Child's Mailbox

I spotted children's mailboxes all over Pinterest this summer, and finally made my own!  While I would have loved to find a mini metal one, just a smaller version of the grown-up "real" mailboxes, I made do with what we had. I knew I didn't want a giant one, it had to be compact and not in the way.  Cutting up a cereal box is just not my thing-the cardboard is too thin to survive my 3 year old. :P

What I ended up using was a smaller box we got when we bought our new printer (HP Envy All-in-One, and I *love* it!) that held the software disc, some papers and cords. Its thick cardboard, and closes kind neat with tabs, but those don't stay in very well, so I used black sticky velcro squares on the outside of the box instead so it can be easily opened.  I used the same squares to attach it to my son's bedroom door.  I spelled out MAIL using puffy scrapbooking letters, and also added metal scrapbooking brads to each corner to make it look a little less like a cardboard box. :)

 Link one up in the comments and share yours!

upcycled bridesmaid dress pillow cover

Yes, you read that right. I cut up my bridesmaid dress to make a pillow. I knew I would never wear it again. No matter what someone tells you, you WILL NEVER wear your bridesmaid dress again. Sell it? I just couldn't.Its a beautiful Alfred Angelo dress, and we took forever picking them out, and I wanted to keep it somehow. Cut it up? It only took me 2 minutes to think about it. The first thing I made was the ruffle lampshade. As I picking the dress apart and deconstructing the top, I realized it would make a unique throw pillow for our bed. And since I wasn't spending any extra $, hubby was pretty okay with it. Although he did wonder how upset my mom would be...

Forward march! So, making this was actually pretty simple. The corset top was made to drape asymmetrically, which was kinda tricky, but not really. I just eyeballed it. I cut it to fit over a pillow I already had. I left the side seams in place, because, that means less work for me.
The only seams I had to sew were the top and bottom of the pillow. I salvaged some leftover fabric from another pillow cover I made from a dress and used it as a panel underneath the lacing of the corset so that the pillow I covered wouldn't show through.
So, here's the basic steps if you want to make your own.
1. Get a dress.
2. Take out the lacing ribbon. Cut the dress apart very, very carefully. There will probably be 2 layers if there is boning, try and take all that junk out.
3. Cut the top and bottom to trim, and leave the side seams that are original to the dress if you can.
4. Turn it inside out.
5. Cut a scrap piece that would peek out underneath all the lacing.
6. Pin the scrap piece at the top and bottom of the dress.
7. Pin all around--this can be tricky if you have thicker layers to sew through. Make sure you have a good needle, and go slow.
8. Turn the cover right side out; you can do this because the peek-a-boo panel that's under the lacing is not stitched close on the sides, only top and bottom.
9. Wrestle your pillow in through the gaps near the inner panel and lace it up!

upcycling diaper packaging

OUTSIDE OF BOX:
First, you have to have a potty training toddler. No, not really. Just get a cardboard box. Any kind, will do, really. Just be careful slicing off the flaps on the top of the box--no one wants a bloody mess.

Next, I dug through my fabric stash to see what would work on the box. I'm using the houndstooth print on another project, and my son could use some storage that matches, so I decided on the houndstooth print from Premier Prints and some scraps of linen I had that *was* going to be a pillow...

ANYWAY, lay the box down on the fabric, and use a rotary cutter to cut around the box to make your piece for each panel. You'll want to go back and trim later. On the longer sides of the box, I cut them a little longer so the fabric would wrap around the sides, as well as over the top of the box so I can hide it later. Obviously, you can measure each side if you want, but I'm not that kinda girl.

Then, I used a whole lotta Mod Podge smeared on the side, and slowly smoothed the fabric over the side. You will have some sticking out at the top. You'll want to snip a bit at the top so that where the fabric would roll over the top to the inside top of the box, it will not overlap. If you don't, you can't press it in to the corner and it gets all bunchy.

Once you do that for each side of the outside of the box, go back over the edges with Mod Podge to make sure nothing will come loose and the fabric won't fray.

NOW, to the INSIDE of the box:
Cut your panels the same way you did for the outside pieces. These will need to be trimmed, because the inside of your box has smaller dimensions than the outside. :) You can lay the pieces inside, and take off a little bit at a time. Take some extra off at the top of the panel so that when the whole box is done, you will have some of the outside fabric peeking out at the rim of the inside of the box.

Make sure the very last piece of fabric you Mod Podge to the inside of the box is the bottom piece--it covers up all the seams of the interior panels.

You can finish the inside by Mod Podging some ribbon, so that it hides the seam where the interior/exterior fabric meet (which isn't always aligned).

Here's what mine looks like finished: