Do It Yourself Furniture

I grew up in a do-it-yourself family. My grandfathers could do almost anything. Both did woodworking and made beautiful furniture, cabinets and keepsakes. Both made jewelry. They did their own metal work, cut and polished stones and my Grandpa Rounds even hunted for his stones in the desert. They painted their own houses, took care of their own yards, raised some of their own food and handled many household and automotive repairs. Then there's my Dad. He makes and/or refinishes furniture and has been known to refurbish an 80 year old house all by himself. So when it comes to doing things myself, I have a lot of experience to draw from. Plus I like to think there might be some genetic disposition to being successful with DIY and really that's what gives me the courage to try these things. But really, any of us can learn.

Here is my latest DIY. This was my husband's childhood desk. Well used, wouldn't you say?

I had written the thing off but since we just put the household budget on a diet, I decided to suck it up and do the work.

You might think that stripping, sanding and refinishing furniture is quite a chore and you would be right. However, while there is a lot of work involved, it isn't that hard.  Being that I am less than a professional in this line of work, I am not offering a tutorial for furniture refinishing. I simply want you to know that it can be done by the likes of "us". And yes, results are better having it done professionally. If you have a valuable or expensive piece, go professional. Things like this, flea market finds and hand-me-downs, DIY!

Here are the results:


Not bad for an amateur!

Pocket Wall Hanging Tutorial

 Hi! Wow, I haven't blogged in over a week. That would be the week before school starts so I got very little done much less any sewing. But here I am with a tutorial for pocket wall hangings. This is not complicated stuff. It's also not completely original either. There are other tutorials and patterns out there for similar things but I want to show you how easy it is to make these things and to customize them to your needs. This is where you say, "Who needs Pottery Barn?"

It all started with baby slings I was making for my two expectant cousins. Click here  for that great tutorial from My Karma Baby.com. I had leftover fabric and decided to make a few more things to go along. This is my knock-off Taggies bitty-blanky.

So simple. Two pieces of fabric with ribbon loops sandwiched in between. Stitch, turn right side out and top stitch. Done.








The Pocket Wall Hanging is just as simple, it just takes a little more work. I designed mine as a quilt because my left-over fabric was in smaller pieces. Cut fabric squares to equal size and lay them out in a pattern that you like. Stitch the squares of each row together and press seams open. You could opt for larger pieces or strips instead of squares or even one large piece.

Now we are ready to make pockets. Decide how many you want and how big. My pockets are simple slip pockets but you can provide more space by cutting the pocket larger, pleating the bottom and adding elastic in a casing to the top. I like my pockets lined so I stitched two layers right-side together, turned and pressed. If I had been thinking at the time I would have laid the raw edges of the pocket along the raw bottom edges of the square and stitched them into the seam. But you can also fold the raw edge to the inside 1/2" and once more to make a smooth hem and then top-stitch the pocket to the square. You can add as many pockets as you like. I choose to just make four.

Next stitch your rows together and press seams open. Now you need to decide how this wall hanging will hang. I made loops out of the remaining fabric. You could use grommets or ribbon or make a rod pocket like for a curtain. Baste your hanging apparatus to the right side of the front piece. Lay your backing piece (cut to the same size as your assembled front piece) right sides together and stitch across the top.

Turn and press.

Finally, baste the raw edges together and bind. Make your own matching or coordinating binding if you have enough fabric or use store bought. 



Let me know if you have any questions.

This project has so much potential. I'd love to see pics of your finished projects.