24 November 2013

Curtains - DIY

I love trips to IKEA I could spend hours there wandering around and buying all those little bits for a household. We went there other day and one of the thing we bought was a very cute black fabric with white and orange Koi carps print. My boyfriend is a huge fan of Koi carps, so we decided to make a new curtains in a living room :)



DIY curtains - What you need:


- Fabric 5m long, at least 120cm wide (The best fabric for curtains is heavy       cotton, thick polyester fabric, or any firm, durable  fabric)
- sewing machine
- matching sewing threads
- scissors
- gathering tape
- Iron-on tape if you like for bottom hemming (I haven't used it at the end)

Step 1: Measure and cut fabric. I measured the length between the curtain rail and the floor and added about 5 cm on the bottom to account for the hems. To cut the fabric right, lay it out on a large flat surface - table is not enough, I lay it out on a floor. If using a patterned fabric it is important to make sure each drop starts ate the same point in the pattern so that the design flows across the window. 
Step 2: Sew the side hems as per below picture, allowing at least 1,5 cm for hemming. 


Step 3:  Press the top of the curtains down (about 2cm) to the inside and sew the curtain tape across the top of the wrong side of the curtains. Fold in ends and stitch along outside edges ensuring that the strings are not caught in stitch line. 


Now your curtain top corner should appear like this:


Below is a guide how to make equal ruffles by tying strings on gathering tape and also how to attach the curtain on a rail using plastic clips. 



Step 4: Sew the bottom hem on each curtain.

 

And that's it! Your new curtains are ready to be pressed and hang! :)



  


17 November 2013

DIY project - Leather detail skirt

My favorite black skirt has shrinked a little bit and I can only blame my washing machine for that... Other reason could be that I put on weight but I would rather stick to the first option :).
... so as I couldn't wear that skirt any longer, I decided to enlarge it with a piece of faux leather and make it even fashionable! If you want to make something similar below is the guide for you, enjoy! 


What you need: piece of leather - real or faux, a ruler, fabric chalk, scissors, sewing machine and of course some skirt with zip closure in the back


STEP 1: measure your skirt length and cut a strip from leather in exact length, the width depends on how much you want to enlarge it. I kept the same width along the whole  leather strip as my skirt has an elastic waist belt. 


STEP 2: Cut the opening for a zip into the leather piece. 
STEP 3: Carefully rip the stitching as pictured, including stitching around the zip 

STEP 4:  Use pins to fasten the zip and leather and sew it together using zipper sewing foot. 

STEP 5:  Fasten leather strip along both sides of skirt fabric and sew through 


TADA! New leather detail skirt :)