Taylor, Author at TaylorMade

Stethoscope Covers

April 13, 2011 By Taylor 25 Comments

Do you have a special nurse in your life? ‘Cause I do… my sister hehe! Not only is she about to graduate from nursing school but it is also her birthday this week. (Last year I made her this) So, I cant think of a better gift than some handmade Stethoscope Covers. The sad part is after I decided to make her a few, I realized – I don’t have a stethoscope to try them onto. Oops, I hope they fit.

Materials:
– one yard of fabric (you wont use it all, you just need it for length)
– button
– elastic
– sewing machine
– serger (optional)

Directions:

Cut your fabric into a piece that is 34″ x 6″

Serge the ends (the sides that are 6″ in length) If you do not have a serger, get online right now and buy one you will have to press the ends and sew a clean edge. Do this to both the top and bottom of the cover.

Next we will add the elastic to the bottom of the cover. If your fabric is a print like the floral one I have then just pick a bottom. My other fabric with the hearts has a specific bottom and top so don’t confuse the ends.

1. Cut the elastic about 2″ shorter than your width, so in our case 4″. Pin it to the bottom of the cover.

2. Start sewing it on.

3. Once it is on, pull the elastic with your hand while you are sewing.

4. It will look like this when you are done.

Next, pin right sides together lengthwise all the way down the cover and sew.

Turn the cover right side out. This is the main part of our cover. You can tell that my covers are a little different in width. I used two different seam allowances only because I wanted them to look a little different.

At this point I realized I had to come up with a way for the cover to stay on the Stethoscope. Do you see where it has a “Y” in the top. I decided to use a little flap with a button and a button hole. You could use Velcro, snaps, etc.

I had scraps left over from the original cutting of the fabric so I used these two scraps. I folded it in half with wrong sides together and serged it into a rectangle flap. Sorry, I don’t have an exact measurement. Again if you don’t have a serger then you will have to sew right sides together leaving an opening, turn it right side out and sew again. Make sure the flap is the same width as your cover, length does not matter.

1. I added my TaylorMade label (tutorial here) to the back of the flap
2. Make a button hole on the flap

3. Pin the flap to the back of the cover

Sew the flap to the back of the cover

Last step is to add the button to the front side of the cover

Don’t you love this vintage mustard button?

Happy Birthday Sis!

Etched Juice Glasses

April 11, 2011 By Taylor 5 Comments

I think I am having a love affair with Monograms (as seen in my recent post here). I know I’m not alone, right? You know who else loves monograms; couples getting married that’s who. I know when I was engaged I loved receiving gifts with my new name on it. It seemed so magical.

Our friends are getting married next month and we got them a juicer off their registry but I of course like to add something personal too. So I found these cute juice glasses and I monogrammed them. (I also maybe wanted an excuse to use my new Etching Cream that I just got.)

I created a stencil with vinyl using my Silhouette but you could easily just cut out the letters with an Exacto. Then I followed the directions on the back of my Etching Cream, kind of. My directions said to apply a thick, even layer, wait for 5 minutes then completely wash off. I looked after 5 minutes and it wasn’t a very strong etch, so I left mine on for about 12 minutes. I picture the newly weds having fresh squeezed orange juice out of these on Sunday mornings.

DIY Anthropologie Flamenco Shower Curtain in Sunshine

April 7, 2011 By Taylor 61 Comments

Best Shower Curtain Ever

I have been eyeing these from Anthropologie for years…

But I have some problems:
#1 I don’t want to spend $118.00 on a shower curtain
#2 Those colors don’t match my room

So what is a girl to do… how about make one. And I call mine “Sunshine”. Anthropologie’s Shower Curtain has ten “panels” of descending color. I could only find nine fabrics that I thought really worked so mine has nine. Also, please don’t judge me on the TERRIBLE photos in this tutorial, my bathroom has no windows and it was a rainy day! That’s why I named her Sunshine.

What you need:
– 9 yards of solid fabric in a monochromatic color palate; light to dark
– light colored shower curtain to cover
– sewing machine
– serger (optional but makes it 10x easier)

Wash and iron all of your fabric

I am going to call each color a “panel”. So, each panel needs to be 88″ x 14″. Most fabric is either 44″ or 60″ wide. I was at Hobby Lobby and I found broadcloth in a bunch of colors that were 44″ wide. So that is why the panels are 88″ long. Cut your yards in half with the selvages on the short ends. Do this to all of the panels. (This is the longest & most boring part)

Now each panel has two sides, a top and a bottom. Serge the bottom of every panel.

Now it is time for ruffles and who doesn’t love a good ruffle? I used my serger to make them, and here were my settings, (click to make it larger). Do this to every panel. You will have to play around with your settings. The panels should now measure 71″ wide. If they are too long that is ok, you can “ruffle” them more when you sew them on to the shower curtain. If they are too short, you will have to pull the ruffle out a little.

Now we will sew the panels on to the shower curtain. You could just make one yourself out of solid fabric. The dimensions of a regular shower curtain are 71″ x 71″. Start with the very bottom panel and lay it down so that the bottom of the ruffle comes about an inch past the bottom of the shower curtain and pin it down. Sew this panel on. (These pictures make me cringe)

Now do the same with the top panel. Start the ruffle just under the holes in the shower curtain.

Now here are my lovely math skills… I’m sure there is a better way to do this but I like to eyeball. I measured from the “sew line” of the top panel to the “sew line” of the bottom panel and cut that number in half.

For example: The distance between my two sew lines was 60″. So half of that is 30″ so I marked 30″ with a pencil on the edge of the shower curtain and that was the middle. That is where I sewed my middle panel. Be sure NOT to measure from the bottom of the ruffle and measure from the actual sew line. Also maybe number your panels in order so to not confuse them.

You will continue with this method until you have added all of the panels. So again, measure from the middle panel’s sew line to the bottom’s sew line and mark halfway then sew that panel there.

Pin It

Bird Trio

April 1, 2011 By Taylor 10 Comments

I love birds. Not in a “pet” way but in a home decor way. I didn’t even know how much I loved birds until I looked around my house about a year ago and realized I have a ton of bird stuff. Now I actually seek it out. I have at least one “birdlike” piece in every room of our home. Here is my newest edition, the Bird Trio, they are going to go over my craft table.

my craft space is so depressingly small in a picture

This project is so easy, I just spray painted three matching black frames. Then I cut all three images out with my Silhouette. The image on the right is available in the Silhouette online store. There were so many cute birdcages, I could hardly choose. Then the image on the left is a Taylor Made original. I just found a picture of a tree and used the “Trace” option (I love it) which you can read about here. When you use the Trace feature in the Silhouette software, you have to play around with the options in the sidebar. The middle image is from a Martha Stewart printable. Then all I did was mount them on grey card stock.

Here are just a few of the other birds that “live” in our house.

Welcome new birdies…