Guest Bedroom Curtains

When we moved in to our home nearly three years ago, the guest bedroom walls perfectly matched our old bedding, so we never had to do much to the room. But lately, I'm getting bored of the bedding we've had for nearly 5 years, so I've been slowly but surely updating my guest bedroom. 

Before Picture:

I purchased our new white comforter last summer, and have since added some fun gray, yellow, and blue pillows. This past weekend, I decided to attack the curtains.

I found my fabric at Hobby Lobby and purchased 5 yards of it (with a 40% off coupon of course). I cut the fabric in half so I had 2 pieces of fabric, 2.5 yards long. I simply sewed the ends to make them smooth and added a pocket at the top to hang them from.

I was amazed at what a difference the curtains make!

NOW: I need your help!
The window above the bed is much smaller and is placed higher on the wall, so I don't know what to do with it. I could do the same long curtains to match the other window, make the same curtains but much shorter, or put up a valance. So, what do you think? 

Any advice or other suggestions would be greatly appreciated as well!

Happy Hump Day!

DIY Pillow Sleeves

It seems like I change my pillow covers far too often... probably because I do. Adam has decided it's becoming a problem. I've decided I might have finally figured it out.

Ever since moving into this house, the living room has just puzzled me. I have not been able to decide colors, furniture, wall hangings, or anything. I have changed my mind more times than I can even remember, and to this day I'm not quite sure what on earth I want to do with this room. 

I finally came across these two fabric designs at hobby lobby, and decided to give them a whirl. I may even keep my coral polka dot pillows around with as a fun accent color.

In search of the perfect color combinations for the living room, I have created countless pillow covers over the past year. You would think by now I'd be an expert, but the truth is I am absolutely not. 

Almost a year ago, I shared this tutorial with you all. I have always made my pillow covers this way, but this time around, I decided to try something a bit different. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures, but I will try my best to explain it.

I purchased a yard of each fabric, and was able to make 2 pillows with each for a total of 4 pillows. The best part: the fabric only cost me $10, which means I only spent $2.50 on each one!  (see why it's so easy for me to keep changing my mind!?)

I started by ironing my fabric and cutting it to size.

To determine the height, I measured the pillow and added 1/2 an inch. To determine the width, I measured the width, multiplied by two, and added another 6 inches. 

Example: If I had a pillow that was 18inches x 18inches, I would measure the height as 18.5 inches, and the width as 42 inches (18x2=36+6=42). 

After cutting my fabric, I folded a seam along both of the shorter sides of the pillow. These will eventually be for the back flaps. 

Then, I laid the fabric out, facing right side up, and folded each side over. I pinned the sides in place to create an inside out pillow cover. Once the sides were pinned in place, I stitched the two long sides (top and bottom). 

Once the sewing was done, I flipped the pillow cover right side out and inserted my pillow.

Ta da!

I think they turned out great! They add a pop of color to my living room and really seem to brighten the place up a bit.  With that being said, these babies might be around for a while. 

And see that sunshine beaming in through the windows? Spring just may be closer than we think!

DIY Ruffled Curtains

It isn't very often that the university closes on a snow day, let alone close for the cold weather. Imagine my surprise to discover 10+ texts from classmates and friends while briefly glancing at my phone on Monday afternoon stating that school had been cancelled for Tuesday (I believe a lot of exclamation marks were involved). Anyways, a day free of school, homework, AND work... what's a girl to do!? 

Well, I finally convinced myself that it was time to finish a project I had started weeks ago. 

If you follow me on instagram, you probably saw this picture quite some time ago.

And if you follow me on twitter, you probably saw a tweet that went something like this around that same time: "I have a love-hate relationship with my sewing machine"

Well, yesterday I was finally able to post this picture:

It would be safe to say that it was a DIY project gone wrong, and you would be absolutely right! I found this tutorial from the Jedi Craft Girl a while back, and I followed it pretty much to a tee. I was so excited to lighten up the living room and ditch the plain dark brown curtains that have been hanging for so long. The problem... I am not an expert sewer! After hours, I finally realized that I needed to bump my tension down to zero and my stitch spacing all the way up in order to create the perfect ruffle. Well, the perfect ruffle never happened... for ALL SIX ruffles. By the time I got my ruffles figured out and pinned into place, the bobbin knotted up countless amount of times, to the point where I was swearing under my breath and grunting. The dog thought she did something wrong, and the hubs came in to check on me a number of times. CRAFT PROJECT GONE VERY WRONG!

By the time I finished my one curtain, I was so sick of the process that I didn't touch my sewing machine for two weeks. My living room window was decorated with one new beautiful curtain, while the other was still the dark brown old curtain. Every time I even thought about working on that second curtain, I cringed. 

I finally got sick of looking at the half and half curtains, so yesterday afternoon, I got to work.

The second curtain was put together flawlessly! There was not a single hiccup involved in the making and hanging of the second curtain and I could not be happier. What first took my hours upon hours each night only took me one and a half hours the second time around... talk about a dream come true!!

SO ladies and gentleman, I now present to you my brand new ruffled curtains!

Aren't they beautiful?! Now that all is said and done, they really were worth all the trouble. Sometimes projects turn out to be just as easy as you thought, and sometimes they don't! 

On the bright side though, I can now sew one mean ruffle!

Have you ever had a project go horribly wrong?

I still get worked up thinking about the sewing machine every time I look at those curtains. Too bad a lot of my upcoming projects will require me to use it... I need a vacation!

Would you like to see what else I did on my "cold day"? 

I did a whole lot of HTML-ing to better organize my project page! Check it out here: http://melaniegetsmarried.blogspot.com/p/projects_9.html

Happy Thursday!