iseecerulean

Those of you who know me, or having been reading my blog for any length of time, know that fabric and I do not get along.   I hate to sew, and sewing hates me.  My mom made sure I know how, but I have to want something really bad in order to dust off my small sewing kit.

I have a few personal days to use up before the end of the year so I took one today, to have the house to myself while I dress the bed, so that my cursing would not worry my poor husband.

I didn't get the bed completely finished, unfortunately, but I'm quite proud of what I got accomplished.  I give full credit to Brae and Casey, who have posted good instructions on their blogs.

First I cut two pieces of balsa, one slightly smaller than the other.  I took a piece of white bias tape, wet it down, ironed the folds out, folded it in half, ironed the new fold in, then glued it around the edges of the larger piece of balsa, wrapping the excess around the top and bottom, to make the boxsprings.

Then I wrapped a piece of thin batting over the smaller piece of balsa to form the mattress, sewed corners...just a few stitches, thank goodness...into a piece of blue fabric, then put the bottom sheet on, gluing the excess fabric to the bottom of the boxsprings...oh no!  I quickly took the bottom sheet off, thankful I hadn't applied any glue to the sides, wiped the excess glue off the bottom of the boxsprings, then glued the bottom sheet on the mattress, where it belonged.

While the glue dried I took a piece of blue fabric twice the circumference of the bed, folded it in half and ironed it (so that I didn't have to sew a hem on one edge), pinned it down to a board the same length as the circumference of the bed, making it wavy, then soaked it down with cheap hairspray.  This, hopefully, will become a dust ruffle.

After the glued dried I put the mattress on top of the boxsprings to realize the mattress was too thick and they didn't seat together nicely.  I pried the bottom of the sheet and padding off the balsa base of the mattress, cut away the padding I had wrapped around the bottom, leaving it only on the sides and top, then glued the sheet back on.  Much better.

While the glue was drying again I cut a top sheet out of the blue fabric and a blanket out of green fabric, using the factory edges as the top of the sheet and side of the blanket, which will be the only visible edges...again, so I didn't have to sew a hem.  The factory edge on the green fabric has a neat fringe on it, which suits a blanket, but it also has two rows of holes, from machinery I would guess, so I ran a zig-zag of embroidery thread through the holes to hide them.  I used fusible hem tape to secure the folded down top of the sheet to the blanket, then fused the sheet and blanket together on the side, under the embroidery, just for good measure...I also ironed a fold where the combo drapes over the edge of the bed.  So far so good.

I put the top sheet and blanket combo on the mattress, folded a corner on the bottom, like I do when I make my bed, and stitched the corner in place, being very careful to push the needle up through the top sheet and not all the way up through the blanket, so that the stitches couldn't be seen.  I poked myself a lot, but thankfully not hard enough to draw blood, I would have been irked had I got blood on the bedding after all that work.  Then I made the bed, gluing the excess fabric from the foot and back side of the bed, which won't be seen, onto the bottom of the mattress.

I wanted to create it so that it looked like someone had gotten up in the morning and not made the bed, but I wanted to not sew hems even more.

I decided I wanted a blanket folded across the foot of the bed, so I cut one from a complimentary fabric, treated the edges with glue to stop them from fraying...still no sewing of hems!...ironed folds in it, putting a piece of fusible tape between the two layers to hold them together, then fused it to the bed.  I ended up pushing pins into sides of the mattress to hold the parts that drape over the edges down, as they wanted to pop up.  I put the pin though the bottom layer of the blanket only, so it can't be seen.

Then I made pillows...the part I couldn't do without sewing.  After I was done I put them on the bed to realize they're too wide and I filled one with too much salt.  Sigh...

I can either fix the pillows, or I can turn one sideways to make a corner for the cat to sleep in, which is where Wakefield sleeps on my bed.

The pillowcases have to sewn (yuck!) after I decide whether or not I'm going to fix the pillows.  After that I've got to figure out how to put the dust ruffle on...I'm planning to glue it to a piece of thin cardboard, then glue the cardboard to the bottom of the box springs...I'll have to see how that works out, I'm worried about the 90 angle I'm going to have to make.