home decor and garden are very famous in the world

I picked up a pair of nightstands several weeks ago at Savers (kind of like a “Goodwill”). They were lovely, solid wood…just boring. But they sat…and sat…and sat…in my garage because they wouldn’t speak to me and tell me what they wanted to be! Ornery buggers.

Then, the magical day happened…I read a tutorial on The Ivy Cottage for a faux-silver-leaf wall, of all things! What’s the faux part you ask? Amanda uses tin foil and wallpaper paste! She said she had successfully used the technique on furniture, and that was all I needed to know…and off I went to Home Depot!
Be warned…this is not a technique for the faint of heart. There is nothing difficult about it, but it’s fiddly and time-consuming…and STICKY!!
Here’s a peek at my finished product:
Here’s a brief description of the steps I took (again, many thanks the The Ivy Cottage):
1. Cut many, many, many squares of aluminum foil! I used regular old scissors. Amanda suggests tearing them with a straight edge, but I didn’t have a lot of luck with that technique. She also suggests using heavy-duty foil, but I missed that part! I would change that if I could.

2. Use a foam brush to spread a thin layer of wallpaper paste on your furniture. Apply a piece of aluminum foil, and smooth it down as best you can. On flat surfaces, I used a rubber spatula, but almost every where else, I had to rely on my fingers to get in all the grooves and details. You will get wallpaper paste on the surface of the foil (and possibly everywhere else). (You might also find funny red splotches as you smooth your foil on, and you'll wonder if the kids did a lousy job wiping the table--again--and you have last night's pizza sauce mixed in with the wallpaper paste now. But just before you yell at them, you might realize you sliced your finger open somewhere along the way, and you're bleeding into the wallpaper paste. Can't blame the kids for that one!) Go with it; it will be just fine! Make sure you overlap the edges of the foil.


3. When everything is completely dry, use a damp rag to wash away the glue residue. The foil is remarkably resilient, and it stood up to a little scrubbing beautifully.

4. Apply a drop of black acrylic paint to the foil, and rub it in and around with a paper towel. If you get too much, dampen it and you can wipe it right off. This is really like glazing a piece of furniture. The paint darkens the foil and gets in the wrinkles, giving it some “age” and character. I really liked the change this made in the overall look of the piece..

Note: I realized…too late…that I hadn’t been very careful in placing my foil shiny side up all the time! I decided that that added “character” to the piece as well, and I left it! Then I had to make sure to do the same thing on the second nightstand.
5. Protect your masterpiece with two coats of Minwax Polycrylic. I chose to brush it on, rather than spraying it on, because brushing gives a thicker coat! Also because the electricity was out right then!

6. I chose to keep the original pulls. I sprayed them silver (Rustoleum Aluminum, to be exact), and then applied black Rub-n-Buff over the surfaces. I think it matched remarkably well.



 10/2/12:  You can see another foil project here! *********************** This project has been featured at Beyond the Picket Fence, Craft Gossip, and

Thank you!

"One day I will have a house with Ann Sacks tile" has appeared on this blog before. I would like to add to that wish. Soooo.... One day I will have a house with a master bath that includes Michael S. Smith for Ann Sacks tile. Has a certain ring doesn't it?

So now that we've got our top or dress completed, it's time to add the fun, accent flower.  This part of the pattern is completely optional, but I think it adds a nice little bit of whimsy to the outfit.  You can get as creative as you would like with this accessory, but I opted to follow the pattern and just add an extra-large fabric covered button to the center.


You've got to start by cutting 8 petals.  I used the accent fabric for the petals, but you could use whatever fabric you like......maybe even something less matchy and more bold.....it's up to you.


Fold your petals in half, wrong sides together, and stitch down one side.  I clipped some of the bulk off the very tip, so that they would be easier to turn right side out.

After you've sewn all eight petals, turn them right side out.  Try using a sharper point (like a point-turner) to really get the corners nicely turned.  Press with seams down the middle according to pattern instructions.


For the next step, I ran a gathering stitch across four petals at a time.  I then pulled the bobbin thread to gather the petals.  Once I had them gathered tight enough, I tied the ends of the threads together to hold them in place.  I also opted not to top-stitch each petal just because I prefer this look.


Place four of your petals on top of the other four petals in an alternating position.  Then run a stitch around in a circle to hold them in place.


Here is my flower before the addition of the button.  Choose your button and add it to the center of the flower.  I stitched the button onto the flower at the same time I sewed it to my top.


And there you have it - a fun, flower accessory.  I love the idea of adding this flower to a headband or even adding a pin on the back.  I think it would be really fun to make one of these for myself to pin to my purse or cardigan when Savannah's wearing this outfit.  A little bit of "mommy and me" never hurt anyone, right?

Tomorrow is day 5 of our sew along where we will be working on the capris/shorts.  If you've reached your final destination of the sew along and were just doing the dress, don't forget to add pictures of your completed sew along look to The Cottage Home Flickr Pool if you want to be considered for the contest and $50.00 gift certificate.  And for the rest of you, see you tomorrow!

If I have said it once, I have said it 20 times- I heart Kay Douglass. I was so excited to come across her lake house last night on Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles. I love that she uses so much white, yet bright color. While I love pretty neutrals I crave color in doses just like this. One of these days I am going to have a fuschia wing chair.

More images HERE.

So it's time to finish up our top/dress!  How are we feeling?  Good, I hope......we're in the home stretch, so bare with me.  Yesterday we stopped after finishing up our arm holes and shoulder ruffles, so now we'll move on to the side seams and finishing.


Since you've probably just pressed your shoulder ruffles and arm holes, you will now need to pull the exterior fabric and the lining completely apart (we do this a lot with this pattern).  Place the right sides of the exterior fabric and the right sides of the lining fabric together at both sides seams.  You are now going to run a stitch starting at the beginning point of the two lining fabrics coming together and running all the way to the end of where the exterior fabrics come together.  This is going to cause us to have no exposed seams on the interior of the garment - yipee!!


Here is what your seam will look like on one side.  You will need to run this stitch on both sides.  It's pretty much just sewing a straight line though you may have to turn your foot a tad bit at the arm hole.


I like to clip a line where the exterior and lining fabrics come together under the arm hole.  I find the arm holes lay much more flat this way.  You totally don't have to do this step.......it's just a little extra thing I like to do.


Turn your garment right side out and press the side seams open and press all the way around the arm holes.  I like to press the exterior seams and lining seams separately to make sure they are both fully open. 


This next step is where I took some liberties with the way I like to do a lined garment.  So for the next few steps you can totally ignore me and follow the actual instructions or give this finishing technique a try.  Let's see if I can explain this correctly..........

Currently you have your garment pressed and turned nicely with the right sides out.  At the lower side seam (doesn't matter which one), pull the lining fabric away from the exterior fabric.  We need to pull them apart because we are going to flip the fabrics so they will now have their right sides facing.


In the picture above, you can see the corner where I started turning towards the bottom of the picture.  It's going to feel sort of awkward and weird but just go with it.  You want to try and turn the entire bottom of the dress so the right sides are facing each other.


In the picture above you can see that I now have the right side of my lining facing the right side of my exterior fabric.  I have pinned this in place.  You want to sew along the bottom with a 1" seam allowance (I usually do 1/2" but a 1" hem is what the pattern calls for).  Sew 3/4 of the way across, then leave a 4" gap and finish sewing to the other edge.  See picture below......


Notice how I have left a 3" - 4" opening at the bottom of the top.  Pull the rest of the dress through this little opening.  Again, it's going to feel a little strange, but trust me.

Now that you have pulled the top through the opening, press the bottom seam.  You will have a 3" - 4" opening so you need to make sure to press that under to line up with the bottom of the top.  Place a few pins to hold it in place.



Next, top-stitch around the entire bottom using a 1/8" seam allowance.  This will catch the opening and make it so the entire bottom is closed.  You can use this technique to make garments reversible as well.  Personally, I fell that it ensures that the bottom of any garment is nice and neat and the bottom seam is perfect.  Again, you can totally ignore me if I lost you along the way.........if so, just follow the instructions in the pattern for a more typical way to hem.


The pattern now instructs for some additional top-stitching and button holes.  Again, the button hole placement didn't seem to given exactly, so on the size small, I opted to do four buttons spaced about 4.5" apart.  But you can do them however you would like.

I'm not going to go into details in regards to making button-holes since everyone's machine is different.  I use a button-hole foot attachment with my machine that pretty much does all the work for me.


After you've sewn your button holes, open them with your seam ripper.  I place a pin at the end of each hole so as to make sure I don't rip through the entire thing.  I've been VERY thankful several times that I took the time to take this extra step.


Finally, finish your button holes with fray check or other sealer so that you prevent any additional fraying in the wash.