"Mortel 8"

I have been busy this past week and half with family dropping in. My mom, dad, brother and sister-in-law came down last weekend to golf, play and celebrate my mom's birthday.

And this week I had my in-laws plus my husbands 7 brothers and 1 of his 3 sisters.

They do an annual "boy golf trip" in St. George every year and now that we live here, we have opened up "Mortel 8"! I have never washed so many linens in my life! And I make slipcovers… Its a good thing I splurged on my washer and dryer. Sorry honey! But seriously.. Once you move to a "vacation" spot the masses come. I honestly can say that we have really had maybe 2 or 3 weeks since November that it has just been our little family. But it is soo fun to have friends and family come stay. But I am not gonna lie. I can't wait till our casita is done!!! Poor Laker thinks his bed is on the floor in his sisters room..

Last Sunday I headed to The Winter Market in Vegas with my mom. She goes down there every year to buy for Thanksgiving Point and this time I got to tag along. Um…It was like a textile Disneyland for me! this was the first thing I saw when we got there:

So many amazing fabrics, furniture and just stuff to see. It was super inspirational for me and gave me some great ideas for the future.

Today I just shipped out an ottoman cover and 2 cushion covers to a client in Provo. She is going to have to send me pictures when she gets it, but I fell in love with her color combo when I went for her fitting. She had me slipcover her ottoman that looks just like this:

We kept the box pleat skirt and I added a band around the top to break it up. She chose a black duck cotton for the ottoman and cushions. I took all her measurements there and put it together here.. Lets cross our fingers the ottoman fits..lol! She has a great white slipcovered sofa in the same room and is going to be doing pillows out of these two fabrics:

umm… they are pretty great! I love that she is mixing these in white black and white! I immediately ran to Home Fabrics in Orem to go see if they had enough for a few projects around the house. (Actually I had just bought fabric earlier that day for the kids room settee, curtains and pillows and I was immediately jealous that I did not go that route..haha) Luckily for me they love me there and I was able to swap out my fabrics, but sadly they did not have enough of the blue large ikat print. sniff. sniff.. But thats ok. I worked it out. I am really digging the blue and white right now. Soo fun and soo bright! I did just place an order today for the kids settee, dining room and family room curtains. Can you say Houndstooth!!! I can t wait! But lets be honest.. I still have to cover 2 wing chairs, 2 oversized chairs plus ottomans, 2 parsons chairs and now 2 settees here in town…

I scored big time on my fabric tho! Fabric.com is have a 20% off Premier Prints right now and they have really added some pretty great prints to their line up. And at $6 a yard you can't go wrong! So have a great weekend! I know I will. My horse is being brought down tomorrow and I can't wait!!

Busy Bee

This past weekend I headed up to Utah County to get my horse gear all packed up before her move down to St. George next weekend. I am beyond excited to finally have her here! I went from riding her 3 times a week to once a month when we were up for holidays.. Thankfully I have a AWESOME trainer is riding her in my absence. She is in Florida (Wellington) right now at the UDSF/FEI Trainers Conference and I can't wait to hear all about it. Never-mind that I am super jealous right now, but maybe next year I can go as an "auditor". Soo much to learn, not to mention you get to listen to and watch the best riders in the world teach! AHHHH! I know, this is spanish to you but I love it!!

So, I figured if I have to make the trip up there I may as well fit some slipcovers too! I was originally planning to fit 1 sectional and pick up a chair to bring back with me. Well, once word was out I was up I was SWAMPED from the moment I hit Utah County! Saturday I spent the day selecting fabrics for clients, dropping off drapes, fitting an ottoman, cushions, 2 couches, 2 wing back chairs, a swivel rocker, windsor chairs, measuring 2 sectionals and picking up 2 existing slipcovers to take back, rip apart and make new covers for. Not to mention make a slipcover for a client in 1 day! Lets just say I am exhausted! I am so lucky that my parents were excited to see their grandkids…because they pretty much had them for 2 days straight. I am thrilled to have a garage full of stuff to sew. Remember.. I can't sit still..

The chair I had to fit and make in a day belonged to a wonderful client of mine. I did a bunch of stuff for her a few years ago. She had this swivel rock her that belonged to her mother who had just passed away. She wanted a slipcover made for it so that it would look nice in her guest bedroom and when she saw I was going to be up she jumped on the chance to have me slipcover it. I showed her a picture of my swivel rockers and she fell in love! When she went to order the fabric for the chair she was too late. The remaining 8 yards online had been purchased, so she went with the next best print. So the plan was to ship the fabric to me and to take her chair home and cover it there, but when I stopped in at the Orem Home Fabrics they had my very same print with grays and browns! So I got her on the phone, texted her a picture and before I knew it I was walking out with fabric for her chair. It was a miracle! But that meant I had to bust it out in 1 day because I was heading back to St. George Monday. Here is her chair that she dropped off

Remember..I have a love affair with a good swivel rocker.. they seriously are the best!! I kept the lines as close to the original lines of the chair. It had an attached back cushion that was tufted but I know I could hide it if I created a band along the top and sides of the chair. I also kept the look of the box skirt the chair had. Here is how it looks now:

It will look so great in her home! I can't wait to see it in her house.

On another note, I have been eyeing up Ballard Designs Original Home Office desk system for months and I finally pulled the trigger yesterday!!! I can't wait for it to get here!

Last note...I am planning on making another trip up next month to drop everything off and fit 2 sectionals. If you are wanting on my schedule up north contact me so we can get the process rolling! You just need to have your fabric ready to go, I will take care of the rest! Also, Home Fabric in Orem and Midvale have AMAZING stuff right now!!! I may have brought home more fabric for me.. Its a sickness, I know, and the only cure for it is to make more things!!! So check back as I'll be posting more things this week as they get finished.

Also, I have 2 over-stuffed rolled arm chairs with white legs on casters that I got from Thanksgiving Point. They are amazing chairs and are available to be slipcovered. They just need better fabric (in my opinion).. Once I figure out the yardage I'll get pics posted. They will be $500 ea plus the cost of fabric. Here is a picture of what you could have to get your mind rolling….

Peace out!!

"agreeable grey"

I am loving our new house. Sure my heart was set building our (my) dream house but when this opportunity to move to St. George popped up we had to take it. Even if that meant buying an existing home. Lucky for us we hit the jackpot! We found a house that fit us perfectly, did not look like the typical "St. George" house and it was new construction! Umm, not to mention, people down here love LOVE their RV/toy garages. No joke, some houses down here are all garage in the front. And not like the typical 3 car garage. Im talking 2 story garages! anyways, back to the point.. Every house we looked at was painted in that awful beige almost pink tone. Sorry if you dig that but no bueno for me! Porcelain tile and beige pink carpet... So when we walked into our home I immediately love it because it had dark hardwood thru out, travertine in the bathrooms and the walls were grey!!! Actually, "Agreeable Grey" to be exact. Our builder laughed at me case I told him that color can "go both ways"… But it really can! You can play with neutrals and greys. SOLD!

The house was pretty much finished when we looked at it but we were able to pick out our back splash for the kitchen. I was stoked! I immediately knew what we (I) wanted. subway tile with a herringbone pattern over the cooktop. Simple. Clean. Easy. Right? When I went to pick tile I ran into a problem. White subway tile was too bright against the countertop. So the sales lady showed me a white glass subway tile that was softer and would still have that impact we were looking for with the white. Problem solved. Well the tile had to be ordered and finally after waiting a month or so installation day came! Monday they came and installed the tile. It looked great! After they left i cleaned up the plastic to see what it looked like against the countertop. I about died! It was horrendous!! It was SOOO bright! With a hint of blue. And "Agreeable Grey" was not being very agreeable.. Seriously, the lady said it would be a "soft white". What did I do?? My first thoughts were 1. Steve is going to kill me and 2. How many slipcovers will I need to make to replace the countertops so it will look good together? Ya, because my first thought was to replace the countertops, not the backsplash.. The next day they came back to grout the tile. All I can say is I dodges a HUGE bullet! The grey grout softened up the bright white and it looks awesome! I love it but I honestly about died!!! Here it is!

See. I was freaking out for nothing. And it made me replace my slipcovers for my IKEA barstools! Remember these?

Time to say bye bye.. in with the new! Remember that I got some pretty great grey fabric over christmas break? I finally made something out of it yesterday. I only had 6 yards to work with split between 2 fabrics, a geometric print and a stripe. So I had a little fun with it and mixed them together. I used the stripe for the seat backs and the piping and the geometric print for the seat and the skirt. I have just enough fabric left over for a nice comfy dog bed for Buba!

Just the right amount of obnoxiousness.. Lol! I no longer need my old covers, they fit this IKEA barstool. Hit me up if you want them, $100 for the 4. They are washable and velcro on under the stool for a nice snug fit.

I am working on some curtains over the weekend for me and a client. I am going to be up in Utah County Jan 18-20 to do a few couch fittings for clients. If you want something made contact me ASAP so I can get you on my fitting schedule. Have great weekend! I know I will.

Happy New Year!

I realize that it is already 6 days into the new year and I thought you could use a little "Sewing Nerd" love.. first off, I hope my 3 followers had a fantastic holiday season! We sure did! We spent a week and a half up "North". Thats what St. George folks call Salt Lake and Utah County. I am trying to get with the lingo.. We spent a ton of time with family and friends and had soo much fun, but it was nice to get home and get back into our routine. We stayed with my parents over the holiday and while we were there my mom put me to work. Like 2 days before we were supposed to go home. My mom has this settee that is pretty great, but she just bought all new furniture at the last market she was at and the upholstery on the chair was all wrong. Plus she repainted her family room from a soft green to a awesome shade of grey. So something had to be done about that settee.. Here is what I was dealing with…

Not bad, but not a match.. She had purchased some fabric about a month ago but when she got it home it turned out to be a green grey instead of grey.. No bueno. Back to square one. So thursday after Christmas we found ourselves at the fabric store. Now that is TROUBLE! We lucked out cause they had literally just brought out 3 new pallets of fabric. We tore those suckers apart and had to beg the lady at the cut counter to let us purchase that fabric because it was not even entered in the system yet.. No one can say no to us! $500 later we walked out with fabric for her settee, pillows, my bar stools at home and fabric to cover my laundry room walls.. We ended up with about about 30 yards of fabric. It was awesome!

I put my mom to work. Since I did not have my machines, we used her tried and true Bernina (its older than me!) and a neighbors quilting machine. It took a little longer but we powered thru it! While I cut the fabric I had her make piping. My mom also wanted to have the option of changing the up the look of the settee with another cushion cover. We kept the lines of the original settee and left of the skirt. My mom was soo worried that I would not be able to slipcover the settee because it had a scalloped back. No faith! It just made the reveal that much better. It took a little longer to sew only because I was working with a regular sewing machine. Its no industrial machine, but it will get the job done. Eventually.. Here is the after.

So my mom freaked out! Its amazing what a little fabric can do! We did the body a small grey cream leaf print and the piping in a grey and cream stripe. She had me to the cushion in the stripe as well. And the top, she was soo worried about it looking funny. It turned out better than she could have ever imagined! Here its is with the pillow i MADE her make..

Not too shabby! Plus I got to hear my mom swear a lot while making them. Oh how I love her! I mentioned that she wanted to have the option to change it up so I made a cushion that was double sided. One side has the same print as the body and the other has an awesome geometric print. She scored 3 looks for 1 chair!

Merry Christmas Mom! It was so fun to do this together and give her a little insight as to what I do.

I am still working on drumming up work around St. Geezey, but I have been getting a lot of calls from clients up "North". I am planning a trip up that way over the weekend of the 17th, so if you have something you want done contact me so I can get you on my schedule for a fitting. In the meantime I'll be finishing up a few more projects around the house for myself! So check back soon! And, I am beyond excited that out kitchen back splash is finally getting installed today!!! Like as I am typing. Its gonna be amazballs!

are ya done yet??

Because I love what do soo much I find that tend to "collect" awesome pieces of furniture and fabric for myself with the best of intentions to work my magic on them. The problem is, while am good at scouting them out, purchasing and keeping them "safe", I tend to doddle when it comes time to actually making them.. Not because I don't want to do them, more like because I am burned out by the time I can get to them. Well, luckily for me I have had a few months off to move my family and get organized (again, best intentions here..) and focus on my family and my projects and it has been great! My husband, bless his beautiful hyde had been giving me a hard time in regards to two awesome swivel rockers i bought a few years back because I have yet to slipcover them. I can't imagine why he'd care soo much?? I mean, this color is pretty much on trend..

I mean, how great are they? Sure I got around to slipcovering one of them a year or two ago in a drop cloth, but never finished the other one…

Finishing one bought me some time from the husbands "nagging" which is kind of funny because he is a man. The other one stayed in the basement…no need to rush things. Lol! Anyways, when we moved to St. George we were hit with the reality of no basement! What??!! I never really appreciated how great a basement is, unfinished or finished. It was a place to keep all the crap you did not want to deal with. Well folks, I had to face my demons..I could no longer hide form A.both swivel rockers and B. the fact that one was covered and the other one was not. And of course, what was the first thing my husband said to me when we got a little settled? "Hey, so you should probably finished what you've started.. huh?" Boo!!! but he was right! I hate that! As I picked my slightly injured ego up I remembered that I had bought about 15 yards of Magnolia Home Java Pewter Ikat fabric. Awesome, right?! Well, I had actually bought the fabric for another project of mine that is still waiting.. (I may have a problem..) But it went great with the new house, it was washed and I had just enough. I mean there was not one extra piece left over! So i got to work!

Here is what these ugly betties look like now!

All I can say is "Thank you!" to my big beautiful man child for pestering me to get these done! I love how they turned out!!! I can't wait for the rest of my furniture to arrive so I can put things in place but until then I have a few more things to slipcover… And then I can finally know that he will not bug the crap out me to get stuff done! Its the worst.


Shameless plug: you can like me on Facebook @ the sewing nerd custom slipcovers and instagram @ kmort2424

Snow in paradise

So… it snowed here in St. George. NOt a little skiff of snow, like 6-8" of snow! Now to us, this is a pretty typical snow storm, but to this little town, not even close! It never snows here, and if it does its gone pretty quick and warms back up. People who have lived here all their lives have said they have never seen anything like this! They literally had to shut down the town because they have no snow removal equipment. period. We live up on Foremaster Ridge, there are access 3 roads to us, 2 of the 3 were completely closed all day and the other was SUPER sketchy! Our church was canceled Sunday due to the snow. So naturally I became a hermit with my kids and did not leave the house all weekend… but I did get a lot of things done! the most important was building a snow man of course! Thank goodness I brought all their snow clothes down when we moved…

We had about an hour break in the storm where we could get out and play. This was right before we got pounded by the snow. The kids had soo much fun!They were worried they would not see snow this Christmas. Well kids, problem solved!

A few days before the storm I stopped in at the good old DI (Deseret Industries) after dropping Oakley off at school just to see what kind of stuff they may have. When I found the furniture area I was pleasantly surprised, they had some pretty good stuff that was not complete garbage. And then I saw this….

This I had to have!! I had to snatch it up real quick before the elderly shoppers had a chance to take it back (if you know what I mean..) How great is this chair?! I mean how could you not want a pink wing back chair with a duck pillow head rest??? The last time I was in Orem I stopped in at Home fabrics and picked up 6 years of grey ticking stripe. It was perfect for this chair! I had exactly enough fabric. No joke, there is nothing but scraps left but she is a beauty!!!

Not only is the the coolest chair, but it fits perfectly next to the "Jesus nook"! It was the perfect activity for me to do while we were snowed in.

I have also been trying to figure out my master bedroom. I sold all my bedding and needed to get something put together. It was driving me nuts! So I whipped up a ruffled bed skirt and curtains during the "extended" snow weekend and yesterday found the perfect quilt for my bed! So naturally I had to make 7 pillows out of the perfect fabric I have been hoping to use for forever! I made 3 euro shams with ruffles, 2 king pillows, a 20x26 pillow with piping, 2 20x20 pillows out of scraps from a few other slipcovers and a big bolster! I love LOVE how it turned out. I especially love how all the pillows are down and squishy! I look at it and just want to curl up and take a nap! I have yet to hang the curtains because I need to make a stop at IKEA over Christmas and get my hardware. ( I am super cheap and refuse to spend $100+ on a curtain rod when I can get it IKEA for $5!) What do you think?

Once I get everything finished and put together I'll show you the finished product!

If you are in need of slipcover hit me up!! until then I am getting all my stuff done that has been needing to get done for a LONG time!!