You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October 2009.
This weekend, we will continue building.
Not on our house, but on this.
The set my dad is designing & building. More details to come.
Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year. FAVORITE. With the move and all the renovation craziness, we just aren’t going all out this year though.
This little vampire pumpkin {that the awesome hubs carved} is our singular decoration.
Next year we’ll have to do better but – if you’re looking for some awesome Halloween inspiration – you must check out Mrs.Limestone’s totally rad Brooklyn abode. She’s quite something when it comes to Halloween. This year, there are skeletons climbing on her house! CLIMBING! On the outside.
Today was the Installation Ceremony of the LGBTQ Advisory Commission at City Hall.
Mission:
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning (LGBTQ) Advisory Commission seeks to improve conditions affecting the cultural, social, economic, political, educational, general health and well-being of LGBTQ individuals and their families, by studying and developing – through partnering with various groups and multiple levels of government – policies, programs and practices to recommend to the Mayor and Municipal Council.
Hi Kitab!
I love the architecture of this building!
Our mayor, Cory Booker, addressed the room.
Time to take the oath!
Congrats Perris!
Congrats, Darnell {the Commission CHAIR!}!
After everyone got sworn in, Darnell said a few inspiring words.
Congrats to the whole new Advisory Commission! You have Brick City Love’s support.
A few weeks ago, I posted about our bedside tables that I was making.
Well I finally got around to finishing them up.
See, we only have about 12″ on either side of our bed.
Everything I found in the stores was wider than we had space for.
So I made something. Of course.
I started by thinking about our needs. It needed to:
- Be 12″ or less wide
- Hold a laptop
- Have a place to charge our peripherals
- Have a place to hold all the other random little crap we need at hand
- Not have so much storage it becomes a catchall for anything we don’t know where else to put
Our laptops can either sit on top of the tables or in the first shelf. The basket holds little essentials like the remotes, extra chargers, & cough drops.
My phone fits nicely next to the basket and all the wires come in from the pre-existing holes on the interior sides of each table. Both shelves are also lined with the same fabric as the bedskirt & {eventually} headboard.
I like how they curve back on the sides.
Can you tell what they’re made out of??
While visiting our parents this weekend, we drove past this tree. It’s amazing what beauty can be found right around the corner.
Isn’t it full of the most beautiful fall colors you’ve ever seen?? (This picture is 100% unedited & straight from the camera.) That orange may just be my most favorite color ever.
Bring on the pumpkins & mulled cider!! And Halloween. Halloween is also my favorite.
What’s your favorite season? Are you a fall fan? Does winter win? Spill.
Last night I let Bruce {our dog} out for last call and stood on our small back deck enjoying the gorgeous fall weather. Out of the corner of my eye I saw some movement on our next door neighbor’s back deck. A furry creature wearing an eye mask was staring back at me.
I’ll be honest; at first I was a little freaked out. The little bugger was all of about 14′ away at me very much aware of my presence. I reflected our back porch light in his general direction & tried to take a picture of him. He climbed up the vines & window grates next door.
After staring at each other for a few minutes {& putting Bruce back inside}, we mutually decided neither was threat.
Naturally I ran inside to get my camera. When I reemerged from the house, I found the culprit had curled up in the corner of the 2nd story fire escape
Meet our fuzzy new friend.
While he laid curled up in the corner of their fire escape,
I climbed out on ours and took pictures of him.
I think he found the flash rather bothersome but, instead of being aggressive, he curled into a tighter little ball.
I’ve WE’VE named him Rusty. I wonder if he’ll be a regular or is just passing through. As cute as I think he is, I’d just as soon he move along. I don’t need him & Bruce tangoing in the yard anytime soon.
Is your place filled with wildlife? Or are squirrels the wildest it gets?
You know when you have a seemingly simple idea and you suddenly realize it’s not so simple?
How, after additional {crucial} research, what you expected to be able to do one way now proves it needs to happen this whole other way?
And that other way wasn’t something you were prepared for. It wasn’t what you bought materials for or planned on doing.
And you find yourself at a crossroad.
You can either figure out the new solution for your original vision. Buy new materials and make it happen.
Or scrap the original vision and improvise. Make due with the materials you have and embrace the outcome.
You know that feeling?
That’s where I’m at.
Making a custom bed skirt isn’t hard {promise!} but there are several steps. Stick with me & I’ll walk you through it.
First, lets take a look at what we want to make. The final product:
{I think knowing what the goal is helps in understanding the process.}
I made the bed skirt while visiting my parents. Mom’s got a great sewing set-up and we’re still living out of boxes. Our bed is the same size {queen} and height {14″} as the one in their guest room. Having a template made things super easy; pin, sew, fit, tweak, sew, etc.
For the sake of clarity, we’re going to call the panels left, middle, & right. ‘Height’ is the vertical dimension & ‘width’ is the horizontal dimension.
I purchased 4.5 yards of fabric because I wanted enough for our headboard but 2.5 yards would have been plenty for just the skirt {using 54″ wide fabric).
First, wash & dry your fabric. You don’t want things to shrink after you’ve spent an entire afternoon {ok ok…. DAY} making this thing. Pre-shrink people.
After I laundering, I laid it out on the box spring {a nice flat surface!} so I could cut out the piece for the headboard. The strip on the left is also the right height for the middle panel.
You want enough height so the skirt hangs just above your carpet, 1/2″ for a hem & about 2-4″ to go over the top of the box spring {to be hidden under the mattress}. For me, 16-18″ high worked well.
Then I cut the side pieces. 54″ wide fabric / 3 pieces = 18″ high each
If I were to make this again, I would just use these 3 pieces for the bed skirt. It would save fabric & just be easier.
IRON EVERYTHING. Or iron it after you first take it out of the dryer. Either way, iron it.
I also ironed & pinned up the hem at this point.
By pinning up the hem now, I was able to fit the bed skirt to the correct height without having to worry about hemming it later. Don’t sew it in though! Just pin.
Pin the panels around the box spring, wrong side out.
Make sure it’s even at the bottom. I found sticking a pin through the edge of box spring kept things from slipping.
Pin the corners together. Make sure the seams are evenly placed on both corners. You wouldn’t want one seam to be back closer to the headboard, while the other seam is firmly on the foot of the bed. Make sense?
Then pin the top of the corners together {making a little corner pocket}.
Time to sew.
Sew up the seams where the left & right panels join to the middle panel.
Be sure to flatten the ironed in hem before sewing up the edges. You want be able to fold up the hem after the side seams are sewn in.
{At this point, you should serge the edges but I forgot.}
After the sides are stitched together, sew the corners. {Again, serge the edges but I forgot. If you serge them, serge both separately, NOT together. You want to iron the seam open & flat with finished/serged edges.} You can cut off the excess that’s in the corners after you sew it. Just be sure to leave 1/4-1/2″ seam allowance.
Sew the hem.
Back up to the box spring. Right side out, pin it back on the box spring.
Time to fill in the middle. I used a cheap old IKEA sheet I had lying around {I think it retailed for $1.99}. It’s a twin and almost the perfect size. Spread it out.
Starting at one corner, pin the sheet to the top of the bed skirt, covering all your messy raw edges.
Make sure that it’s ONLY pinned to the bed skirt, not to the box spring.
On the left side, there was a good amount of extra. Just fold it under and pin. You’ll cut the excess off after you sew it together.
There’s going to be extra at the top too but don’t worry about that yet.
Starting about 5″ down from the top of the left side, top stitch all the way around. {You’ll see why you don’t start at the very top in a minute.}
In the middle of the middle panel, I left a little slot for the cord to our heated mattress pad.
Be sure to lock your stitches here by sewing backward & then forward again on the seam.
Going around the corner is easiest if you leave the needle down & rotate the fabric around it.
Stop sewing when you’re about 5″ away from the top of the right panel.
Fold the bed skirt in half, lining up the left & right panels at the bottom corners and smoothing it out to the top. The top edges of the right & left panels will probably be uneven. Fold them back so they’re even, iron & stitch ‘em up.
{My mother would have serged these edges first but I didn’t. Sorry Mom.}
Now that top edges of the left & right panels are hemmed, stitch them to the sheet just like you did everything else.
Remember that extra sheet you folded under on the left side?
Serge {or cut} it off, so you don’t have so much extra in your way. Be sure to leave at least 1/4″ seam allowance on the back side. {Almost done. Promise!}
You will be left with a good amount of extra sheet hanging off the top. Spread the bed skirt flat out on the floor.
Fold the excess sheet over. Iron {the crease helps to stop it from shifting around}. Sew.
Serge edge to get rid of all that extra sheet.
AND YOU’RE DONE!!
With the Heated Mattress Pad
The cord cannot be trapped in between the mattress & box spring but I didn’t want it sticking out over the bed skirt either. The hole allows the plug to come through, plug into the pad, & still be completely hidden behind the skirt. The cord then goes under the bed & plugs into the headboard wall.
You can see the plug under the sheet but it’s totally hidden with the duvet/comforter on. The cord is also completely undetectable behind the bed skirt.
That’s a win.
I know this was really {REALLY!} long but I tried to be as detailed as possible. I hope you find it coherent & helpful. If anything is unclear, let me know & I’ll explain it more.
Happy sewing!
It’s not quite done yet but the shoe organization project is in process. I found these at KMart, which surprised me. I went looking for white shoe cubbies and KMart was the only place that I found exactly what I was looking for. It’s not a place I usually check but a pleasant surprise.
Eventually, it’ll look like this:
All in good time, my friends.
