Trashy

That’s quite literally what our front door might’ve looked like prior to last week.  You might remember (and hopefully you don’t) that after I painted the inside of our front door, I had a trash bag on loan to be hung over the two small windows every night so creepers couldn’t creep.  The sad proof:


Why?  Well, because we used to cover it with this roman shade I made…
 
…but after we went red, the old roman shade plus the red = clash, bang, boom.  No go.

But at the time, I thought I’d just whip up a new, magnetic shade (the door is metal) right after I got the door painted.  And whip one up I did…but not until a few months later.  Oops.

‘Tis:

[And in case you missed it, we painted the walls white a few weeks ago.]

And here’s how I did it.

First, I cut a piece of fabric (just some plain white broadcloth) to the size I wanted the shade to be plus two inches per side for seam allowances (I wanted it to be 27” x 37” finished so I cut my fabric to be 29” x 39”).  I used a new pattern-cutting mat I found on clearance at Walmart ($3).  It’s just cardboard so I won’t ever be able to use a rotary cutter on it (great though because I don’t own one!) but hopefully it’ll help me cut perfect squares/rectangles.  I simply laid my fabric on the mat, held it in place with a few big vases, and cut along the lines.



After I had my seemingly perfect rectangle, I took it to the ironing board and ironed a half-inch hem on all sides.

This is where the extra two inches in my cut fabric comes in.  To get a half-inch hem, I needed an extra one inch of fabric on each of the four sides. (If you’re anything but a sewing beginner, you might want to skip ahead.)  At the ironing table, I worked on one side at a time, first laying out the side to be ironed.

Using my measuring tape, I folded my fabric over one-half inch and ironed the fold (except originally I thought I wanted a one-inch hem which is why the picture below shows me folding over one-inch!  Sorry!  Pretend I’m measuring a half-inch!)

Then I folded the fabric over onto itself one more time so that I had done two half-inch folds.

After I ironed that second fold down, I pinned my hem down so that I could sew it.  Next I sewed a simple straight stitch down each side, staying as close to the inside of the hem as I could. 

Sewing a big rectangle like this to be used as a shade or a curtain panel is something easy to attempt if you’re just starting to sew.  All you have to do is sew a straight line and you’re set!  :)

When I was finished with the fabric part of my shade, I added some black pom pom trim to the bottom to liven things up a little.  I probably should’ve pinned the trim into place before sewing but instead I just held it on and used a straight stitch to attach it.  I only wanted the pom poms plus a sliver of the top ribbon showing on the front of the shade so I sewed it to the back of the shade vs. the front.

Now for the magnetic part.  To attach the shade to the door each night, my plan was to install a couple of button holes that could hold a couple of these magnetic hooks (in white) I found on clearance at Target a few years ago.

  I’ve never sewn button holes before so I was a tad nervous about trying them now but after watching this video tutorial I’m no longer afraid because they’re pretty easy.  All I had to do was make a couple of marks where I wanted my button holes (I made them an inch in and down at the top corners of my shade), attach my button foot fit with a random button about the size I wanted my holes to be, and my sewing machine did the rest.

And that’s it!  *In case you don’t sew, this could easily be done using some heat ‘n bond tape for the hemming and glue for the pom pom trim!  Punch in a couple of little grommets at the two top corners, hang it like I did mine, and you’re done!*

The trash bag went to it’s rightful place under the sink to be reused and the shade now keeps us private at night.  During the day I’ve been hanging it to the side like this:
 
But if I get sick of doing that I can always just hang it on the hooks next to the door.

I spent an hour making this shade last week and another hour painting this mirror in the living room:


Here’s what it looked like before:

Black and a nice, gawdy gold.  I found it at Goodwill last year and finally got around to hanging it last month. 
I spray primed it and then painted it a light gray (acheived by mixing some charcoal and white latex paints I had on hand).


After the paint was dry, I scraped the paint off the mirror (like I did this mirror), hung it, and called it done…for now.  I might add a gold border around the inside edge the next time I need a little paint therapy.  You know I’ll let you know.  :)
 

Between the shade and this mirror, I felt pretty darn accomplished last week.  This week is a different story so far; not a thing has gotten done.  Oh wait, I did get dressed from head to toe Monday!

And then we left the house headed for the grocery store, got to the grocery store, loaded the limo cart (you know, the ones you have to have a 10 mile radius around you in order to turn)…

[image from Raising Bluebirds]
…loaded up and paid only to walk out of the grocery store and after digging through my purse, was unable to find the car keys anywhere. Great.  Did I leave them in the car?  Did I drop them?  I have frozen food and three little people in my cart…what am I going to do?!  Oh look!  It’s pouring outside.  Great-er.  Well I guess we’ll just stand under the overhead cover at the store entrance until it stops and then we’ll head over to the van and find the keys because I probably just left them in the van, right?  Waiting, waiting…five minutes waiting.  Kids are getting antsy; food is probably thawing.  Ok, we’ll just have to run for it.  So we did.  We I ran for it.  Limo and all.  The doors are unlocked which means the keys are probably in the ignition or on the seat (so irresponsible) but before I grab them I toss the wet kids in along with the wet groceries and then I go to grab the keys but…wait, they’re not there.  They’re not anywhere!  Blast!  Why did I have to leave the house?!  Why?  Why?  WHY?  Call Anthony.  Oh yes, He’ll come help me.  (Calls Anthony.)  He’s on his way home anyway but can’t get here for another twenty or so minutes.  Ok.  So we sit in the van while it rains and wait.  And wait.  And wait.  Ten minutes pass and the rain slows to a sprinkle.  It’s getting stuffy in here and I’m pretty sure somebody let one slip.  Ah, I can’t breathe!  Ok.  I’ll just pack the kids back up and we’ll go inside to see if anyone turned the keys in.  Of course there’s always the other situation in which someone is now using the keys that I dropped to get into my house and steal all our things but let’s just try and focus on the positive shall we?  Positive, positive, positive.  My glass is half-full and there is a spring in my (wet) step.  Ugh, WHY did I have to leave the house?!  Deep breaths.  Grab Sebastian; the girls can walk. With one load in one arm and a chain of two little girls in the other, we traipsed back into the store and headed to the customer service counter where, after asking about my keys and being questioned about what kind and what did they look like so as to tell whether they really were mine before handing them over, I got my keys back.  Where I dropped them only one person knows and why I dropped them?  Oh, I know that one!  It’s because between juggling groceries and kids, who has time to make sure where her car keys are?  Not me! 

(And that is probably the first (yes, first) and last time I ever go on a weeks-worth-of-food grocery run with kids ever, ever, ever again.)

The end.

Wait, wasn’t this post about a shade?  Seems like she might have a little PTSD.  Probably.