Thursday, November 24, 2011

Patchwork Pillow

When I shop in thrift stores, I keep my eye out for furniture and decorative objects but another thing I love to hunt for is fabrics. There are always interesting finds like sheets, tablecloths, curtains etc. Sometimes there are even leftovers from fabric stores.

There are so many beautiful pillows all over decorating stores and websites these days and I wanted to try my hand at creating one. A gray and teal color combination was what I decided on, and I wanted to use different weights and types of fabrics. I bought a 16" x 16" pillow form at a craft store but you can also use stuffing and create whatever size you want. The middle panel was created first by sewing the right sides of several fabrics together.

I made two crumpled satin pieces of fabric by cutting them twice as long as the others, doing a loose hand stitch, pulling on the thread to crumple it then sewing it to another piece as usual. I saved my favorite fabric, the gray wool blend for the largest area which gives it a cozy feeling.

Now these orphaned fabrics have been given a new life!

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Favorite Things: Marvelous Medallions

I love the idea of hanging medallions on a wall. I found these ones in a few different places, the two small mirrored ones at a thrift store and the three middle ones discounted at a decorating store because they were a little damaged. They were all different colors but once I painted them the same acid pear tone they looked perfect together.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Beautiful Bench

I bought this little bench at a flea market this past summer. It was plain and boring and I wanted to change it up a little.


The seat had been originally covered in a strange vinyl and it had to go. Last time I visited my parent's place, I dug through my mom's sewing dresser and found some great vintage fabric that I used to cover the seat. Brown was the best choice to match my fabric and at the same keeps it neutral. I found the legs were a bit long and plain so I built a shelf for shoes to sit on.

I thought it would be fun to give the bench a little extra storage for hats and gloves, so I closed off the underside, and put hinges on the seat for it to open.

Now this simple bench has built-in storage and a lot more style!