Freecycle Friday - Magazine Rack Re-Do

Hey all! Hope you all are having fun dreading anticipating the end of school so you can have your kiddos home ALL day EVERY day :)

Well, I know I am (it's not too scary for me yet since my oldest is only in kindergarten)

Anyhoo, today I wanted to show my little magazine rack make-over.

We've had this for a lloooonnngggg time, but I still love it. It was just looking a little drab and I thought I would add some color to help spruce up our reading room bathroom.

We got it from Pier 1, so it's plenty sturdy and has tons of life left in it.

I also had the PERFECT fabric for it!

We recently got a new bedding set (after 4 1/2 years!) and we didn't end up using the pillow shams (we aren't fancy like that).

But, I REALLY love the fabric, so I decided to use those to add a little color to this (and I actually only ended up using half of one).

So, here's the before (minus the bottom pocket cuz I remembered to take pics after I had already done one :)

Well, I didn't really measure, but the fabric was around double the length of each of the pockets

First, I sewed around the edges of the fabric to prevent too much fraying, but a little is fine with me.

Then, using a large stitch (at least #3 on your machine, but 4 or 5 works better for me), stitch a straight line down the middle (or 2 lines if you want to do it like this one).

Backstitch at only one end and leave the threads loose at the other end.

Then, pull one of the threads to make the ruffles.

Once you have the fabric to the length you need and the ruffles look good, tie the 2 threads in a knot to keep it from un-ruffling (hmmmm, good grammar?)

Then pin the fabric in place and sew it down along your original stitch.

See? So cute and an easy re-do!

Now you can look around YOUR house to see what needs updating and use re-cycled fabric you may already have on hand. Some examples: old clothes, under-used sheets, towels, curtains, tablecloths,...etc.

Have fun!