Thomas & Friends birthday party bunting (paper)

When I saw this book for just a buck at the thrift store, I thought it should come home with us.

It's one of those books that makes sounds... but this book was pretty old and beat up, so the sounds were less children's book and more creepy horror movie-- all scratchy and hard to hear.

I thought I could rescue it by giving it new life-- Thomas the Train Book Bunting! I used thrifted bias tape for the project as well.

I actually made this one before the Thomas the Train Fabric Bunting, which is now hanging in his room. I decided that hanging this one too might be overkill, so... I'm actually going to disassemble this one and use it in a different project! This Thomas the Train book is getting more lives than a cat.

I used a fancy paper punch around the edges, which kinda gave it a Papel Picado feel.

Thomas & Friends Book Bunting

Materials: Thomas the Train Book ($1 - thrifted), bias tape (.50 cents - thrift store), thread

Total cost: ~$1.50

Before & After: DIY Vintage Nightstand Makeover

Shabby chic: ya either love it or ya hate it.

I happen to love it... as long as it's not total overboard like you're living in some countryside Northeastern (1980s) bed and breakfast. I like the muted whites and florals that the look is known for, but I also love color and other graphic prints too much to go full-on with it.

And of course I love vintage, retro, antique... just plain OLD stuff. Always have. So that's perhaps what I find most appealing of all about the SC aesthetic. The aged, loved, worn, and yes, distressed (even it's it's faux distressed) fabrics and woods.

Don't be hatin'.

Among the old things I don't love: 1970s veneer. So when I bought this nightstand, I full intended on painting it all along.

And here she is now!

I know you've seen these "white with distressed paint" makeovers all over the blogosphere so it's nothing really special, but I'm really happy with it!

It was my first attempt at making over a piece of furniture. Oh, I've painted plenty of stuff, but I've never sanded, primed, chosen new hardware, done specialty finishes like faux distressing and blue washes, then sealed.

My previous endeavors were "paint over the old paint until you can't see said old paint any longer aaaaannd.. done".

It'll now live next to my bed and probably hold some sewing stuff spilling over from my craft nook. I hope I get to do more projects like this in the future!

Colette Sorbetto: purple floral

Here's yet another Sorbetto.

The black floral making up the main part came from the stash I inherited from my beloved Grandma, and is probably from the early 90s. I bought the purple stuff I made the bias tape from at WalMart, when I went there to pick up some Thomas and Friends fabric. I'd already been planning to make this one, and when I saw the purple stuff, I thought it would be perfect!
You may notice the purple strip down the center of the pleat. I had a lot less of the black stuff than the 1.5 yards called for in the Sorbetto, but I knew there was still enough to squeeze a top from it. So instead of cutting the front on the fold, I just cut it twice in two different spots. To stitch it together, I put a strip of the contrast in between, but only decided to do so after I cut it into a 1.5 wide strip.
The Sorbetto is still a little wide in the hips for me, but I've gotten it to the point that it fits much better than my first Sorbetto. I'm basically cutting a 16 down the sides and at the top shoulder seam, while leaving the armscyce, neckline, and length an 18 (or longer). The darts I put at size 16.
1990's Floral Tank
Pattern: Colette Sorbetto (free)
Materials: Purple floral quilting cotton (I don't remember what I paid for this half-yard, but I think it was ~$6/yd - WalMart), black & purple floral fashion fabric (free - Gramma <3)
Total Cost: Under $8, probably around $5 or less

Thomas the Tank Engine Toddler Stack and Slash Quilt

Are you sick of seeing Thomas the Train here yet? Because I've got more...

But today is my son's first birthday, so I promise we're almost done!

Also done: his first birthday quilt.

There are loads of mistakes, but it IS my first quilt in a good 15-20 years, AND my first one all by my lonesome (without my Grandma's help). I'll get better... hopefully.

There are six "stacked and slashed" fat quarters, with the seventh FQ providing sashing in between each row of two. It's a combo of tied with red yarn and machine quilted.

Thomas & Friends Stack & Slash Toddler Quilt
Materials: Thomas & Friends FQ Bundle ($7 - WalMart); pillow ticking, yarn, and red fabrics all from my Grandma; extra Thomas fabric from for the border; batting (~$7 - Jo-Ann sale)
Total cost: Under $20, but we all know quilts cost waayyy more to make than just the materials!

DIY Thomas & Friends birthday party bunting (fabric)

Here's some Thomas & Friends birthday bunting I made for my son's first birthday party!

Here's the method I used:

• I did some light math and determined how many triangles I wanted, how far apart, and how large they should be.
• Based on those measurements, drew and cut out my Isosceles Triangle pattern.
• Cut out twice as many triangles as I wanted to end up with, so that each would have a front and back.
• Sewed down each of the longer two sides, right-sides together.
• Turned them right-side out and pressed.
• Pinned and sewed them into double-fold bias tape, using a wide zig-zag.

I used a red paisley fabric I inherited from my Grandma. I was hoping it would  give off a train engineer's bandanna vibe, but truthfully, it was the only red in the stash. I also bought a yard of the only Thomas cotton that Jo-Ann's had, only to later find some Thomas the Train fat quarters on clearance at WalMart. (Both the fat quarters and the extra fabric from this bunting ended up being used in his first birthday quilt.)

DIY Retro Bread Box

I've wanted a vintage-style enamel bread bin but can't quite seem to afford one. You know the ones; white or pretty pastels with the word BREAD emblazoned across the front, lest we forget what to store in there. ;)

I racked my brain for a while on how to paint letters onto a readily available metal bread box. What kind of food-safe enamel paint would go on neatly? And how do I get it to not look so much like a stencil, just like my inspiration?

I found this cute retro bread box at Target, and although the garage-door-style opening isn't exactly the style I wanted, but I couldn't pass it up for the price.

And now, the solution to retro-fy it... vinyl stick-on letters. They're a true black and a good font for the look I was going for. They're just permanent enough, but not too permanent that I couldn't preposition them. Yes, they're crooked in the picture below. That's the beauty of it; after this picture was taken, I straightened them out. And then was too lazy to re-take the picture.

These basic black ones I found at Wal-Mart in the poster section for I think about $3.99, maybe even $2.99. But I saw similar ones at Office Depot in different colors and fonts, which might be fun to try also!

DIY Retro Bread Box

Materials: bread box ($17.99 - Target), vinyl letters (~ $3.99 - WalMart)

Total cost: Under $25

DIY Nursery Letters

When I was a kid, I was always super disappointed whenever I perused personalized souvenirs. You know the ones; keychains, license plates, and shotglasses that come already emblazoned with common names. I could never find my name.

So now, I love the chance to personalize anything I can. That's carrying over to purchases for my son, too. So even though nursery letters are becoming pretty cliched, I still wanted to make some. In fact, since his first name is so short, I decided to plow forward into his middle moniker as well.

They're pretty straightforward, so I'm not going to insult your intelligence with a tutorial. I wanted the "cobbled together and collected from various sources" look, so they intentionally have different fonts and paint designs.

UPDATE: I've had lots of people landing here looking for ideas to DIY their own, so even though I didn't photograph a tutorial, here's a list of what I did (see below the new picture for a list of tools and materials):

1. Shopped at local craft and hobby stores (and one big box chain!) for mismatched letters.
2. Sketched out the letters on paper (see the new picture below), and drew designs on the letters so that I wouldn't have the same patterns too near each other.
3. Came up with a color scheme, and just like the patterns, sketched it on paper so I wouldn't have too much of the same color too near each other.
4. Lightly sanded the letter with a fine-grit sandpaper. I was mostly looking to smooth out the manufacturing imperfections.
5. I considered priming them, but didn't! I got right to painting the base coat on each letter. Some took more than one to get the base as dark as I wanted it.
6. Once they'd dried, either free-handed the next design layer, or started applying painter's tape. (TIP: paint the base coat over the painter's tape before changing colors. This'll keep the second color from seeping under the tape).
7. Finished each one off with a layer of clear spraypaint! DUNZO.

DIY Nursery Letters
Acrylic craft paint on wood
Letters: From Richard's and WalMart, $1.99 - $2.49 each, approximately $18 total
Paints: On sale for 50 cents each at JoAnn (Purchased in Navy, Cobalt, Orange, White, Black, Yellow, Red, then mixed)
Foam brushes: $1.99 at JoAnn
Crackle medium: $2.49 (Used on letters "T" and "L")
Clear spray paint finish: About $3.69 at WalMart, KRYLON in Satin
Total project cost: Approximately $29