Sew, The Little Diva Goes to College

This week Mr. Diva™ and I took a 7 hour car ride (separately, cause Mr. Diva doesn’t drive as well as me) to drop our daughter, Marielle, off at SUNY Canton.  The staff laughed as we unloaded her crap belongings onto the curb.  She had 2 full carloads of stuff.  And then she sent me to Walmart FOUR TIMES for more things.  And yes, Mr. Diva™ was carrying on about all the money I was spending.  But not to worry…I ignore him most times.  He was just standing there shaking his head and dying of embarrassment.

Originally Marielle was to scheduled to dorm with two girls…sharing 3 beds, 2 closets and 2 desks.  She was in tears.  Marielle has two custom closets at home crammed with all the latest fashions.  So what do I do?  I call the school dorm assignment person and tell them the truth—that my daughter is in tears and doesn’t want to go to college, because SHE HAS TO SHARE A CLOSET.  Seriously.  I asked the woman not to laugh, but she said she had the same problem with her own daughter the year before.  And then she fixed our “problem.”  Marielle was given a double room, however, her new roommate decided not to dorm at college this year.

We arrived to find a hideous medium blue painted room…ugh!  But not a problem…with the mass inventory of fabric in my stash, I fixed that!   I hung zebra and hot pink fabric as wallpaper, added curtains to the windows and closets, arranged her clothes on hot pink Huggable Hangers and coordinated EVERYTHING (cause I’m anal like that).

I even draped hot pink chiffon fabric across a long wood beam, but they made me take it down…something about it being a fire hazard.  Whatever.  Now I need to make her some pink and black vinyl embellishments with my Silhouette.  Beyond her name, what else should I make in vinyl for her?

I wish Marielle would take more pictures so you can all see the other half of her room.  But of course, she’s too busy at “frat parties” already.  Typical teenager.

Within the next few weeks the college will consolidate the room and she will get a new roommate.  Let’s hope the new roommate doesn’t show up with a purple comforter and ruin the whole color scheme.  Only kidding.  If she does, I’ll just buy her a new pink comforter for Christmas.  Brilliant?  Heck, in the worst case, I’ll just have to take down half the fabric from the new roommate’s side of the wall.  Crossing fingers.

By the way…at age 48, I finally got to sleep in a dorm room for the first time (as the hotels were sold old the second night).  That was an experience sharing a bathroom with 6 girls.

And for those who are curious, Marielle is studying Mortuary Science…yep, she wants to be a Mortician/Funeral Director.  I know…you are probably thinking that’s creepy.  But it’s the perfect job for her as she won’t have to be behind a desk all day.  Plus, she can do Grief Counseling and has just the right amount of empathy to help families through their darkest hours.

Sew Small…Miniature Sewing Room

Last Summer when Servane came to the BBQ, she fell in love with my miniature sewing room.  So, since she has been working so hard on her children’s clothing line, I figured I’d surprise her with a miniature sewing room of her own.

I found most of the miniature sewing items on Ebay and my local Dollar Store.  I even found a camera on a tripod, a pink telephone and of course…

a bottle of beer…LOL!  Servane loves a good beer.

Don’t her great pictures make my miniature sewing room look pathetic?  Yep.  I really need to redecorate.  And maybe add a few bottles of wine.

Sewing a Ruffled Bed Skirt aka Dust Ruffle

I had put off sewing this project for so long, because my Socialite Sister™ wanted to change my Godchild’s bed from a Queen size to a Twin Size.  That never ended up happening and in the meantime, I got distracted.  But it was now time to get cracking on this Queen Ruffled Bed Skirt.

Using this tutorial, I spent hours tackling this project.  Lots of yardage.  OMG.  I have a new respect for my Mom who always sewed Home Decor—everything from King Size circular bed skirts to ornate pillow shams.

If you’re going to make one, I strongly suggest you buy a cheap bed skirt and use the decking (base fabric that sits on the box spring) instead of buying wide width material.  For $13, it was more cost-effective than ordering oversized material online.

Rip off the cheap polyester bed skirt from the decking and serge the decking edges (or sew a zig zag stitch to keep it from fraying).

This one-way print was a nightmare.  I suggest you find an all-over pattern to cover up any mistakes you make.  I had to sew 14 panels together to get the required length for the ruffle panels.  And then I realized the fabric was off grain…UGH!  So I did what every good seamstress would do…I fudged it.  Hopefully, it won’t be noticeable.

The bed skirt requires 3 lengths of fabric:  2 long side panels and the bottom panel.  To help me keep track of which panel was which, I used quilter’s clips—one clip on panel one, 2 clips on panel 2 and 3 clips of panel 3.

Since I don’t have a gathering foot for my sewing machine and I can’t estimate the amount of ruffling needed using my ruffler foot, I opted for my 5 Groove Pintuck foot and did things the old fashioned way.  It’s times like this when a Cording foot would come in handy.

Anyway, the pintuck foot has a groove on both the top and bottom.

I used buttonhole thread (you could use any thick thread), placing the spool on the extra thread stand.

I then passed it through the groove in the front of the foot and pulled it through the back, leaving a long thread tail.

I lined up the top edge of my fabric panel and stitched a wide zig zag over the buttonhole thread.  Make sure you don’t catch the buttonhole thread in your zig zag stitch.

I then divided both my fabric panel and decking into quarters (mark with a water-soluble marking pen).  Match up the quarter marks and pin at each quarter.  Now pull the buttonhole thread at each quarter to gather up the fabric panel to the size of the decking.

Space out your gathers evenly and pin to the decking (right sides together).

I then used my Edge Stitching foot to sew the gathered fabric panel to the decking.

Then I ran it through my serger to give it a professional look.

Oh…and one thing I should mention:  Extend your fabric panels around the side if you have corner bed posts.

 

Overlap the fabric panels.  This allows the dust ruffle to hang nicely.

Done!  Another UFO crossed off my list!  Next up…two matching pillow shams.  But that will have to wait until next week.  I have a big BBQ this coming weekend!

Happy Sewing!

With friendship,

Lisa