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Top Ten Posts for 2013 From Old Things New Blog

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So, these aren’t necessarily my “most visited” posts.  I’ve looked through and chosen the posts that received the most comments and also, in the tradition of Old Things New, the posts where I actually re-purposed or restored something old into something new. 

So here are my Top Ten Posts for 2013:

#10 Braided Cuff Tutorial

#9 Vintage Jewelry Bookmarks

#8 Three Tiered Succulents

5-Slipcover redo for little bench 017#7 A Dropcloth Slipcover for an Old Bench

#6 Guest Cottage Before and After

#5 A Frenchy Bed Makeover

#4 DIY Junky Chicken Wire Cloche

#3 Turquoise Bedside Table

#2 Rosette Wreath Tutorial

And finally, my most popular post of 2013 . . .

#1 Vintage Dresser and Mirror Update

If you’d like to see more pictures or tutorials of any of these posts you can click on the title for the link to the post.  It has been a busy and wonderful year of blogging in 2013 and I’m looking forward to new things ahead for 2014. 

    Blessings to you all in the year to come,

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Pottery Barn “Jingle” Pillow Tutorial

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Pottery Barn catalog is one of my favorite sources for decorating ideas and inspiration for creating “one of my own.”  Sooo . . .  when the Christmas catalog arrived and I saw this cute little Pottery Barn “Jingle” Pillow the wheels in my head began turning.  In no time at all I had created a new pillow that was much kinder to my budget than the $39.50 Pottery Barn price!

2-Pottery Barn Knockoff Jingle Pillow 005In addition, I think the font on this pillow is actually cuter than Pottery Barn’s, with the added embellishment of tweeting birds and snowflakes!

Here is what you’ll need to put this together yourself:

Drop Cloth Fabric, Burlap or another fabric of your choice

A Pillow Form – or – Polyester Fiberfill

Jingle Bells

Iron-on Transfer Paper (I recommend Lesley Riley Tap which I purchased from Amazon.com.  It really is the best!)

A Free Font From Dafont.com

e (jingle)This is the super cute font (KingthingsChristmas) that I chose from Dafont.com.  This great website has hundreds of fonts available for download onto your computer’s word processing program.  Most are free or “by donation” to the creator. The homepage at Dafont.com gives downloading instructions for your particular type of computer.  For my PC I simply chose the font I wanted, hit “download” and saved it to my computer.  Then I opened the font I’d just installed (if you have trouble finding it do a search).  When you open it a page comes up with several lines.  One line says “read this” and it gives guidelines for use of the font (most are for private use only).  On another line is the font itself which you simply “open” and “install”.  If your computer shows a “zipped” file just right click and “extract” to open the file.

3-Pottery Barn Knockoff Jingle Pillow 007The next step is to open your computer’s Word Processing program and type out your text, in this case the word “jingle”.  After typing the text you’ll adjust your font size (this was 600) and color (red).  I ended up with four pages and saved them in my pictures as a JPEG file.

4-Pottery Barn Knockoff Jingle Pillow 006The next step requires that you have Microsoft Publisher which, to me, is really worth having as I use it all the time.  Open Publisher and choose a blank page size (8-1/2 x 11).  “Insert” your saved picture onto the blank page (you will be inserting and flipping one page at a time).  Highlight your text and click on “arrange”, “rotate or flip” and “flip horizontal”.  Now you have a mirror image of your script and you are ready to print onto your iron-on transfer paper and then iron onto your pre-cut fabric.  You can make your pillow any size you want but mine (and PB’s) is 12″x24″.

5-Pottery Barn Knockoff Jingle Pillow 001After ironing sew on a few jingle bells to the front of your pillow, stitch your pillow together, stuff (or add a pillow form) and sew bells to the four corners of your pillow.

6-Pottery Barn Knockoff Jingle Pillow 011My pillow looked perfect on Mr. OTN’s leather lounge chair.  He loved it too.  In fact, he missed it when it disappeared.  SOLD!  Yes, right out from under him.  I will be making him another though.  Super cute! Super easy! Super cheap!  My kinda’ holiday craft.  Do you have a favorite idea catalog?  What kinds of “knock-offs” have you tried?  I think it would be fun to have a “knock-off” party. What about you?

Blessings to you,

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A Dropcloth Slipcover for an Old Bench

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3-Slipcover redo for little bench 013

      Here is the AFTER picture of the Dropcloth Slipcover that I recently made for a very outdated old bench.  I began this post with an after pic to draw you in . . . mostly because I was afraid that if I showed you the BEFORE pic first you might be scared away!

1-Vintage Suitcase After and Bdrm Bench Before 041

Here is the BEFORE.  I’m ashamed to admit that this shabby (not in the good sense) little bench has been living in my master bedroom.  The trim has been a wreck since Sasha was a puppy (ummm . . . 5-1/2 years ago?), the color is no longer to my liking, nor the floral satin fabric.  So why have I kept it?  It is the little bench that catches stray articles of clothing and mail that needs recycling.  It is the bench that hides the electronics charging underneath.  It is the bench where my husband sits to slip on his shoes (when there is room to sit).  This bench is also a perfect match to my outdated bedroom which I have great plans for making over.  Maybe this transformation will be the first step.
1-Small Bench and Potting Bench 001

So here is how I made a new dropcloth slipcover for my old bench. After disposing of the trim (no, it wasn’t EVEN fit for a future project) I measured the length and width of the old fabric cover and cut my dropcloth fabric to the same size.

2-Small Bench and Potting Bench 004

 I laid my fabric over the bench, lined it up straight, and pinned the corners, pulling the fabric taut.

3-Small Bench and Potting Bench 005

I sewed along the line of the pins and trimmed close to the seam.

4-Small Bench and Potting Bench 006

After turning the slipcover right side out and placing it back onto the bench I measured the bottom edge of the fabric along each side.  For the ruffles I tore (for a frayed edge) four  – 4″ strips of fabric, each one double the length of the side it would be attached to.  I sewed a long basting stitch  along the long edge of each strip, and  pulled the thread to gather to fit each of the four sides, matching the seams in the ruffle to the seams at the four corners of the slipcover.  Next, I sewed the four strips together along their short edges and then sewed the whole ruffle to the bottom edge of the slipcover .  Why four strips instead of one long strip?  First of all, there were going to be a couple of seams somewhere since the doubled circumference of the bottom edge of the slipcover was much longer than my fabric.  Secondly, it is tricky to pull gathers in a very long strip and even trickier if the fabric is thick.  I didn’t want to risk breaking my thread and losing my gather.

(Sorry, no pictures were taken for this step because everyone knows how to make a ruffle, right?)

After attaching one ruffle I decided I wanted a second one so I repeated the process except with 7″ strips so the bottom ruffle would peek out from beneath the top ruffle. 

2-Slipcover redo for little bench 005

Just for fun I added a French graphic from The Graphics Fairy website, which I ironed on with transfer paper.

5-Slipcover redo for little bench 017

For a final touch I added some handmade dropcloth rosettes around the top of the ruffles. (Rosette tutorial HERE)1-Slipcover redo for little bench 003

3-Slipcover redo for little bench 013I’ve enjoyed using drop cloth fabric for projects around my home.  My first experience with this fabric was my Drop Cloth Draperies which have been one of my top viewed projects.  I’ve also made pillows, and hand bags (which you can see on my Pinterest “Stuff I Sell” Board.  I have a whole list of other great ideas for dropcloths that I want to try in the future.  This fabric is great because it is inexpensive, washable (I always pre-wash my fabric), it has the look of linen but it irons up much easier and crisper looking, and it tears nicely leaving a great frayed edge that doesn’t continue to fray.

4-Slipcover redo for little bench 016

Once my bench was finished I decided it was just too cute to be used as a catchall in my bedroom any longer and I took her along with me to the French Flea . . . 
11-Queen Bee French Flea 2013 024

 . . . where she went off to a very good and very stylish new home.

So, have you tried using dropcloth fabric for any projects around your house?  What have you made?  I’d love to hear about it.

Blessings,

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Magnetic Board Tutorial

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My life is a whirlwind! We have lots of company coming and going this month (fun times), we are beginning to gear up for the class we teach starting in the Fall (Freedom Session) and I’m trying to get ready for the Queen Bee French Flea in September.  My posts will likely be a bit sparse over the next weeks and mostly about the things I’m making for the flea market.  
I shared in my last post a picture of a magnetic board that I have hanging on my Message Center Wall, and I promised I’d share a tutorial so . . . here you have it!
I started with an old frame,
added a couple coats of spray paint,
took an inside measurement of the frame,
 and, with some really good metal cutting tools, . . .
. . . I began carefully cutting the piece of sheet metal that I purchased at my local hardware store.  Notice that I marked my cutting lines with permanent marker. It is really important to get this the right size the first time because it is a little hard (and time consuming) to cut through a large piece of sheet metal.  I really didn’t want to have to go back and do any more trimming.
 Whew! Perfect fit. Someone IS definitely watching out for me!
 To hold the sheet metal in place I added a few small nails around the perimeter of the frame.
Here you have the finished product!
 Since this is for a French Flea I printed off a picture of a fleur de lis (from The Graphics Fairy of course), cut it out, making a stencil  of the piece of paper I printed it on, taped it down well with two-sided tape, and spray painted it onto the sheet metal.  IMPORTANT: Paint doesn’t adhere to sheet metal well as it has a protective oil coating. I prepared the surface by washing it well with white vinegar.
 I draped the frame with some vintage handmade Irish lace from my mother-in-law. Doesn’t this lace look sort of like a banner?

I added some rosette magnets for fun. These are made with old lace, burlap and drop cloth fabric (rosette tutorial HERE).

And here she is . . . ready for market.
Thanks for stopping by for a little market preview!
Blessings,
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Rosette Wreath Tutorial

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So, as promised in my last post, SpringDreamin’, I’m back with a tutorial for one of my Spring decorating projects. This is my DIY Rosette Wreath made from leftover fabrics, including drop cloth material, vintage lace, burlap, and solid and floral cotton. I could call this my Pottery Barn wreath since the cotton fabric is from a Pottery Barn duvet cover which my dogs had a gigantic playfest on, resulting in a long tear right down the center. Oh well, I’m dreaming of a bedroom update anyway.
Plenty of leftover fabric if anyone is interested!
For this tutorial I used a strip of drop cloth fabric. The size strip you cut will depend upon the size rosette you want to make. This one was approximately 1-1/2″x18″. It is better to cut it a bit longer because you can always trim off the excess. 
Start by folding your strip lengthwise and finger creasing it.
Notice the fray to the fabric? I tend to prefer the frayed look but if you don’t . . . well . . . I guess you’ll just have to hem it!
 
Next turn the corner of the fabric piece down. This will be the center of your flower. While holding your rosette with one hand, twist the fabric from front to back with the other hand.  Continue wrapping your length of fabric around the “bud”, twisting as you go.
You can see the twists in the fabric in the pictures below.
With each twist apply a drop of hot glue.
Keep going until your rosette is the size you want and VOILA!
 
Okay, so what happens if your rosette doesn’t look anything like a flower?  Don’t worry, my first attempt at rosette making was pretty sad.  Don’t give up! If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again! Really! The nice thing about drop cloth fabric is that it has a little stiffness to it and kind of holds it’s shape. I practiced the twists and turns without the glue gun until I got the hang of it. 
After your rosettes are complete you’ll glue them to a wreath form. I thought a big willow wreath form from the craft store would’ve been beautiful but for this wreath, but everything I used I had on hand. Reason #1: I was in my pajamas and didn’t want to get cleaned up to go to the craft store. Reason #2: I’m fond of saving $$$. 
 
I hot glued the rosettes to a piece of cardboard cut in the shape of a circle, then trimmed close to the rosettes so it wouldn’t show from the front. I added a long piece of burlap around the outside of the rosettes as a sort of frame. I hot glued a wire clothes hanger, bent into a circle, to the back to make the wreath sturdier. Then I added a second row of burlap  to hide the hanger. I don’t know why but I tend to like my projects to look good from the back as well as the front.
Here is the end result, hanging from an old window on my covered front porch.
Below are some close-ups of my rosettes. I used 2 or 3 different fabrics to make each flower.
The entire project took an evening making flowers (while watching Downton Abbey) and a couple of hours the next morning putting it all together.
So there you have it!
If you’d like to see some more rosette wreaths for some added inspiration you can link to my post: TwoWreathsPlainAndFancy.
In this post I share a glittery rosette wreath and one made from an old flannel shirt.
 
I’ll be back in a couple of days with another Spring decorating tutorial but until then . . .
 
     Blessings,

 

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