Holiday 12 Ideas House

 {this is not my house}

Are you ready for another tour of the Bachman's Ideas House? If you'd like, you can visit some from the past: Spring 10, Summer 10, Holiday 10, Spring 11, Summer 11, Holiday 11, Spring 12 and Fall 12.

This house was built in the early 1920's and for Holiday 2012 it was decorated with an alpine chic theme. A glamorous take on the rustic lodge with a mix of deep, natural tones and textures like wood, fur and antlers accented by a glitzy twist on traditional holiday colors and patterns.... “cozy, up-north cabin meets big city bling”. Nearly every item is priced for sale.... enjoy the photo tour...

In the porch, saddlebag as planter

 In the living room, coffee table made from a wooden wagon & layered tree rounds

 End tables made from stacked luggage & glass top

 Wall embellished with hand-panted grandfather clock outline

 Christmas tree topped with feathers & antlers

 Christmas presents wrapped with fur & burlap ribbon with ornament accents

 In the sunroom, vintage wooden toolbox used as wine holder

 In the dining room, decorative bark panels on wall

 birch candles

 In the kitchen, chandelier decorated with kitchen utensils & dishtowels

 workbench as kitchen island

 oversized vintage metal sign used as recipe magnet board

 In the bathroom, toilet paper holder made from a mailbox

 In the girl's bedroom, headboard made from a cabinet & table, chandelier made from painted & deconstructed plastic water bottles, wall covered with furry blankets

 wall calendar made of clear bulb ornaments filled with candy

 hose reel as tinsel Christmas tree base

 In the boy's bedroom, headboard made from a basketball backboard & rope lighting, basketball rim mounted to wall as nightstand, pillow made from referee shirt

 basketball cage turned into a desk, basketball halves turned into lamps, graph chalkboards hung from metal rulers as wall art

 media unit made from vintage lockers

 In the den, vintage trunk as coffee table

 salvaged wood & oversized black & white photo turned into wall-mounted TV cabinet, vintage snowshoes & birch logs as wall sconces

 metalworker's cabinet as bookshelves

 birch poles as valances with pinecone finials

 In the master bedroom, vintage arched window as headboard, lamps filled with holiday ornaments

 dresser top covered in sheet music

 hand painted family tree with hanging frame ornaments

 birdcage as ceiling lamp

 jewelry holder made from vintage retail key tag fixture

 A theme throughout the house white knitted decorated items...

 basket

 vases

 candles

 Christmas ball ornament

 mug

I hope you get a chance to visit this Holiday 2012 Ideas House (there are so many more ideas to see than are in these photos), it's open until December 16th, 2012 . And if you cannot make it to Minneapolis, Minnesota to tour the house in person, I hope you can get some inspiration from this photo tour.

PS Sounds like the Ideas House will be continuing in 2013 (Spring, Fall and Holiday) as they have been so successful, so hopefully I can offer another photo tour in May :)

Knock it Off guest post

left photo source

 Today I'm visiting Heidi at Elegance and Elephants. Click here to see how I knocked off the Gabriella Dress.

Zipper Teeth Trimmed Neckline Tutorial

 Zipper Teeth Trimmed Neckline Tutorial

This is a golden yellow long sleeve skinny t-shirt with zipper teeth trimmed neckline that I sewed for my son, it was part of this look. And here's how I made it.


Supplies needed:

:: t-shirt pattern (I used Made By Rae's Flashback Skinny Tee)

:: long metal zipper

:: disappearing ink marker

:: diagonal cutter pliers

:: scissors

:: liquid seam sealant


Instructions:

Take your t-shirt pattern and instead of following the given neckline, just cut straight across, then cut out your t-shirt.

 Measure the neckline. From that measurement figure out how long the zipper will need to be, making sure that you have enough zipper tape let on both sides to allow for seam allowances, as you don't want to be running your sewing machine over zipper teeth !


Take your metal zipper, unzip the zipper so that the zipper pull is next to the bottom stop, just above the zipper pull in between zipper teeth, cut all the way across, this will remove the zipper pull and separate the zipper teeth. With disappearing ink marker, mark the needed length, then also mark one seam allowance length away (towards the edge).

 Remove the zipper teeth between the 2 marks by using a diagonal cutter pliers to cut them and or pull them off.

 Using a scissors, cut off the excess zipper at the 2nd mark.

 Apply a small amount of liquid seam sealant to the cut edges, this will prevent the fabric from fraying.

 Pin the zippers onto the t-shirt neckline.

 Using a zipper foot on the sewing machine, sew the zippers onto the neckline.

 Following the t-shirt pattern sewing instructions, finish sewing the t-shirt together.

All done !

Shortening Metal Zippers from the Top Tutorial

 Shortening Metal Zippers from the Top Tutorial

For when you can't get a short enough zipper for a project that you're working on, don't despair, you can shorten it.

I needed to reduce the length of a couple of zippers (from 7 inches down to 3.5 inches) for exposed zipper pockets for a pair of pants I was sewing for my son, here's how I achieved that.

Supplies needed:
:: metal zipper
:: 2 top stops (I got mine from a clothing zipper repair kit that I bought at the local fabric store)
:: diagonal cutter pliers
:: long nose pliers
:: ruler
:: disappearing ink marker
:: scissors
:: liquid seam sealant

 Starting from the bottom stop, measure the desired length of the zipper, then using a disappearing marker, make a mark on the tape.

 Using a disappearing ink marker, make a 2nd mark 1 inch above the 1st mark. Remove the zipper teeth between those 2 marks, using a diagonal cutter pliers cut and or pull each tooth. (Note: these metal zipper teeth can be difficult to cut, at least they were for me & watch out, they can go flying... I'm still finding little cut up metal zipper teeth all over my sewing room)

 Place a top stop above the highest zipper tooth, using the long nose pliers, pinch the top stop together so that it is secure. Repeat this for the other side of the zipper.

 With a scissors cut off the excess zipper at the 2nd mark that you made.

 Apply a small amount of liquid seam sealant to the cut edges, this will prevent the fabric from fraying.

All done. Now you can use your new shortened metal zippers.