Archive for the ‘Tutorials’ Category

Insert instructions [here].

Posted in Pillow, Sewing, Tutorials, tagged diy, pillow form, pillow insert on January 3, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

It’s no secret I love to make pillows. I have dozens I’ve made that are stored in my guest-room closet just waiting for the perfect home. Maybe I’ll list them on Etsy or eBay? Once upon a time I tried selling pillows at a craft sale. Wrong sale, wrong type of product or both. I’m sure I’ll find them homes eventually. {hope, hope} I picked up a great drapery workroom trick in the process of cranking out over one hundred pillows. Making my own pillow forms. No more running to JoAnn’s for pillow inserts that never feel exactly as nice and full as I’d like them to feel and they can be less expensive when you make them too. It’s an absolute necessity if you choose to make oddly shaped (not square, rectangular or round) pillow inserts as you’ll see by my example below. If you have a serger, you can whip up a custom-sized form in a few minutes. If you don’t have a serger, you can crank one out in just a few minutes more. It’s that easy.

First, determine the size of your finished pillow insert. A drapery workroom secret is to use a form a couple of inches larger than the size of the finished pillow cover. This creates a truly luxurious pillow worthy of your beautiful home! A lot of people ascribe to the notion that the pillow form should be the same size as the cover but, trust me, you’ll get a more professional look when you up-size your form. There is one caveat, however. If your cover has a button or flap closure, a larger form may cause the opening to gap some. You know, like when your blouse buttons just a little to tightly in the front {or so I hear } so in this case, stick more closely to the size of your pillow cover.

You can use any number of fabrics to create your form. I’ve used scrap drapery lining, muslin, napped sateen* drapery lining (place the napped side outward to beef up a thinner pillow fabric) or even plain white sheeting. I try to stick with 100% cotton, unprinted fabric but in certain cases I suppose you could use just about any scrap fabric if your cover isn’t transparent. Once you’ve decided on the size of form you’d like to make, cut two pieces of the fabric you chose for your cover 1″ larger in width and height than the completed form’s size.

When constructing your own pillow inserts, there aren’t a lot of available options with regard to the material used to fill them. Actual down and/or feathers would make a horrible mess! As a rule I use a polyester cluster filler with the look and feel of down. JoAnn’s carries a product similar to what I use which you can see here. This type of filling can make the pillow karate choppable (if you are so inclined). Don’t necessarily go for the cheapest you can find (unless you have a coupon).

If you’ll be serging the form, simply serge around all four sides with a 1/2″ seam, allowing the machine to trim to 1/4″. Be sure to leave an opening away from the corners large enough to get your hand into for filling.

Fill the form with the poly cluster stuffing so that it’s nice and full and then serge closed.That’s it! It’s ready to go! (And no, I don’t sew in the dark. I have virtually no natural light in my sewing studio.)

If you’re sewing on a straight-stitch machine, sew your pieces (right sides together) using a 1/2″ seam leaving an opening away from the corners large enough to get your hand into so that you can stuff all corners. Turn right side out, clip corners and stuff. I stitch the opening closed with my machine but you can hand stitch closed as well.

Don’t be stingy with the filling or your pillow will look flat. A flat pillow is not what we’re going for. We want a nice, plump pillow.

A serged or straight-stitched insert won’t make any difference really once your pillow has been stuffed. Serging is just quicker.

And if you’re making a boxed style pillow, be sure to box the insert as well. The process is the same as constructing a boxed pillow, again make it a little larger than the pillow cover.

Easy, right? Try it and let me know what you think!

*Napped sateen drapery lining may be hard to find. It’s used by workrooms when lining plus interlining isn’t desired, but a more substantial lining is. The sateen side is on the left of the photo below. The napped side is on the right.

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An imperfect tutorial: Easy ruffled flange binding.

Posted in Quilting, Sewing, Tutorials, tagged binding, flange, quilt, ruffle on November 12, 2012 | 8 Comments »

So I have had this binding in my head for some time. I knew how I wanted it to look but hadn’t seen an actual example. It’s easier than it looks, believe me.

100% machine stitched (yay!) and there are a thousand variations.

I love the opportunity to use a contrast color in the binding. The combination of aqua and red is such a happy combo! I’m sure if it weren’t a rainy day in November in Michigan, this quilt would look much more cheery. Sitting there all draped over the rocking chair surrounded by desolate woods makes it look so …. abandoned. Believe me the second I finished taking these shots while standing on freezing cold brick in bare feet, I hightailed it and myself back into my toasty home!

Okay. The imperfect tutorial. Here goes:

First, once your quilt has been quilted, prepare it for binding as you would any other quilt, by trimming the three layers to the same size. Measure all four sides of the quilt and calculate the fabric you’ll need for your ruffle and your bindings. FYI, this is as “mathy” as I get. Anything more difficult and I get that faraway look in my eyes and begin thinking about painting something.

Ruffle: For the double-sided ruffle I used my gathering foot. A gathering foot is different than a ruffler in that there are no pleats, just gathers, and no complicated equipment to install. For my machine, a Viking, I just pop the gathering foot on. In order to calculate how much fabric I needed for the ruffle, I did a test with a 45″ wide strip of fabric. On my machine, a 45″ strip of fabric gathers to approximately 18″. The finished dimensions of my quilt are 45″ x 44″ x 45″ x 44″. I know, this is where my eyes glaze over too, but believe me, if I can do this part so can you! Just add the four numbers (178″) and divide by 18″ (9.89 rounded up to 10). This means I need TEN widths of 45″ fabric (450″) to gather to 178″. For my quilt, I wanted the ruffles to be 1.5″ deep, finished, so I doubled that to get 3″ and added 1/2″ for seaming. Because of the bulk, I also added 1/4″ just for a fudge factor. So I cut ten strips 45″ x 3 3/4″. My quilt required just over a yard of fabric for the ruffle.

Double/flange binding: Using that same number calculated above (178″) cut enough strips of the fabric you want to be closest to the center of the quilt (flange) to equal 178″. I cut the strips 1 3/4″ thick to get a 1/4″ flange. If you like a piping look rather than a flange, cut the strip slightly narrower. For the red (contrast) strip above, I cut the strips 1″ thick. I always add more to the length since it’s much easier to lop off excess than to stop what you’re doing to add-on more length.

Once you’ve cut your strips, assemble them into one long strip. Fold your ruffle strip in half the long way and press. I always serge the raw edges to cut down on strings. Run your ruffle strips through the gathering foot and you’ll end up with this!

For the flange/contrast binding strips, Join together with a 1/4″ seam, like this:

Press the binding with raw edges even.

Now to apply the ruffle and binding. This is the “imperfect” part. I had expected to attach the ruffle and binding with mitered corners so I pivoted at the corners for the ruffle and mitered the binding. That didn’t work when I flipped it over to stitch the binding down. I had to fudge my corners to get some semblance of a miter, but they turned out so bulky and off that I’m not even going to show you a picture. My “easy fix” would be to use a small drinking glass to round the corners of the quilt. The ruffle and binding should look much nicer this way. I don’t have a finished picture to show you since I didn’t do this myself. Sorry. I haven’t yet, in my over forty years of sewing, created a masterpiece that is completely error free. This quilt is no exception.

Okay, on to the binding. Start by flipping your quilt to the back. Machine baste the ruffle, raw edges together as close as you can get to the edge. If you have a walking foot, now would be a very good time to use it. I have one but was too lazy to attach it so I fought with the layers. Duh.

Now, stitch the flange/contrast binding ON TOP of the ruffle, placing the binding like so. This isn’t a great picture, but just remember to place your contrast binding down. Stitch a 1/4″ seam. Just round the corners as I’ve suggested and they should be fine.

Almost done! The final step is to flip the quilt over to the right side. Bring the ruffle and binding to the front and stitch-in-the-ditch! Yay!

Done and done!

As much as I’d love to show you the fabulous machine quilting I did, let me just say this is my first free-motion machine quilting project. I need practice, people! It’s kinda hard. And my back hurts. Oy!

I’m linking up!

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Be still my art.

Posted in Fabric Picture Frame Mat, Hand Embroidery, Sewing, Tips & Tricks, Tutorials, tagged Bonnie, Camille, embroidery, fabric mat, fabric strips, jelly roll, Moda, Ruby, SarahJane Embroidery on July 9, 2012 | 4 Comments »

On Saturday morning I realized I needed a gift for Tuesday and really wasn’t crazy about doing that whole mall thing. It was too hot and I never, ever find anything at the mall. Since I had about 48 hours of {glorious} uninterrupted time on my hands, what better way to gift than to stitch it yourself? A downloadable PDF makes for instant gratification! By the way, the soon-to-be-released sarahjane coordinating fabric is simply adorable!

I had an 11″ x 14″ frame on hand with no time to order mat board. But I did have a gorgeous jelly roll with a colorway that was perfect. The hardest part was deciding which fabric I liked the best.

I did some calculations {with my math skills, I use this term loosely because it basically consisted of holding the 45″ strip up to the finished piece and eyeballing it to see if it would work}. I had precisely enough fabric in one strip to frame out the artwork and install it in the 11″ x 14″ frame. This never happens!

I traced around the glass to establish the frame edges. Then lined up the fabric strips and sewed with a 1/4″ seam. I found it was much easier to not cut the linen down to size and sew the strips on directly because I **always** ignore the golden rule, measure twice, cut once, and would most certainly have cut it wrong and had to start over again…..

Press flat.

Add the top and bottom pieces and press again.

Trim to size.

And add to your frame!

And here’s a tip that was included with the pattern instructions. A great way to eliminate seeing the thread from long running stitches on the back through to the front is to add a layer of batting behind your work! Perfect!!

Look, no lines showing through!

Enjoy your week!

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Tote-ally awesome tote {and inside pocket tutorial}!

Posted in Sewing, Tutorials, Zipped Pocket Tutorial on December 7, 2011 | 3 Comments »

Don’t you just love it when you happen upon a pattern for something practical? And even better, something that would make a terrific practical gift! I am so over clutter and useless gifts and excess, but show me something I can put together quickly, with what I already have on-hand and I’m sold. May I present, Ladies and Gentl….well, probably just Ladies,

The awesome Jane tote.

The pattern is available here as an immediate download for a mere $6! (Heck, I’d pay like $60 for not having to do the math to create a nice tote like this!) I’ve written about Alicia Paulson’s patterns before. I like ‘em. I like ‘em a lot. This one is easy to follow, the math works and it serves as a great jumping off point to let your creativity go wild, not to mention will aid in quickly reducing your fabric stash.

Since I have no doubt you’ll all run over and buy this wonderful pattern based solely on my recommendation {or the fact that it’s adorable and, PS I have no affiliation with Alicia or her shop; Posie, Rosy Little Things} I decided to put together a few tips for you.

First, I highly recommend home dec weight fabrics, outdoor fabrics and oilcloth or laminated cotton. Heck use all of them! The mixier and matchier the better. The pattern suggests quilting cotton but I love the durability and structure heavier fabric gives to the bag {plus I have a ton of the afore mentioned fabrics that I couldn’t possibly use up in two lifetimes}. ……ahem.

Second, use top-stitching thread for the top-stitching on the tote. There’s a lot of it and it looks so much more professional with the heavier thread. Here’s the difference:

Yuck...puny top-stitching!

: Terrible picture but trust me. The top-stitching is perfect!

Be sure to reduce your sewing machine tension and use a longer stitch length when sewing with heavier thread.

Third. Use thread nippers to be sure you clip your thread ends as close as possible. There’s nothing more irritating than one of those thread-eyelash thingies flapping around!

Next, this pattern calls for a folded hem on the top of the outer pockets. It says to fold and press 1” then fold and press another 1”. This is called a double 1” hem. DON”T DO IT THAT WAY! Making a hem in this manner always takes up more fabric than it should due to the way it’s folded. Instead, do it the way the pros do.

And last, even though there are two generous outer pockets, I like an interior zipper-pocket in my totes. Since there weren’t instructions included with the pattern, I decided to do a quick tutorial on adding one.

{Add the pocket to the tote lining before you assemble the lining.}

Here we go:

Step 1

I don’t want to hear any moaning and groaning about sewing in a zipper! The way we do it here is as easy as it gets! If you haven’t sewn a zipper before, there’s a first time for everything. Just remember to pin securely and straight and sew slowly.

Step 2

Step 3

Leaving a small space between the fabric and the zipper means a zipper foot usually isn’t necessary.

Now get the pocket front bottom piece (8″ x 7″ rectangle). Press the hem on the 7″ side of the rectangle.

Step 4

Step 5

Pin the pocket bottom to the zipper and stitch the same as you did the top.

Step 6

Step 7.

Time to stitch the pocket front to the pocket back (9 1/2″ x 7″ rectangle).

Step 8

Step 9

Step 10

Step 11

Step 12

Step 13

Step 14

Step 15

Now assemble the rest of your tote and load it up!

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Super easy Company C pillow hack!

Posted in Home Decor, Pillow, Sewing, Tutorials on August 20, 2011 | 11 Comments »

Don’t you just love this pillow?

They’re bright and colorful mums that remind you summer’s just a few weeks from ending and soon the dark and cloudy days of autumn will be upon you, then behind that, cursed winter and you’ll be wishing you had bought that place in the South of France (as if) and maybe you should have thought a little more carefully about who you dated in high school and, so what, you just turned 56 (the new 36) because fall smells good and there’s apples!

{Deep breath.}

Okay, perhaps I do tend to dread the changing of the seasons. Anyway, you can purchase this reminder that fall is just around the corner all day long for $145 {plus shipping} right here. What’s that you say? $145 {plus shipping} for cut felt flowers on a turquoise cotton ground cloth? Not all of us are livin’ the dream. I see. Hmmm. What to do, what to do?

Well, if your craft studio is anything like mine, the felt on this $145 {plus shipping} pillow looks eerily similar to the felt you have in your felt stash drawer. Am I right? Even if it isn’t you can buy like 15.7x the amount you would need to make this pillow for $145 {plus shipping}.

Come along with me as I recreate this mum-laden pillow using what I happened to have on hand.

That beautiful stack of wool felt on the left is from Pearl Soho. I should probably tell you right now that I’m totally gaga over Pearl Soho. I particularly enjoy going to their store when I visit NYC where I drool over everything they stock, then promptly wait until I get home to order one of each. Plus a tote to carry it all in in case anyone in my town sees me with it and thinks I must be way too cool to be from dorky mid-Michigan and probably lived a past, far more glamorous life in NYC.

Wait. What were we talking about again? Right. The mum pillow. Got it.

Okay, I’m assuming you know how to put together a basic pillow. There are a million and one online tutorials but I’ll give you a few tips from my professional pillow-sewing bag of tricks. First, cut the pillow the exact size of your pillow form. Yep, this is the first law of professional pillow-sewing. DO NOT ADD ON FOR SEAM ALLOWANCES. I made a 12″ x 16″ pillow form thus cut my felt 12″ x 16″.

Second, professional pillow sewists use 1/2″ seam allowances. That is the LAW sewing people. Do not let me catch you even thinking of using 1/4″ seams or, God forbid, 5/8″. If you cut it to the size of your form and use 1/2″ seams your pillows will be the envy of all the poor misguided non-professional pillow sewists who probably also karate chop their pillows…..

Be sure to leave an opening to turn, and clip those corners!

So here’s your pillow, cut from JoAnn Fabrics cheapie poly-acrylic felt that I stocked up on when I either: A) had a coupon. or B) it was half-off. I knew it would come in hand one day. Notice that the cover is nice and tight, not all loosey-goosey?

Now, cut your colorful felt into 1″, 3/4″ and 1/2″ strips. You’ll need a lot of strips but cut them as you go. Use up what felt you have since there are no hard and fast rules for this pillow. You are allowed {by law} to choose the colors and sizes of your felt strips.

Next, snip the strips to within about 1/4 of the width of the size of the strip itself.

Clip along the un-snipped edge every inch or so to help the strip take the curves.

Go through your felt scraps and cut a bunch of circles which will serve as the base for the mums. The color doesn’t matter since you’ll be covering them with your strips. You’ll need a bunch of different sizes for this — for the larger flowers, use about a 2″ round circle, for the medium about a 1″ circle, and the smallest about a 1/2″ circle. I forgot to take a picture of the circles but I trust you’ve all seen a felt circle before.

Okay. Now assemble your circles and snipped strips and go to town! Use the glue gun to secure the mum as you work, gluing along the outside of the circle and working inward. At this point I will assume you’ve never used a glue gun before and warn you to KEEP YOUR FINGERS THE HELL AWAY FROM THE HOT GLUE! {You probably haven’t noticed that I’m only typing with nine normal fingers and one horribly blistered and bandaged finger because I didn’t follow the above warning.}

This is a really gloppy picture but you get the idea. Wrap the strips and glue until the mum looks something like a flower. Then start gluing them on your pillow thusly.

Seriously cute, no?

LInking up with:

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Looking for art in all the wrong places.

Posted in Home Decor, Silk Picture Mat, Tutorials on March 27, 2011 | 7 Comments »

Because I have so few interior walls in my home’s open floor plan, it practically kills me to have a bare spot on the wall that isn’t filled with art. I use the term “art” loosely because I’m pretty sure there’s nothing hanging on any of the walls that cost much more than $50. Because I change out tchotchkes so frequently, I don’t invest. Instead I like to create. This weekend’s project involved two Ikea Virserum frames (roughly 22″ square).

These Pottery Barn finds {on sale for $22.99}.

I had some of this on hand from previous projects. Let me rephrase that, there was a can of spray adhesive in my studio. I don’t know the brand and I’m too lazy to go down and look. This will work fine providing it’s repositionable.

Last but not least, a leftover from the valances.

For months I’ve been on the hunt for two pieces of “art” to hang on either side of the cabinet in the breakfast room. After checking all my usual haunts {Home Goods} and finding nothing particularly inspiring, I began eyeing some coordinated fabric samples thinking maybe I could cull a pair and frame them. Have you ever tried to buy fabric samples? I didn’t say steal, I said buy. Not an easy thing to do. I had all but given up on that idea when Pottery Barn had that flashing beacon in their window, otherwise known as a SALE sign. Those napkins practically reached out and slapped me! Not believing my good fortune in finding TWELVE potential pieces of art since they were all different, but coordinating, patterns I snapped them up.

Here’s my palette…see why I had to buy both sets?

After a whole lot of time got wasted going back and forth deciding on which two of the twelve would get to be on permanent display, the persimmon colorway made the cut.

Then I got to work. I protected my work surface and sprayed the adhesive on the mat. This stuff is a mess to work with and be especially careful to watch for drips. If you do happen to get a drip, blot it otherwise the drip will stain the silk and you’ll have to scrap one perfectly good 25″ x 25″ piece of silk and remake the stupid mat.

Lay the super-sticky mat on top of the silk and remove all the air bubbles. Did you catch the ALL part? Because if you don’t you’ll be taking the frame apart and putting it back together to get ALL the air bubbles out at least five times. Trust me on this. Trim the mat so you have at least an inch of excess silk on all sides. Flip it over.

Now cut a big “X” in the center, all the way up to the corners.

Flip the mat over to the back and spray the adhesive on the back side. Pull the silk to the back and secure. Check the front at least 42 times to make sure you got out ALL the air bubbles.

Now, iron the heck out of the napkins….if you don’t you’ll see every wrinkle and it’ll drive you crazy until you take the whole thing apart AGAIN to get the wrinkles completely out this time….

Coincidentally, the napkins fit perfectly so no trimming was necessary. A sign these napkins were meant to live in these frames!

If you see a wrinkle or a speck of dust or an air bubble, please don’t tell me.

Oh, and since I was feeling particularly pleased with my artsy-craftsy self, I whipped up this complementary pillow

You can find the tutorial for the flowers here.

No napkins were harmed in the process.

Looking for more tutorials? Check these out!

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Many happy returns.

Posted in Receipt clutch, Sewing, Tutorials on October 15, 2010 | 2 Comments »

I am a receipt-keeper. Not only do I save all credit card receipts {and I charge absolutely everything I purchase}, I match up the receipts to the statement. MONTHLY. Nerdy, I know but I have been rewarded by catching some mistakes here and there …. like the time the waiter wasn’t terribly thrilled with his tips and decided to add a few bucks to my receipt to cover his car payment shortage. Magically my $4 tip turned into $24 with the addition of a “2″ and some creative addition.

Being on the offense (vs. being offensive) makes returns much easier. And I don’t miss that felon-like feeling of trying to return something without the receipt. So in order to keep myself organized about my receipt keeping, I’ve devised some protocol when I check out. Once I get that receipt in my hot little hand, it immediately goes into the dedicated receipt holder (DRH) in my bag.

What? You don’t have a dedicated receipt holder? Really? Well, after today you’ll have no excuse. You can whip one up in no time using Noodlehead’s tutorial.

Oh I know, there are dozens of tutorials out there for small bags, but this one is just the right size. It finishes up at about 8″ x 5″ and is QUICK. Now if you add all the gathers and inside pockets and dividers it does take a little longer, but it seriously took me about 15 minutes to whip one of these up this morning. And to help you out, I even put together some pattern pieces to work with the tutorial to save you even having to measure. The basic DRH I made above required two 9″ x 5.5″ rectangles of the outer fabric, two 9″ x 5.5″ of the lining, some fusible interfacing, one 7″ zipper and two 1 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ rectangles to cover the zipper ends. That’s it!

I whipped up a stack of them in no time! They’re great to have on hand for presenting gift cards too. You can embellish them a million different ways.

As a companion to Noodlehead’s wonderful tutorial, I’ve put together the pattern templates that you can print out here:

Gathered Clutch Pattern Pieces

No need to thank me. Knowing there may possibly be fewer people without receipts ahead of me in the returns line is thanks enough.

Have a great weekend!

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Got an itch to stitch-in-the-ditch?

Posted in Pillow, Sewing, Tips & Tricks, Tutorials on July 16, 2010 | 4 Comments »

Here’s an example of how mastering simple sewing techniques can turn what looks like a complicated project into an easy one.

Do you know the easy way to assemble an “inset” pillow front? Think you have to cut and piece and measure and fold and mutilate? Not true. You just need to stitch-in-the-ditch! For this bulls-eye pillow, start with a sheet of 81/2″ x 11″ paper. Fold it to create a triangle pattern.

Use the triangle to cut four pieces for the pillow front. My pillow is 18″ square, the center square finishes at 10 1/2″, leaving an approximate 3 1/4″ border all around.If you’re using a striped fabric, create the bulls-eye by turning the fabric and cutting.

Now stitch the fabric together, two triangles at a time.

Next, join the two sets of triangles.

Ta da! Your center square is finished!

Press the seams from the back and add piping. I had scraps from my sofa slipcover project on hand so I just pieced the piping. Normally it would be attached in a single piece using a 1/2″ seam allowance.

Tuck under the seam allowance and, in this case, the piping ends, and pin to your solid pillow front.

Here’s where the stitch-in-the-ditch part comes in. See the recess where the edge of the triangle is joined to the piping? That’s your “ditch.” Now stitch in the recess on all four sides. You should not see the stitching unless you look very closely in that recess.

There you have it! Stitching-in-the-ditch….without a hitch!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Check it out!

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Slipcover dining room chairs. Check.

Posted in Before-After, Home Decor, Sewing, Slipcovers, Tutorials on March 1, 2010 | 44 Comments »

I came. I sewed. I conquered! There’s nothing that builds the ego like a successful do-it-yourself project!

I ordered these chairs in a neutral fabric since I knew I planned to slipcover them.

I tugged and measured, ate plenty of snacks and checked my email at least ten times while working out the muslin pattern. Probably the most difficult part of the project.

Cutting the pattern on the fold ensures both sides are identical.

I used two purchased matelasses for the slipcover fabric. Why? Because they are less expensive than cut yardage (even with a 40% off JoAnn’s coupon). I was covering eight chairs and required one square yard of fabric per chair. These two queen-sized coverlets worked perfectly, with lots leftover for smaller projects like a table runner, placemats or pillows. It’s important to note that if you do use them, check the pattern very carefully for the size of the repeat. This one had a relatively small pattern match. Perfect!

Next up? I needed yards and yards and YARDS of pleats. I used muslin. At $1 per yard (buy by the bolt and use your 40% off coupon) it’s so cheap and a perfect color match!

I would never have tackled this much pleating without my pleater foot!

I added micro-cord between the cover and the pleats to give the slipcover a more finished look. My cording foot got a good workout that day! Oh, and I always serge the raw edges. On everything.

I used wide, single-fold bias tape around the chair leg cut-out areas. Color: oyster. Dead on!

No seam allowance is necessary when finishing in this way.

Once I had the components assembled, the rest was easy! Just straight stitch the three layers together. Finish with some buttoned tabs and, several days later, they’re done! (I always like doing the first one; the second through eighth dragged this project out!)

I’m totally happy with the look and I think this adds the finishing touch to my dining room!

Next up on the list? Vacation!

This post is linked up with:

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Signed, sealed and delivered, it’s mine!

Posted in Home Decor, Tutorials on February 22, 2010 | 10 Comments »

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was Googling along, minding my own business, when I ran across this magnificent antique sign. Isn’t the patina great?

I actually think I covered the computer screen, fearing Ballard Design was somehow reading over my shoulder and soon there would be thousands of “original copies” for sale. Can you imagine the building it once adorned? I’m positive it looked something like this …

And inside? I’ll bet Ecole de Stenographie, Dactylographie, Correspondance, Comptabilite, Etc. {School of Shorthand, Typing, Correspondence, Accounting} was filled with these fantastic machines…

If you’ve read my blog for a while now, you’ll recall my fascination with typewriter keys when I made this PB knockoff.

Using exactly the same technique as with the typewriter keys, I figured I could make the “Ecole” sign too, and began the process. I started with a scrap piece of MDF board. We added the molding on the edge to simulate a frame, then painted the entire piece in a dirty gray since I was going for a lighter colorway than the original. Several coats of paint later, I came up with a background that looked sufficiently aged.

Now it’s time to add the letters! I played around with the words in MS Word until I got the size and style just right. I learned a neat trick this time! Instead of using all the ink it takes to print the letters solid black, print them in “OUTLINE” form. The “E” is shown in outline, the “C” and “O” in the normal setting. Big ink savings!

It took a while, but I got everything placed just perfectly.