Flat Flange Edging Tutorial (Deployment Projects #154-157)

Have you noticed flat flange edging?  I’ve been seeing it everywhere and I really like it!  I love the simple yet sophisticated look of it.  Such a clean line, custom look.  I’ve been throwing it in on some of my projects lately.  And some of you have sent me questions asking about it, so I thought I would do a little tutorial on flat flange edging!

First, some inspiring photos of flat flange.  Let me just throw it out there that these are all pictures I have ripped out of magazines, so a. the quality isn’t that great and b. I have no clue where I got them from, but I can’t take credit for them :)

 

        Here’s how you do it:

1. We have to start by making the flat flange.  Start by cutting 2” wide strips of your fabric.

2.  Sew all your strips into one long strip.  The easiest way to do this, is to overlap your two pieces at a 90 degree angle.

 

3.  Sew diagonally across the two pieces.

This will form a little triangle seam…

Trim off the extra triangle of fabric.

4.  Iron your entire strip in half

Just match up the edges and iron down the length of your trim

5.  Now it’s time to make the pillow with the flat flange.  Cut out your front and back pillow fabric, adding 1 1/2” to the size of your insert on both the length and width - - this will be your seam allowance.

6.  For this pillow, I am attaching a zipper closure, so I folded and ironed a 1” edge along one side.

7.  fold the rough edge inside and iron to give it a finished edge.

Grab your zipper

And….here’s a little trick of mine.  To attach my zippers, I love to use my double cording foot.   I simply center the zipper under one of the channels of the zipper foot and it slides along like there is nothing there at all!

8.  With your sewing machine, sew along the edge of one side of the zipper - - letting the zipper slide through the channel of your cording foot.

9.  Attach the other piece of fabric to the opposite side of your zipper (this is why I like to use the double cording foot, because I can just let the zipper slide under the opposite channel.

10.  Now you have one big rectangle of fabric connected by a zipper in the middle!  Fold this in half, right sides together.  Make sure your zipper is opened at least 6”.

11.  You are going to make a sandwich.  With your rough edge of the flat flange facing out and starting with the flange between the opened edge of your zipper.  Your front and back pieces (right sides together) are the bread, and your flat flange is the peanut butter!

  

12.  Now, all you have to do is sew around the three sides of your pillow, using a 3/4” seam.  Now, look at how the corner is pinned closely.  I just freehand folded and pinned as I got to each corner.  You don’t need to accordion fold it as much as I did, you can just fold it and make it a 90 degree turn.  Because there is a zipper all along the bottom, you only have to sew the three sides.  If you wanted edging along the zipper, you could have just added that in as you were sewing the zipper on.

 

And, here’s your finished pillow!  So cute isn’t it?!?

I just finished these pillows, duvet cover, and chair cushion for one of my friends.  Her daughter is growing up and needed a “more mature” look for her room.  I used the flat flange edging on all of these projects.  The stripes along the duvet cover are also flat flange.

 

Are you inspired to go and try doing it yourself now?

Making a Balloon Shade from a Panel Curtain (Deployment Projects #148 &149)

You may notice that my project #’s are out of order this week - - I had written this post last week but I forgot to post it!  :)

 

I picked up a set of pink gingham panel curtains at a local thrift store for $2 each.    After I got them home, I decided that I really would rather have them as balloon shade toppers instead of long panels.  So, here is the quick and easy tutorial of how I did it!

Start with one of your long panels.  Trim off somewhere around 21” from the bottom of your panel.  I did this for two reasons: 1. the total 72” is too long for a balloon shade, it just makes it way too bulky and 2.  I wanted to make some matching pillows, so the 21” from each panel is sufficient for two pillows. 

 

Next, you will need to hem the bottom of the curtain - - just folding and ironing over the edge twice and then sewing it along the bottom.  I decided to add a ball trim to the bottom edge of the curtains, of course this is optional.

Next, you are going to use 1” wide two strand shirring tape.  This is the best stuff!  You can find it buy the yard at most fabric stores in the upholstery and drapery supplies section.  You are going to need three pieces per panel, each piece cut to the length of your panel minus about 6”.

Attach the shirring tape by sewing a straight line down the outside edges of each piece.   Just be careful not to sew over the solid white line.  The white line is where the string is hiding that you are going to pull to make your shade bunch!

You will be attaching 3 pieces of shirring tape to each panel.  One on each outside edge and one in the center.  To be honest with you, I just eyeballed it and sewed it on - - it is going to be bunched together, so it doesn’t have to be too exact.  Make sure that at the bottom of the tape, you secure all the way across the edge.  I like to sew across the bottom edge of the tape 5 or 6 times just to be sure that I catch those strings in there - - otherwise when you go to pull them,  you will just pull the string right out.

Now comes the easy part.  Grab the two strings and just start pulling.  Your fabric will gather as you pull the strings and you will probably have to ease your fabric down along the tape, but just work with it and pull it until it give you the tightness (or looseness) that you are looking for.

 

Continue this for all three pieces of tape.  When you have those strings pulled tight, take the two from each tape and tie them in a knot.

And that is all - - -see, I told you it was super easy.  Not bad for $4.00!  It took be about a total of 20 minutes to do both panels.   Since the panels already had rod pockets in them, all you have to do it put them on your rod and hang them up.  I think the hardest part it just trying to take a good picture of curtains hanging in a window!!

    Don’t we have fabulous views out our windows?  :)  What a lovely house my neighbors have, so glad we get to look at it every day! 

Guestroom Projects!

Welcome back to my guestroom!  Today were going to take a closer look at some of the projects in the room!

Did you notice those pictures on the wall?  I needed something to fill up that long white wall.  I had a book of shell prints, but no frames to fit them.  Remember, I was only using what I had in the house, so I had to get creative!  So, I carefully tore the pictures out of the book.

Can you see what I used to hang them?  T-pins.  Yup, I just stole them from my sewing table and pushed them in the wall.

I got creative on one and just added a little metal number tag.  It happened to be hanging out on my sewing table by the T-pins, so I just grabbed it and added it in.  I like to throw unexpected items in my decorating.  It makes people really look and be entertained by the details.

 

What do you think of my beach sign?    It makes me so happy!

 

I made it -- - in like 15 minutes!

I wanted something big for the opposite wall and I really wanted it to be my focal point.  It is the first wall you see when you look in the room AND this room is right at the top of our stairs, so you see it every time you go up or down the stairs.  I had the hooks and numbers sitting in the garage -- - I had bought them at Lowes a few months back I think the hooks were around $3 each and the numbers were $2.  So my total cost was $25

To make the sign, I screwed together three boards of slightly different widths and lengths.   I got the boards for free at a garage sale - - I didn’t cut even trim them down.   I left a little gap between each of the boards.  Then I quickly painted the boards with some blue paint I had on hand - - and when I say quick, I mean quick!  I just slapped it on there, letting the wood show through in some places.

After that, I sanded down the edges, screwed on the hooks, and nailed on the numbers.

To finish it off, I used my white sharpie paint pen (love it!) to write the word “beach” along the top.  It didn’t show up quite enough for me, so I grabbed my black sharpie pen and outlined the letters.

   

How about this little quick project…

 

Again, I apologize for forgetting about before pictures - - I get in the moment and forget to document, the creative juices are just flowing and I just keep going!   I had these fabulous family pictures and I really wanted to put them in the room.  Some people say you shouldn’t use family pictures in your decorating.  I say it’s my house, my family, and my pictures and I should decorate with what makes me happy!  And my family and my family pictures make me happy - - so dog-gone-it, I’m going to use them!

I had picked up this frame from Home Goods when we still lived in CA for $2.00.  I was white, banged up and had some crazy pictures in the openings.  I gave it a fresh coat of paint, cut scrapbook paper to fit the openings, and put one picture in each of the openings.  $2 art… You can’t beat that!

By the way - - -check out those pictures in the frame - - -are they not the best?!!  Those were our pre-deployment, pre-moving, family pictures done by the very talented Missie from Sunflower Studio.  We traded talent.  I re-upholstered a chair for her and she took our family pictures!

I still have some details to finish for the room, but really, the biggest thing I am missing for this room - - is guests!!  Whose coming for a visit?  I have 4 weeks to fill up before Handsome Hubby comes home for his two weeks of Rest and Relaxation (R&R).   Hoping these 4 weeks FFFFLLLLLYYYYYY by!