want the pieces to be short. 

Keep overlapping pieces, pinning in place.  I would suggest doing a few at a time, then remove and sew into place.  Allign the edge of your presser foot with the folded edge of the strip and sew one at a time.  Make sure your pattern stays straight and your pieces are overlapping in the same order.

Repeat until you reach the other end. 

Follow this tutorial to create an envelope closure, then stuff and enjoy!

To see other pillow ideas, check out this felt circle pillow cover I recently shared or these inspiration ideas from Etsy.

Turkey Day

Published on by Our Humble Abode18 Comments

Now that Halloween is over, I am officially in Thanksgiving decorating mode.  To kick things off, I created cute turkey place cards. 

If you would like to make some for yourself, you’ll need:

One bag of mixed nuts, in the shells.  Pull out the walnuts and hazelnuts.

Hot glue gun

Dried, pressed leaves.  If you don’t have pretty leaves to dry, fake leaves or paper would work, too. 

A black pen

Oogly eyes or cardstock circles with black dots drawn in

Colored cardstock for beak and feet.  I used an old cereal box for the feet. 

To start, glue the hazelnut, pretty, slightly pointed side forward, to the top front of the walnut.  Again, the walnut should have the slightly pointed area to the front.  Then, write each guest’s name on one leaf.  Find similar sized leaves (4 more) for each turkey.  Glue the name leaf to the back at the center of the walnut.  Glue the remaining leaves and cover the glue from the previous leaves.

Cut ‘feet’ out of cardstock or thin cardboard.  First, make a slightly rounded ‘V’ shape about 1 inch long.

Cut toes by making another rounded ‘V’ in the center.  Then cut two more ‘V’s, totaling four toes.  Add a dollop of glue to the back of the V and place the walnut on top, making the turkey stand.

To make the face, use an all purpose glue to attach the eyes.  For the beak, cut a small piece of cardstock, fold in half, and cut again into a triangle.  Add glue to the V of the triangle and glue to the hazelnut.  Then, you’re done!

Top each place setting with a turkey and get ready to feast. 

Isn’t he cute?  And, when you’re done, you can eat him.  Sort of like eating the chocolate Easter bunnies.

Oh, here’s another cute idea.  Well, I think it’s cute.  Remember these felt leaf bowls I made?  Well, why not create a few more and use them as individual bread baskets?  We always have so much food on the table and so little room for each person.  This can limit the large platters on the table, and it’s something cute for guests to take home. 

If you don’t want to take the time to use tweed, you could just cut out several felt leaves, stitch the darts together and use a felt only bowl.  The leaf bowl above used a 6 inch, from top to bottom, excluding the stem, template. 

 

Pumpkin Carving 2010

Published on by Our Humble Abode5 Comments

Over the weekend, we had a small pumpkin carving party, resulting in some awesome creations.  Wanna see?  Of course you do. 

The B monogram is for Bowe.  The faced pumpkins were created by my sister-in-law.  On the left, we have a mean, scary large pumpkin eating a smaller pumpkin.  Next to him, a frightened pumpkin vomiting at the cannibalistic tendencies of his neighbor. 

Next up, I created a few Martha-inspired pumpkins.  A very large (we’re talking 30 pounds!) pumpkin sports a wise owl against a full moon.

Another small pumpkin is rockin’ the faux bois. 

This is the first time I’ve tried scraping part of the front off, rather than carving completely through.  I’ve got to say, I like it.  We used wood carving tools and it was much easier than I anticipated. 

Now, on to the sad news.  We carved our pumpkins waaaaay too early.  They’re definitely looking sad.  I’ve had to skewer the B and the owl to prevent complete and total failure.  Curse you cold Montana weather!  Here they are in the daylight.

Yep, my poor owl has a skewer through his big brain. 

The B is leaning and floppy.  On the bright side, the faux bois pumpkin is still completely in tact.  So, that’s what we did this weekend.  Lesson learned the hard way, don’t carve pumpkins when cold weather is coming.  What are your favorite carved pumpkin designs?

We’re Stumped!

Published on by Our Humble Abode3 Comments

We’re back with yet another Halloween decorating idea.  We’ve already shared a DIY feather wreath and a spooky tree, but why not add a stump side table to an outdoor setting?  We did.  We have a huge woodpile in our backyard.  Usually it helps keep us warm throughout the winter months, but I decided to make it work a little harder.  I picked out a relatively level stump and rolled it to our front walkway and parked it next to our chairs.  I didn’t do anything else to it. 

Then, to Halloween it up a little, I topped it with a vase of pretty flowers, a paper mache skull from Michael’s that I spray painted white, a faux pumpkin from Hobby Lobby (also painted white) and a real baby pumpkin.

 Stump decoration breakdown:

Stump:  FREE

Paper mache skull:  $1.49

Faux pumpkin:  $1.49

White spray paint:  Left over from our DIY dining table

Baby Pumpkin: FREE from a friend

Total for stump and decorations:  $2.98

See the striped pillow?  I made that.  I had a few yards of white corduroy fabric left over from an earlier project, so I decided to use that rather than buy more fabric.  First, I sewed the cover, (here’s a tutorial) turning the fabric inside out.  I wanted the smooth part facing out so it would be easier to paint.  Once I had my cover, I taped off 2 1/2 inch wide stripes.

After that, it was easy.  Use black fabric paint and fill in between the lines.  Remove the tape soon after and stuff with a pillow form when completely dry. 

Pillow budget breakdown:

Fabric:  Left over from another project

Fabric paint:  Also left over from a previous project

Two pillow forms: $8.99 at JoAnn Fabric

Total cost for Halloween Pillows:  $8.99

To add more spookyness on the cheap, I picked up a plastic skeleton from Dollar Tree.

 I didn’t like the color, so covered that baby in white spray paint, too. 

Then, my skeleton fell into the freshly cut grass.  I let him dry and pulled off as much as I could and hit him with another coat of white.  He survived – he’s already dead.  Hang with fishing line and you’re done. 

One thing I loved about the Pottery Barn inspiration image were the candles.  Well, I wasn’t about to spend $30.00 or more on candles, so I looked around the house for suitable substitutes.  I had a few vintage oil lamps, so I added those to the mix.  Toss in a grapevine pumpkin and we’re done!

Miscellaneous decoration cost:

Skeleton: $1.00

White spray paint:  Left over

Oil lamps:  FREE (The black one was hanging on our fence when we bought the house and the red was a thrift store find a few years ago.  I think it was $1.50 or so.)

Grapevine pumpkin:  $2.50 at Target (but can multi-purpose for Thanksgiving, too!)

Miscellaneous Total:  $3.50

Which brings our Halloween decoration grand total to…$20.45!  And here’s how it all looks together.

Of course, we still need real pumpkins, but we’re not quite ready yet.

Eerie Tree

Published on by Our Humble Abode5 Comments

Last week, I shared a simple DIY Halloween wreath tutorial and now I’m back with another cheap spooky Halloween project, again, inspired by this Pottery Barn image.

I  love the look of the glitter potted trees.  I am aware that this version is some sort of foam, but I didn’t want to spend a ton of money for something like this.  Instead, I used a dead branch from our birch tree. 

Using a can of black gloss spray paint, I covered all areas of the branch and let everything dry.  Then, I applied a second coat to make sure the color was truly black.  Super simple. 

After the second coat dried, I placed my eerie tree in a planter I had left over. 

To cover the dirt, I spread the remaining nuts from our fall decoration around the base of the tree and threw in a few pine cones.  A little crow from Dollar Tree adds another touch of spook. 

Eerie tree budget breakdown:

Branch: FREE

Black spray paint: $1.00 at Wal-Mart

Planter: Already owned

Nuts and pinecones: FREE from mother nature

Crow: $1.00

Total Cost:  $2.00

So far, our Halloween decorations have cost $4.98, wa hoo!  We’ll cover a few more frugal decorating ideas tomorrow, so come back for more.

Here’s a tip:  If you plan to use real nuts, plan for the squirrels to eat them.  We went out-of-town for the weekend and returned to find all the nuts missing.  I’m sure the squirrels loved it. I pictured a little assembly line of squirrels passing nuts down the line until they were gone and now they’re having a feast.  Yeah, you may want to use bark, mulch or fake Spanish moss.