Thursday, February 18, 2016

Two Master Bedroom Projects, Using Things I Already Had

Part of my ongoing quest to downsize and declutter involves sifting through the hoard of things that are stored in my sewing room.  I cannot overstate the horror that exists in that room (and, no, I'm not going to show it to you.  Don't even ask.)  Fabric, craft supplies, half-finished projects, notions, hardware, yarn ... you get the idea.

One of the things I discovered in the stash was a 9-foot by 12-foot canvas drop cloth.  That turned out to be the exact right amount of fabric to make a new bed skirt for our king-sized bed.

No fancy styling here ... our comforter was straight of the dryer, and I decided that wrinkles are real life.


Here is what it looked like before ... a sweet, two-tiered, ruffly, 1990s edition bed skirt ... that was too short because it was measured and made for our previous house when our bed sat on wall-to-wall carpet instead of wood floor.



This isn't your usual type of bed skirt.  Years ago, our bed was one of those soft-side water beds ... unbelievably heavy and impossible to simply lift up to remove/change/wash the bed skirt, so I designed an alternative.  The foundation portion of the bed skirt stays in place between the mattress and the box spring, and the skirt part is attached to it with snap tape!  It's a simple matter to unsnap the skirt, wash, dry, and iron it, and snap it back into place.



The skirt is made in three pieces, one for each side of the bed.  A king-sized bed is 78-inches wide and 80-inches long.  With the drop cloth cut into quarters lengthwise, and one of the strips cut into thirds and pieced onto the other strips, this allowed for three pieces of fabric that were almost exactly twice the measurement of each side of the bed.  Perfect proportion and no waste!

21-1/4 inches from the floor to the top of the snap tape.


Separate pieces for each side, to split the corners and allow for the bed posts.


I recycled the snap tape from the original skirt onto the new skirt.  The new skirt has pleats instead of gathers ... more to my current taste, and WAY easier to do.



It took a few hours, but none of the construction was too taxing.  Three LONG rectangles, hemmed on all sides, measure and fold the pleats, with snap tape applied to the top edge.  I installed each panel as I finished it, to feed my need to see progress.





By the end of the afternoon, it was finished ... and what a difference!!  (The remains of old bed skirt could still be useful to someone who wants a LOT of white polished cotton fabric, so I folded it and dropped it into to Donate Box.)



The second Master Bedroom project was a set of drapes.  I bought a package of turquoise velvet drapery panels at Ikea years ago, because I loved the color and I figured that I would hold onto them to use the fabric for something one day. 



I have wanted some sort of curtains for our bedroom for a long time, but we had a not-so-small issue to overcome.  Our bedroom has two windows, one on each outside wall.  The best place in the room for our bed is in front of one of the windows.  We need that window for light (otherwise the room would be like a cave).  What type of window treatments would work for both of these windows?

North window, behind the bed.


West window.


Bedroom floor plan.  With all the doors and windows in this room, the only logical place for the bed IS in front of the north window.


Earlier this week, while I was working in the sewing room and came across that package of velvet drapes, I had a brainstorm ... would it look right if I totally ignore the window behind the bed and make drapes only for the west window?  I decided to give it a go.

Grommet-top drapes aren't my style ... so I cut off the grommets, added a strip of white canvas lining to finish the top of the panel and to form a rod pocket.  (The panels weren't long enough to allow me to fold over the top to make the rod pocket, that's why I had to add the extra fabric.  It's hidden, so no one knows it there but me.)

It only took a few minutes and four screws to install the curtain rod (which I also had on hand).



The chair?  I moved that up here over Christmas, when we had to clear out the living room for the ceiling demolition.  It's a little tight there in that corner, but I like how it looks and it gives us a place to sit to put on socks and stuff.  The pillow was a bargain buy at a barn sale last month.  The last name on it is the same as one of my ancestors, so you know I had to bring it home.



There you have it ... two sewing projects, using only materials that I already had.  Total additional cost, $2.49 for a spool of thread.  

32 comments:

  1. I'm loving your use what you have posts! I'm trying trying to sift through and donate but only managing about ten items every two weeks or so. I'm heavily considering a small house (on four acres!) and it has no basement and little storage space. It does have a barn though...maybe I'll pull a Martha and have it outfitted with floor to ceiling shelves.
    Waterbeds! Haha oh that thing was probably a Cafillac in its day. I remember how luxurious they were. What a great solution for your bedskirt. I'm going to pass this along to my mother, the master seamstress who loves the intersection of hardware and fabric. Her dining room chairs are slip covered with grommets on the bottom to ensure the seat fits well and doesn't pull away when someone gets up.

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    1. Remember, everyone's idea of chaos is different. I used to have a lot more tolerance for clutter and overstuffed storage than I do right now. As I hone in on what I use and what I don't, things I don't use or love go bye bye.

      Part of me was sad to give up our waterbed. It used regular sheets and comforters, and it was SO comfortable. When we bought this old place, I began to wonder if it was a good idea to have something that heavy that relied on 160+ year-old construction. Now that I know this place better, I know that it would have been no problem at all. Oh, well. At least our old waterbed went to a very nice home with a cute young couple.

      I thought about your mother while I was sewing, as I took my time and insisted that all of my hems were pressed and my seams were as straight as I could get them. Was anyone going to be inspecting this? Of course not! It's just how I do things ... perfect, if I possibly can.

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  2. I love the colors in that room. They're bright and not overly matchy-matchy, but also warm and cozy looking. Perfect for a bedroom!

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    1. Over the years, I have found that I have a certain preference for some colors and not so much others. Because of this, things in our house are pretty interchangeable and most coordinate well together. Besides, matchy-matchy and I don’t get along too well.

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  3. Love the idea of using that snap tape! You're so handy, I could really use you around here!

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    1. I'll come over to your place as soon as I'm finished here. ;)

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  4. I have never heard of snap tape, what a wonderful invention. I can't move my tempurpedic mattress by myself, it was hard enough with the two of us, so I've just stuffed the bedskirt up under it to make it come to the length I want. Your skirt came out wonderful and looks great on your bed.

    Love the drapes too. It's fun to pull stuff out of our stash to use for projects.

    You are such and inspiration ~ FlowerLady

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    1. Snap tape is available in the upholstery section of better fabric stores. I love it because it lasts practically forever, and washing and drying it doesn’t do a thing to it.

      I have so much stashed about, there aren't enough projects or time in the world to use it all.

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  5. The bed skirt is a thing of beauty! Great idea with the snaps. I can't move the mattress by myself so I have to wait until I get a visitor I can corral to help me! LOL. Drapes are very pretty and the other window is perfect bare. Great job and shopping the house is the best way to go.
    hugs,
    Linda

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    1. Wrangling help with your mattress from visitors is a great idea!

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  6. I popped on over here from my blog at the suggestion of a reader so I could see your greenhouse and I am blown away by your skills and creativity! Is there nothing you can't do? Your home is lovely and cozy and I love your kitties!

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  7. Absolutely ingenious idea with the snap tape for a mattress skirt! I want that chair you have there, LOVE it!!

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    1. I love that chair, too. It's weird that I do, because I generally am not attracted to Victorian anything. I prefer cleaner lines and more simple styling, like the earlier styles. Something about this little chair spoke to me that day at the antique shop, and the price was VERY right, so it came home with me. Glad it did!

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  8. I am also going through stuff, and determining what it can be used for. I am a hoarder of fabrics, I am not going to lie. But I have been trying to use what I have, the snap idea is perfect. I've had this old Matelassé bedspreads, little holes and thought I could make a bed skirt, but want it to snap or Velcro on. After all the curtains and new pillow covers I'm making from fabrics out of those bins, I'm making a bed-skirt or two. I like the pop of color those curtains make. OK, back to my sewing machine. Sew-on! Donna:)

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    1. It's so easy to hoard fabric ... it folds flat, is SOOO useful, and it doesn't appear to be a problem at first. The snap tape is the easiest thing EVER. Snap it off, wash the parts, a quick once-over with the iron, then snap it back in place.

      I am familiar with the wonderful things that come from your sewing machine!

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  9. These projects turned out great and it must be SO satisfying to use something you already have, to create something that you need. I do something similar with my bedskirts, but use velcro. When I lived in England all the duvets used snap tape. I always thought it was a perfect closure and wondered why we didn't use it here.

    The drapes are fabulous. I think you could use a roman blind on the other window if you could find more of that fabric. I couldn't really see how you did the heading. Is it just gathered. It's amazing how much better they look without the grommets.

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    1. I thought about velcro when I first made this. I decided that the snaps would be more durable in the long run. It's not the easiest stuff to find, as you mentioned. I needed some for another project earlier this year, and I sent my husband to my closest fabric store to get it. The clerk there had no idea what he was talking about! Fortunately, he knows what it looks like and he rooted around in the store till he found it.

      The top of the drapes is just a plain rod pocket, and the panels are gathered onto the rod. I left one-inch at the top for the header above the rod. Simple, quick, and very nice looking ... in my own humble opinion.

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  10. Love it that you are so useful with what you have and love the look too♥

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  11. You had me at snap tape. Who knew?

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    1. I know! It's flexible, and pretty much indestructible.

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  12. The bed skirt looks great and the curtains too. I know how you feel when you make stuff from materials you already have. So, do you wish you had bought 2 packages of those curtains? LOL

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    1. I do have two packages of curtains. These were 98” long. The other set is longer. I still think that I want to use the second set for its fabric. Because the south window is off center on the wall, and mostly obscured behind the bed, I have decided that dressing it with drapes would look weird. I have thought of blocking the window and draping the whole span behind the bed, but we need the light from that window in the room. We pretty much ignore it, because it is what it is and we can’t change it. You know all too well that sometimes it’s best to accept what we can’t change and to move on with other things where we CAN make an improvement.

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  13. Replies
    1. Thank you!! I think this is one of my more useful ideas.

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  14. This is exactly my idea with making it easier to remove the dust skirt... Although I was thinking on the lines of creating button holes on my skirts and sew buttons on the welt of the box spring or the bottom welt of the mattress since mattresses these days are made to not flip but only rotate.

    I have to do this it would make life so much easier when bed linens need laundering and taking the mattress off to get the bed skirt on is a total pain. I really did not care if the skirt drooped a bit more the relaxed look.

    Thank you for the inspiration again.
    The button holes on just the skirt and sewing buttons on a welt of the mattress or box is really an easy task for those who are more limited in sewing.

    See you soon.

    Dore

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    1. Inspiration is given freely here. I'm glad you like it. Please let me know if you do this with the buttons and buttonholes because I would LOVE to see it.

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  15. I've been fantasizing about a bed skirt and bed curtains lately (and also a little set of bed steps that I can trip over in the middle of the night), but I remembered how difficult it was pulling the stupid thing out from underneath the mattress when we only had a queen sized bed and figured I'd totally wrench my back trying to get it out from underneath a king size! What a genius idea! So now I better start shopping my fabric bins in the basement to see what might work and whether I have enough of it.

    I'm also in love with that chair. :D

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    1. There's something about winter which hits us at our most basic, primitive core ... our 'nest'. It's perfectly natural to fantasize about fluffing that nest. You have mad skills and an imagination that I admire, and I know that you will come up with something wonderful from those bins. (Let's not dwell on the bins, because I have a collection of them myself. Not enough time in a lifetime to ever use it all.)

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