Whimsy Couture is hosting a giveaway of a 25.00 gift certificate to my Etsy shop!

Check out the giveaway going on over at Whimsy Couture! I am giving away a 25.00 gift certificate to my Etsy shop. All purchases are discounted during this time as well!
There are many different ways to enter the giveaway and earn extra entries!

New Curtain for Closet Doorway Made!

I just finished curtains for the closet door in my youngest daughter's room. We removed the bi-fold closet door in this room to make more room for furniture. This offers a solution to still keep the contents of the closet (i.e. the mess) hidden. :) My little girl is excited about the curtain!

I thought I would type up a simple tutorial on making a doorway curtain just in case this interests you. Here goes . . . :)

STEP 1: Measure the Doorway. (My doorway opening was about 46 inches wide by 81 inches high.)

STEP 2: Decide how to cut your fabric. I was using 45 inch wide fabric. So for the width of the doorway-- I decided two widths of the 45 inch fabric would be great for what I wanted. This made the fabric used about double the width of the closet doorway. Just the right amount of gathering. If you have a standard closet doorway -- one width of 45 inch wide fabric would be great.

For the length of the doorway--- I subtracted one inch so it wouldn't hang on the floor. Then I added 2.5 inches at the top for the rod pocket. I also added 2 inches for the hem at the bottom.

(For my doorway I had two fabric pieces that were about 44 inches wide by 84.5 inches in length.)



STEP 3: Cut the selvages off of your fabric. Then fold over each of those edges by 1/4 inch twice. Iron in place then sew.






STEP 4: Turn up the bottom edge of your fabric pieces by 1 inch twice. Iron in place and sew to create the hem.




STEP 5: Serge or zig-zag the top edge of the fabric pieces to prevent raveling. Then turn under by 1/2 inch, iron in place. Then turn over 2 inches, iron, and sew near the edge to form your rod pockets.








STEP 6: Slide your curtain onto the expandable shower curtain rod. I had to remove the end rubber cap piece to be able to slide the rod through the rod pocket.


STEP 7: Place curtain in the closet doorway and stand back and admire your handiwork.


(You could also use this tutorial to create valances and other curtains by just changing the dimensions to fit your needs.)

Curtains that I have made. . .

I made window treatments for my little girls rooms and have considered making tutorials on how to make them to put in my etsy shop. Let me know what you think --- would this be something that would interest you or other people you know?

This is a indoor window awning valance that I made for my oldest two daughter's room.



I also made the awning for the closet door. The room is fairly small with all their furniture so by taking down the closet door and adding a curtain for the doorway it made room for a desk for their room.


Here is the curtain that I made for my smallest two daughter's room. This is called a dog-ear valance because of the shape of the ties on the curtain.


I saw a curtain this style and improvised it to make it fit my needs and the style that I wanted. I wanted the ties built into the curtain so all that had to be done was slide the curtain onto the rod, distribute the gathers evenly, and tie the ties. I have this valance for sale (as a custom order) in my etsy shop. However, I have also considered making this into a tutorial and selling the tutorial in my shop.

Here is a photo showing another way to tie the ties of the curtain that offers a little different look. . .


Let me know what you think! :)

What not to do when making an ironing board cover. . .

This is what I managed to complete recently.





This was a project that I thought would be a breeze and it turned out to be so complicated. . . I made it complicated!

My ironing board looked like this. . .

and I have been meaning to make a new cover for awhile now. So I decided to get that done quickly. . .

Anyway, I wanted to try free motion quilting for the first time on this ironing board cover. I also wanted to use a velour blanket that we have had stashed in the closet for a project such as this.

LESSON 1: A velour blanket does not work well as the padding for free motion quilting. (I think this made the fabric slide as I moved it underneath the machine-- I tried pinning with safety pins etc. to prevent this.)

It started out well. . .
but the fabric starting sliding slightly. I will have to try this again sometime with the right materials!

I ended up taking all of the free motion stitching out and serging the layers together. . . (the top fabric, blanket interior, and bottom fabric). I then tried to turn the edges under to make a casing for ribbon or elastic. This was a pain too! It was really too bulky with the blanket and other layers and hard to keep straight as turning it over. After getting this done it ending up being too small-- I guess with the bulkiness of it all it lacked a little fabric to make it fit.

LESSON 2: Add a few extra inches around the ironing board if you are going to used layers like this. Also consider the option of making the ironing board pattern separately from the cover. I was tempted to start all over but ended up making a casing out of coordinating fabric to slide some ribbon through.


I really like how it EVENTUALLY turned out! :) I like the extra padding that the blanket provided and I really like that it looks so pretty now!

If you would like more information on how I put this together. . . feel free to email.

New Pillow Covers Listed on Etsy!

I just listed some more pillow covers over on my Etsy store site. . .

You can click on the pictures to take you to each Etsy listing. I listed a few other pillow covers besides these also.







Thanks for looking!