Blog - TaylorMade

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.

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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…

Spring Clutch

March 30, 2011 By Taylor 14 Comments

Have you ever bought something that came in a fabric bag that you liked and you couldn’t throw the bag away? Because this happens to me all the time. I have a little fabric bag collection going from shoes, sheets and even my Moby Wrap. If you have no clue what I’m talking about here is a picture…

My Mom bought an amazing duvet cover from Pottery Barn a few years ago and it came in this bag… I had to have it. I knew it would come in “craft-project-handy” one day and I was right. It only took me about 30 minutes to make because it was already halfway done for me.

Take out the drawstring and sew up the top.

Fold the bag into itself, take the top that you just sewed shut and make that new bottom. Make sure the two layers are completely touching.

Now sew a line around what is now the top of the bag. This will make it easier to sew the zipper on. I added one of my fabric labels.

Now add the zipper. I bought these zippers from an Etsy shop last week and I love them! They were much cheaper than in a craft store and even came with a zipper pull, it was hard to choose a color with this fabric.

Start with one side of your bag. Now- I know making a traditional zipper pouch would hide your zipper, but first of all I don’t mind the exposed zipper and secondly this way is much quicker. I am big on free time these days so I dont waste it! Pin one side of your zipper to the inside of one side of the pouch.

(outside view)

My zipper was 14″ and my bag was about 12″ so I needed to make my zipper shorter. It is easy, just pick the place where you want your zipper to end and handstitch about 5-6 times around the zipper. You can actually cut the zipper after you do this, but I just tucked mine into the bag.

Sew this first side using your zipper foot if you have one. Tip: move the zipper around when you are sewing so that you dont have to sew around the actual zipper and your line will look uniform.

Do the same thing on the other side. Pin your zipper and sew. You will want the zipper to be open to sew this side.

There are you have it, it literally too me longer to write this post. Also, I feel good about actually crafting somthing out of this “free” fabric!

Cobb Salad with Red Wine Vinaigrette

March 28, 2011 By Taylor 2 Comments

Spring has Sprung so you know what that means… It means it’s only March here in Houston and its in the high 80’s. Yes its true, its hot already! Which makes me want to eat cold things so if you live somewhere that is snowing right now, please excuse my Springy Salad post. You can bookmark this recipe for when you need it!

First of all can I say that I am a sucker for any Vinaigrette so my favorite part of this salad is the dressing. The Cobb Salad is pretty traditional, we used:

Green Leaf Lettuce

Grape Tomatoes

Radishes

Scallions

Grilled Chicken Breasts

Hard Boiled Eggs (which I can never get to look pretty, any tips?)

Avocado

Bacon

Goat Cheese

Carrots

Celery

Just line the ingredients up over the chopped lettuce…

Red Wine Vinaigrette:

1/4 c red wine vinegar

2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

2 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp dry mustard

1 tsp chopped garlic

1/2 c olive oil

Monogram Plate

March 24, 2011 By Taylor 42 Comments

Last night, after sulking all day about my crafting slump, I crawled in bed with my copy of Martha Stewart Encyclopedia of Crafts (best book ever). I think I am healed, I knew Martha would help! I remembered something I have been thinking about – of a Chevron Striped Plate. Let me explain, I have a plate collection on the walls of my dining room, they all mean something and they all have a story. I even have two plates from two of my great-grandmothers, one of which is handmade. I thought a modern looking Monogrammed Chevron Plate would really give the wall a fresh “springy” look.

Plate Wall

Supplies:

-plate

-paper for the monogram

-vinyl

-Mod Podge

-Silhouette (Cricut or an exacto knife)

I wanted to do a Chevron Stripe on the background of my plate but any graphic pattern would work. I, of course used my trusty Silhouette! First of all you need to clean your plate so the vinyl will stick. Measure the center of your plate making sure to measue the curves of the plate too. Mine was a little over 10″ so I made my chevrons 10.5″ long. In my Silhouette software I used the chevron shape (which was the free shape of the week a few days ago) and loaded my premium vinyl into the machine.

About the Monogram… did you know that you can search “free fonts” in google and there are millions of fonts that are way better than the stadard loaded on your compuer. All you do is downloard them to your computer, then install them and they will show up in all of your programs like Power Point, Word and your Silhouette Software! So, I searched for a free Monogram Font and found the perfect one. Here is the link. Make your last name inital larger than the other two initials because that will be the one in the middle. Load your bright colored cardstock and cut!

I have no scientific instuctions on how to place your vinyl, if you are a perfectionist I’m sure you could measure but that is just too hard for me. So I eye-balled it. Just make sure to get out all of the air bubbles.

Apply a thin layer of Mod Podge down on the plate. I didn’t Mod Podge the outer ring of the plate. I used the Matte finish because it’s my favorite.

Carefully place your letters down, make sure they are all pressed down well by using a pin or tweezers and get out the air bubbles.

Apply a top coat of Mode Podge to the inner curcle of the plate. Make sure to get in between all of spaces in the letters and again, pop the air bubbles with a pin because they will dry funky if you don’t.

Now just wait for your plate to dry, and hang that baby up, it looks so profesh!

It’s Rodeo Y’all – Texas Onesie

March 14, 2011 By Taylor 11 Comments

It’s spring break here in Houston and you know what that means…. Rodeo Time! Although Clyde has no idea what that means, I think it means I should break out the ole’ Silhouette for her first project! So I did!

I have seen shirts like this before with the capital as a heart in the state but Houston isn’t the capital of Texas so that wasn’t going to work. I also found a picture of Texas in the Silhouette Online Store, but again it had a star over Austin, not what I was looking for. So I had to get clever…

I googled “Texas Outline” under images and when I found one that look clear, I saved it to my computer. Then in the Silhouette Studio, I opened up the Texas picture. I played around and I found this awesome feature; The Tracing Tool. It allows you to trace around a picture that you already have on your computer. So I added the little heart and selected “Trace around Outer Edge”.

Here is what my picture looked like:

Next, I cut a piece of Freezer Paper and loaded it onto my carrier page.

Then I hit cut! It was so exciting… Now if you don’t have a Silhouette, you can just cut this shape out with scissors or an Exacto knife. Next, you need to iron down the shape’s outline to the onesie. Don’t hold the iron down too long, I have made that mistake and the freezer paper gets rumply. Make sure to iron around all of the detailed edges to form a nice seal. Don’t forget to iron down you little heart on the inside of your state.

Now its time for the fabric paint. I meant to buy “matte” red paint but as you can see I must have grabbed the “metallic” so it had kind of a shimmery look to it. Clyde it too little to be mad at me for that :)

(oops)

I did two coats and waited about 20 mins between. Don’t forget to put some newspaper or a paper bag inside the onesie so it wont bleed.

The next step is my favorite part, for some reason there is something SOOO satisfying about pulling the freezer paper off to me! Of course wait until it is completely dry.

Lastly, you have to heat set the fabric paint. There might be some instructions on your fabric paint about how to do this. I looked online and found some. You have to use something between the paint and the iron like a hand towel or something. I ironed mine for about a minute total moving the iron around the whole time. Some people said to do it for 4-5 minutes but that seemed really long to me.

I love my Silhouette! Now on another note, don’t try to stage a photo shoot with a hungry baby…. (I promise he likes his Texas Onesie, the boy just loves to eat!)

Silhouette Dust Cover

March 10, 2011 By Taylor 7 Comments

I got a new toy!!!!!!!!! And obviously, I’m really excited about it- the Silhouette SD!! So, because I love it so much, I clearly needed to make it pretty protect it from the dust. I was really excited when I saw that Char from “Crap I’ve Made” posted a tutorial for the Silhouette Dust Cover. I love her blog, thanks Char for the tutorial!

All you need is a fat quarter and Char’s template (and the amazing Silhouette, of course)

Cut your main piece to 18″ by 14″ with the 18″ side on the bottom. Then cut out the sides from the template, make sure to cut them in opposite directions.

Next place the small sides on the large piece with right sides together and the shorter side facing out.

Pin all the way around.

Next I added the yellow ribbon and my little fabric tag. Then I serged all the way around.

I am excited that I won’t have smudgy little boy fingerprints on the beauty! Look at the happy home!

Banana Nut French Toast

March 6, 2011 By Taylor Leave a Comment

Happy Sunday! We aren’t big on breakfast during the week in our house. I kind of throw some cheerios down and hand Finn some yogurt. But, all bets are off on Sundays! We love a big breakfast on Sunday Morning. Bryan’s favorite is french toast (and who can blame him?) Finn’s favorite is “bana” or Bananas so why not both? I used Martha’s Perfect French Toast Recipe which is really good because she adds vanilla and fresh orange juice, yum!

Here is the recipe for the Perfect French Toast:

•6 large eggs
•1 1/2 cups milk
•Juice of 1 medium orange, (about 1/4 cup)
•2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
•2 tablespoons cognac, (optional)
•1 tablespoon sugar
•Zest of 1 lemon, (about 1 tablespoon)
•1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
•Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
•Pinch of salt
•6 slices bread, such as brioche, sliced 1-inch thick, preferably day-old
•4 tablespoons unsalted butter
•4 tablespoons vegetable oil

I added walnuts and bananas and Finn approved!

Husband Valet

February 27, 2011 By Taylor 19 Comments

Ok I know I am a little late posting my husband’s Vday present but I have been busy. I did actually give it to him on Valentine’s Day, just now posting it however. Better late than never and not only that but you could make this for any occasion. I had more exciting plans but as I have mentioned, little Clyde had plans of his own :) So we decided to just make each other something. I got a really sweet acrostic sign with my name, so cute! So here is what Bryan got; the Husband Valet. I wanted to give him a place to put all of his “stuff” (seriously guys should have to carry purses too!).

You need a 1/2 of felt, a piece of cross stitch plastic, some regular thread and embroidery thread

Start with the cross stitch plastic. Cut it into 5 pieces, the bottom of the valet, and the 4 sides. Here are my dimensions:

Next, you need to cut a piece of felt out for the top and bottom of each piece. Cut each with extra felt because you will be sewing around the plastic inside so you will need the extra fabric. I started with the bottom – for the sides I folded the felt over so it was less cutting for me. Also on the bottom piece, I personalized the inside with a little embroidered heart. That is optional but definitely do it before sewing because it will be too thick with the plastic inside.

Layer all of the pieces together (felt-plastic-felt) and pin them together to get ready to be sewn. Pin them as close to the piece of plastic as you can. You will sew right along the edge of the plastic.

It doesn’t matter if the edges aren’t straight on the fabric for this step because they will be trimmed later. Now sew the plastic sandwich together. Remember as close to the plastic as you can get your needle!

All of your pieces are done, now you have to hand sew them together with embroidery thread. Trim each piece so that there is only about 1/4″ of fabric on the edge. Use that 1/4″ to sew the valet together. I started with the long sides to the bottom then the short sides to the bottom. Then I sewed the sides together last.

There you have the husband valet, which my husband actually uses by the way!

Tropical Fruit Salad

February 25, 2011 By Taylor Leave a Comment

Hello blog, how I have missed thee! I have had a crazy past few weeks, hopefully everything is back to “normal” or as normal as possible with my boys. So earlier this month, I was supposed to help host a little Baby Shower Brunch with some of my sorority sisters. I was in charge of the decorations and the fruit salad. Poor Baby Brunch. They were decor/fruit salad-less because I went into labor that morning. So needless to say, my balloons deflated and my husband and Finn ate the fruit salad. I thought I would share my Tropical Fruit Salad secret so it wasn’t a total waste. It is so simple and everyone always loves it.

My secret “sauce”: Fresh Lemon and Lime Juice with a teaspoon of honey

Cut up your fruit, I change it up depending on my mood but this time I added; strawberries, bananas, nectarines, blackberries, kiwi and pineapple. Then is a separate bowl, squeeze 1 lemon and 1 lime and add a little honey. Wish that together then pour onto your fruit. It also helps the fruit keep its color. So sad I didn’t even get to taste it…. but Clyde was worth it!