DIY Archives - My Life: A Work in Progress

How to hang a wreath without damaging your door

27 August, 2017 No Comments

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Also, I love the Command Brand hooks, but that’s just my personal opinion. Finally, as a disclaimer, I didn’t damage my door by doing this method, but if you do- that’s still on you.

This summer J and I bought a house, our first one! It’s been scary, but also it’s been so freeing to be able to put personal touches on our own home. We’ve both lived in rentals for many, many years, but since the Navy has us staying in this area longer, it seemed like the right time for us to buy.

One thing I really wanted to do was put a wreath on my front door. I wanted something that would make our traditional split foyer house look a little more appealing from the road. A couple of weeks ago my local Michaels had a great sale on what Spring and Summer floral stock they had left, and I was able to buy two beautiful full wreaths for about $12 each.

I had my wreaths, but I wasn’t sure how to secure them to the door. I spent some time researching on the Internet, and there are a variety of methods you can use to hang a wreath on your front door. You can use special magnetic wreath hangers for steel doors, Command Brand wreath hooks, or an over-the-door wreath hanger. I’ve also seen posts where people used nails or tacks to secure the wreath to the front of the door, or they used tacks at the top of the door to secure a ribbon that the wreath was hanging on. None of those methods were quite what I was looking for.

I knew I didn’t want to use tacks or nails because I didn’t want to damage the door. I was also concerned that the over-the-door wreath hanger would scrap up the top of our door or keep the door from closing properly. I read several reviews where people who had doors facing the sun found that the Command Brand hooks wouldn’t stay up on the front of the door because of the heat. Our front door gets very hot during the day, so I was afraid that was going to happen.

So what about the magnetic wreath hangers? Well, I was initially going to get one of those as they seemed ideal, but I wasn’t positive that a magnet was going to get a good hold on our door. Pinterest to the rescue! I found photos of a command hook being hung on the back of the door, inside the house, with a ribbon stretched up over top of the door and down to the wreath. So that’s what I did!

I bought a Command Brand hook that holds 5 pounds, and I installed it upside down on the back of our front door. I tied a ribbon to my wreath; I stretched the ribbon over the top of our front door; I secured the ribbon to the Command hook by wrapping it around the hook multiple times and then tying a not. That’s it! This is an easy way to hang a wreath without damaging your front door.

Have you done this? Do you have a wreath on your front door? If so, how did you secure it?

DIY

Toddler #DIY #Craft Time! Make Your Own Felt #Easter Bag

11 April, 2014 23 Comments

Baby J will be 2 years old next month, and we haven’t established that many family traditions yet. The biggest reason is that his dad has been gone so much (all of which will change this summer, when J starts shore duty- woohoo!), and I just haven’t felt like celebrating holidays on my own.

But this Easter, Baby J and I are going up North to visit his aunt, uncle, cousins, and grandmother. So I’m making an effort to celebrate this holiday!

I’ve seen cute little felt Easter bags at several stores recently, and it occurred to me that a bag would be a fun, easy craft to make with Baby J. Because he’s so little, I did do most of the work on my own, but I let him help me “place” the decorations on the bag and pretend to glue them on. After the bag was finished, he ran off with it and kept trying to shove his cars and trucks inside, so apparently the bag was a hit.

To make your own easter bag, you’ll need the following:

Glue gun and glue
5-7 pieces of 9″x12″ felt in multiple colors*
Coordinating thread and needle (or sewing machine)
Scissors
Easter coloring sheets
Ruler
Marker or pen

*I used 2 pieces of blue felt for the bag itself, and then chose 5 other colors for the decorations. I did have plenty of leftover fabric, so you could probably make do with fewer pieces. If you have extras…save them for another craft!

We bought our felt pieces from Michaels, but I’ve seen them at Hancock Fabrics, as well.

Felt Easter Bag Craft- Find the tutorial on My Life: A Work in Progress — “Instagramming” our shopping trip…

Steps:

1. Do a web search for “free easter coloring pages printable” or a similar search term.

For our craft, I gathered several images from this collection of printable Easter egg color sheets, a flower coloring page, and a bunny coloring sheet. The great thing about this bag is you can customize it to whatever design you want! If you’d rather design a religious Easter bag instead of secular, there are a number of free religious coloring pages online (crosses, lilies, etc.).

2. Print out your selected pages and cut out the drawings. Then using the cut-out drawings and a marker or pen, trace designs on your felt (make sure to keep 2 whole pieces of felt untouched on the side, to make the bag itself).

3. Cut out your felt decorations.

Time to make the bag!

4. Cut a one inch strip of fabric off the top of each fabric rectangle. These strips will be the bag handles.

5. Pin each end of the straps to the wrong side (inside) of the bag. Pin them 2″ in and 1/2″ down. **

Make sure the straps aren’t twisted. Also any markings that are leftover from tracing should be facing the inside of the bag.

**If you’re planning on using the bag for heavier items, pin the straps 2″ in and 1″ down. When you get to step 5, you will sew the straps in two places- at 1/4″ and 1/2″. This will make the straps more secure, but it’s not necessary if the bag’s only holding candy and small toys, etc.

6. Sew the straps on at a 1/4″ (half way). Once the machine needle is secure and all the way through the fabric, it’s fine to remove the pin that was holding your fabric together.

Sew over the strap several times to secure and strengthen it. I sewed back and forth for a total of four times.

7. Pin the sides and bottom of your bag together, then sew at a 1/2″.

8. Turn your bag right side out, and start gluing on your decorations.

We tried using a natural craft glue first, but I had trouble getting the decorations to stay on, so after Baby J was in bed, I used a glue gun.

Once the glue is dry, your bag is ready for use!

What Easter crafts have you made? Do you have any family traditions (from any holiday) that you’d like to share?

DIY

DIY: Fitted Crib Sheet

27 August, 2013 3 Comments

This post is courtesy of my friend Jessica, a fellow Navy wife and former Army reservist. When Jessica couldn’t find a fitted crib sheet in a Star Wars print for her son, with the help of her aunt she decided to make her own in a few simple steps. I’m planning on following her steps and trying it out, so look for another DIY tutorial post next month! -Elisebet

First my aunt and I laid the fabric over the mattress to make the darts. We pinned the fabric together in a line down each corner and then used a ruler to actually draw a straight line (we also took the pins out to draw it then replaced them along the straight line we had drawn). Then we also pinned down outside of the line so the fabric didn’t shift.

DIY fitted crib sheet on My Life: A Work in Progress — Sewing the darts on the corners

After the dart was done (we stitched twice to make sure it would last), we cut off the extra fabric on the corners. After that, we put the fabric back onto the mattress to make sure it fit before doing the other three corners.

DIY fitted crib sheet — Making sure the sheet fits.

The only problem we ran into was the fabric was a little too short on the long sides of the mattress, so it didn’t go under the mattress enough for the elastic to hold. So we had to put binding on it to give it a little extra fabric.

When sewing binding onto the fabric, one thing you want to keep in mind is that you don’t want too much fabric inside the binding. If there is too much fabric inside the binding, it makes it more difficult to get the elastic through. When you sew the binding on, don’t get nervous about the corners. Just sew them like you do on the straight parts 🙂 Make sure you don’t sew the ends of the binding closed, because you’ll thread the elastic through them later.

Once the binding is sewn to the fabric, attach a safety pin to the each end of the elastic (we used 3/4″ elastic), then to one end of the binding. On one end of the elastic, make sure it’s a large safety pin. It’s easier to grasp and thread through the binding.

DIY fitted crib sheet- My Life: A Work in Progress — Finished fitted crib sheet with binding

Use the end with the large safety pin to push the elastic through the binding. Keep the elastic flat while threading it. You don’t want it getting twisted. Once you’ve push the elastic through, pin the two ends together and run a stitch through them. Then close the binding over the elastic and run another stitch over both the elastic ends and the ends of the binding. Be sure to remove the safety pins before sewing the binding closed! Now you’re done!

Do you have any questions or comments for Jessica? Leave them below!

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