7th & frederick

DIY Necklace Hanger with Vintage Spoons

Forgive me for being away so long!  I’ve been taking numerous cupcake orders, painting my room and helping out in our major kitchen remodel.  When I say major I mean down to the studs washing dishes in the bathtub major.  (Please forgive the background of the these photos.  We just had our HUGE butcherblock island installed last week and we’re excited to have another working surface that isn’t the crammed dining room table.)

This project is for my new bedroom that is becoming more and more beautiful by the day.  I told my mom I picked the happiest paint color in the world (embellished blue by Behr) because my room looks so much sunnier than it used to.  Everything included in this project was free to me except the paper, so that’s always good.  My granny gave me the spoons and the wood plaque and the sparrow graphic I printed from The Graphics Fairy.

Here’s what you need:

A wood plaque

Sterling silver spoons

You can decorate your plaque any way you want so I’ll briefly describe what I did.  I painted the trim grey, Mod Podge’d some scrapbook paper and the sparrow graphic on. 

Step one: Build a jig to drill holes in the ends of the spoons.  This is quick and prevents the spoons from spinning on you. Drill.

Step two: Bend your spoons.  My dad has this cool, simple wire bending jig that we used.  You may be able to use your hands. 

(At this point we attached a picture hanger to the back.)

Step three: Eye ball (or measure) and mark where you want the spoon hangers to go.

Step four: Drill the holes for the spoons. 

Step five: Screw the spoons on and hang. 

Bent spoons like this can have other uses, too.  My granny gave me a larger spoon that I’m going to use as a curtain tieback for my closet. 

Off to remodel!

DIY Bunting

I’m back with another DIY project for my bedroom redo.  This time it’s decorative bunting.  Bunting is very trendy as a wedding decoration, so if you have one of those coming up, this post may help you out.  There are many ways to make bunting, depending on how long lasting you want it to be.  I want mine to last, so that’s why I chose the non-fraying method.

Here’s what you need:

Fabric (to cover 7 yards of wall space I used 3 yards total of various fabrics)

Triangle pattern (mine was 6.5”x7” and made in Microsoft Word)

Ribbon trim (I used a lace trim)

Pins, scissors, sewing machine, iron

Step One: Print and cut out your triangle pattern, leaving 1/2” around the edge.  Fold your fabric and pin your triangles.  Make sure they’re straight.  Although my pattern indicates a flat tip to the triangle, I actually extended that and cut out a normal triangle.  If you want a no-sew version and you don’t want fraying, pinking sheers are your best bet.  If you don’t like that look and only need the bunting for a short time, normal sheers will do. 

Step Two: Cut the last 1/2” off the tip of all the triangles (found out later I needed that part gone to fold the edges over to make the tip of a triangle.) Fold each side in 1/2” and iron to create a nice crease.

Step Three: Using a zigzag stitch, stitch around all sides of every triangle.  I’m told by my momma that a zigzag stitch prevents fraying. 

Step Four: If your are concerned that you have enough triangles to cover the required space like I was, hang your ribbon like you want it, roughly pin your triangles to the ribbon and step back and make sure it looks right.  I’m glad I did this; I was short and needed to make four more.  Because I wasn’t following a repeating pattern, this also allowed me to randomly place the colors for the best look.

Step Five: Nicely pin the triangles to the ribbon.  I ultimately decided 3/4” spacing would work fine. 

Step Six: Sew using a straight stitch.  I’m happy to say I’m slowly getting better at this sewing thing. 

Hmmm….what to tackle next…

Lamp Shade DIY- Part Dos

This second lamp is for my vanity (a project that will be finished soon.)  When looking online for inspiration, I found this lamp, that was inspired by this lamp from Anthropologie.  I loved it, but burlap wouldn’t go in my new space.  On my way to Joann Fabrics while pondering over a different fabric choice, I thought about this lamp from Anthropologie and suddenly couldn’t get it out of my head.  I haven’t seen a tutorial on this one, so I was excited and determined to be the first. While you can use any color linen you want, I chose white because it will be on a colorful vanity, in front of a colorful wall.  Because it’s linen, it has loads of textural interest that make up for the neutral color.  The shade is the 10 inch dome (almost dome, really) from Target for 8 bucks.  The base is also from Target and was $19. 

Here’s what you need:

Shade

Base

Linen (1 yard should be fine)

Sewing machine

Scissors, hot glue, rotary cutter (optional), tracing wheel

Step one: Cut a strip of fabric for the flower petals.  I cut on strip that started at about 3 inches wide and ended at 5 inches.  This way the petals will be varying lengths. 

Step two: Using scissors or the rotary cutter, cut petals out of your strip of linen.  I cut 37 petals and had the EXACT amount necessary to cover my 10 inch dome lamp.

Step three: Cut a strip that in 2 inches wider than you lamp shade is tall and 5 inches longer than the circumference to be safe.  Start at the seam and begin wrapping and gluing the linen to the lamp.  Because it isn’t a perfect dome (the shade tappers slightly at the top) the material will want to pull down.  I wasn’t very concerned with keeping the linen pattern perfectly vertical, so my pleats are small.  The linen is also not perfectly flat. 

Step four: Using a sewing machine, sew along the edge of each petal, about 1/3 of inch from the edge. 

Step five: Pull the threads on the outer most edge of the petal.  The threads at the widest parts can be pulled all the way off.  Towards the top and the base of the petal, pull the threads enough to fray the edges and then trim the hanging threads so that they are around the same length.

Step six: Using a tracing wheel, trace along the sew line on each petal before you attach them to the shade.  This encourages the petal to curl at the edges. 

Step seven: Begin gluing the petals to the shade.  I began with a six petal flower, so all the other flowers are based off of that.  I would recommend gluing the petals at the center (overlaping) and not gluing them at the sides and tips before you know where you will place the flowers that surround the one you are working on.  This was you can overlap easily for a natural effect. Place some flower centers in the middle of the shade and some on or near the top and bottom.  This was in some cases you have full flowers and in others your have partial flowers.

Step eight: The Anthropologie lamp does not have centers.  I liked the way centers looked on the flowers so I made some of my own.  Cut strips that are 1 inch by 3 inches.  Fray all the edges.  Tie a knot in the center and twist and fold the ends across back of the knot and glue together.  Glue to each flower in the center. 

I am in LOVE with this lamp and it looks amazing on my almost finished vanity.

Remember to use low energy light bulbs!

Lamp Shade DIY

This past weekend between baking cupcakes, house sitting at two homes and helping my granny I found time to make two lamp shades for my new room.  Easiest one first.  I found a lamp base at Goodwill for $5 and painted it the embellished blue that will be my wall color.  The shade is from Target and was $8.  I purposefully chose this light, durable lamp for my night stand because I have a tendency in my sleep to reach out and knock over whatever is on my night stand- hopefully this lamp will prove to be a survivor.  I decided long ago that I wanted zebra print in my room, but the true black and white print is just too much, so I hand painted this shade using regular interior Behr paint that I used on my vanity.  I got my inspiration from this shade from Shades of Light.  

Here’s what you need:

Shade

Base

Paint

Step one: Paint the base.

Step two:  Think hard about the design and perfectly measuring off the shade into four equal sections so that the lamp will be painted perfectly. 

Step three:  Forget that and just go for it!  I am not a painter by any means and I have no experience drawing zebras so I printed off some examples, put brush to shade and never looked back.  However, I would recommend starting in the front (opposite the seam).  This seems like the opposite of what you want to do if you’re winging it, but I figured any spacing mess-ups I could hide in the back.  I started by working DOWN the front and then turned the lamp and worked UP the next side.  Repeat on the other side and finish in the back.  

Light it up and admire your work!

Recent Developments

Lauren and I have had a busy couple of weekends of baking for various special gatherings.  Two graduations, a birthday, a Welcome Home party for the men and women in Lauren’s husband’s unit and cupcakes to lift the spirits. 

Here’s a rundown:

Red Velvet with Cream Cheese

Chocolate Cake with Almond Filling and Coconut Buttercream

Cherry Almond

Vanilla with Chocolate and Chocolate with Vanilla

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese

Chocolate Cake with a Reece’s middle and Peanut Butter Buttercream

Be Tempted!