Thursday, September 3, 2009

The Last Three Weeks

As always things begin with a little touch of Imagination, and in this case a whole lot of time and a pinch of pixie dust. It all began with this fabric.

I fell in love with it the minute I saw it and thought, "Wouldn't this look so cute as a bedspread for Aiyana with ribbon threaded?" So the question is.... What kind of ribbon? That is easy, Aiyana's favorite colors peach and yellow.
Then you thread it through the eyelets. Now what? Well what kind of room do I want to make and how much work do I want it to involve?

A trip to Joann's is necessary for a little more inspiration.
Two yellows and two peach. The first yellow is a poly shantung, the peach next to it is from the casa collection, then a peach cotton, and a yellow cotton. But it still needed a little something more so green was added.

After a night of brainstorming sketches were made and cutting layouts written down. Above is my sketches of one of the pillows, the closet panels, and the closet valance.

My sketches of the decorative pillows and the embroidery on the pillowcase and sheet. Also includes a little bit more of the closet panel.

Closet panels, more pillows and the upper part of the sheet word ideas.

Window drapes, tie backs, valance, pillows, pillowcase, and room sign.

Making the ruffles and covering the cording with the green fabric.

Next find muslin! (We found Kona to be a DREAM to work with) Then we start cutting and embroidering. Oops we should probably pick our floss colors.

These were the winning embroidery floss that we used for Aiyana's room.

Beginning the closet panel embroidery. This was the first idea, but we weren't crazy about it.

The is the one we ran with. (It looks much more like the sketch to me.)
Because it has no embroidery the coverlet was the first project finished. I used the eyelet threaded with the ribbon, then "lined" it with some muslin. Once that was all put together I added the yellow polyshantung fabric as a backing, with the peach ruffle already basted and called it good. This picture shows the coverlet folded so you can see the backing.
Next finished was the closet panels. Made with eyelet (with a white kona muslin backing and threaded through with peach and yellow ribbon), yellow cotton, peach cotton, and white muslin lined with the green piping for the top.

Next came the curtain tie backs, window drapes (made with peach cotton and lined with white Kona muslin) and the valance.

Close up of the curtain tie backs.
Close up of the bottom of the valance.
Next came the top of the bamboo flat sheet. Melissa found some really nice bamboo sheets online at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. They were at clearance price! So I bought some and this is what was done to them. (The words from left to right read:Dream, Believe, Imagine, Wish, Hope, Love). Every other word is done with peach or yellow words mixed with a pretty winter metallic white.

The end part of the Believe and Wish.

Part of Hope and Love.
Part of Imagine and Hope.
Believe.
Next up a blank bamboo pillow case. We did the same wording as the sheet, but messed with the words a bit. On one side reads: Dream, Believe, Wish. On the other: Imagine, Hope, Love.

The pillow sham was the first decorative pillow done. It did not require any embroidery which is why it was done so quickly. This is the front and back.

Front.

Back.

Sleeping fairy was next.

Close up of her face.

Close up of the wings. You have to look close to see the "veins".

The dream pillow.

The Aiyana pillow.

Her bed made my way. (she has since made it "her" way.)

Close up side view.

Far away side view shot.

The bed while standing at the foot.
And that is that. We are still going to make her a room sign for her door and a chair cushion, but this is what we have for now. I know cute....right?