Finishing touches for a boy's bedroom

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Following my recent tutorial on making a canopy for my son's bed, I thought I'd show you some of the other things we've made and found to decorate his room.

I made this star with stripes cushion by following this tutorial by Fleece Fun. I made mine from Ikea cotton fabric and denim, instead of fleece. I also added the distressed denim 'J' applique before I sewed everything together.

The gorgeous space themed quilt was from the op shop. That was a good find :)

There are three paintings in the room. This large one done by me. It's a copy of a page in a favourite Zigby Zebra story.

This gorgeous penguin painted by JJ, aged 3.

And this banksia flower and boomerang, also painted by JJ, aged 5. The banksia painting was done with my Mum who is an artist. She paints mostly Australian landscapes and flowers. You can find her paintings here.

For any non-Aussies who may be interested, this is what a real banksia flower looks like. They are quite amazing, large cylindrical flowers with a woody centre. They come in all shapes, colours and sizes.

Source

Then, of course, there is this 'treasure chest' which I've mentioned previously. Being guarded here by Spike the sock monster. I had originally planned to do a makeover on the chest, but I have grown to like it in its original state.

It's fun to have handmade and treasured finds in a child's room. OK, it doesn't look like a room out of a magazine, but the items have meaning and their own special value. What child wants to live in a magazine anyway - well maybe there are some, but certainly not my boys. They want to relax and be creative and wrestle and make forts and throw the football around and bounce on the bed. And I can say 'yes, but please clean up afterwards'. And once in a while they do :)

Simple bed canopy tutorial with 'no sew' option

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After we refashioned JJ's bed from a standard single into a child-size single, I made this canopy in the hope that it would further encourage him to actually sleep in the new bed! I'm pleased to say that he loves this canopy. It's light enough so that when it's pulled closed, air can still circulate inside making it safe to sleep in.

This was really easy to make and took less than an hour.

What you need:

Two sheer tab top curtains (mine were on sale in Ikea, $5 for the pair).

A hoop, available from toy shops.

Some ribbon or fabric tape to hang the hoop.

Metal rings and a ceiling hook.

To start with, sew the two curtains together side by side. If you don't have a sewing machine, you could just leave them separate.

Cut the hoop with a saw...

...and thread the curtains on to the hoop.

Tape up the hoop.

Cut two lengths of ribbon approximately twice the diameter of the hoop (length will vary depending on how high you want this from the ceiling).

With the curtains spaced evenly around the hoop, loop the four ribbon ends on to the hoop and pin in place. Sew or use safety pins to secure ribbon. You may want to sew the ribbon near the ring to stop it sliding around. I didn't do this and should have done :)

Attach the ceiling hook and you are ready to hang your canopy.

A cosy hideout.

This cool 'treasure chest' was spotted by JJ on the verge during a council clean-up. I was ordered to stop the car and collect it. It needed a good airing out, but it's great for storing light sabres and Nerf guns and, I must admit, it's got character!

Woven ribbon cushion - a tutorial

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On a trip to Target a couple of months ago, I spotted a lovely red cushion with raised, woven ribbon detail. I haven't been able to find a picture of it online, but I kept it in my head and decided to make one to go with my new bedroom decor (more on that in a future post).

The Target version had the ribbons closer together, but I wanted my silver fabric to show through so I spaced the ribbon weave further apart. The fabric came from the sale rack at Textile Traders and the ribbon was from Spotlight. This cushion only cost me about $7 to make, compared to $40 in Target.

Want to make one? Here's how:

You'll need enough fabric for the front and back of the cushion and approximately 9m of ribbon. I used 1cm wide ribbon in silver/grey.

I wanted a rectangular shaped cushion. The standard size for these (in Australia at least) is 30x50cm so I cut my fabric approximately 32x52cm (extra for seam allowance).

Both my measurements (30 and 50) are divisible by five, so I decided to space the ribbons 5cm apart. To begin with, I ironed horizontal folds in my fabric, 5cm apart. This formed the guide for the horizontal ribbons (you could draw lines with fabric chalk instead if it will show up on your fabric).

Next I marked with fabric chalk along my ribbon to indicate where to sew. I started about 4.5cm along the ribbon, then marked the next 2.5cm, then 4cm, then 2.5, 4, 2.5 until I'd marked approximately 75cm of ribbon. Each horizontal line takes about 75cm of ribbon, but don't cut it yet! You can see my markings in blue in the picture below.

Then you can start to sew. Turn on the radio as this takes a while, but it's easy and therapeutic! Lie the ribbon along the first ironed fold with the end of the ribbon at the side of the fabric. Sew along the first marked chalk line, reversing at each end of the stitching to keep it secure. Next is the 2.5cm section. Fold the ribbon halfway between the 2.5cm marks and stitch close to the first line of stitching you've just done (see below if this is confusing).

Don't worry if the stitching goes over the edges of the ribbon or if the folding is not perfect. It won't be noticeable when it's finished. At the end of the row, cut the ribbon flush with the edge of the fabric. Your first line of ribbon should look something like this:

Continue until you've done all the horizontal lines of ribbon. My cushion had five horizontal rows.

Now you are ready for the vertical rows of ribbon. I found it easier to just eyeball these rows, rather than marking the ribbon.

Weave your ribbon in and out of the existing ribbon rows as shown below (under, over, under, over etc.). Your next row will be woven the opposite way (i.e. over, under, over under).

With the ribbon centred between the existing 'sticky-up bits', continue to sew as before creating new sticky-up bits halfway between each existing row.

Sew, sew, sew and sew some more...

...until it's done. Then make up your cushion using your preferred method. I always do it this way.

I love the texture of the ribbon and the way it catches the light.

Woo hoo! This project was featured on:

Let's make the bed

Yes, I mean literally!

As I've mentioned before, my boys' bedrooms were in desperate need of attention. I decided that this year I would make the effort to sort them out. At the beginning of this year, we bought JJ (aged 6) a cabin bed. It was one of those that's high up with lots of storage and a cubby house underneath. We hoped that this would encourage him to sleep in his own bed all night. I put the bed together on my own while Mr Meggipeg was in Canada. Now, call me strange, but I love flatpacks. Well I did until I attempted this one. It nearly killed me, but I wrestled and swore and finally put it together. Standing back to admire my handiwork, I decided there and then that I hated that bed. It was enormous. There was no room left to play in. The boys liked the cubby, but getting in there with the vacuum cleaner was nigh on impossible. Eventually I gave up cleaning the room altogether and it ended up like this:

Ugh. Shudder. Let's say no more about it. But at least JJ was sleeping in his bed all night, right?

Wrong. Total disaster.

Plan B. Obviously the new bed had to go, but it took me a while to convince JJ of this. Despite refusing to sleep in it, he didn't want to let it go. In the end I promised to keep it forever so his children could sleep in it. Without wasting a moment, I wrenched the thing apart and bundled it into the garage. It's currently advertised on Gumtree. Any takers?

So, we needed a replacement bed. As luck would have it, our area was having a verge rubbish collection and I spied an old wooden bed a couple of streets away. JJ and I inspected it and he gave it the thumbs up. While he was at school that day I put on some dark sunglasses and drove round to get it. After much heave-hoing I finally got it into the back of the car (seats down). I would like to say that no one saw me doing this but, despite nonchalantly leaning on a nearby tree whenever a car went past, I think I may have been spotted once or twice.

That weekend, the boys and I set to work doing up the 'new' bed. The idea was that we would shorten it to maximise the space in the bedroom.

JJ did a great job undoing the screws. We measured the long side pieces and cut them off to fit the kids mattress I'd bought from Ikea. LJ was so keen to help, he didn't even change out of his pyjamas (meggipeg ones of course).

After a quick break for a babycino...

...we painted the whole thing fire engine red.

Then we put it all together again.

I love it! JJ kind of loves it, but still pines slightly for the old bed. This is such a cute little bed now. It is about 1.5 feet shorter than a standard single bed so it would suit a child up to about 8 or 9 years old. It takes up about a third of the space of the old hulking bed (and cost a tenth of the price for the mattress and the paint!!) so I can face cleaning the room again...sometimes...when I haven't got an exciting sewing project on the go.

To make it even cosier, I made a red curtain to hang over/around the bed (tutorial to come).

And I'm happy to say that JJ sleeps in this bed (quite) often. The boys had a blast doing all the woodwork and painting, so I'd say this was a win :)

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