Fresh Frippery

Handmade, DIY & Vintage Woodland Themed Nursery Reveal

Posted on February 6, 2014 by freshfrippery

I mostly finished the nursery months ago, but haven’t posted because there was one last piece of artwork I wanted to hang. A friend sent a beautiful handmade card that I framed, but I had very limited chances to hang it because hammering into the wall when the baby sleeps is not a good idea.

Most of the items in the room are handmade, modified or vintage, so that the baby could have a unique room (without too much expense).

Here is an overview of the room as you walk in.

The rocking chair is vintage, and I made the chair cushions. I also made the toadstool footstool.

The nightstand is from Ikea, the elephant hamper from Home Decorators, and the Carter’s Forest Friends lamp and blue baby box were gifts.

I used decals from eBay on the door, closet doors and walls.

The wall art was made by me to spell out my baby’s name.

I made the fabric birds using scrap fabric. Originally, I had them all hanging on a large vine wreath, but it was so heavy I did not feel comfortable suspending it from the ceiling. I got the pattern from Spool Sewing.

I made the tree stump ottoman, and should make a construction how-to post later on.

It works triple-duty as a table, extra seating and hidden storage for toys.

The cushion covers and button tree pillow were sewn by me. The Martha Stewart storage bench and fabric bins are from Home Decorators.

The convertible crib with attached changing table and dresser are from Target. Later on, the crib parts reassemble into a toddler bed and full-size bed.

I painted the drawer knobs with mushrooms.

The laser-cut bamboo clock is from Decoylab and was used in my sewing room. If I was buying from them now I’d get the hedgehog clock for the nursery.

I made the curtains and tiebacks from gnome fabric. I love the print, but the cotton wrinkles so easily.

I have a second set of green thermal curtains (purchased from Target and hemmed by me) so I can control the lighting in the room.

The hot air balloons in the corner were another craft project of mine.

The mushroom light switch plate cover was purchased from eBay. (Can you tell I really like mushrooms?)

And finally, the card from my friend, which is made of different colors of paper glued to cardstock.

Some Project Summaries:

Baby name wall art: https://freshfrippery.com/2013/12/20/baby-name-wall-art-for-the-nursery/

Rocking chair cushions: https://freshfrippery.com/2013/11/22/quick-cushions-for-a-vintage-rocking-chair/

Mushroom pouf (toadstool footstool): https://freshfrippery.com/2012/06/08/toadstool-footstool-mushroom-pouf/

Deer bench pillow covers: https://freshfrippery.com/2013/07/21/fabric-covers-for-storage-bench-cushions/

Button tree pillow: https://freshfrippery.com/2012/09/08/button-tree-pillow/

Hot air balloons: https://freshfrippery.com/2012/07/23/hot-air-balloons/

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Posted in Nursery and tagged crafts, forest, home decor, mushrooms, nursery, woodland. Bookmark the permalink.

Baby Name Wall Art for the Nursery

Posted on December 20, 2013 by freshfrippery

A full nursery reveal post will be up later, but for now I’d like to show you some wall art I made for my baby’s nursery. I wanted his name on the wall, but didn’t want to paint wooden letters.

The nursery is loosely based on a woodland theme, so I made the art to match.

The gold frames are from the dollar store. I hot-glued dried preserved moss mats directly onto the glass, then hot-glued on the other materials.

The O is a bird’s nest with fake eggs.

The T is a mushroom I made out of red wool felt and white linen.

The second T is cut out of birch bark.

The last O is made of sola wood flowers, which are wonderfully light-weight. I think I would like to use them for millinery sometime.

The moss, nest, bark and flowers were purchased from Sav-on Crafts.

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Navy Regency Bonnet

Posted on December 6, 2013 by freshfrippery

I’ve finished trimming my straw Regency bonnet with navy and white striped grosgrain ribbon, which I used to decorate the brim with puffed loops, make chin ties and a cockade. The center of the cockade has a faux pearl button, and there are 3 white ostrich feathers.

It is a stovepipe shape, although not a particularly elongated one.

The inside is decorated with venise lace.

It is my first try at a cockade ornament of this style, and this tutorial at Idle Hands was very useful. I found pinning the cockade on a mousepad when arranging the loops helpful since I do not have a cork board. (I did not iron my loops flat though, because I wanted them to mirror the puffs on the brim).

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Costume Planning for 2014

Posted on November 26, 2013 by freshfrippery

This is a tentative list of items I’d like to complete next year. Looking at this all typed out it seems a little ambitious, so I’ll have to see how much I get done!

Navy Regency pelisse and matching bonnet

I have all the materials and I cut out the pieces, but stopped when the event (GBACG Tall Ships Adventure) I was making the set for got cancelled. Then I got too busy with work and baby things.

Deadline: TBA

1830s Romantic ballgown

The group of ladies who did the Gibson Girl dresses last year have decided our theme for the April Gaskell Ball is 1830s. I am planning to use the Truly Victorian 455 pattern.

Deadline: April 26, 2014

Vintage 1940s AAGBPL baseball uniform

I haven’t decided on a team, but it will be something cute and comfortable to wear for Saturday classes at Costume College.

Deadline: CoCo 2014 (August 1-4, 2014)

18th century court gown

This is for the Saturday night ball at Costume College. I have no idea whether I will make something from scratch or reworking this gown if I run out of time.

Pastel Regency gown

There is an ice cream social at CoCo, and I would like to wear something that has a dessert color scheme.

Fancy bloomers

I already have a corset, and need some spiffy bloomers for the “Sunday Undies” breakfast at CoCo.

Fantasy Tea outfit

Most likely I will recycle an existing outfit for the tea party at CoCo, but with some new accessories if I have time. I may wear my silk 18th century-inspired cream outfit.

(Photo by Sally Norton)

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Posted in Costume College 2014 and tagged costume, Costume College 2014, sewing. Bookmark the permalink.

Quick Cushions for a Vintage Rocking Chair

Posted on November 22, 2013 by freshfrippery

I have this green wooden rocking chair I bought from the Alameda Antiques Fair, 1-2 years ago.

Now that I will be using it in the nursery and sitting in it a lot more I decided it needed some cushions. My original plan was to buy some padding and cute fabric and make a bottom and back cushion set.

Then I realized, I had materials on hand and didn’t need to spend anything. Free projects are my favorite!

I received a thick block of foam as padding material from an online purchase, and used a pocket-knife to carve off the corners to fit the chair. I also had a pillow that my mom made me back in high school, out of a rice sack. (She liked that it was “AA” brand and said it would remind me to get AA grades). The pillow followed me to college and grad school, and I like the idea of using something from my mom in the baby’s room.

I was still planning to make new fabric covers for the cushions until I remembered I had some green, king-sized pillow cases in the closet. They came with my bedding set and I never used them because they were not as practical as plain, white pillow cases. Here’s a photo of one of them, with the foam block inside.

After folding, tucking and stitching excess fabric underneath the cushions, I ended up with a pair of cushions that match the chair perfectly.

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Posted in Home Decor, Nursery and tagged nursery, sewing. Bookmark the permalink.

Little Man Mustache Bash Themed Baby Shower

Posted on November 10, 2013 by freshfrippery

A few weeks ago I had my baby shower. The theme was mustaches! My sister and I made our own invitations, gift bags, party games, cupcake toppers and banner, with the help of some online printables.

We bought printable cardstock from Staples, which had little silver borders, and glued on little paper cut-outs of mustaches and bow ties from Etsy. Here’s a picture of the finished invitation (with a little card covering up my personal details).

Our guests were greeted at the door by this sign, which you can get at the With a Grateful Prayer blog, along with some other neat printables from the mustache party she threw for a family member.

Our food table was decorated by little rubber duckies with cute mustaches, that we got from Oriental Trading Company. We also put ducks, chocolates and mustache-shaped gummy candies into the goodie bags we gave each guest when they left.

We got little white paper bags from Amazon for the treat bags, and printed out treat toppers that said “Little Man.” (You can get your own at Printabelle).

We had a matching green and blue banner (also from Printabelle), and I cut the large mustaches free-hand out of black cardstock.

The matching cake toppers were made by sticking printed squares or circles onto toothpicks with little mustache stickers.

(We also had catered Mexican and Chinese food and leftovers for days).

We bought the mustache stickers at Oriental Trading, and they came in super handy! I ended up using them to also decorate the bingo game cards, prize gift bags and seal my thank-you card envelopes.

The bingo cards were made by customizing a word list and using the generator at Print-Bingo.

We also had the guests guess celebrity mustaches. I made these cards on my computer but the graphic across the top is from the With a Grateful Prayer blog.

The mustache pictures I found by Googling. (They are John Waters, James Franco, Snidely Whiplash, Robert Downey Jr., Hulk Hogan, the Monopoly Man, Ryan Gosling, Salvador Dali, Jamie Hyneman, Borat, Ron Burgundy and Charlie Chaplin).

We also had fun paper photobooth props, with different colored mustaches, lips, glasses and hats from Bebop Props.

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Gatsby Style – Maternity Version

Posted on September 15, 2013 by freshfrippery

Last week I went to the Gatsby Summer Afternoon, a yearly event put on by the Art Deco Society of California. The dress code is 1920s or 1930s summer daywear. You’ll see a lot of dropped waists, flowy chiffons and fabulous hats!

Being pregnant I couldn’t fit my dress from last year, and I didn’t want to spend too much time making a dress that would fit me for such a brief time, so I decided to modify an existing dress.

Read on to see the before and after. Read the rest of this entry →

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Posted in 1920s, Gatsby and tagged costume, Gatsby, sewing. Bookmark the permalink.

Craft Room Tour

Posted on August 25, 2013 by freshfrippery

I have been busy the past month dismantling my sewing room to turn it into a nursery. My fabric bins and other items are moving into a different room, that will turn into an office/craft space.

I took some pictures so I can remember what it looked like before.

Look behind the cut for more pictures.

Read the rest of this entry →

Fabric Covers for Storage Bench Cushions

Posted on July 21, 2013 by freshfrippery

This weekend I finished making fabric covers for my storage bench cushions.

I got the Martha Stewart storage benches and bins from HomeDecorators.com during a sale last Thanksgiving, but thought the accompanying cushion on top was a little too plain. (It is the same beige color as the trimming on the fabric bins).

The cute deer fabric is from the Woodland Pals collection by Robert Kaufman. I purchased it at Stonemountain and Daughter in Berkeley.

I cheated by faking seams to minimize cutting. The edges you see are really one continuous piece of fabric pinched together and sewn on the blank side, instead of 2 pieces of fabric sewn together. This makes me look a little better at pattern-matching than I really am.

Basically I ended up with a tube that slipped over the cushions, and then I tucked the edges in the same way you would wrapping paper on a present. The sides were then sewn down by hand.

This was a quick project that required only 2 yards of fabric, and I had a gift card, so the total cost was $0 out of pocket.

Right now the bins hold sewing patterns and other things, but will make a great reading nook and toy storage for children later. =)

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GBACG Tissot Bustle Picnic

Posted on June 24, 2013 by freshfrippery

Yesterday I had a very lovely time at the Greater Bay Area Costumer’s Guild Tissot Bustle Picnic, held at Ardenwood Historic Farm in Fremont, CA.

I wore my dress with a pouch made from matching fabric, a parasol from Angelic Pretty, and a top hat made by Triple Fortune. I ran out of time to make a matching bonnet, but I have the black straw base started at least!

From the front you can start to see a bit of my baby bump. =)