Project Nursery: Step 4

Step 4: Fail

Or, at least, semi-fail. Every big project needs to have some failures along the way, right? Where's the fun in having a totally awesome, failure-free, straight-and-narrow, gorgeous, pin-worthy home improvement project? No where, that's where. That's what I'm going with, anyway.

This weekend I decided to tackle two projects. One: Line the drawers of the changing table/dresser with pretty paper. Two: Get started on the DIY crib skirt. Unfortunately, to varying degrees, both of these little projects had a bit of "fail" involved.

So lining the drawers of the dresser. Sounds so easy right? Especially when you're working off of the very clear instructions written by John and Sherry at Young House Love, which even includes pictures to show how easy it is. Then there's me.

I loved the idea of lining the drawers just to add that extra bit of "pull it all togetherness" and (maybe) give me a bit of cheer every time I open up the top drawer to grab a wipe while on poopy patrol. To start with, I picked up this wrapping paper at Blick Art Supplies.

Although perhaps a little girl-ish, the yellow shade is exactly perfect for the stripes on the walls, so I had to go with it. After cutting it down to size, I pulled out what I've recently learned is the work horse of the craft world, Modge Podge. Spread myself a thin layer on the inside of the drawer and ever so carefully lay the first piece of paper into the drawer. Smooth it out, make sure it's lined up straight and wrinkle free. Voila!

But wait. No voila. Because after it dried for 30 seconds or so, the paper started bubbling up and wrinkling. Ack! Unfortunately, though, at this point it was too stuck to try and smooth it out. The result was something like this:

Major bummer and not so pretty. I called Adam in to ask his OCD-influenced opinion on what I should do, but being luke warm about the project to begin with, he only said "well, if you pull it up, you might mess up the drawer so it will have to stay that way." Gee, thanks.

So on it stayed and despite my best efforts to fix the issue, all three drawers ended up as wrinkly as a raisin. Oh well. The colors are still bright and cheery, and they're going to have clothes on top of them anyway, right? Here's the end result. What do you think?

But no matter. Putting aside my feelings of crafting inadequacy, it was time to start project number two, the crib skirt. Let me preface this with telling you something important: I don't sew. Okay, I can sew a button and I can sew a little dinky pillow, but beyond that it's a no go. Despite my fairly extensive education, somewhere along the way I missed How to Use a Sewing Machine 101. Until now, though, it hasn't mattered, due to a little miracle called iron-on hem. Oh iron-on hem, how I love thee. I love thee so much I made 20+ table runners for my wedding reception using you. I love thee so much I made Max's curtains for his bedroom using you. But this weekend I decided to stray. Forgive me.

All along I've been hoping that I could not only make a crib skirt for the nursery, but also the curtains and a quilt. After some thought I passed on the task of making the crib bumper to an Etsy vendor (more to come on that when it arrives), but I felt fairly confident that if I could just get my hands on and learn to use a sewing machine, the rest I could handle. So I had my mom send me her mini-sewing machine, the White Mighty-Mender 100 and off I went.

Things were going well. I had my fabric measured and pinned up. I carefully followed the instruction manual to get the machine threaded up. I was feeling good. So I sew:

Sure my lines could be a little straighter, but I'm feeling okay about this project. That is, until I turn the fabric over and see this:

Holy Hot Mess, Batman! What on earth did I do? Obviously, there must have been an issue with how I threaded the bobbin thread (is that even the right term?), so I take all the stitches out, unthread the machine and start over. Only this time I can't get the bobbin thread to thread at all. The instruction manual (and extensive google searching) keeps telling me I just turn this little knob and the needle will pick up the bobbin thread and off I go. But no. No matter what I try or how many times I turn the darn knob, the bobbin thread will not be picked up. After an hour of trying (and some less than desirable language), I end up with this:

Now, this should be the place in the blog post where I tell you that I had a sudden epiphany or I spoke with a friend who quickly set me on the right path or the sewing fairy visited my house and made everything for me. But it's not. Because you know what I did? I put the blasted machine away and I pulled out the ironing board and my good ol' friend iron-on hem. And in no time, I had a crib skirt. I had no idea how to use the sewing machine, but gosh darn it, I had a crib skirt. Seriously, what was I thinking with that sewing machine business? Okay, so if I really want to do the quilt, I'm going to have to figure out where I went wrong, but for the crib skirt, iron-on hem makes me happy.

Here's the final result (ignore that one side is missing, I ran out of fabric and had to order more):

Oh and by the way, I used this idea from Honey & Fitz to make the crib skirt adjustable to that when we lower the mattress as baby grows the skirt won't drag the ground, a problem we ran into with Max's crib skirt. Great idea, right?

So, for those of you in the know, where did I go wrong with the mighty mender? Anyone? Please help (or offer to make me a quilt and some curtains. I'll take either one!)

And so ends the semi-fail portion of our Project Nursery program. Next time, on to bigger and better things!