diy – Page 9 – emerald city diaries

a baby shower.

last weekend i was lucky enough to co-host a baby shower for one of my dear friends amanda. amanda & her husband are expecting their baby girl this summer!

i was in charge of decorations & dessert which was so much fun! i had lots of ideas at first but really used pinterest to help me organize the details. {you can see the baby shower pinboard here.} the other co-hosts (sam & denaye) and i decided that we would keep the shower theme simple, so we went with a theme of purple (the mom-to-be’s favorite color!).

{the dessert table: mini cupcakes from trophy, cupcake flags (diy), paper pinwheel board (diy), tablecloth (diy), flowers from pike place market, tall glass cake stand from tj maxx, white cake stands and platter from crate & barrel, stripey straws from amazon & diy flags, “cupcake” sign (diy).}

{the book check-in. denaye had the idea that guests could bring a book in lieu of a card to help the baby’s library grow. i thought it would be fun to include a card inside each book that had a note to the baby, so we used old school library cards.}

{i gave the baby my very favorite book the very hungry caterpillar.}

{sam made a cute little diaper cake.}

{sam, denaye, me & amanda.}

{the food table: homemade mexican enchiladas & fajitas by sam & her husband, sangria by sam, lavender lemonade by denaye, tablecloth (diy).}

{baby shower games: name that baby food which entailed guests tasting (or smelling) baby food & writing down their best guess. wishes for baby allowed each guest to fill-in-the-blank. fill-in-the-nursery-rhyme (sorry there isn’t a picture) which had guests fill in the missing words to the nursery rhymes we all grew up with. sidenote: i totally rocked this game & walked away as the winner with a set of bubbles! on the other hand, i failed miserably at the baby food game.}

{amanda isn’t big on really girly stuff for the baby, but this outfit was insanely cute!}

thanks to sam & denaye for being fantastic co-hosts! {the food was so delish (thanks sam!) & denaye brought the cutest (and tastiest) macaroons from chicago as party favors.} thanks also to amanda for letting us throw a shower in your honor & letting us surprise you with all of the details! i can’t wait to meet your baby girl.

i am planning on posting later in the week about all the diy projects!

also visit amanda’s blog for scenes from the baby shower & a shower game.

have you attended or thrown any showers lately?

pinspiration: sewing machine pin cushion.

i have a few sewing projects on my mind, but have yet to find a pin cushion. i realize that something like a pin cushion is really a practical thing, but i have been holding out for a pin cushion that i really like.

i am clumsy & drop boxes of pins all the time resulting in pins all over the floor & occasionally in stepping on pins – ouch! after this happened to me for the millionth time this afternoon, i knew that i had to do something about my pin cushion situation.

{story of my life.}

enter pinterest & the genius ideas that i pinned months ago…

{see original pinterest link: sewing machine pin cushion}

supplies:

scrap fabric
ribbon
hand needle
thread
sewing machine {you could do this by hand, but it would be ironic to make this by hand for a sewing machine}
scissors

i already had fabric scraps & ribbon, so it was just a matter of sewing a few simple seams. my pin cushion is a bit squarer due to the shape of my machine’s arm & the ribbon length is only one time around the arm for each side.

i will still be on the quest to find the perfect pin cushion, but for now, this one will do!

do you have a habit of dropping pins all over? do you use a pin cushion?

valentine’s day bunting.

i loved the christmas bunting that i made so much that i decided we needed one for valentine’s day too. i think bunting banners are a fun way to decorate & they are pretty straightforward to make. i used pretty much the exact same steps as the christmas bunting.

{if you need any inspiration for a valentine’s day bunting, check out this cute one from pinterest. i love how the flags are printed pages, perhaps i will make a similar one next year.}

{pinterest link: valentine’s bunting.}

supplies:

fabric for flag
felt for hearts
sewing machine or needle
thread (i used red to sew the flags to the ribbon & pink to outline the flags)
fabric scissors
pinking shears (optional)
cardstock (i used to make templates for heart & flag)
ribbon
tacky glue
pins

{first i used my triangle template to trace out my flags. i used the template i created for my christmas bunting.}

{sidenote: a tip for saving fabric. because the template i created is half of a perfect rectangle, i found that you can alternate the triangles when tracing the template onto the fabric. this saves fabric & reduces cutting as the angled edges share a cut with the neighboring triangle. make sense?}

{i traced my heart template onto red felt using a black marker and then cut them out.}

{i glued one heart onto each flag. like i did for the christmas bunting i used pinking shears to cut the flag edges.}

{i used two spools of glittery red ribbon – one bunting had eight flags, the other had seven. i pinned each flag to the ribbon with two pins. i lined up the top edge of the flag with the top edge of the ribbon; this way wherever my seam was sewn it would hit the ribbon & the fabric. i found that it was easiest to lay out the ribbon on the edge of a long, flat workspace – in my case this was the edge of our office couch. this makes pinning the flags so much easier.}

{then i sewed a simple straight stitch to attach the flags to the back of the ribbon.}

{the finished bunting over our chalkboard. i am loving the festiveness of these heart buntings to our eating area & i think they may be cute enough to keep up for the next few months (until the next holiday i make a bunting for!).}

is a valentine bunting in your future? i hope so!

diy sewn paper valentines.

i heart valentine’s day, genuinely. who wouldn’t like a holiday that is all about love? i saw these little cards floating around pinterest & knew they had to be my valentines for this year!

{original pinterest link: sewn paper valentines}

supplies:

heart template (see website above or make your own)
pencil
fabric
cardstock for cards
sewing machine
thread (i used red & white)
scissors and/or paper trimmer
envelopes (see mine from earlier diy post)
wasabi tape (optional – i used mine to seal the envelopes)

{first i printed out the heart template from the website above & made my own heart template from cardstock – much easier to trace than computer paper! then i traced the hearts onto my fabric – i recommend tracing on the back of the fabric so there are no pencil lines that show especially if you are using a light-colored fabric – and then cut out the hearts.}

{i cut out my cardstock, two pieces for each card. the dimensions of each card were 4 1/4 x 6 inches.}

{next i sewed three stitches onto the “cover” of each card; i sewed about a 5/8 inch seam – i lined up the right edge of the cardstock with the right edge of the foot. i used red thread for the top seam & white thread in my bobbin; this helped tremendously with the next step & also to keep the back of the card looking neat & clean. i made sure to leave the excess thread at both ends of my stitch long so that i could tie each off with a knot; i think knotting the thread works best for this project because doing a back stitch shows too much on the paper.}

{the fourth stitch on the card attaches the back cover. it is exactly the same stitch, you just add the back cover underneath.}

{after all of the cards were stitched together, i sewed a fabric heart onto each card by hand with red thread. {sidenote 1: i sewed all the backs of the cards on before i hand sewed the hearts mostly because i wanted to be done with the sewing machine. it would be a bit easier to sew on the heart either right after the first three stitches of the card, or even before you stitch the card at all. sidenote 2: i originally planned to use my sewing machine to sew on the fabric hearts, as per the original tutorial. after many attempts, however, i admitted defeat!}

{sidenote: i ended up without a picture of the card front. would one of my valentines mind sending me a picture of your valentines card so i can post it here? thanks!}

{i wrote my valentine’s day message inside the card & each card went into my diy envelopes! i used wasabi tape i bought from etsy to seal the envelopes.}

{i think the wasabi tape was a fun way to seal the envelopes. if you don’t have wasabi tape you could use regular scotch tape, use a sticker, or even glue the envelopes shut.}

did you send out valentines this year?

diy envelopes.

i have an obsession with paper goods. there, i said it! i still write thank you notes by hand & send them snail mail (isn’t there something so romantic & lovely about receiving mail!) and i jump on any chance to send paper mail. while i no longer get to go to school & receive valentines from all of my classmates (wasn’t that the best?) i did want to send out a few valentines to my close family & friends.

i knew i wanted valentines that had some form of diy & when i saw these whimsical envelopes on pinterest, i knew i would be making at least the envelopes this year.

{original pinterest link: paper envelopes}

supplies:

envelope to use as template
printed paper (i used square scrapbooks sheets, but size depends on the size of the envelope)
ruler
pencil
gluestick
paper tags or labels (optional – i knew addresses written on printed envelopes would be difficult to read)
letter opener (optional – i used it to make clean cuts on my envelope template)

{i started out by finding an envelope & using a letter opener it up.}

{i laid down my template on the wrong-side of my paper (so any leftover pencil marks would be on the inside of the final envelope) & lined up the corner edges and sides of the template with the corner and sides of the paper (to reduce the amount of cutting). then i cut out the envelope.}

{while the places to fold in are really clear from looking at the cut-out, i found that it was pretty easy to end up folding a crooked fold. i remedied this by lining up a ruler edge on both sides of the fold edges and then folding over the ruler. this gave me a nice straight fold.}

{then i flipped the envelope over & folded in the pieces starting with the sides & then the bottom – this is the way the original envelope was folded. i added a very thin line of glue to the bottom edges of the side flaps. be sure that there isn’t too much excess glue on the bottom of this edge as you may inadvertently glue the envelope together!}

{i used these little cut-out tags that i picked up at michael’s. while the package says there are only 6 pieces, there are actually 12 – score! i firmly glued one tag on the front of each envelope, staggering the tag on each: bottom left corner, bottom right corner, middle. i always put my return address on the back flap of the envelope. i used our address stamp from etsy & the black ink was bold enough that i stamped it right onto the envelope, not needing to add a tag to the back.}

{the final touch was adding a LOVE stamp. you can see that i chose three different prints for my envelopes: stripey, polka dot & hearts.}

stay tuned for my valentines cards!

what do you think about pretty paper envelopes – a waste of time or can’t get enough?

diy valentine’s day coffee sleeves.

since valentine’s day is my absolute favorite holiday (yes, above christmas, and yes, because it is also my birthday), i adore all things valentine’s. while i haven’t gotten into decorating for the holiday quite like i do with christmas, i do have some projects in mind to spruce up our townhouse a bit for this lovely holiday.

this is a super easy & quick project, so much so that it is hard for me to even consider it a diy!

{original pinterest link: diy je t’ aime coffee cup wrappers}

supplies:

printed pdf of either or both templates from original blog post (above)
cardstock or thick paper (unless you print the template on cardstock)
glue stick &/or glue dots
scissors
disposable coffee cup

{first i printed the boy & girl templates}

{then i cut out each template}

{i held up the template to the cup i had (a tall cup from starbucks) to see if it was large enough. it wasn’t, obviously.}

{then i traced each template onto cardstock. i left a little room around each because i needed to add length to the ends.}

{i cut out the cardstock, adding length to the ends but not to the width.}

{i used a glue stick to attach the paper templates to the cardstock cut-outs. then i put three glue dots on the extra cardstock end that was running underneath the extra cardstock end hanging over – i think this will make sense if you are actually doing this!}

{once the glue dots were firmly holding the sleeve together, i trimmed the excess cardstock along the edge & bottom of the sleeve.}

{ta-da!}

thanks to amy over at eat drink chic blog for such an adorable template & idea! will you be rocking a je t’ aime-themed coffee sleeve to celebrate valentine’s day?

diy card book.

i saved all of the wedding cards we received & stashed them away in the back of our office closet. at the time, i didn’t know what i was going to do with all of them, but it just felt so wrong recycling them all.

then i saw this tutorial on pinterest & knew exactly why i had saved all of those cards! this is a diy that you could easily use for cards from any occasion: birthday, christmas, baby shower, wedding.

{the original pinterest link: diy card mini-album}

supplies:

cards
paper (probably different types for front & back cover, inside cover)
ribbon
initials, photo, etc. to decorate front cover
metal book ring
hole punch
2 small brads
glue or glue dots
scissors
paper trimmer (optional)
2 pieces of cardboard

first i stacked all the cards i wanted in the book (i did have to take out all of the shower cards as there were just too many) & measured out two pieces of cardboard that were slightly larger than the largest card. {sidenote: the only cardboard i had around the house was what our west elm sheets were packaged in & it was really thick. i would recommend using thinner cardboard, if you can, for this project because it will be so much easier to punch holes thru.}

then i punched holes in the top corners of all of the cards. it took awhile, but i basically punched each card individually to avoid the punch getting jammed. i punched the first card & then traced the circle onto the other cards so that it would be in relatively the same spot on each.

i really liked the glitter initials that were in the original tutorial: lower case letters & an ampersand – yes please! i searched high & low to find the perfect letters, but, alas, they could not be found. so i did the next best thing & bought glittery paper to make them myself. i just opened up a word document & typed in “m & a” and then played around with fonts & sizes until i got something perfect; this is definitely not an exact science. i ended up printing & making stencils from letters in Calisto in 120 size font. {sidenote: when i cut out the letters, though, i cut slightly bigger than the font size. in hindsight i probably would have gone slightly bigger than 120 size font as the letters were really hard to cut out.} my letters are by no means perfect but they will definitely do for a handmade book.

i trimmed paper for the front, back & inside covers. the paper that i used was grey & white zig-zag on one side (i used this for the inside covers) & grey & white paisley on the other side (i used this for the front & back cover). i was able to buy just two square sheets (they are scrapbook paper) to cover the cardboard – it was a happy accident that i liked both sides of the printed paper & only needed to buy two sheets for the project. on the front & back covers i also did a layer of printed velum paper over the paisley print (i liked the velum but didn’t want the brown of the cardboard to show thru); on the front cover i also cut up a left-over envelope from our wedding invitations to put on the bottom half; then i glued on the letters i made.

this next part was definitely the trickiest & most difficult (it is also where thin cardboard would come in handy). on the back cover you will want to attach the ribbon that will wrap around the book. you will want to glue on the back cover paper, but not the inside cover paper (i made this mistake & had to take off the inside cover paper & then re-attach it later). i made two little pencil marks on the back cover in about the middle where my brads would go in. then i lined up the ribbon (so the middle of the ribbon was between the two marks) and used scissors to make a hole. {sidenote: in hindsight, you really don’t need to punch thru the ribbon & the cardboard at the same time, especially if you are using really sheer ribbon like i did.} once i punched thru the two holes, i threaded the brads thru the ribbon & the cardboard, securing them on the inside cover. then you glue the inside cover one (covering up the back of the brads).

the last big step is to string the cards & the covers onto the ring. i couldn’t find rings at any craft stores & ended up with a multi-pack of book rings from office depot (or was it office max?) because i didn’t know what size i would need. for reference, i ended up using the biggest size ring.

the very last step is to tie the ribbon around the cards & trim the ends. voila!

this book was pretty easy to make, minus the punching thru cardboard, & though mine is definitely not as nice as the one from the tutorial, i am happy to have found a way to preserve & display our wedding cards.

are you in the habit of keeping old cards around?

a pinterest christmas: chalkboard glasses.

you read it right: a pinterest christmas. yes, i know its mid-january. i promise i am not crazy, just hear me out.

this was actually part of my pinterest christmas, but because we gave these to our family as gifts, i didn’t want to post them in december with the rest of the christmas posts since I didn’t want to ruin the surprise.

even though we made these christmas gifts, they would be great for any occasion or even just to make for yourself!

{original pinterest link: chalkboard glasses}

supplies:

chalkboard paint
glasses with stems (we used wine & beer glasses)
painter’s tape (we used blue tape & frog tape)
cardboard
chalk

we decided to use chalkboard spray paint instead of regular chalkboard paint to avoid brush lines. we bought ours at home depot.

first step was to tape the glasses. we used frog tape (shown above) on the base of the stem because it gives you a cleaner line. we placed the tape pretty close to the bottom of the stem, but you could paint further up the stem if you wanted to.

then we tapped further up the glass with blue tape. the blue stuff definitely sticks better to the glass which helps with securing the top of the frog tape. you don’t need to add blue tape, but i think it helped ensure that we didn’t get any paint further up on the glass.

then we sprayed the glasses (and by “we” i mean aaron); just make sure you are in a well-ventilated area and keep moving your hand back & forth while spraying. the paint dried pretty quickly, but we left them for a few days to ensure the paint was really dry.

after the paint is fully dry, just peel off the tape! we added a little message on the glasses so that our out-of-town gift receivers knew that these were chalkboards as opposed to just black glasses. we also added a little bag of chalk – i just put three pieces of chalk in a snack sized ziploc bag & tied it with a red ribbon.

{sidenote: just for reference, glasses painted with chalkboard paint should be hand washed & shouldn’t go into the dishwasher.}

what do you think about chalkboard glasses? will they be part of your next get-together?

diy duvet cover.

{sidenote I: i am completely a novice seamstress & while i followed a tutorial, i pretty much made this up as i went along. i am a pretty logical person, so the ways in which i did things are pretty practical – at least they seemed so at the time – but there are likely much better & more efficient (& correct!) ways to do the things in this post. sidenote II: this is a really picture heavy post. i also decided that bigger pictures would be better so that you could see details.}

as i mentioned in my monogram pillows post, i am re-doing our bed linens. we needed a bit of a change up since the sheet & duvet set have been around for a few years. we both really liked our old set, it was a great calvin klein set, but after years of washing, it was starting to fall apart at the seams. literally.

so in the interim, we acquired a couple of sets of bright white sheets. turns out, we both really liked the white sheets. really, what’s not to love: color goes with everything, nothing to match (um, any of our white pillowcases go with any of our white sheets), low to high price ranges (one calvin klein set, one set from kohl’s), etc. so we decided we should just find some kind of printed duvet & pillow shams.

i took to scouring online sites & pinterest looking for replacement bed linens but just couldn’t come up with something that i liked. {sidenote: my husband is wonderful when it comes to things like picking out bed linens or towels or fabric. he pretty much lets me pick out what i like and he is up for being a soundboard for any and all ideas.} then i saw this sheet set on the west elm site – stripey sheet set. grey & stripes? i couldn’t designed anything more perfect. well, except for the teeny fact that they were sheets & not a duvet.

but that certainly didn’t stop me. i had actually bookmarked a design sponge article about making a duvet cover months before (way before i was on pinterest, or i would have pinned it on my “to do” board). i hesitated a bit at the price of the sheets because i wanted to use two flat sheets for the duvet which meant that i would need two entire sets, making the cost of the sheets double. i waited & waited for west elm to put sheets on sale all through the holidays & when i was finally about to bite the bullet and just buy them, west elm started their bedding & bath sale (which is running until the end of january, i believe)!

at first i picked up two grey sheet sets, but after mulling it over with aaron, i returned one grey set for a navy set. that way our duvet will be reversible or we can have a little more color if we turn the top down when we make the bed (and by “we” i mean “me”).

{the original design sponge tutorial}

supplies:

two flat sheets or large amounts of fabric
thread
sewing machine, preferably with button-hole-making foot
10 to 12 buttons
iron
fabric scissors and/or rotary blade cutter
measuring tape
ruler or straight edge
needle

the very first thing that i did, well after washing, drying & ironing the sheets, was to practice sewing french seams (see above tutorial) & to practice making button holes. turns out both were pretty easy. french seams are relatively easy to sew; the trickiest part is make sure you can sew a straight 1/4 inch seam. button holes are even easier if you have a handy-dandy button hole foot for your sewing machine – like i told my friend while i was making button holes for this project: it is magical!

the next thing i did was measure & cut the sheets. one reason that using two flat sheets for a duvet cover is so nice is that you can keep the top hem & just trim the sides & the bottom. for reference, a queen-sized flat sheet is 105 inches long by 96 inches wide & a queen-sized duvet cover is 88 inches long by 92 inches wide. i did calculations (& double-checked & triple-checked) before i made any cuts: about 10 1/2 inches off the length (factoring in turning down of the top hem – which was nearly 2 inches – where the button holes would go as well as a 1/2 inch hem allowance for each side – i gave myself a 1/4 inch more than the french seams called for just in case) & about 3 inches off the width (factoring in the 1/2 inch hem).

{sidenote: on paper & in my head, the calculations seemed right; however, later in the process i discovered that the cuts i made were pretty different. my “hindsight is 20/20” suggestion would be that you either cut the two sheets at the same time, or measure them against each other before & after making the cuts.}

i decided that the easiest cuts to make would be the 10 1/2 inches off the bottom, so i did those first. this was the first time i had ever used a rotary blade cutter & it was fantastic! never using scissors to cut fabric again! the way that i measured (again, i am not a professional!) was to place a row of pins at 10 1/2 inches. then i took a ruler & lined it up with the pins, checking every other pin’s measurement as i went to make sure i wasn’t totally off-track. then i used took the rotary blade right along the straight edge of the ruler from one end of the fabric to the other.

when i cut the material off the sides of the sheets, i figured it would be easier if i did both sides with one cut. so, i pinned the sides of the sheet together & then measured 1 1/2 inches (half the width measurement from above), & then pinned & cut like i had done above with the ruler & rotary blade.

after all the cutting was complete, i started sewing. i started with the top part of one of the sheets that would be button-holed (yep, i made it a verb) & the other that would hold the buttons. there was already a 2 inch or so hem in the top of each sheet, so i just flipped that hem down (on both sheets) & sewed along the edge.

then came the magical part: making button holes! {sidenote: i have a pretty new sewing machine (i got mine christmas 2010) but i am pretty sure button hole-making feet have been around for some time. if you don’t have a button hole foot, you could use some other kind of enclosure for the duvet like a zipper, snaps or ribbons.} back to the magic. i placed one button into the top part of the foot to measure the size of button hole; i just left the button here while i sewed so i didn’t accidently change the measurements. then i attached the foot.

i measured out where i would place the button holes & put pins as markers: 2 inches in from each side & 8 3/4 inches between each button.

i made sure each pin marker was pretty straight up & down. then i placed a button over each pin & moved it around until it was in the perfect spot.

in order to know where to start the button hole, i needed to know where the bottom of the button would hit & the middle of the button. with the button still in place i made a small pen mark along the bottom of the button. then i moved the button & made a small pen mark where the middle of the button would be. this is the marker that i would line up with the button hole-making foot.

i lined up each marker with the foot & pressed down the foot pedal. my sewing machine did the rest. i told you, magic!

i didn’t really have a plan of attack when it came to cutting the fabric inside the button hole, i just figured i would figure it out once i got to that point. i had my sewing machine instruction book out to be sure i knew exactly how to use the button hole-making foot & lo and behold there was a tip about how to make that small cut inside the button hole without over-cutting (which would have likely been the case had i used scissors). first you place a pin thru the top of the button hole (to ensure you don’t cut too far). then you take your seam ripper and rib the fabric starting from the bottom & ending when you hit the pin. this is the best trick i learned during this project!

once my button holes were opened, i had to make sure the buttons would actually fit. i was a little skeptical at first, i mean, the process was SO simple, so i left the buttons in their packaging until i knew they would fit.

the next step was to start sewing the edges of the sheets together. i followed the design sponge tutorial (see above) & used french seams.

{sidenote: a tip that i picked up somewhere online that really helped me sew 1/2 inch & 1/4 inch seams: place a rubber band around the bottom arm of your sewing machine where you want your seam to be. this gives you a straight edge you can use to keep the edge of your fabric straight. i hope this makes sense; see the first picture in this section, the one with my sewing machine & the purple rubber band.}

french seams in a nutshell: sew a 1/4 inch seam with the wrong sides of the fabric together (i sewed a 1/2 inch seam as i am still a newbie at sewing); cut the excess material as close to the thread as you can; iron the seam down to one side; flip the fabric over & iron along the seam; sew a 1/4 inch seam with the right sides of the fabric together; iron the seam down to one side.

i sewed the sides first & then the bottom – no real rhyme or reason for this, it just made sense to me.

after the sides & bottom were sewed together, i was in the home stretch: only buttons remained. i have re-attached many a button in my life, but knew that i should probably learn how to properly attach a button to avoid having to re-attach buttons to this duvet cover. i googled “how to sew a button” & found this very helpful tutorial.

{sidenote: i used thread that was a bit thicker to sew on the buttons than the thread i would normally use in my machine.}

and, ta-da!, the final duvet cover in all her glory! it isn’t perfect by any means, but our down comforter actually fits inside of it, so that’s a win in my book. i am glad i did one side grey & the other side blue, this way we can either have both colors showing by flipping down the top (like it is above), or we can just have one color showing. i love the way the duvet works with the monogrammed shams. i added that little pillow that i made last year but had lying around, for now, so that everything wouldn’t be too matchy.

i hope you enjoyed this tutorial! for reference, this took me a weekend, & by “weekend” i mean the entire weekend; i stopped only to eat & walk sadie.

what is dressing your bed? would you ever make a duvet cover because you couldn’t find one that was perfect?

diy monogram pillows.

i have always adored all things monogram. since our wedding, i have been looking for ways to add our monogram to things around the house. my latest project has been re-doing our bed linens (more to come in later posts) which included new shams for our euro pillows.

when i saw this diy post by camila over on her effortless style blog, i knew it would be easy to add a monogram to whatever new linens we ended up with.

{see original inspiration link: DIY no sew fabric applique monogram}

i basically followed camila’s tutorial & in less than an hour i had beautiful monogrammed shams.

supplies:

pillow shams or something to adhere monogram to (my euro shams are from west elm)
fabric for monogram letters (my fabric was leftover from our upholstered headboard)
Heat N’ Bond Ultra
fabric scissors or exacto knife
scotch tape
cardstock or cardboard (for making stencils)
font for letters
sharpie (i used a fine sharpie pen)
iron
pencil

first i searched for letters that would make the perfect monogram. i didn’t really care if i had a rounded monogram – like camila’s where the letters sort of form a circle – so i just opened up a new word document and started looking at fonts.

i ended up choosing Bookman Old Style – classic lines with some heft (some fonts are too skinny for cutting out). usually i am an all lower case girl (as you can see from all of my blog posts) but i wanted a classic-looking monogram so i decided on all caps for this project. because euro shams are big, i knew i also wanted my letters to be big. the “A” and the “M” (which would flank the sides of the monogram) were 550 font size, and the “L” was 800. {sidenote: figuring out the font type & size was a bit of a trial & error – i would print out letters, cut them out and lay them on the euro sham to see what it looked like. lots of printing & cutting. perhaps you can error less by learning from mine.}

after i found my perfect letters, i printed & cut them out, traced them onto cardstock & cut out the final cardstock letters; you could totally short-cut this & print right onto the cardstock. unlike camila’s tutorial, i didn’t create a stencil but i ended up with cardstock letters to trace around (this totally will make sense if you look at her tutorial).

i laid out my fabric and set the letters out to ensure that i would bond enough fabric. if you are doing more than one monogram like i did, just be sure that you measure enough fabric for two sets of letters. i ironed my fabric (and the euro shams) before i applied the bonding. then i rolled out the bonding, cut it to size and ironed it onto my fabric (put the fabric right-side down, place the bonding paper with the paper side up & iron on the paper).

after the bonded fabric cooled down (like 2 seconds, seriously), i placed my cardstock letters onto the fabric on the paper side. in order to keep the letters from moving while i traced, i rolled up scotch tape and put it on the right-side of the letter, flipped it over & taped it to the paper. {sidenote: unless your letters are perfectly symmetrical, trace them backwards onto the bonding paper!}

then i traced around the letters with a thin sharpie pen.

i cut out the first set of letters, and then repeated the process of tracing & cutting for the second set.

once my letters were all cut out, it was time to bond them to the euro shams. i did one sham at a time and then copied the measurements for the second sham. i just set out a tape measure along the sham and moved the letters until i liked them. this is not an exact science so just trust yourself. i was lucky to have picked a sham that had a grey stripe running thru the middle which gave me a great way to line up my letters.

when i got my letters where i wanted them on the sham, i made small pencil marks at the top corners of the letters to ensure that i could find the right place again. then i peeled the paper backing off of each letter and placed it back onto the sham, lining up with the pencil marks. the nice thing about the bonding is that it isn’t sticky, so you can move your letter around even after you un-peel the paper.

after your letters are re-set (post peeling of paper), you just iron on the letters to the fabric. and just like that you have a fabric monogram!

i swear, anything with a monogram immediately looks chic & sophisticated!

have you monogrammed anything lately?