Quick Idea: Dress Up Your Wooden Hangers

At Little Yellow Couch, we have been sorting through our closets to get organized in this new year as well as to prepare for our upcoming Clothing Swap Party!  It is exhilarating to pare down our wardrobes to just our favorite pieces and makes getting ready in the morning a much quicker and more enjoyable experience.  We are also always looking for ways to infuse a bit of our style into our everyday lives.  Your favorite garments shouldn't be hanging on a mishmosh of random plastic and wire hangers.  (Please tell me your not hanging your wardrobe on those ghastly dry cleaning hangers!)  We picked up some inexpensive wooden hangers to organize our closets and couldn't help but embellish a few.  Intersperse a few in your closet, hang one for a robe on the back of the bathroom door or hang a few in the guest room closet.  

xoxo Karen June

Supplies:

Wooden Hangers (We picked up 8 for $4 at IKEA)
Paint (We use Behr Ultra Matte in Winter Fresh)
Foam Brush (Create for Less)
Metallic Gold Sharpie 
Ruler
Pencil with New Eraser
Transfer Paper (We recommend Saral as any extra residue wipes clean with a wet cloth)

Directions:

Mint with Gold Dots:  Paint hanger with three coats of paint, allowing to dry between coats.  Add polka dots freehand using a Metallic Gold Sharpie.  

Natural with Mint Dots:  Add paint dots freehand using paint and an unused pencil eraser.  

Mint with "You Look Marvelous" and Arrows:  Paint hanger with three coats of paint, allowing to dry between coats.  Draw arrow lines using a Metallic Gold Sharpie and a ruler.  We added our arrow points freehand.  Using our template below, print "You Look Marvelous" and apply to the hanger using transfer paper.  Use a damp cloth to remove any transfer paper residue - don't worry about swiping over lettering as it will not smudge.  Copy over text using a Metallic Gold Sharpie.

Off The Shelf: DIY Wardrobe Embellishments

For our “ReFresh” theme this month, we’ll soon be writing about our clothing exchange party, which we’ve decided to host as a way to creatively refresh all of our wardrobes.  We’ll share ideas for taking a gently used garment and either fixing up whatever’s gone wrong with it or adding an embellishment to give it a second life.   For inspiration, we’ve looked to the following books written by fabric genies…those magical people who have put a modern, highly fashionable twist on the time-honored art of changing up a bunch of old stuff and making it look like a million bucks.

Custom Couture: 32 Easy Ways to Transform Your Wardrobe With Needle and Thread by Helene Le Berre

To my eyes, the projects in this book would help you create a DIY Anthropologie inspired wardrobe, which has my heart all aflutter!  Ms. Le Berre shows you how to add all of the little details that make a piece of clothing go from nice to WOW.  She also offers some creative twists on refreshing a piece.  For instance, my faves are outlining an entire raincoat with contrasting trim or taking the sleeves off of a sweater and replacing them with poufs of patterned fabric.  I’m drooling all over the photos and itching to cut up a pair of chinos and see if I can turn them into a beaded evening gown or something.  I’m in love with this book!  

Embroidered Effects: Projects and Patterns to Inspire Your Stitching by Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching

For those of you who don’t know Jenny Hart’s work, she’s brought embroidery out of grandma’s closet, dusted it off and given it her signature modern aesthetic.  This book includes a lot of practical information to get you started as well as instructions on a variety of stitches.  While it’s not only about updating your wardrobe, we’ve included it here because of the chapter she’s written on how to embellish clothes with embroidery.  My favorite is probably the design of a tattooed heart on the sleeve of a shirt, right where a real tattoo would be on your arm.   Very cheeky!  

Chic on a Shoestring: Simple to Sew Vintage Style Accessories by Mary Jane Baxter

Mary Jane Baxter has written one of those books you want to mark with a thousand sticky notes, putting them everywhere you see another idea you can’t wait to try.   What I love about this book is the breadth of projects she covers, using all kinds of materials.  She uses buttons, fabric, beads, felt, even pantyhose to create fantastic embellishments.  And she goes from head to toe, showing us how to update hats, tops, skirts, belts, bags, and shoes.  This book has my pulse racing because I can’t slow down enough to even decide which project I’ll do first!  

200 Crochet Flowers, Embellishments and Trims: Contemporary Designs for Embellishing All of Your Accessories by Claire Crompton

This one is fairly straightforward: a wonderful beginner’s intro to crochet, focused on small embellishments for clothing.  I especially love the trims Claire Crompton is teaching us.  I want to make a whole slew of them for the bottoms of all of my skirts!  

I hope you are inspired to pick up one of these beautiful books and try out a new project.  You’ll feel immensely proud of yourself as you walk down the street and strangers stop to ask where you got your wardrobe!  

xoxo Zandra

Quick Idea: Wooden Crate Jewelry Display

I love to accessorize.  In fact, many mornings I choose my outfit based on an accessory I want to wear that day. Starting with a color or aesthetic when getting dressed can lead to much more creative outfits and feeling more inspired to try new combinations of colors and patterns.  

Many of the jewelry pieces I wear are made by myself, other artisans or are found at vintage shops.  I gravitate towards pieces that are colorful or one-of-a-kind.  I've always liked when artisans refer to their jewelry as "wearable art".  

With that thought in mind I wanted to find a way to display my collection ... not only to easily access my jewelry when getting dressed in the morning, but also to admire my trinkets on my dressing table.  A stack of three vintage crates picked up at a local antiques show made for a clever canvas and cup hooks can be added in multiple rows and even on the tops and sides as your collection expands.  

Supply List:

Wooden Crates
1/2" Cup Hooks (Create for Less or your local hardware store)
Electric Drill
1/16" Drill Bit
Small Pliers

Directions:

• Pre-Drill your holes at even intervals.  (We spaced ours about 1 3/4" apart, offsetting a second row further back and another set on top of the crate for longer necklaces.)
• Using pliers, screw the cup hooks into the pre-drilled holes
• Hang and enjoy your jewelry!

xoxo Karen June

*** P.S.  Look below for a clever display solution for your rings!

*** Looking for a clever way to display your rings?  Cigar boxes filled with black beans are a great solution and look great with your vintage crates!

REfresh: DIY Lavender Sachet

This month at Little Yellow Couch, we are looking for ways to REfresh our homes, our wardrobes and our lives. As we prepare for our Clothing Swap party later this month, we are sifting through our closets ... setting aside the items that we don't love and making room for the things that we do.  We are also looking for ways to freshen up our drawers and closets and these lavender sachets are sure to do the trick.  

Supplies:

2/3 part rice

1/3 part dried lavender

4 x 6" muslin drawstring bag (We recommend Celestial Gifts)

Cardboard (to use as blotter)

Pencil with unused eraser

Multipurpose Acrylic Paint (We recommend Martha Stewart Crafts Multi-Surface Acrylic Craft Paints)

White Card Stock

Printer

REfresh Tag Front

REfresh Tag Back

Directions:

1.  Cut a piece of cardboard to fit inside your muslin bag.  This is just to be used as a blotter for any excess paint that might seep through the fabric.  

2.  Dip your pencil eraser in the paint and stamp a dot 1/2" from the edge of the bag and every 1/2" after that.  We started with our fresh green color at the base and then alternated rows with a metallic glitter paint offsetting our dots as we went.  (Tip:  Turn your bag upside down while working so that you start at the base of the bag and work your way down towards the drawstring.  This will keep you from smudging your paint.)

3.  Remove the cardboard and puff out linen bag to allow the painted layer to dry separately.  Set aside.

4.  Mix your 2/3 part rice with your 1/3 part dried lavender.  Once your paint is dry, add this mixture to your bag.  We filled ours about 2/3 of the way full.  

5.  Pull drawstring tight and attach our printable REfresh tag.  

6.  Add to your dresser drawers or closet to keep your clothes smelling fresh.  Lavender is also a natural moth deterrent.  

Quick Idea: Plaid Wrapped Ornaments

Styrofoam balls + strips of fabric + straight pins = instant ornaments

Ok, this isn't rocket science but maybe you just needed a little inspiration to fill up the gaps on your tree, or to mix with a bunch of pinecones in a basket, or in a glass container sitting on your mantel, or strung across the table as a runner, or hung from fishing line in your window...you see where I'm going with this, right?  Just wrap the strips around the balls until they're covered.  Yep.  That's really it.   

p.s. If you cut the fabric strips on the bias (diagonally), they won't fray nearly as much.  Or to make life even easier, you could use grosgrain ribbon instead of fabric.

p.p.s.  I used "tidy" pins, which are shaped like staples with really long ends, which you can find in the same section as the straight pins in your craft or fabric store.  Tidy pins don't have that little ball on top so they sit flat against the styrofoam and you can't really see them.  Plus, hanging fishing line, string or a ribbon from them is really, well, "tidy."  

xoxo, Zandra

Plaid Antler Plaque

We've seen this idea floating around Pinterest and we thought it would be perfect for our cocktail party.  We were going for a ski lodge-meets-modern glam look for the event so I wanted to figure out how to do a "trophy" wall of small "antler mounts", using plaid fabric with gold tipped antlers.  

• Wooden plaque (craft store), spray painted black
• Sticks, spray painted black with gold spray paint on the tips
• Egg-shaped styrofoam form (floral section, craft store), cut in half lengthwise for the head
• Fabric scrap wrapped around "head," secure with hot glue
• Hot glue "head" to plaque, stick "antlers" in, secure with craft glue
• Hang with Command Strips

Here's a straight shot of our wall of antlers at our cocktail party, and I have to say, the effect was pretty dramatic for something so easy to do!   Give it a try and send us a photo of your wall!

xoxo

Zandra

Quick Idea: Cocktail Stirrers

6 circles of three different kinds of paper  (2 large, 2 medium, 2 small) + 1 thin popsicle stick = 1 cocktail (or coffee!) stirrer

When hosting a Little Yellow Couch event, we like to send our guests home with a little present.  Because, you know, we're nice.  For our cocktail party, we made sets of 6 drink stirrers for each couple and put them in clear bags with a sweet homemade label.  Too bad nobody got them!  For the second time in three months, we forgot to give out our gifts as people were leaving! We now have enough cocktail stirrers to outfit Don Draper's office bar cart for at least a month.  Oh well.  We'll just think nice thoughts about our guests each time Karen and I sit around drinking our signature cocktail.  Does that count?  

Plaid Runner & Coasters DIY

In case it has gone unnoticed, we are committed to using a ridiculous amount of plaid for our upcoming holiday cocktail party.  (Bonus for me: I get to keep all of this stuff for my home once the party is over).  Yesterday we showed you our plaid swag and tomorrow we’ll be sharing DIYs on a plaid pillow and ornaments.  Today it’s all about using the scraps.  Looking around my house during the various stages of party planning, the question we keep asking is: “Do we have enough plaid?” followed closely by “is it possible to EVER have too much plaid?!”  After re-covering a chair, hanging swags, making ornaments, pillows and artwork, we were astounded to see we’d neglected the buffet!  Of all places!  So, the idea for a quick runner was born and then, because we couldn’t resist, we made some coasters, too. 

Quick Tip (also known as “cheating,” or “faking” by extremist DIYers):  Use a runner you already have (or flip one over and use the backside).  Then just sew on your strips of fabric.  I mean, why re-invent the wheel?  Or the base for your runner?  

For the coasters, we cut 5”x5” squares, sewing two squares of different fabrics together.  Simply stitching on the outside of the fabrics and using pinking shears to finish the edges made the work go very quickly, no hemming required.  Because who likes to hem a gazillion coasters?  

Easy-peasy.  

Cheers,
Zandra and Karen June 

P.S.  All of our beautiful plaids are from the Fabric Place Basement!

---

Felted Acorn Necklace

These felted acorns are popping up all over the place!  Last week, we showed you a woodland themed napkin ring using felted acorns and velvet ribbon for your Thanksgiving table as well as using them as an embellishment for your Leftovers Take-Home Box.  Our friend Julie Vician over at the Fabric Place Basement not only shared her acorn cap stash with us, but even gave us a few of her prized double caps!  Now, I don't know about you, but when double capped acorns fall into our hands, how can we ignore the possibility of creating something with them?  Our felted acorn necklace would be a cozy adornment to your Fall wardrobe.  And if you're not as lucky and can only find single caps, don't despair!  A single acorn necklace would be so sweet!

Printable DIY Instructions

Supplies:

Double Acorn Caps
Wool Roving (We used Solid Colored Merino from The Yarn Tree)
Felting Needle (We recommend the Clover Single Needle Felting Tool at Create for Less)
Felting Mat (We recommend the Clover Needle Felting Mat at Create for Less
Wool Sheet Felt (We recommend Sweet Emma Jean)
Power Drill 
1/16” Drill Bit
Wire
Wire Cutters 
Jewelry Pliers
Glue Gun
Hole Punch
Embroidery Thread (We used DMC 434)
Embroidery Needle
Chain Necklace   (We shortened our chain to 20")
Large Jump Ring (We used 7mm)

Directions:

1.  Gather your supplies for felting.

2.  Gather your supplies for creating the necklace.

3.  Choose your wool roving.  Gently tear off a long thin piece about 14” long (mine is folded in half in the picture).

4.  Loosely wrap your wool roving into a ball.  It will be about 3 times the size of your finished ball.

5.  Using your Felting Brush and Felting Needle, felt two balls - periodically checking to see how they fit in the acorn caps.  

6.  Using your power drill, drill a small hole in each of the two acorn caps.  Be careful to keep your fingers out of the way of the drill bit!

7.  Cut a small piece of wire and create a loop for your acorns by feeding through the two holes.  Splay the ends of your wire using jewelry pliers.  (Glue will later hold these wires in place.)

8.  Using your hot glue gun, glue your felted balls into the acorn caps.  

9.  Using the leaf templates provided, cut out one of each leaf size.  Following the pattern, embroider the leaf veining using a backstitch.  (If you would like to hide the back of your embroidery, you can cut out a second leaf in each size and glue to the backs.)

10.  Punch a hole through the base of both leaves.  

11.  Using a large jump ring, attach the leaves and acorns to your necklace.