Nursery Project - A Comforter fit for a Prince or Princess!

This post continues the story of the nursery project I have been working on.  This is a Chronicles of Narnia themed nursery, in cream, gold, and red.  The previous post described the valence and pillows.  In this post I describe the baby's comforter, with other crib furnishings to be described in a later post.

The comforter is to be 42" x 52", in cream with a 4" gold band around the top and evenly-spaced tufts..  Centered on the top is to be a gold crown applique.

The first step was to wash all the fabrics.  After all, this is for a baby!

To prepare the top, I cut a smaller rectangle out of the cream and 5" wide strips for the bands. I used strips that were longer than the inside rectangle so that I could miter the corners.

After preparing the top, I will add the crown applique.  The applique was by far the most time-consuming part!

 Meeting with my client, we browsed crown images on the Internet and chose one for the comforter.  It was to be about 12" wide at the base, and centered on the top, with landscape orientation.

I took the image, about 1.5" wide originally, and blew it up to the desired size.  On the left, you can see it has been traced onto light double-sided adhesive paper made for applique work.  I took this piece and adhered it to the wrong side of the gold satin with an iron.

The next tedious step was to carefully cut out the design!

 Here is the cut-out design, with the adhesive backing removed, positioned on the comforter.  Take a minute and admire the scissor workmanship!!

 This is the design after it has been adhered.  It is beautiful and perfect just like this.  However, it would not stay that way.  If I wanted to, I could pick at it and start peeling up the design.  Leaving it like this would work only where it would never be touched or washed!  To keep it safe, I will have to sew around all the edges.

Here you can see the design after I have sewn around all the edges.  I also treated the edges with a treatment that will keep the edges from fraying and threads from loosening.






Now, back to putting the comforter together.

Here is the under side of the top, with the mitered gold bands shown.  In preparing to stitch the top to the under side of the comforter, I am marking the exact width of the band based on the stitching line attaching the band to the inside rectangle.  This ensures the band is a uniform width around the comforter.   Actually, I set up this picture after I did the sewing, but needed to show how the marks were done.




 I stitched just inside the marked line, turning where the bands met in the corner.  Of course, I leave an opening to turn the comforter right side out later.

To fit the batting to the comforter, I laid it over the wrong side of the top, aligning two edges and cutting the other edges to fit.

I then pinned the batting to the wrong side of the top (which is already sewn to the under side of the comforter), flipped it over, and sewed all around (except for the opening), following the same line of stitching used to attached the top and under sides of the comforter.  Finally, I serged all around.

 Turning the comforter right-side-out, I pressed it and hand-closed the opening.  Here you can see the pins marking where the tufts will be.  I sewed the tufts by hand.

 The finished comforter - needing another round of pressing!

It's weird how the camera skews proportions at a distance.  The comforter looks square, but is actually ten inches longer left to right.

A close-up of the crown.

This fabric has worked well - the cream feels good to the touch, and the satin is like liquid gold.  I think it will look beautiful in the nursery!

Start of the Nursery Project - Valence and Pillows

Another recent, but not-so-little project was to create the furnishings for a baby nursery!  Somehow, knowing these things were for a baby's room made the project all that more enjoyable!

I first met with the mother-to-be to discuss designs, then accompanied her to the fabric store to look at materials.  The theme she chose was "Chronicles of Narnia," and was to include iconic imagery from the series, including lions, crowns, lamppost, children in the woods, and quotes.  The colors she had in mind were cream, gold, and red.  

We found some gorgeous fabrics in cream and gold for crib furnishings, and a beautiful heavy red and gold chenille with a medieval look we thought would coordinate well.

We decided to use the patterned fabric for a valence and two pillows, which I describe in this post. 

The valence was to be hung from a 4" board, with box pleats on each end.  We decided to insert the heavier gold fabric inside the two pleats.    

The first step was to place a strip of the gold fabric in the place needed to be inside the pleat.

The next steps were cutting and preparing the lining, sewing it to the back of the main fabric (hemming the bottom edge and sides at the same time), then making the pleats and basting the entire top edge.

I stapled it to the top of a prepared board* and edged it with some cording made from the same fabric.  I tacked the pleats slightly to keep them from swinging open.  (*A board is prepared by covering it in lining fabric.  After stapling on the valence and cording, the lining fabric folds over to hide the staples and make it look tidy.)

Here it is posing on a filing cabinet for a picture.  We will have to wait for pictures of it installed - the home is in another state!

The pillows are 22" feather pillows.  They are edged in self cording, with zipper closures.

I just love feather pillows.  They have such a luxurious feel, and will always fluff up beautifully, with never a lump!

The rest of the project - crib skirt, bumpers and ties, comforter, pillow, and rail pad - will be covered in following posts!

Pillow Recover

This is just a little project to recover a couple of pillows.  The two pillows are being recovered using fabric the client had left over from breakfast room valences I made last fall (see earlier post).

There was nothing very unusual about this pillow recover.  The pillows were to be made with an envelope closure - where the cover could be removed, washed, and put back on.


When I removed the existing cover, by cutting off one side, I noticed the stuffing was well-formed, but loose.  I could see it wouldn't keep its shape if it were removed from an envelope enclosure and put back in.





So I took some lining fabric and made cases for the two pillow stuffings.

After preparing the pillow forms, I cut fabric for the two pillows, serged edges, made cording and attached it to the front, prepared the envelope closure for the back, and attached the two.  Since this fabric unravels very easily, after trimming the corners I treated them with a solution to keep the cut edges from fraying.

This picture shows the front of the two pillows, with the main design centered.








This picture shows the back, with the envelope closure.  Even though this side will not normally be seen, I tried to use pieces that would fit together close to the appearance of the main design.

I just love this fabric!

Den Drapes Makeover with Valences and Celtic Applique

What??  ME have a little time on my hands and just enjoy the moment?  Rare!  This was just the dangerous situation I found myself in last week.  After all, there are so many projects at home needing to be done.  For one thing, the drapes in my den have needed a makeover for some time.  They are too long for a recessed area two of the windows are in.  And they let in too much light around the top for this room, which we watch TV in.  And they were hard to open and close because they were gathered on the rod.  I have actually thought about what I wanted to do for a long time, and decided to just take care of it this week.

My solution was to cut off the drapes to the correct length and use the cut off part to make a valence.  I'll just describe this part because I should NEVER be trusted to be the one that takes pictures of everything that needs pictures, and I'm afraid I fell down on the job again this time.

I knew I would have about 13" to cut out.  To preserve the existing hem of the drapes and lining, I took this 13" out at the bottom edge of the rod pocket at the top.  After cutting out the piece and putting it aside, I attached the long bottom piece to the rod pocket heading.  I knew that piecing seam would not be noticeable there.  At the same time, I inserted interlining to give the drape body and add insulating qualities -- this room tends to get cold in the winter.

After attaching the lower drape to the header, I put in pinch pleats so the drape could be opened and closed easily and retain evenly-spaced gathers when closed.  I did not use a header tape because I wanted it to be soft and stay open when opened.  Plus, the pinch pleats themselves will not show under the valence and did not need to be so crisp and perfect.

The drapes finished, I hung them using cafe rings on the same inexpensive sheer rod they were on before.  The cafe rings and sheer rood will not show under the valence.

To make the valences, I planned to hem the strip I removed from each panel and staple it to a 1x4 board, and mount it above the drapes.  But I felt the valence needed some decoration or interesting feature.  I had heard about appliqueing Celtic designs or monograms using bias tape and decided to be my own guinea pig so I would be experienced should a client request this feature. 

I went online and found what is a fairly typical Celtic design.  I printed it out, enlarged it to the size I wanted, and made a pattern.  After completing the valence, I positioned the design in the middle. 

I punched holes in the key turns and used a fabric marker to mark the design and then connect them to form the entire design.

 Next I prepared the bias tape.  I had wanted to take the easy way out and find a packaged bias tape, but could not find one in the color I wanted.  I couldn't find cotton either, which would have been the easiest fabric to make bias tape with.  I did find a really pretty gold heavy satin.  The satin was a beautiful choice for this, but not friendly for making bias tape!!  I eventually figured out a method that worked for me and got busy applying it to my prepared valence.

I used a mini-iron (shown here) because I needed something small to work with this 3/8" wide tape.  The mini-iron I purchased - the Clover Mini Iron II - is really the only choice out there.  And it is a piece of junk!  (Not to put too fine a point on it!)  Within 20 minutes, the metal rod coming out of the handle (inside the plastic guard you see on the left) came loose and wiggled around in the plastic housing!  It was not usable that way.  I discovered the rod does not go all the way down the handle but is "anchored" only about a 1/4" inside it!  After much frustration, I found a way to have it held centered inside the plastic guard and was able to keep working.

The finished design!!  I thought it turned out well after all the frustrating twists and turns.








This picture shows the updated drapes.   By the way, I added blackout lining inside the valences so light wouldn't come through and interfere with the look.  I'm sorry I don't have "before" pictures, because this is a 100% improvement!

I'm starting on a baby nursery for a client this week.  I'll keep you posted!

Sheer window and bed curtains

This project was to create the window and bed curtains for a soft, "marshmallow" guest room.  All of the treatments were to be hung from ceiling height (10') and made with white voile - nearly 50 yards!

There were two tall windows, with the sheers to be hung just under the crown molding and puddling slightly below.  There was to be a panel on each side of both windows.  The queen size bed was to be surrounded with sheers hung from the ceiling, two panels of sheers per side.  That is a total of 12 panels of sheers!  Yikes!  

The window panels were hung slightly lower that ceiling height, but needed to puddle.  The bed panels were to go from ceiling to floor.  The window panels were going to be pinch pleated with a 5" header, using tabs behind to go over the rod; the bed panels were going to have a sleeve go over the rod, with a ruffle at the top. The first step was to cut all of the panels, the window panels just a couple of inches shorter than the bed panels.  I marked and numbered each piece with a bit of masking tape.  One complication was I lacked enough fabric to cut two of the panels to their full length.  I ended up suggesting these could be the bed header panels, where the pieced part would not show.  My client agreed and we purchased some additional fabric.  I cut the pieces so that both header panels would be pieced at the same level - which was about 24" above the floor, then pieced the two panels, using a French seam.  This saved several yards of fabric!

The hems came next.  All were 6" double hems.  Since voile is so slippery slidey, I started with just pinning at the 12" mark.  Then I folded hem up where the pins were and ironed that edge.  Then I folded the 12" inside the fold all the way to the bottom fold and pinned and ironed.  Much easier said than done with this loosey goosey fabric!  Final step was stitching along the very edge of the hem fold all the way across.  By very edge, I mean ideally within one thread of the fold!  

After the hems, I cut the selvages off the sides (because they pinched slightly and would show through the hem) and turned in a double 2" hem.  This was done just like the bottom hem, but I didn't pin first, just turned 4" over and pressed.  In turn, I folded the edge inside, pinned, pressed, and stitched to give a 2" wide side hem.






With all hems and sides done, I addressed the window panel headers.  They were to be pinch pleated, and be able to open and close, with a tab on the back so that the panels hid the rod.   Since these were to have a very soft feel, I decided not to use a header tape or buckram.  I simply folded the header over 6", folding the last inch under again and sewing close to the edge.

After marking the gaps and pleats and sewing the pleat seams, I took an extra step to give the pleats support, as well as a place to sew the tabs on:   I folded the header around the each pleat seam and stitched about 3/16" from the edge.  This created a ridge behind each pleat.

To finish the pleats, I pinched each one and tacked at the top and bottom.  Then I sewed a strip of selvage I had cut off the sides to the ridge behind each pleat (shown to left and below).

Now to the bed curtains.  Originally they were to be pleated and hung from rings, but the new plan called for them to be threaded over the rods with a sleeve, with a 3" ruffle on top.  This not only softened the look, but saved purchasing nearly 100 rings!  This required a little extra length, so I purchased a little more fabric and pieced extra length to the tops of the panels so that the piecing seam was along the top fold, where it wouldn't show.  The two panels at the head of the bed were going to stay closed, but the other sides needed to open and close.  When the panels were closed, it was desired the panels retain even gathering.  I solved this by making a tack at the top of the sleeve every few inches, just like the spacing would be if they were pinch pleated. Pictures above show the opened and closed look.

The installation was somewhat time-consuming, since it involved ironing each panel before hanging.  And let's not forget dealing with the ceiling rods over the bed!   Let me tell you, threading on panels, cutting gaps for the brackets, tacking the corner edges together, and doing the other arranging needed was not easy with a 10' ceiling!  I am tall, but still had to stand on the 2nd step from the top of this ladder.  Fortunately, I made it through without any injuries!  And so did the chandelier!










   

Here are the finished window sheers.  Very full, with two panels per window.  The panels open and close with 60" clear plastic batons attached to the inside tab of each panel.  Works very well.

Why is one picture mellow yellow and the other white?  Ask my phone!  Maybe I'll bring my nice camera next time.









I'll include several pictures of the bed curtains, since the room is a little small for a comprehensive picture of the entire thing.  The first pictures are before the bed was put inside.

 A good picture of the ceiling rods.

 A pretty chandelier in the middle.

As close as I could get to floor-to-ceiling shots.

The bed is purchased and put inside.  Lovely!  At some point, the client plans to complete the look with a headboard.

                     

Various recent crochet projects

This is a gallery of some of the crochet work I have done recently.  I teach crochet as well as knitting, including how to read patterns, how to choose yarn and needle sizes, and how to block.

This triangular scarf took several evenings while watching TV, and wasn't hard.  I got this pattern, "Festival Shawl" designed by Lyn Robinson, found on Ravelry.com.  It is crocheted using Lion Brand's "Vanna's Glamour", color Topaz.  It is a beige with a gold metallic running through it.  Very pretty in person.  I crocheted in small beads around the two 'v' edges.










This native girl is made with a gourd and various crocheted motifs hot-glued on.  One of my favorite features in this one is the crystal belly button!   I had split the gourd in half so that I could hang it on the wall.  The other half is still in my sewing room waiting for inspiration!




While I was decorating the master bath, I made this for my husband's area.  Slightly naughty, but appropriate for its location!








I must have needed something to do when I made this --- it became one of a set of picture frames, and went in the same room as the gourd girl, using the same yarns.








We go camping a lot, and I always have something with me to do while traveling or relaxing.   To the left is a cozy to go around the french press coffee maker we keep in our camper, to keep the coffee warm.  I found the "buttons" (off of elastic hair ties) at a Dollar Store while we were in Munising, MI.








Below are various beanies (but not all) that I made on a recent trip.