Ikea Hack From Comforter to Slip Cover and Head Board

My daughter is a college student with a limited budget but we wanted to make her apartment stylish.

She had bought the sofa bed last year for her bed, this year she wanted to buy the bed and move the sofa bed into the living room.  Ikea doesn't offer a slipcover for her sofabed, so we had to think hard what we wanted to do. 

We made several trips to our local Ikea in New Haven to take measurements and make notes on what would work best. Because her school is over 1000 miles away I would need to either find room in the car for a sewing machine or buy one there. I was happy to see that Ikea offered an affordable machine.

Check out my review of the sewing machine here.

We decided on the king sized comforter with pillow covers in purple as it had the largest surface. At $39.99 it was a great price.

Here is the sofa bed and bed for the hack.

  

So I laid out the comforter on the sofa bed and carefully pinned where I would cut it. (measure twice cut once) I only had one chance to get it right so it took awhile. I mitered the front corners and used the nice binded edge for the front.

I opened up the seams and removed the zippers on the pillow covers and joined them with some scraps from the comforter. I left the pipping to give it great detail. Also the top piece is the contrasting color as the comforter is reversible. 

I used cardboard and foam to pad the headboard the cover slips right on and looks great.

My Etsy Shop is Getting Ready for Valentine's Day

Maybe it is a bit early. But I have started beading for Valentine's Day.

I did a beading demo at Raspberry Junction on Sunday. 

It took me awhile to decide what to bead. I decided that the hearts cuff was a good choice.

I also need to make more of the net heart necklaces.

 I have several variations of that.

Ribbon Storage

Just a quick note on my storage war. I buy ribbons that catch my eye. they end up in the bins that I store beads in. Then they come unwound and get all over. Or even worse roll out of the closet when I an trying to quickly find something.
I am kind of a hoarder of containers. I hate to throw them out. I might need them. A while ago when my daughter was home for the summer I bought her kind of expensive salad greens that came in a plastic container. It was there in the closet where I stashed it and I thought the ribbons should go in there.
So there they are nice and neat but easy to see.

New Christmas Ornaments

My latest project is to make Christmas Ornaments to sell in the Holly Berry Court at Raspberry Junction in Niantic, CT. If you are in the area check it out. They have 100% American Made Handmade Crafts.
My ornaments start with a white cotton fabric backed with wonderunder and stitch and tear stabilizer. I then used a rotary cutter to cut the shapes. I have 2 sizes. 2 inches and 1inch.

 

Then there are 2 choices I can bead the 3 sides first or stitch them together first. Here is the small one during the stitching.

 

Here is a photo of the larger one beaded before joining the sides.

Here is the large one beaded and joined.
I still have to decide how to add the fringe and loop.
I hope you like them. Please let me know in the comments below.