A Person to be Loved: DIY Madness.

As you all know, I have caught the DIY bug. I am loving all the transformations!

Today, we're going to see the new curtains I made! But we haven't moved into our new apartment yet, so you will just have to wait to see them all hung up.

First, let me just tell you how amazing canvas drop cloth is. It actually saved me from spending way too much money on curtains, pillows, and home decor. Yep, that's right. I made all of those things for under $20.

Materials you'll need:

Canvas drop cloth (mine was 6 ft by 9 ft)

Painter's tape

Paint

Sewing materials (or Stitch Witchery and an iron)

Okay, so first you'll want to cut your drop cloth in half. Each of my panels is 3' x 7'. Although this makes for a pretty skinny panel, I will have sheer curtains in the middle so I am not too concerned about it. I also had to cut some of the length off of the panels, making them 7 ft. tall.

Then get to stitching! I hemmed each of mine by hand (because I don't have a sewing machine), but you could also use Stitch Witchery and iron the hem if you aren't a sewer.

When your hem is completed, you can tape your lines. I decided to do thick, horizontal stripes that are 1 ft. tall each.

Remember that the parts underneath your tape will not be painted and measure accordingly. This step will make your stripes look like they are different sizes, but they won't be when you remove the tape!

See what I mean? The smaller looking stripes will not be painted. Now you are ready to get your paint on!

Here's the final product! My mom says that it looks pink and green. It's actually teal and tan, I promise.

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And for your DIY pleasure, I decided to make this a double DIY post! What exactly does that mean? Well, you get to see more of my creative side!

Remember this picture?

In her former life, she was a dresser drawer from our dresser-turned-TV-stand DIY. How did I turn her into my new favorite sign? Well, I'm glad you asked.

Disclaimer: In my excitement, I didn't take tutorial pictures. Sorry, friends! I'll do better next time, I promise!

I started by using some of my leftover fabric from the curtain DIY project. I found a font online that I really liked (picmonkey.com is the best site) and I scaled it up pretty big to fit my piece of fabric. I placed the fabric over my computer screen and traced the letters with a pencil. Once I completed this step, I colored the letters in with Sharpie.

The next step was my favorite! I demolished the dresser drawer to make it into a sign. First, I removed the hardware. Next, I took my screw driver and tried to force the corners apart. I also used a hammer to get the pieces to separate. Eventually, I was left with only the drawer front.

I sanded it down, but not too much so that I could distress it. Then I put bar soap (yes, you read that right. Soap.) onto all of the edges that I wanted the paint not to stick to. I painted it to match my curtains and TV stand. Finally, I took my sandpaper and lightly sanded the parts that I put soap on. The paint will come off easily and it creates an awesome distressed look!

Next, I mounted the fabric onto the drawer front (making sure to cover the holes from where the drawer pulls used to be). Now it's all ready to be hung up in our brand new apartment! Can't wait to show you all!

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And for your viewing pleasure, here are some random pictures of my week.