DIY Stuffed Animals

My sister's really into sewing these days, which is great, since I've benefited from her skills over the past year. First off, she gave me the prototype of her slouchy reversible tote bag. I use it all the time!

Next off, she decided to make new pillows for her living room to switch up the decor a bit...which quickly evolved into sewing stuffed animals for the girls' room.

Her first foray into DIY stuffed animals was the "Katie bird pillow" – a cute, fun little pattern you can mix up with coordinating prints. I oooh'd over it so much I even got my own (it goes with the wild, fun patterns she bought for the pillows she sewed me for my redecorated living room).

After the stuffed bird she tried out a stuffed bunny pattern – also very cute and somewhat retro. The girls love their new stuffed animals (that also double as little pillows for their naps) and they aren't just run-of-the-mill, purchased commercialized toys.


I'm no sewer but I think these patterns would be great for beginners.

Refinishing an Old, Three-Drawer Side Table

It's just a simply-made pine "dresser" with three drawers (back in the day, it was my dad's bedside table in which he kept socks, t-shirts & undies :). When I moved into a house in college, it was given to me to use.

I never really thought about it other than the fact it was a handy little side table, and it followed me from place to place over the years.

Now, in our house in St. Paul, it's down in my "office," where it holds stationery, stamps and other crafting odds-and-ends. I looked at it one day this spring and thought, "I'd really like it if that side table were darker." And so it began.

We don't have a wide variety of tools so I ended up borrowing my friend's little mouse sander for the project. Using 80-grit sand paper, I started removing the old finish. 

The sides, top and even the drawers of the side table were easy to sand; the nooks and crannies were the hardest. While I knew this wouldn't be perfect – it was, after all, my first refinishing project – I also didn't want it to LOOK like a first-time sanding job.

Of course, in my haste to get it done, I didn't bother to sand any part of this dresser by hand; I used the Black & Decker mouse for the entire project. I ended up finessing the sander well enough that I got all the old finish off without losing too much detailing.

At this point, the neighbors were interested in what I was doing so they came over to take a look – and critique the project, no doubt :) – and offered some good advice for the next steps of the refinishing. They also gave me some important items: a piece of tack cloth to wipe down the side table before I started in with the stain, and some fine steel wool to lightly sand in between coats of the stain and/or finish.

It was amazing how much sandpaper dust I removed from that dresser with the tack cloth, even after I'd wiped it with my hands. After wiping down the entire side table, I was ready to start staining.

For this part of the project, I'd purchased a nice brush but the neighbors said to use a foam paint brush – it's a cheap option to evenly apply the stain, and this way I didn't have to worry about cleaning off my nice brush when I was done (we even had several foam brushes leftover from a previous painting job; so no extra expense there).

The foam brush worked very well to apply the stain – Moorish Teak oil-based wood stain by Zar – and I had to do very little wiping with my soft cloths to remove excess stain. Since I was staining outside in the sun, the stain dried very quickly (although I still let everything sit for three hours, per the instructions on the can).

At this point, I was a tad worried about the Moorish Teak – in the sun it looked okay, but as soon as the sun slid behind a cloud, the dresser looked purple. I was a tad apprehensive, but my saintly neighbor came over once again and said, "don't pass judgment yet – it'll change once you sand it and apply the finish."

Once the stain was dry, I used the fine steel wool to lightly sand the dresser to prep it for the polyurethane. It was amazing how much the grain "popped" once I'd sanded it. I started to feel better about the color.



For the finish I used clear antique flat polyurethane (again, by Zar). I didn't want the side table to be shiny; I merely wanted it to have a good sheen and also I wanted to be able to safely dust it.

I knew I'd be applying at least two coats of polyurethane, and since the finish is supposed to dry thoroughly I only got in one coat before nightfall, so it had a couple days' worth of drying before I applied the second coat of finish. 

During the few days of hiatus I had time to think about what I wanted to do with the hardware – I wasn't sure if the vintage brass pulls would look good once the wood was darker...but I liked the "antique-y" look of them so much I ended up deciding to keep them. 

Finally, I had time to haul the side table and its drawers back outside to apply the second – and final – coat of finish.

Before starting to apply the polyurethane, I once again used my fine steel wool to lightly sand all the surfaces – to give the finish a "tooth" to hold onto – which helped get rid of a couple imperfections I had from the first coat. This second coat of finish had to be better than the first, since it was the final step.

One thing I'll do differently on my next refinishing project: I won't apply polyurethane in the sun. I'm somewhat limited with outside space (since we live in a town home), but I'll definitely be applying finish in the shade from here on out...the sun was so strong the finish was drying even as I was painting it on.

To that end, there are a few places in which the polyurethane coat wasn't quite thick enough and dried with a slightly "cloudy" appearance, but that – in my opinion – just adds to the charm of my very first refinishing project :)

When the final coat of finish was absolutely dry (I let it sit for a day to be sure), I put the hardware back on and it was done! It's not as pretty sitting in the sun as it is in my home office – the Moorish Teak worked out VERY well and gave the wood the rich, dark pigment I'd been hoping for.

Also, I think the sanding I did after I applied the stain helped to really bring out the wood grain and make the texture "pop" – again, something I'd wanted to see.

Even though I ended up using the same hardware on the side table – brass batwing drawer pulls – I think the entire dresser has transformed into something entirely different. It's amazing what a little time and love can do to an old piece of furniture!

I'll be honest...I haven't returned my friend's little mouse sander yet – I'm thinking I might want to refinish something else soon!

DIY Green Onions

Oh, how I love my Pinterest. Okay, so technically I don't love Pinterest; I love the people ON it who find and Pin the most fun things ever. Sure, the fun things are out there on the "www" for anyone to find, but since these cool people have Pinned these neat ideas on Pinterest and I found them there, to Pinterest – well, its loyal users, technically – the credit goes.

Here's another Pinterest-inspired idea that I've come to know and love for no other reason than I'm a lover of Pinterest: regrowing green onions.

It seems like a no-brainer to reuse scallions you buy at the grocery store, but if not for my love of Pinterest I'd not have seen the post about regrowing green onions on your window sill from Homemade Serenity.

After seeing that, the next time I made tacos and needed green onions (I love, LOVE green onions on my tacos), I carefully saved the last inch or so of the root area of my scallion bunch and threw them into glass shot glasses on the west-facing window sill...lo and behold, I could literally see the new growth of my green onions the next day!


'Twas brillig. I was hooked...of course, there are a few caveats when re-purposing your green onion roots, such as:

1. Don't put too much water in the glass; you want enough to cover the roots but not the green part (if any resides) of the scallions.
2. Change the water and wash the "slime" off the green onion roots every 2-3 days.
3. Even if you're not in need of green onions that day, clip the ends if they're getting "old"  – this will allow for new, fresh growth.
4. Be sure to put your scallion roots in a sunny window – sun is essential!

Of course, if you were so inclined, you could just grow your own green onions – from seed or plant – in pots with soil, but this way if you're not a winter plant keeper (as I'm not) then you don't have to worry about keeping the potted scallions alive in winter :)

Happy DIY growing...and Pinning!


PS: Here are the same green onions 2 weeks later: 




As you can see, they grow quite quickly. I took these images right before I washed the scallions' roots and gave them fresh water – which, again, has to be done every few days.

Re-growing green onions you purchase at the grocery store is easy, economical and also adds a splash of color to your home.




All you need is a bunch of green onions, a glass and a sunny window sill to have your own, private "garden" that will continue yielding fresh scallions as long as you keep pruning them.









*Photography by Sarah B. Danks*

DIY Reversible Tote Bag

Lately my sister's been on a sewing kick (she just purchased fabric to make pillow covers for my downstairs living room) but it all started with the reversible tote bag she made me for Christmas.

Mine was her first – the prototype, if you will – and since then I think she's pumped out about 10 more of these fun, handy totes. I'm not a sewer (although Mom did make me take Home Ec. in junior high) but I think these reversible bags are fairly quick to sew...in fact, I believe the most time-consuming part is choosing the cute fabric and buttons!

I'm not sure which pattern she uses to make her reversible totes but patterns abound online (I think this DIY reversible tote tutorial is a great how-to).

Happy sewing!




*Photos by Sarah B. Danks*

Lazy Susan as Spice Organizer in Small Kitchen Cabinet

Lately I've been on a kick to ensure everything in the house is organized. Everything sitting out is in its place; I've purged storage areas and re-organized everything in them; I've even cleaned closets and hung my clothes by color.

It was only a matter of time before I started on the kitchen cabinets. I've never really cared what the insides of cabinets looked like; after all, I'm really the only one who ever sees them. Well, enter Pinterest and all the cool people on it and their great ideas for organizing everything.

While originally the idea came from Martha Stewart, I ran across it as a Pin from this Pinner. It's not a big deal, but I thought it was a pretty neat idea – and easy to implement, too: using a lazy susan in a cabinet to organize spices. I don't have a lot of counter space – or cabinet space, for that matter – so having a cute spice rack sitting out on the counter was out of the question.

All my spices reside in one small cabinet and unless they were often-used (ergo in the front and easily reachable), they were hard to get to or see. This organizational tactic was the perfect solution for me – especially since I don't have a lot of space to work with:

And, the only things I needed to fulfill this little Pinterest project were a lazy susan (I got mine for a great price at The Container Store) and time. Oh, and the will to clean out that cabinet :)

It wasn't horrendous, but it wasn't great, either. Frankly, I'd really like to be able to fit two lazy susans in there, but it just won't happen. It's still not perfect, but it's a lot better organized than it was!

Now all I have to do is organize all the rest of the cabinets...




*Photos by Sarah B. Danks*

Shag Pillow Hack

{By Christine}

I found this great shag pillow on Pinterest. Ahhh Pinterest. So many creative ideas, so little time to make them, because I have spent all of my time pinning.

I did manage to get to this project at least. That’s something, right?

The tutorial is from one of my favorite blogs, V and Co. Vanessa has great ideas!

What I especially liked about this project was that I didn’t have to buy any fabric! Instead of purchasing cotton and jersey as Vanessa did, I used old t-shirts, the ones my girls have outgrown or that have little holes in them, for the shag, and an old pillowcase for the body of the pillow.

One t-shirt is not enough fabric to cover this entire pillow with shag. I ended up using four, all in different shades of pink. Pinkish? I like the pillow even more with several colors. An added bonus!

Begin by cutting the tops and side seams off of the t-shirts.

Then cut 11/2 inch x 4 inch strips from the t-shirt fabric.

From the pillowcase cut through both layers of fabric to get two 11x15 inch rectangles. 

Mark guidelines every ¾ inch on one of the pillow rectangles.

Following guidelines, begin to sew t-shirt strips onto top layer only of pillow. Be sure to leave ¼ inch at the top and bottom of each row to allow space for the seam of your pillow!

 Because I was using four different colors, I had to determine ahead of time how many strips of each color I was going to add per row. My math was not very good. I ran out of one color and had too much of another. Oh well. I’m the only one who would notice. Hopefully if you decide to make this pillow and use several colors you will have better luck with your math.

Continue to add t-shirt strips until you have each row filled, about 15 strips per row.

As you add the strips, bunch them, roll them, and twist them, to give your shag pillow a less uniformed, shaggier look. This will be good!

Once all of the t-shirt strips are sewn onto the pillow top, pin the top, shaggy layer, to the bottom layer of the pillow, right sides facing.

Sew around the pillow leaving a 5 inch opening on one side. Be careful that you do not sew any of the strips into the seam of the pillow.

Turn the pillow right side out and stuff with fluff. I just like to say stuff with fluff.

Hand stitch the pillow closed.

Voila! A fabulous, fun shag pillow! 

A shag pillow that was confiscated by my youngest daughter!

That, my friends is my first Pintrest hack! It shall not be the last! (maniacal  laugh, maniacal laugh!) Sorry! I got a little caught up in craziness of actually completing a craft I pinned on Pinterest.

~ Christine


*All photography – minus V& Co image – by Christine Van Tassel*

Recovered Kitchen Chairs

{By Robin}

My craft projects are usually the result of three motivations: making cute things, using existing materials and doing everything on the cheap. This chair recovering project is a perfect example of those three inspirations coming together.

When I bought my antique kitchen table, I wanted to have four different chairs to surround the lovely aged oak, ala Monica's apartment in Friends. At best, that would have cost $25 buck a pop and $100+ was not what I felt like spending at the time. What I did instead was grab two chairs from my previous kitchen table (which is now a great storage space in the garage) and two chairs my sister gave me, which she got from a thrift store.

Showcasing two different pairs was good enough for me, but I still wanted each chair to look singularly unique in some way. I thought about painting for differentiation, but that seemed like too much work. Inspiration hit when I remembered how easy it is to recover chair seats with fabric. Screwdriver, fabric, staple gun and you're done.

The next step was finding fabric. Still wanting to err on the inexpensive, rather than digging in bargain bins at fabric stores I instead raided my clothing donation bags tucked away in the closet. In keeping with my theme of pairs, I chose two warm fabrics, two cool fabrics and within that palette two striped and two floralish designs. All that was left to do was cut, stretch and staple.

Using old skirts was easiest because the fabric was large enough to stretch over the chair seats. Cutting up old tops was a bit more challenging, however, because I had to piece together sections to ensure full seat coverage. This process maybe added about 10 minutes on my sewing machine in addition to the 5 - 10 minutes it took to staple each chair. All in all it was about an hour-long project that brightened up my kitchen, gave new life to antiquated chairs and made good re-use of colorful old tops and skirts.

*Photo by Robin Morgan*