Big Boy Room...The Curtains!

My favorite part of the new big boy room is the curtains.  I really wanted to incorporate the road / car theme into the curtains, but wasn't sure how I was going to do that at first.  Then I thought about trying to make a road go across the curtains that then flowed into the vinyl stickers I had found.  At first I thought about making the curtains, but luckily found some at Target that worked out perfectly (saving me lots of time too).

Here is how I added the embellishments to the store bought curtains.

First gather your supplies:

Curtains (either home made or store bought), fabric for the road, and your normal sewing supplies.  (In this picture I show white fabric paint, but then after some experimenting I ended up using something different which I will talk about later.)

First I measured the width of the road on the vinyl stickers that I had bought.  I cut out strips of fabric a half inch bigger than that measurement.  I folded down both side of the fabric 1/4" and pressed to make a clean edge.

Then I realized that one strip of fabric wasn't going to fit the entire length of the curtain so I had to sew two strips together.  With right sides together sewing with a 1/4" seam allownce.

Press the seam open for a clean look.

Then press the top and bottom edges down again.

Here is what it looks like from the front, not too noticeable!

Lay the "road" out where you want it along the curtain.  My curtains had a hemline that worked perfectly to use as my guide.

I left about 1/2" overhang along one of the edges.

Then pinned the road down, leaving the excess only on one side.

I trimmed the excess off, and left a 1/2" to fold over the edge.

Top stitch the road to the curtain using a 1/8" seam.

With the two end edges, I folded them over 1/4", pressed, then folded that over the edge of the curtain to secure the raw edges.

Sew this down to finish off the edge.

The road is almost done!!  Here are the two curtains, they just need a little detail work.

To mimic the vinyl, I measured the white dashes and the space between them so that I knew how big to make them.

At first I thought I would use white puffy fabric paint, but I didn't like how it came out.  My mom suggested I use white iron on patches, since they already had the adhesive on them.  They ended up working out perfectly.

I cut the patches to the desired width.

Then cut them to the desired length.  I cut up a lot of these just to make sure I had enough.

I used a fabric marker to draw a line along where I wanted to iron on the patches.

Start the first patch along the line and about 1/2" from the edge.

From the first one I used the measurement I took at the beginning and started ironing on the next patch.

Repeat this step, until you have finished the entire length of the curtain.

The road is complete!  Now just add some cars and you are done.

I made the car out of felt using different Cricut templates I had cut out.  I used Wonder Under on the felt so that all I had to do was iron them onto the curtain.  The cars took a little bit of time, but I really liked how they turned out.

Hang up your new curtain and admire your work!

A quick note about the road on the wall: it's actually fabric!!!  I saw this tutorial on Positively Splendid (a blog that I love!) and knew I wanted to try this technique out.  It worked out perfectly and I am thinking of adding more....someday.

Big Boy Car Bedroom (Plus a Book Sling Tutorial)

Hello all, Sara here!  We recently moved our little guy into a big boy bed, which meant he "needed" a room makeover.  I had a lot of fun coming up with ideas to do in his room and found a lot of inspiration on Pinterest.

Here are some pictures of the finished product!

The play side of the room.  I made the book sling thanks to a tutorial from Pinterest (I am including a tutorial at the bottom of this post to show how I modified the original tutorial, thanks to Crafty Mama Beth's help!)

The accent wall with new curtains (tutorial to come soon!) and some fabric and vinyl decorations.

The dresser and nightstand are from IKEA.  They work out perfectly for his room, perfect size and colors.

Now for a tutorial on how to make this book sling.

When I saw this idea on Pinterest, I knew I wanted it in the new bedroom.  I even had some fabric that matched the color theme, I just hadn't figured out what I was going to do with it.

I used one yard of fabric, home decor weight.  It measured about 35" by 43" once I squared off the sides.  The original tutorial called for 1 1/3 yards of fabric, which I didn't have.  After talking to some of the other Crafty Mamas, Beth came up with an idea to make use of just one yard of fabric!!  Here is how I did it.

 Fold the short side in about half an inch and press.

 Sew along this edge with a 1/8" seam allowance (I always use the edge of my presser foot as my guide).

 Once both sides are hemmed, fold the piece of fabric in half, with the long edges matching up and right sides together.  If you have a stripe, like I did, make sure the stripes match up when you pin the side together. Sew using a 1/2" seam allowance.

I pressed this seam open, but you don't necessarily need to.  I just like the look of a pressed seam.  I also didn't finish the raw edges since I wasn't worried about fraying since the sling won't be moving.

Turn the sling so the right side is out.  You are almost done at this point.  I didn't get a picture, but measure how much seam allowance you will need for your curtain rod (I used a dowel rod, like she did in the original tutorial).  Mine allowance was about 1 1/2" as shown below.

Once you have determined the seam allowance, sew along both long edges of the sling where the curtain rod will go.  Then you are done.  All you have to do it put the curtain rods in and hang it up!!

Like the original post, we found the studs in the wall and hung up the curtain rod so the weight of the books and any potential pulling from kids wouldn't tear the sling down from the walls.  Now the sling does not hold that many books.  There are different kinds of double curtain rod holders out there that have different widths to them.  I was fine with having just a little space, since I knew this wasn't going to be the only place we had books in his room.

I loved making this new big boy bedroom for our little guy!