I'm sure I'm not the only person out there who has a stack of old paint tins, precariously shoved on an over-full shelf in a barely used closet somewhere in the depths of their house...

Okay, so mine aren't as messy as this. (but pretty damned close...) Sew at Home Mummy.

For ages I have been meaning to devise a chart that I can tape on the back of said closet door, so I came up with one (finally!)

Sew at Home Mummy.

so that I can keep track of all of the colors and types of paints I've used, inside and out, on my house. I am at the point where I just don't have the room anymore to store teeny tiny bits of paint in gigantic tins just in case my kid decides to take a marker to a wall (true story) or my husband puts a big gouge in another wall moving a piece of furniture (another true story), and I need to fix it.

Now I can go and get a $4 sample jar or just a quart of said paint color to fix any of life's... mishaps...

I've seen people who keep paint sticks dipped in the paint, labeled, and hung from a ring. Cute, except I don't always have a paint stick and this (at least in my house) would need to be a very, very big ring.

So! My solution was a basic chart that I could keep track of paint colors for the interior and exterior of my house, and even add the stains I use for my decking.

you can even use it to keep track of your exterior stain projects! Sew at Home Mummy.

It's in a plastic sheet protector, taped to the inside of a basement closet door for easy reference.

...excuse all of my gift bags, but the new paint tracker is stored in a plastic page protector right above, on the back of a closet door.

It has little chance of getting lost, and it's a great reference for homeowners and even future buyers if you're planning on selling your house one day.

So! Here ya go! Click the button below for the free PDF download, and make sure to print in landscape setting.


As always, this freebie is for personal use only, and all images on this blog are copyright and require express permission from me, the author.


Happy painting - and make sure to Pin it for later!

Sew at Home Mummy.

 *this post may contain affiliate links to Amazon at no additional cost to you. For more information, please visit my Disclosure Statement and Advertising Policies page.

Want some more DIY ideas? Check out these posts!

Well, it's that time of the year again!

My kids have been hopped up on sugar and Santa-crazy for about a month now. It's like that line in that song,

"/and mom and dad can hardly wait for school to start again/".

I jest. I'm having fun with them home, but it's been an exhausting time!

I've been in a rush to try and complete a series of new stockings for the family; the last set I made was years ago (so long ago in fact that it was before my son was born - so he's been using a store-bought hand-me-down for, uh, a few years). Here's the tutorial for our 'old' stockings in {this post}.

I had *so* much fun making these new oversized, Buffalo Plaid pattern stockings I thought I would write it up as a tutorial for the ol' blog!

Enjoy!


*this post may contain affiliate links to Amazon at no additional cost to you - the income earned helps me to pay for domain fees and supplies. For more information, please visit my Disclosure Statement and Advertising Policies page.

Please note and respect that all free patterns published on Sew at Home Mummy are for personal use only and may not be sold or used to create items to be sold. Thank you!

SUPPLIES:

• Jumbo Stocking Pattern (Click the button above to download and print the PDF version)
• COLOR 3: Moda Crossweave*, Studio E Brushstrokes*, or the like, or, medium dark solid
• COLOR 1 & 2: Moda* or Kona Solids, or the like, coordinating, 1 each fat quarter light and dark
• BACK & LINING: 3 Coordinating FQs (or the equivalent) (I used Bella Ivory*)
• Hobbs Cotton Blend Batting*
• That Purple Thang* (for turning, or a chopstick would work!)
• Coordinating thread for piecing and quilting (for piecing I used a cream Aurifil* and coordinating Aurifil 50wt* to quilt each stocking) 
• Glue Basting Spray* or Curved pins for basting your mini plaid quilt top to the batting

CUTTING:

Color 1 (light FQ): (3) strips 2.5" x 22"

Color 2 (dark FQ): (3) strips 2.5" x 22"

Color 3 (medium FQ, 'textured'/crossweave fabric): (6) strips 2.5" x 22"

Hanging Tab: from one of the colored fabrics (1) piece 2.5" x 6"

Batting: (2) pieces 20" x 24"

Stocking Back: (1) piece, cut from supplied pattern

Stocking Lining: (2) pieces, cut from supplied pattern

Stocking Front:

Row 1: 3 SET A's (6 squares)
Row 2: 3 SET B's (6 squares)
Row 3: 3 SET A's (6 squares)
Row 4: 3 SET B's (6 squares)
Row 5: 3 SET A's (6 squares)
Row 6: 3 SET B's (6 squares)
Row 7: 3 SET A's (6 squares)
Row 8: 4 SET B's (8 squares)
Row 9: 5 SET A's (10 squares)
Row 10: 5 SET B's (10 squares)
Row 11: 5 SET A's (10 squares)

5) Matching intersecting seams, sew rows of strips together.

And here's what your sewn strip sets will look like (see the stocking shape starting to take form?):

6) Layer your 2 batting pieces on top of each other matching edges (safety pin the outer edges to keep them from shifting); baste your plaid piecing on top of the batting (I used June Tailor's glue basting spray* for this step, but you could also use curved pins*)

7) Quilt your stockings! Here are two quilting patterns which I used as examples -


8) Using the pattern/template provided, trace your stocking shape onto the quilted squares; trim (you'll see here that I used an Olfa pinking blade (click here to see it on Amazon)* on my regular good old 45mm Olfa rotary cutter* to cut down on any fraying with the turning process) -

9) Pin backing to quilted front, right sides together and sew.

10) Clip corners and curves to get a nice clean curve when you turn, like so:

11) Turn right side out, using your That Purple Thang* or chopstick to poke out those curves. Press well.

Create Lining:

From lining fabric cut 2 of stocking pattern. Sew together, leaving about a 4" opening on the long side to be able to turn your stocking in a later step.

TIP:

When sewing up to the opening, sew back to the edge of the fabric at a 90deg corner - this helps to make creating your closing seam allowance a little easier.

Create Hanging Tab

1) following the image guide below,

1. fold tab fabric in half lengthwise and press.
2. open fabric and fold each left and right sides in to align with pressed center line and press in place.
3. fold fabric again in half aligning pressed edges; press in place.
4. sew down the length of the tab.

Finish Stocking:

1) Shove that stocking front inside the lining, right sides together.

2) Matching side seams, pin upper raw edges together, placing your hanging tab, folded in half, between the lining and stocking front at the stocking rear seam matching raw edges. Sew using 1/4" seam.

3) Turn stocking through the opening you left in the lining.

4) Turn the open-seam portion of lining to create a seam allowance tucked to the wrong side of fabric; press. Pin the two open sides of lining together. Sew opening shut with a narrow 1/8" seam.

5) Push stocking lining into stocking front; press upper seam at stocking opening.

And here are all of my finished stockings!
...no chimney to hang them by but still hung and awaiting Santa's arrival nonetheless!

Thanks for reading along, I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If you end up making one of these stockings, send me an email with a photo, I love to see what you're making.

Happy Holidays!

I have been very slowly plugging away at small projects around my sewing space, and one of the projects needing to be crossed off my list has been a new cutting table.


I wanted something with storage for my cutting mat(s) and rulers - somewhere where they could safely lay flat and out of the way.



I needed somewhere to store my smaller templates and rulers...I wanted all of this BUT I didn't (read: couldn't) spend a ton of money on the project.

So here's my cheap IKEA RAST hack!

Please note I've included a list of the supplies I've used and included affiliate links to Amazon.com and other approved sponsor sites in this post for your reference. For more information, please visit my Disclosure Statement and Advertising Policies page.

 

Supplies (affiliate links included below):

Directions:

1) Put your RAST dresser together - BUT - instead of putting the top on the top, you're going to use it for your base, and, the kick-plate for the bottom front you'll use at a 90 degree angle at the top of the dresser, using the holes originally meant for the dresser top. Use hardware supplied. DO NOT attach the back piece to the dresser, set aside for later.



The trick here is going to be attaching your top piece on the bottom at such a height where it makes the dresser sit level with your cast iron treadle base (once your casters are attached). The height of your particular treadle base will determine where on the dresser bottom you place the dresser top piece, if that makes sense.

2) Using #8 1/2" wood screws, attach 4 casters to the underside of the dresser about 1 1/2" from each corner.



3) Stain, paint, and/or seal your RAST. I used Minwax stain in Ebony  - just one coat - on the dresser drawer fronts, sealed with a Polyurethane in Satin, and a high gloss white trim paint on the rest of the dresser I had left over from painting the windows in the basement last summer.


Instead of using the knobs supplied, I filled the holes pre-drilled by IKEA with this product (affiliate link from Amazon.com) and then put these knobs on from Home Depot.

4) Attach the four ADILS leg brackets to the underside corners to one of the LINNMON table tops. Screw the four BURFJORD furniture legs into the brackets ensuring their final resting spots are square with the edge of the corners of the table top.

5) Place the two table tops on each other, checking to make sure the edges are level with each other; attach using 3" screws (I had some decking screws left over from a project last year I used) through the underside of the lower table top down the center of each furniture leg.


6) Flip your table top and it's time to mock-up where you'll want your treadle base and RAST base to sit underneath. Get them both positioned where you'd like, then, to the underside right side of the table top where your treadle base will attach, attach the RAST backing using Gorilla woodglue (on Amazon) and 1/2" screws. This will provide more support (something more for the heavy treadle base to 'bite' into when you bolt it to the table top - especially since these tops are hollow and these treadle bases are heavy cast iron)



7) On the left side of the table, first determine where your RAST dresser will sit as a table leg; place plywood sheet on top of RAST, leaving overhang all the way around, and affix to RAST from above using screws attaching to RAST frame. Slide RAST back in place and screw to table top from underneath using 1/2" screws and Gorilla wood glue.

You are DONE!



I love my table. My rulers slide nicely out of the way now when I'm wrangling large quilts, and my mat(s) store nicely under my table when I need the space to baste or work on photographing, pinning, crafting, wrapping presents, or more.



And, I love that I lift the treadle base side and because the RAST is on casters I can move the table by myself all over the room, wherever I like.



The drawers are awesome and work well for all of my rulers and templates, and free up valuable drawer and table space elsewhere. And the little cubby space underneath worked out super well for my June Tailor Cut N' Press mats - they slide right in.

My goal is to save up for a larger, non-standard sized cutting mat (something bigger than 24x36) that fills the majority of the table but is just able to squeek between those support pillars in the storage area (i.e. so I can still slide it away if I want to). Future me.



Ahh. Super happy with this one. I hope you like this post, too, and consider making it or something like it for your sewing space as well! If you do, make sure to let me know, I'd love to hear about it.

Make sure to check out my other hacks for your sewing studio:

Happy Hacking!