Simple gift idea- DIY Christmas Pillow

I just finished a Christmas pillow that I just finished for a friend.  I love the way that it turned out.  My inspiration came from this fabulous Pottery Barn pillow that I stumbled upon through pinterest.  With a price tag way above my budget I decided to try and make my own version. 

I thought for about 2 minutes about cutting out a billion little felt leaves and hand stitching them on but then I remembered I am not an idiot and didn't want to spend 5 hours doing that.  *** Note to my sensitive readers- I don't think you are an idiot if you choose to go that route.  I'm a very impatient person and I would likely end up pulling my hair out and throwing a tantrum if I started a tedious project like this, so I personally would have been an idiot if I made that choice.  If you're patient enough to handle that kind of a project, my hat goes off to you.  :)  ***SOOOOO here's what I came up with instead to add a little flair and joy of my own.

Turned out pretty cute, right?  Best part about it?  My version cost about 1/10 of the PB price.

Here's what I did:

Following the same steps I shared with you in a previous post HERE, I quickly stitched an envelope pillow case out of bleached drop cloth, then using a cricuit machine, I cut out the word "joy"  on freezer paper and spray painted the stencil onto my pillow using a metallic silver paint (I prefer Rustoleum).

Last, but not least I picked up this darling rosette lace at Joann for about $5/ yard (cheaper with their 40% or 50% off coupon) and placed the lace where I wanted it creating a wreath and securing it in place with pins.  Then, I hand stitched from the back side between every rosette to secure the lace in place, and viola!  After about 30 min total, my pillow was finished and darling. 

Here she is in me living room.  I love Christmas decor that is subtle and still festive without red and green screaming in your face. 

I also made these holiday pillows for the seasonal front porch bench.

I intended to string a row of jingle bells below the "Believe" but just haven't gotten around to it yet.  Maybe I'll get off my lazy toosh and get to that.  Probably not...

Last but not least, I have to give a shout out to my new friend Ashley. She is a new reader who is also the lucky new owner of my latest Chevron chair.  I got to meet her in person last night and she was adorning me with compliments and praise left and right.  I didn't feel at all worthy for it, but she made me remember why I blog.  Thank you Ashley and all who continue to read and support this silly passion of mine.

XO

Penny Wenny

Re-upholstery With Drop Cloth- Part 2

Welcome back, folks.  If you missed part 1 of this tutorial, please catch up here . We're learning how to re-upholster with a drop cloth, like I did with this chair.

Here's how to prepare your drop cloth for upholstery.  Although the drop cloth trend is all over blog land and DIY shows/ magazines, I still learned it first from my fave, Miss Mustard Seed (love that girl). 

Drop cloths are a fantastic fabric to use on re-upholstery for several reasons:

1. They are CHEAP in price; my 6' x9' cloth cost about $10 from Home Depot
2. The material is heavy, thick, and super durable
3. The texture and color (post bleach) are beautiful with a "natural" feel  
4.  If you mess up on your project you don't have to feel guilty about spending a ton of $ on a pricey fabric
5. I love to have a neutral base color for the furniture piece so that you can change the look in any space quickly and inexpensively with accent pillows or throws

Even if you don't love the way that the material looks, I would highly recommend using this if you're a newbie to re-upholstery and want something inexpensive to learn with.  If you don't love the piece after you're finished (which I bet you will), sell it! My chair went like hot cakes as soon as it was posted online.

Here's what my drop cloth material looked like when I purchased it.

I'll be the first to admit that I was very skeptical when I first picked it up and thought Miss Mustard Seed must have a much better drop cloth variety at her local hardware store because mine definitely didn't look as pretty as hers all do on her chairs.  Trust me, it really does look beautiful when finished.  The texture is very rough initially and there will be a lot of different colored threads in the mix, along with a few nubbs in the fabric.  These will all work to your advantage on the finished piece!


First, I bleached my material by mixing about 2 cups of bleach into a large sink full of hot water.  If you have a top loading washer, I would suggest bleaching in there and allowing it to sit for several hours before running the whole cycle through.

 Per Miss Mustard Seed's suggestion from one of her readers, I also added 1 cup Hydrogen Peroxide to the mix, which neutralizes your bleach so that it doesn't continue to "bleach" later on. 

I let this little mixture sit in my sink for several hours, stopping by for a quick "stir" every so often.

I'll take a quick second to put in my plug for large single basin sinks... I LOVE ours.  We had one installed very apprehensively in our last apartment where we lived and never regretted it for one second.  It was one of my first requests when we built our home and I love it.  It's great for so many things (including bathing your babies).  We love it!

After the fabric soaked for several hours, I very carefully transported the cloth in a laundry bucket to my front loading machine, where I washed the cloth on a hot cycle with another cup of bleach and my regular amount of detergent added to the load.  Once that load was finished, I washed it once more without bleach or detergent, and added lots of fabric softener.  Lastly, I dried the drop cloth with about 15 dryer sheets to soften the fabric.

I did my best to iron the fabric and spent quite a while doing this, but realized afterwards that it really was an unnecessary step.  Because the fabric will be pulled very taut when stapling, you really don't need to iron.  If you are using the material for a separate seat cushion cover or a slip cover that won't be stapled into place, I would highly recommend taking the extra time to iron. 

As you remember from the first post, my frame was all ready to go and the foam had been cut.  I failed to mention in the foam section of that post that I secured my foam in place, to the back piece of heavy cardboard using spray adhesive.  This step isn't really mandatory but it certainly makes it easier to work with when you don't have to try and keep your foam held in the right place while you are also trying to hold and tug at your fabric.  I have read from other bloggers that they staple their foam in place first.  I personally don't think this is a great idea because you risk seeing the puckering between that space and where you staple your fabric in place, or you may be left with excess foam that needs to be trimmed, adding more thickness to the area that you will later try to cover up with your welting cord.  I suggest that you glue your foam in place and staple around it, not through it.

Next, I cut out my batting and fabric using the original piece of fabric that I had saved as my template, adding approx 1 inch all around the perimeter.

I always like to add a layer of batting on my pieces between the foam and new fabric for a few reasons.  Primarily, for comfort.  It simply means another layer of cushion and also "firms" things up a bit.  Second, it makes it so that you can't see the foam color through your fabric if it is a woven material or transparent at all.  Third, it softens the distinguished lines of the foam so that it curves better around the edges.  The extra thickness of the batting does make it a bit more challenging to work with, but I think it's worth the extra step.

and began pulling the batting and fabric (one at a time) through the inside back of my chair,

so that I was left with this:

You can see that I could have definitely gotten away with less fabric and had I been using an expensive fabric, I would have spent much more time calculating as minimal material as I needed beforehand but since this entire cloth of fabric cost me $10, I wasn't too concerned.

Once I had the material and batting exactly where I wanted it, I began stapling using my fabulous pneumatic staple gun.  If you are looking for one to purchase, the one I use is a pneumatic Porter Cable Crown Stapler (it cost about $80 at Home Depot).  If you don't know what pneumatic means (like I didn't a year ago), it means it is operated by compressed air, and has to be attached to an air compressor.  Our Porter Cable Air compressor cost about $100 (and included a few free tools like a nail gun and finishing nail gun).  These two tools were by far one of our best investments (and one of my favorite birthday gifts).  If you plan on doing upholstery projects, I cannot stress enough how much easier the pneumatic tools are to use than the hand held staplers or even the electric ones.  They just don't even compare.  Your hands will thank you.


When stapling your fabric and batting in place, you will want to always follow each staple with one directly across from the one prior, ensuring a snug pull.  For example, I started with a staple at the top center of my chair,

and went next to the very bottom center where I first pulled tightly at the fabric and then stapled in place.  On your very first section, however, I suggest stapling 2 side by side so that when you pull on the opposing end, it doesn't tear your fabric.  Once you have your top and bottom 2 staples in place, you can continue this pattern on the sides and rest of the top/bottom one staple at a time.

Here's what it looked like in back as I began to staple:

Here's what it looked like once all the stapling was finished on the inside back piece of fabric:

 

Since I decided to leave the top wood exposed on this chair, I was able to determine my own pattern.  I goofed a few times, so the staples that are above the line had to be carefully pried out after I was finished.

The next piece to go on was the outside back.  In this case, I first stapled my batting in place (since it was a very snug fit with the batting I had left to work with), and then followed the batting with my fabric.  This piece was easy peasy since there was no pulling through the chair.  It was simply a matter of working in opposites and keeping a snug pull the same way I mentioned above.

Lastly, I used a very sharp and small pair of scissors to trim away the excess fabric and batting as closely as possible to the staples in any area that would be covered with double welting cord. On hidden areas, you don't need to beat yourself up, just trim away the major hang-overs.

Are we starting to see it come together?  Hang in there for one more tutorial, and lastly we will learn how to achieve this fabulous bubbly seat cushion,

 and (drums please) how to make your own very professional and custom looking double welted cord to cover up all those icky staples.

Stay tuned!

~PW

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How to Re-upholster with a Drop Cloth- Part 1

Let me preface this by saying that I am by no means a professional upholsterer.  In fact, if you by chance are a professional please look away.  I don't want you to cringe. :) However, through lots of trial and error  I'm starting to get the hang of it.
 
I have had several people ask me recently how/where I learned to re-upholster.  When I first decided that I wanted to tackle this French Wingback Chair myself, I spent hours searching websites and blogs for a great tutorial.

While there were several okay ones out there, nothing completely answered my questions, particularly one that I had for covering my exposed staples on a chair with an exposed wooden frame (not like a fully upholstered wingback chair).  Finally I found what I was looking for on the ever so talented Amy's blog, Design Intervention.  She shared a fantastic week long tutorial called Re-upholstery 101 that answered all of the questions I had.  If you are interested in learning to re-upholster yourself, please read her tutorial!

That being said, I will do my best to walk you through the steps that I used to reupholster this fabulous chair using a Home Depot $10 drop cloth for my fabric.  Buckle up, here we go!

My very first suggestion would be to start out small.  Before I tackled the French Wingback Chair with a pattern that I had to line up (still gives me a headache just remembering the experience), I started out with very simple projects where I simply had to upholster a basic shaped seat and screw it into the furniture.  I first did these accent chairs (tutorial available there for the very basics of re-upholstering),

then upped my ante a bit when I upholstered  and  tufted this darling foot of bed bench. 

From there, and with the information I needed from Design Intervention, I tackled the French Wingback Chair.  It was indeed quite the experience.  I promise that one day I will post a tutorial on how that process went down, but in all honesty I kind of just don't even want to remember it for a few years months.

After a project like that, this last chair I transformed was literally a piece of cake. 

                                                             

Step 1: Label and Snap

Before you begin any work, I suggest that you label your individual pieces of fabric with a sharpie and take a "before" picture so that you will remember where each piece belongs on the chair.

I was naughty and didn't label my drop cloth chair, but this lovely picture of the French Wingback before shows the proper way to do it :)

This becomes very useful on projects where there are more than 2 simple pieces of fabric.  I also like to  keep a notepad next to me as I work and jot down the order in which I pull off fabric sections, so that I know how to put them back on in the reverse order.  In the case of my drop cloth chair, I first pulled off the seat cushion, then the back (outside), and lastly the back (inside).  Unless your seat is removable like mine was, the seat cushion will typically be the last thing to come off (and therefore the first thing to go back on.... make sense?)

Step 2: Out with the Old
If your piece had a trim around the edge of the fabric, you will want to remove that first.  Typically the trim is applied with hot glue, so find a starting point, and tug away.  You will soon see the exposed staples. Then, using a very itsy bitsy flathead screwdriver and needlenose pliers, start pulling out all of the staples, one section of fabric at a time. 

Removing staples is one of the most time consuming and painful parts of the process.  Amy at Design Intervention suggests using a heavy duty staple remover (she purchased hers for $3 at Harbor Freight).

Image Via Design Intervention

I will admit that I have not used one yet  but will indeed invest in one.  My only concern with this would be when you are pulling staples from a chair with an exposed wooden frame (like this drop cloth chair and my french wingback chair) because you have to very carefully wiggle the staples out without denting the wood from using the remover or your screwdriver as "leverage".  If your frame will be completely covered with fabric, have no fear and lever away!

 Put on a good flick to watch while you work, and if you are smart, wear gloves (I never seem to use my own advice and still have gouges all over my hands).   I like to work assembly line style, first prying out several staples as far as I can and then going back down the same "line" to pull them out with the needlenose pliers.

Drop your staples into a magnetic paper clip holder as you go to keep them from getting lost in your carpet or other work space.  Since I do most of my removal in an unfinished basement, I just sweep up the runaways at the end but keeping a magnet nearby will definitely be helpful.

As tempting as it may be to throw away the dingy and crumb filled pieces of fabric when you have removed them from the chair- don't do it.  You will want them as a template for your new fabric.  I brush off the dust, fold them up and save them in a zip loc bag all together until I am ready to re-upholster.  This is wise for those of you may have toddler thieves around the house who just might happen to constantly walk away with things :)

Because my seat cushion was a separate upholstered piece, I unscrewed it from the chair frame (not all chairs will be this way) and removed the trim and staples just the same was as I had to the top pieces.

Whether or not the existing foam will be replaced, you will then remove the foam and batting (if any) before you begin work on your frame. 

Once I had removed all of my foam and batting, I was left with this:

Step 3: Work your magic on the frame
I wanted to create a very light and monochromatic look with a creamy distressed frame.  Here's how I achieved this look:

1) Fill any significant gouges or staple holed with wood filler, wait for it to dry, and sand down with a fine sanding block.

I was thrilled to uncover this fantastic shaped frame and wanted to leave the top exposed, rather than upholstering over the top as it had been done previously.  Because there were lots of staple holes on the top, I had a lot of filling to do. 

2) Lightly sand the entire frame.  (I very often don't sand my pieces beforehand, but the removal of staples left several chips of wood poking out and it needed to be sanded down).Wipe down the chair with a clean rag to remove any dust.

3) Spray the frame with Kilz original primer.  This can be purchased for approximately $5.50 a can at Home Depot or Walmart.

I used approximately 1.5 cans for this project.  I have used the "odorless" version and didn't like it as well.  The original in an aerosol can is the way to go.  You can also use the Kilz original primer in the paint can and apply it with a brush, but I prefer to spray it on smaller projects because you have no cleanup, and it leaves no brush marks.  Even with mineral spirits, paint thinner,  or MEK on my brushes after Kilz, they seem to be destroyed.  When applying any primer, paint, or polyurethane spray product, you need to spray several very light coats using an overlapping motion.  If you feel like it needs to be fully covered in one round, you will absolutely be left with drips.  The spray dries super fast, so you will be ready to re-apply in approx 10 minutes.

4) Because primers leave a somewhat "gritty" texture, you may want to quickly sand down the frame with a very fine sanding block to make for a more smooth finish.  Don't sand so hard that all of the primer rubs off, but if you do see wood start to show through in some places- no biggie.  This piece for me was going to be distressed anyway so I wasn't worried about perfect coverage.

5) Spray your frame with several light coats of paint.  For this piece, I used Rustoleum's Heirloom White in Satin Finish.  This can be purchased from Home Depot for approx $3.50 per can.  I used about 1.5 cans for this project.

5) Lastly, I lightly sanded the high points on this frame with medium sand paper to create a distressed look.  In some places I sanded all the way down till the wood shone through, and in others just down to the primer.  It created the perfect look for what I wanted.

6) Optional- If you are painting something that you don't want to chip at all (i.e. that hasn't been distressed) I would suggest spraying several light coats of Minwax Polyurethane spray for protection, with a light sanding between coats.  Because this piece is distressed, more chipping or dings would only add to the character so I didn't do any polyurethane.

Once your frame is finished to your liking, it's time for the foam!

Step 4: Fill 'er up!
Occasionally you come across pieces with foam and batting still in great condition.  Unfortunately years of wear will flatten and misshape foam so that most often this needs to be replaced.  In my case, the foam was actually still very plump and full of life for years to come, however, it had been tufted and so after years of holding the shape with pleats cutting through the foam, it wouldn't work for this chair unless I tufted it (and in the exact same place).

That wasn't my vision for this piece, so I had to get new foam. 

For the inside back, I went with a 2" thick foam, purchased from Joann Fabrics with a 40% off coupon, making the total $17.  (Foam ranges from $10- $70/ yard regular priced.  It is MUY expensivo).

For my seat cushion, I had a huge piece of 6 inch foam that I got for free from the cushion of a couch that the DI (local thrift store) was going to throw away since it was unsellable.  SCORE.

I thought that it was way too thick and planned on cutting it in half.  After my sweets convinced me to just try it, I was thrilled with the way that it looked once the fabric was in place and pulled taut.  It created the perfect bubbly look that I love.

To cut your foam, I suggest using an electric knife- you know, the kind you got for your wedding to carve turkey and roasts but have never once  used because you forgot you had it?  Yeah, that one.

If your chair already had foam, use that as a template and trace the same shape onto your new foam with a sharpie.  If you are creating a new shape (as I did for my drop cloth chair in order to expose the top of the frame), create a template on a piece of paper or paper towel. Trace the template onto your foam with a sharpie.

Always cut your foam wider than the piece you are upholstering if it is going onto a base. I would suggest anywhere from a 1/2" to 1" perimeter around the base, depending on the thickness of your base (i.e. wooden seat in my case).  I made a big boo boo and totally spaced this when I cut my foam for the seat base.

note that I cut my foam to the exact same size as the board.  I should have cut it with a 1" lip all around.

Once your foam is cut, there's no turning back and it is an expensive woops, so think before you cut (duh Penny Wenny).    In my case, I had to come up with a creative fix after the whole thing had been stapled and I realized what I did wrong.  This is one problem that comes with doing projects after midnight- my brain is usually fried.

Please stay tuned for Part 2- Prepping your Drop Cloth and Stapling away!

*** Update- Part 2 can be viewed HERE ***

I'm sharing this tutorial with the following fabulous peeps and their parties: