All posts tagged DIY

New Pillows!

Just a few weeks ago I was the lucky recipient of a hand-me-down sewing machine. It’s beautiful. I love it. I think I’ve told my best friend at least four times since that we are now unstoppable as far as crafts are concerned. I feel like I can tackle any DIY project. Sewing machine in tow we can make curtains! napkins! table cloths! dresses! and pillows! Yay for pillows.

Last summer I bought fabric to recover some blah brown throw pillows in the living room, but being without a sewing machine, the project never really got off the ground. Well, last weekend Mr. Thirdrow was out of town so I set up shop in the living room and went to town. Here’s how I took our throw pillows from blah brown to beautiful. Keep in mind, this isn’t a fancy tutorial and I’m just a beginner, but I believe in you. Give it a try!

You’ll need some pretty fabric. The pillows I was covering were about 18″ square. I used about 1/2 yard of fabric, a 12″ (or appropriate size) invisible zipper, scissors, iron, thread, sewing machine. I found that Jo-Ann‘s fabrics and crafts was a great store for all of my supplies. They were friendly and helpful. They even have an iPhone app with coupons!

I have been in love with this patterned fabric for ages, but thought that it might be a little much for the entire front of my pillow cover. So, I decided to go with stripes on the front and then a solid green square for the reverse side. There was no complicated math involved here. I simply decided how many stripes I wanted, adjusted for the 1/4″ seam on each side, and sliced up the fabric. All you need is the calculator app on your phone for these calculations. Promise.

Once you’ve sewn all of your pieces together, take a few minutes and iron the underside of your pillow square to ensure that all of your seams are nicely flattened in the same direction. This will help it look nicer when it’s stuffed and on your sofa and also makes the next sewing steps a little easier.

When you have your two sides of the pillow cover sewn up and ready to assemble, it’s time to tackle the zipper. Zipper installation is all new to me. I’ve never done one before and it was surprisingly simple – although most of the credit goes to the zipper foot on the sewing machine! I fumbled my way through the first zipper by guessing at each step, but then, after a little googling, found a super helpful video tutorial. You should definitely take the time to watch this before you attempt your first zipper (also the ladies have British accents which makes them even more awesome).

Zipper tutorial Part 1   Zipper tutorial Part 2

Once the zipper is in you’re basically finished! Turn your pillow cover right side out and insert your old pillow or pillow form. That’s it! New pillows for less than $20. I think the new colors really changed our living space. I am a happy girl!

Happy pillow making!

6 Comments
by Erin on April 25, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Projects & DIY
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Posted by Erin on April 25, 2012

http://thirdrowseat.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/new-pillows/

Soil for our Garden Boxes

After we built our garden boxes last week, we were ready to fill them with dirt this week. Our part of town doesn’t have the best soil – it’s mostly clay – and, since we needed so much of it (about 80 cubic feet….), we decided to buy our dirt by the truckload from a local supplier. We bought our dirt from Kirkwood Material Supply Co. They were very helpful and affordable. I would highly recommend them if you are in the St. Louis area.

All we had to do was pull up and they loaded the soil right into our truck!

We were able to purchase a yard of their garden soil for less than $30. One yard filled two and a half of the boxes that we built. Their garden soil is a mix of topsoil, sand, and compost. Which means, not only was it convenient and a good deal, but it saved us a ton of labor mixing the sand and compost in ourselves. We needed about two full yards (two truckloads) to fill all of our garden boxes, pots, and fill in a few places in our backyard, but all in all, we’re pretty sure we spent less money on soil this year than last when we didn’t even have a vegetable garden!

The hard work was the unloading. It took us a while to shovel all of the soil out of the truck and into our garden beds. Luckily, our beds are located on our parking pad which made it easy to pull the truck close for unloading.

Don't our boxes look lovely! After being lined with landscaping fabric (to keep the soil from escaping through the drain holes in the bottom) and filled with soil they are ready for planting!

3 Comments
by Erin on March 15, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in In the Garden
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Posted by Erin on March 15, 2012

http://thirdrowseat.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/soil/

Bunting Birthday Card

Our dear friend is celebrating a special birthday this month. She has requested that there be no parties or hoop-la to celebrate the big 5-0. She is a busy lady, most generous with her time and talents, and I would imagine that a party may be more stressful than fun. So, her husband had to get a little sneaky in order to honor her on her special day and is having her friends send in birthday cards early. He hopes to amass a whole pile of them to present to her on her birthday. What a lovely idea!

Photo Credit pinterest.com/pin/39476934203402998

Since we are on a tight budget and birthday cards tend to be kind of pricey (at least for the cute ones), I decided to use up some odds and ends in my craft box and make a unique card to send. I saw this card on Pinterest.com a while back and thought it looked festive and also simple to make.

I used some leftover ribbon, craft paper scraps, and an orphaned envelope to create my own version. It was pretty easy and I had a cute, unique card to send off to my friend that took less time than a trip to the store and no money!

 

 

1 Comment
by Erin on January 25, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Projects & DIY
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Posted by Erin on January 25, 2012

http://thirdrowseat.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/bunting-birthday-card/

Recipe Cards: Old-Fashioned or New-Fangled?

I don’t know about you, but my computer has become just as important in my kitchen as my stand mixer and I could not live without my stand mixer. I have a few cookbooks that I look to for inspiration and recipes but most of the time I turn to pinterest.com or other online sources for new recipes and ideas. Since almost all of my weekly recipes (new and old) are housed in my email or on my pinboards I can’t get through prepping for a meal without consulting the internet. As a result, and as much as I try to avoid it, my laptop and iPhone are often smeared with olive oil or dusted with flour. Yuck.

I miss the old-fashioned hand printed recipe cards that my mom used and love when I pull out an old family favorite written on an index card in my Grammy’s hand writing. I’m only a short time into married life, but I often think about the family we are building. What will we leave behind? Which recipes will be my granddaughters’ favorites and will they recreate them in their own kitchens someday? In the past I’ve attempted (read: thought about attempting) to overhall my recipe folder of computer printouts and handwrite all of my favorite recipes to keep, but, let’s be honest, that is never going to happen.

That’s why I was so thrilled when I stumbled upon this free recipe card maker from Skip to My Lou! It’s easy to use and creates a super cute recipe card in a flash. I’m hoping to get in the habit of making my recipe cards as I go each week when I meal plan – eventually maybe all of our old favorites will be accounted for. I know it’s not hand written, but I’m hoping to meet in the middle here – a nice pass-on-able recipe card and a way to keep my computer flour-free!

3 Comments
by Erin on January 23, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in In the Kitchen, Projects & DIY
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Posted by Erin on January 23, 2012

http://thirdrowseat.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/recipe-cards/

Creamy Limoncello

I had my first lesson on driving a manual transmission after Mr. ThirdRow encountered limoncello for the first time at my parent’s house last spring. Limoncello is a wonderful, traditional Italian drink. It’s the perfect after-dinner treat. We both love it. So, when I came across this article on NPR about making your own, I knew that we couldn’t shouldn’t resist. We decided that small bottles of creamy limoncello would be the perfect compliment to our handmade soap for our family’s homemade Christmas.

We followed Susan’s recipe  with just a few slight variations. We used Kirkland brand Vodka that we bought at Costco instead of Everclear. The result was that our limoncello freezes slightly while stored which is easily remedied by setting out a bottle a few minutes before serving to allow it to become pourable again. We also used a few less lemons and an extra orange or two which added a slight sweetness that I really enjoy.

Let’s just say that making this limoncello was truly an adventure. Our house was robbed in the middle of the process (luckily the little punks didn’t steal the huge tub of vodka and lemon peels that were soaking on our kitchen counter) and we had our first major post-marriage fight while adding the cream to the first batch.

I’m happy to report that our fight has long since been resolved and the limoncello turned out as a wonderfully tart, sweet treat in spite of us. We bottled our final product in glass bottles with cork stoppers. For a special holiday touch we dipped them in gold bottling wax to add that je ne sais quoi classiness.

Linked Up: http://www.skiptomylou.org/

4 Comments
by Erin on January 12, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in In the Kitchen
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Posted by Erin on January 12, 2012

http://thirdrowseat.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/creamy-limoncello/

Manchester Avenue Soap, Co.

This year for Christmas our family decided to do a home-made Christmas. So exciting! So overwhelming! After a wedding at the end of October, it seemed like the holidays really snuck up on us this year, but we were up to the challenge and right away knew we wanted to try our hand at home-made soaps. Mr. ThirdRow gave me soap-making supplies for my 30th birthday last summer and I’d been distracted by wedding planning ever since. This was the perfect time to give it a go!

It was an intense process. Using lye meant rubber gloves, safety goggles, and aprons – not a very glamorous process it turns out. Mr. ThirdRow was in on the action when we brought out the drill and paint-stirring attachment to mix the melted fats with the lye.

We made three different batches of soap this time around – lemongrass, spanish sage, and lavender. Next time, I’ll be sure to do a better job of documenting the process for those of you who might like to give it a try. Until then, you should check out some of the different resources that we used for inspiration (below)

. Soap making can be dangerous if you’re not careful with the lye, so be sure to read up before you jump in.

We had a great time and I think our final product was a huge hit. More soap coming soon!

Resources:

Smart Soapmaking; Anne L. Watson

Basic Soap Making; Elizabeth Letcavage

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by Erin on January 8, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Projects & DIY
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Posted by Erin on January 8, 2012

http://thirdrowseat.wordpress.com/2012/01/08/manchester-avenue-soap-co/

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