Craft

DIY Home Renovation

December 18, 2020 by Jenny Gomes Leave a Comment

Want to see how we bought a house that needed some love and renovated it into a furnished rental? This is the blog post that shares all the before and after photos, the products we used, the steps we took, and lots of money saving ideas along the way. Welcome to our rental house renovation!

We bought the little rental house in December of 2019. It happened to be such fantastic timing because my husband was able to take 2 months off of work to do a lot of the work himself. He’s not a contractor but a lineman who builds power lines. Nearly 20 years ago, he worked in the construction trade. I have no real renovation experience. I mention this to share our level of expertise before starting this project. It was a little more than the average bear but not a lot.

When assessing all the things that needed to be done, we considered what we could do ourselves, learn via YouTube, asking friends in the construction industry, and what we were willing and able to pay to be done. The budget we had in mind was to keep the costs of renovation under twenty thousand dollars. We were able to stay under this number, thank goodness.

If you want to check out the listing, see it here!

Lot & Location

We found a place that was a small size (1000 sq feet) in a great location- Main Street of our little town. It is surrounded by the neighbor’s backyards, making it feel private as well as centrally located. We own the driveway (rather than having an easement) which was really important to us.

Flooring

Before: along two sides of the house the flooring was painted and worn OSB. The center was wood (not hardwood, but wood) flooring that needed sanding and refinishing. The best choice for a rental and for our budget was vinyl waterproof click in laminate flooring. I really wanted wood, of course, but it would have cost twice as much to make new wood line up and match the existing wood.

Waterproof vinyl flooring was installed after they leveled a few uneven places. The cost was about $6000 for the flooring and installation. This is usually where people comment that “you can install it yourself!” And that’s true. We probably could have. My husband had a limited amount of time off work and we had to decide which projects he could do quickly himself versus who we could pay to do a job quickly. In hindsight, we’d still have a pro install it, as it took 2 days I think, and they had the tricky job of leveling some really uneven parts. The result is a waterproof, beautiful floor that’s cohesive throughout the house and it’s super easy to clean. I stained the wooden threshold that goes between the living and kitchen to match the black tones of the flooring.

Bathroom Vanity

The bathroom needed a vanity. We got this one at Lowe’s and the tiny size was most critical.

Attic crawl space

The crawl space was insulated with old feed sacks and cardboard, and had to be cleaned out before the re wiring project (more on that later). My husband and I drug filthy newspaper, cardboard, and feed sacks out of the crawl spaces and tossed them out the upstairs window. We vacuumed up decades of filth and prepared the space for my husband and our electrician to spend a lot of time in there re-wiring the whole house.

Electrical

My husband and our electrician (life-long family friends) did all new wiring, re-wired what needed to be re-wired, and updated all outlets. They put in several new light fixtures. There was no ground and now all outlets are up to date. They were able to work together (they were such a great team!) to get a ton done that made the electrical safer and better. Now there’s a switch at the bottom and top of the stairs, for example, to light the stairway, and a porch light off the kitchen, etc.

Laundry Nook

A carpenter friend of my husband’s tore out the doorway of the pantry to create a laundry nook where we put a small capacity GE washer dryer pair on Sears Outlet. Getting a dinged up set from the outlet offset the cost of the small size. Delivery took nearly a month but for the price it seems worth it. A great tip I got from a customer service helper was to buy items that you need to match or correspond from the same outlet. Buying from different outlet stores in different cities created multiple problems but getting the set from the same store assured they’d match, arrive the same time, etc.

Washer and dryer were about $1200 total and my husband’s friend wouldn’t let us pay him for his work but it was a few hours of work for him to rip out the wall.

As I write this, we’ve had about 2 months worth of renters in the space and I just had the current renter share that the dryer belt broke. This makes me unsure as to the value of going to an outlet. I have our private repair man planned to fix it asap but at this time, the jury is out on if the outlet was worth it.

We also paid a plumber to plumb the nook as it was only a pantry before and had no plumbing. That was $600.

Upstairs

At first we weren’t sure if we’d refinish the upstairs at all. The floor was wood but kind of a disaster in terms of there were holes, it was majorly uneven, there was the book nook that had been kind of badly dry walled by someone in the past but never finished, and it felt initially like it would be easier to leave it unfinished. Indeed, it would have been easier. Of course, we decided to “just do it” and finish the whole space so it added 300 sq feet to the house and has been one of the best decisions of the whole project. We are so glad we did it; even though I didn’t know if we’d remain married after trying to do the drywall together lol.

Drywall

Initially I thought I wanted the shiplap that existed to remain but a wise man (our electrician) pointed out how drafty, dusty, spidery, and impractical that would be. My husband dry walled the whole upstairs (300 square feet) with my help and this was the worst part. The attic ceiling was tricky, it’s heavy, awkward, and my husband is a perfectionist which makes for beautiful finish work but also for very slow work. I then got a five minute tutorial from my husband’s uncle who is a drywall guy and I had to tape and texture the whole dang thing. This was also the worst part because I’m honestly not that good at it and I hated it with all my heart. At the end we decided we just won’t rent to sheetrockers. It isn’t perfect and that’s okay because the price of labor was free and it’s so dramatically better than it was before. My husband had to rebuild one window wall with OSB which took a great amount of time (see note about him being a terrible perfectionist above). Sheet rocking the stairwell was also terrible (!!!) My husband tore the stair treads off (after they’d been painted of course) to get the drywall hidden and it looks very nice.

Approximate cost to drywall the upstairs: $12 a sheet, and as this was at a stressful time of the project I don’t know how much we ultimately spent. I paid more in effort and patience than I’d like to in the future. I’m not the accountant in the family- that’s my sister.

It was a few hundred bucks, took a week maybe, and I’m glad it is over 🙂 If we got another rental and we needed to save money, I’d probably do it again because we know how but I’d dread it. One tip I can say is those Sheetrock gloves were totally worth it; they made holding the Sheetrock for my husband so much easier; that stuff is so slippery!

Chimney in the Floor

We found the original brick chimney in the floor of the upstairs. It was weirdly closed off from extending to the bottom floor in the small bedroom closet- it was encased in wood (closet ceiling and upstairs flooring) rather than removed and I thought it was worth trying to remove the bricks. This was something I’d work on while waiting on Ruben to need my help, waiting on paint to dry, etc. I used a hammer to gently tap the bricks loose and haul them outside. In hindsight, took a lot of time and I guess I’ll use those rad old bricks somewhere.

Stair Railing

We had a local auto body shop fabricate a railing for around the top of the stairs. I think the original was little more than painted 2x4s. It’s beautiful, hell for stout, and was money well spent. Approximate cost: $900

Door knobs

Some of the existing doors had knobs, some not, and most needed to be replaced. We found the cheapest knobs that could be locked at Van Dyke’s Restorers and they were $100 each. Our contractor friend (so many of them!) informed Ruben that either we spend $100 on the handles or $200 on all new doors that come with handles. It was a difficult job because I couldn’t do it, Ruben was back to work by the time we found these knobs, and we ultimately paid our contractor friend to finish all the things that weren’t done when Ruben went back to work and he was amazing. It took him minutes to do what we would have squabled about for hours.

Windows – 16 windows- double pane vinyl

Our window guy Craig Hubbard (you’re not going to find a window guy with a better sense of humor I can guarantee) said that replacing old windows is like getting your teeth whitened and straightened and I think that’s a fantastic metaphor. The windows in the house were single pane double hung windows that had no screens and many were upside down so they’d smash your finger when you tried to open them and some were painted shut. We love the new windows and were so glad it was an easy fix. The cost was about $6000 for the windows and installation and we would do this again in a heartbeat.

Want to see what happened to the 16 old windows? My brother in law built my sister a beautiful greenhouse with them.

The Weird Upstairs Window

It extends 5 inches BELOW the floor line. I couldn’t tell you why it does, but our window guy explained the cheapest and best thing to do was to replace the window rather than try to build more wall. I think he was right.

The Book Nook

This nook is probably 5 feet 6 inches at the peak and we kicked around lots of fun ideas for this space including putting a hammock in there. However, when my mother in law gifted me her used, tan leather loveseat and it fit like a glove in front of the weird window, making it safer and blocking the window trim that could only look moderately normal since the window goes BELOW the floor, it became the Book Nook. I got a shelf at the thrift store, painted it a light grey (it was a veneered Walmart style cheap bookshelf) and filled it with a rainbow of Reader’s Digests. There’s a throw blanket and pillows and it’s perfect now.

Paint

I bet we painted 10+ gallons of PNG Paint (our lumber yard brand) Snowbank White in this 1000 square foot house. I try to do projects in a way that feels less overwhelming and for some reason going one or two gallons at a time felt more achievable than getting giant 5 gallon buckets. I started in the linen closet room because it was the smallest and felt the least overwhelming. Deciding on the white was easy; it’s the color my dear friend Emily helped me choose for my living, bath, and kitchen in our home. It’s a bright white and we did semi-gloss so it is easy to clean.

I agonized over the decision of the paint color of the beadboard paneling in the kitchen and tested several colors and decided on Nightwatch (a dark green) and I love it. It really fits the mountain feel of the house and used it on the stair tread, and in the linen closet room beadboard. When I showed my brother the stairs, he immediately said they looked like my godmother’s signature paint color and he was absolutely right. It’s a perfect Julie green 🙂 Each gallon of paint was interior semi gloss and was about $35. It was a part of the project that I could do by myself, fairly well, and it had a huge impact for not a ton of money.

What they say is true: using good quality paint and brushes/rollers MATTERS. It makes a mediocre painter seem much better. My most important advice I could share is this: To paint faster, paint more slowly. This was a lesson it took me a long time to learn but it’s the Gospel truth. You get DONE much sooner by going slowly and doing a better job. I painted every surface- the inside of the closets (floor and ceiling, even) kitchen cupboards, and essentially every other surface you can think of. Painting the inside of the cabinets and drawers seemed silly at first but it makes them feel fresh and clean (and indeed, easier to clean later) and I feel like painting the inside of cupboards and cabinets is an often-skipped step. Paint them! For the kitchen cabinets my mother in law helped me (her whole family has so many really good painters, she and Ruben’s grandma helped!) and we left the doors on the cabinets- they are in good condition but my husband Ruben was worried about taking the doors off and on and how well they’d go back together as they fairly old and not the highest quality. I’m so glad we did this- I gave my mother in law a tiny brush and she painted around all the hinges and we did the whole set of cabinets in a few days.

Front Door

It was a standard white before and I wanted it to pop a little more. I painted it Nightwatch green and considered getting a copper kickplate for the bottom but felt like they were pretty expensive for something that’s only pretty. Maybe someday!

I also painted the strip of linoleum left over in the door threshold with black enamel which I had leftover from some project. It’s super hard and shiny and it might look kinda funky but it definitely was better than the random linoleum strip that was there. I did this for the kitchen door threshold as well.

Light fixture painting

Several light fixtures were dated so we primed and painted them black. This was a cheap, easy fix that was something I could do while other paint was drying, while we were deciding on all the other “big” issues like flooring, without much money at all being spent at all. I spray primed and painted several for probably $10.

Magnetic stove shelf: I got this shelf from this Etsy shop and it was such a good buy. It’s perfectly sized for the tiny space and gives a space for a spoon and the salt and pepper when cooking.

Garbage disposal

This was a small thing but I was glad to add to the kitchen. We got a Waste King with a colossal capacity (I didn’t realize exactly how big it was until it arrived).

Bathroom sink and vanity: this was a little over $100 from The Home Depot. My husband picked it out on a whim and because of the tiny size it had to be, there wasn’t much to choose from. It’s a perfect size and the brushed nickel fixture matches the curtain rod.

L shaped shower curtain rod

$100 from Build.com – excellent customer service and this was the correct size for our existing tub and shower.

Furnishings

I may write a separate post about how I’m listing this rental but the short version is it is a furnished rental. This is where I got the furnishings.

Sheets: Costco

Mattresses: Linenspa brand- Amazon

Pillows: Costco

Beds (upstairs and large bedroom) Wayfair

Light fixtures in kitchen, stairwell, small bedroom: Wayfair

Small bedroom twin bed: Family bed painted by Pioneer Autobody

Duvets, throw blankets, kitchen towels, shower curtains, blender, : all used from Poshmark. I set a limit of $15 on most items and didn’t spend over that. I love Poshmark because they have an offer feature that’s easy for the buyer and not annoying for the seller. I just offered (keeping in mind the fixed $7 shipping) and if the seller didn’t accept, I moved to the next item in the search. Search is super easy on Poshmark and made it so easy to find what I wanted. If you want to join Poshmark, sign up with my code JENNY_GOMES to get $10 off your first order. It’s my favorite way to get used things online.

Curtains: JCPenney linen-look blackout – I have these in my living room and love them.

Green leather loveseat: Yard sale $75 totally worth it

Tan leather loveseat upstairs in the book nook: gifted from my MIL

Short dresser upstairs: thrifted and refinished $40

Sheer curtains for living room: thrifted $2 a panel. Guys. My local thrift store is the BEST and I bet yours is too. SHOP THRIFT STORES. There’s GOOD stuff there. It was my FIRST place to go for any furnishing. It doesn’t hurt to ask if they have a light fixture of a specific size, or a table of X dimensions. I got so many things there and gave them new life with a thorough vacuuming and a little stain. I also got the curtain rings there too.

Dining table and chairs: Wayfair. I love their super specific search function. I could search for the exact size I wanted. It had to fit both under the window, or nestled into the wall, AND under the telephone nook. I searched our local thrift store and Facebook market and ended up spending $200 on the table plus the 4 chairs. Bonus, they look so sharp with the floors. They are really pretty I think.

2 upholstered chairs: $40 total, painted with an exorbitant amount of fabric paint and wood stained with Varathane stain in Ebony. If I did this again, I’d search for another way to buy the paint than during a quarantine and via Amazon. I needed so much more paint than I realized. I think I needed nearly 10 bottles of 4 ounce paint. The result was not that soft, but fantastic looking black. It was less money and time than re-upholsterering and I love the way they look.

2 wooden chairs: thrifted – $20 total -Sanded both, stained one with the same single can of Varathane Ebony stain.

I can’t say enough about staining furniture rather than painting it. I’m a mediocre painter at best and I think that stain is SO much more forgiving than paint, has a dramatic effect easily, and is buildable (you can add or take away color as you go). I topped most of the things I stained black with clear polyurethane (I used a cheap foam brush) and just let it dry for several days. I especially loved how the black stain instantly made a ho-hum piece of furniture stand out. I also stained the threshold going from living to kitchen with the black to coordinate with the flooring better.

Various end tables, bench by the doorway, the linen closet dresser: my good pal Hailey. She was moving and sold me a ton of things for next to nothing, God bless her.

The sander I used for everything: a random orbital sander. Please note that I know nothing about wood working BUT I made $10 thrift store items look like $50 with this sander and $5 in stain. First use rough (80 grit) sandpaper, then fine (120) and stain. So easy! If you’re going to refinish great grandma’s priceless dining table, ask someone else. If you want to redo a yard sale score, do as I did.

Cleaning supplies for the house including mop, kitchen and window cloths, etc: Norwex. It’s super high quality microfiber and I love it.

The Side Yard

The front yard was in good shape and the back side yard was a total jungle. It was completely overgrown with blackberry vines. It felt vaguely creepy because you couldn’t see from one end to the other and and it was completely unusable. During my breaks from the drudgery that was drywall, I clipped every damn vine. I hauled them into piles and later, I asked a friend of my brother’s to rototill the side yard. The rototiller made it so smooth and perfect and deterred regrowth of the blackberry jungle for at least a bit. I really thought so long about a fantastic set of plants to include but in reality, the most sensible choice is grass. At this time, I haven’t planted any yet but hope to soon.

As we don’t live right next door to the house nor do we have a yard of our own (lots of practical reasons why, but unusual I know!) we decided to hire a landscape pro to mow twice a month and I’m so, so glad we did. He does a great job, hasn’t been late or missed a day yet, and it takes a chore off my plate.

Microwave cabinet

My husband’s cousin is an incredible custom cabinet builder and he built us a hickory microwave cabinet. This served as a beautiful addition to the kitchen, got the microwave off the counter, and serves as a hood over the cook stove.

Linen Closet Room

There’s a weird little room adjacent to the master bedroom AND the bathroom that has a under-the-stairs cupboard in it (very Harry Potter) and we decided to use it as a linen closet. I put a great dresser (thanks, Hailey!) in there and I use it to store extra linens. If we had a huge budget/were going to live there ourselves, we would have removed the wall to the bathroom and made it one big bathroom or a Jack and Jill bathroom. But, we didn’t have a huge budget, and for now, it is just a linen closet.

Linen Closet Floor

Days before the flooring was going to be installed, we discovered a soft spot in the linen closet floor. This was after the awful drywall and at the end of Ruben’s two month stint as a sometimes unwilling DIY guy and this small, not a big deal discovery almost sent the both of us over the edge. It took a day of work, some pressure treated wood, a handful of those small Snickers bars, and he fixed it. See, NOT a big deal! 🙂

Conclusion

If you read this far, God bless you. This is easily the longest post I’ve ever written. I hope it was helpful in showing what we did ourselves, what we paid help to do, and how I did the parts I did myself. My lesson coming away from this 6 month project was to bite off what you can chew. Take small projects and do them first. Decide what you are willing to learn to do, and decide what’s way out of your comfort zone, but don’t be afraid to learn something new. Learning is how we grow and we often thing learning is just for kids. It isn’t. We need to learn too, whether we are 28 or 78. I’m naturally not a fan of risk, and buying an investment property was a risk, absolutely. Figuring out how to drywall was a risk. Spending money on furnishings was a risk. But now we have a gem of a house we are renting to great visitors, it’s doubled in value surely if not more (in part to Covid, and to our efforts), and if we wanted to live in it, we could! Drop your questions in the comments below, and let me know if there’s anything else I missed in this post!

5 Giant Yarn Crochet Projects

January 21, 2018 by Jenny Gomes Leave a Comment

This post will share the 5 giant yarn crochet projects that you can make quickly and easily with the patterns in my new ebook. Get ready for beautiful texture and fast results!

If you haven’t joined the giant yarn party, you need to. I’m a busy mom of 2 and I don’t have time to crochet much anymore. I usually have one naptime every once in a while to devote to a fun project to give as a gift or keep for myself. That means I needed a material that would work up faster than regular old Red Heart (no offense Red Heart- we all still love you!) and giant yarn is the answer to my pressed-for-time woes.

Giant yarn is super popular for good reason. It’s gorgeous, warm, and makes a statement whether it is a scarf, a baby blanket, a throw, or a basket.

It’s easy to work with, no teeny-tiny tangles that are impossible to unravel, and lots of projects can be made with NO HOOK. Hello, convenience crochet!

You also get a lot of impact for your dollar. Sure a giant ball of yarn may feel expensive at first- until you lift it up. You are getting a far better value, typically, when investing in high quality fiber in greater quantity.

Since diving hooks first into giant yarn, I have written several patterns in easy to understand plain English and I compiled them into an ebook.

In the 5 Giant Yarn Crochet Projects Ebook, you will learn how to make:

The felted yarn basket that you can crochet in under 2 hours. The yarn I recommend comes in TONS of dreamy colors and is sturdy and won’t pill. It is the definition of fashionable and functionable.

A giant yarn baby blanket. Imagine gifting the newest little one in your life a cozy blanket that didn’t take you forever to make!

A giant yarn scarf with the absolute best giant yarn for a blanket or scarf or anything that will touch your skin. This stuff is dreamy, Wildlfowers.

The extreme size end-of bed throw that you’ve seen all over Pinterest plus pro tips for working with the fiber.

A super textural, luxury blanket copycat in thick and thin yarn that is grownup and gorgeous. It looks hard to work with and that’s the best part; it’s super simple.

The 5 Giant Yarn Crochet Projects ebook is a steal at just $8 and you get all the easy to understand, printable patterns, photos, diagrams, and links to products I recommend. Get the 5 Giant Yarn Projects for Wildflowers Ebook here!

Buy Now!

Felted Yarn Basket

November 12, 2017 by Jenny Gomes Leave a Comment

This felted yarn basket features an excellent choice for giant yarn and the techniques that can be used to create bowls, baskets, hampers, rugs, poofs, and more.

You can also download a completely free crochet basket step by step guide here!

To say I am a fan of giant yarn is an understatement to be sure. I love the scale, the texture, the speed in which you can complete a project, the heft, the visual drama; I love all of it. I made a gorgeous, super soft piece in this post here with the amazing Knit 1 Share 1 yarn by Little Dandelion from Australia.

Beautiful as it may be, it was too soft to waste on a textile that wouldn’t be next to my skin and shipping from Australia is expensive and there’s no way around it. I have been looking for something made in the USA that would be suitable to make a basket and I struck giant yarn gold with Love Fest Fibers.

Aptly named, Love Fest Fibers is exactly that. They are a company you can feel good about supporting, the are here on the west coast, and they have terrific customer service. Their Instagram account is totally inspiring and you should check it out here. They also have a felted giant yarn that is really, really tough and it is also aptly named: Tough Love. This yarn comes in many colors, both neutral and rainbow, is not quite as big around as a quarter but close, is felted so it won’t pill, disolve, fall apart, or wear out, and is super easy to work with.

After making 2 cream yarn items this year, I went with their hot pink, “Cherry Blossom”, and I am so glad I did.

One large, 50 yard ball is an affordable price considering it’s weight and quality and is enough to make a basket that could hold, but not entirely envelope, a basketball. It works up so quickly I had the base of the basket done in the pickup while driving and I had to take it out because I remembered I needed to take photos of the process so you all could see it.

You need knitting needles size 50 or a crochet hook size U, but I used my fingers and made my basket in about 1 hour and 45 minutes. It really was so satisfying to start my kid’s naptime with a ball of yarn and end it with a super cute basket to hold my cloth diapers. Honestly, my forearms were tired by the end but had I slowed down a bit and taken a break I’m sure that could have been avoided.

How to Crochet in 15 Minutes

Read this blog post (complete with free video tutorial!) to learn the stitches I reference below!

How to make the Felted Yarn Basket

The process is similar to crocheting a beanie in that you chain 3 or 4 (depending on if you use your fingers or a hook, and how big your loops are if you use your fingers) and slip stitch to connect them into a circle. Then, crochet 2 single crochets in each loop, all the way around, creating a flat, round base. I went around 3 times and then started to create the sides of the basket.

When your base is wide enough, start to make only 1 single crochet in each stitch. The sides will begin to form almost immediately and because you are working with such big yarn, you will be able to see right away that you are indeed doing it right.

Felted Wool Basket | The Domestic Wildflower click through to read the full tutorial for how to crochet a felted wool basket in giant yarn in under 2 hours! — See at the top where I am only crocheting 1 single crochet in each stitch? The sides are coming up already!

Continue to crochet 1 single crochet in each stitch, all the way around.

I decided I wanted handles on my basket and had to guess about how much yarn would remain in order for me to run out of yarn just as my handles were completed.

I went around the circle 4 times and skipped one stitch. I chained one (just one!) and then made a single crochet in the next stitch. I tried making the handles by skipping 2 stitches and chaining 2, and I didn’t like it as well. In the photo I think you can see well that by skipping just one stitch, your hand can slide right in the space. That also means that each stitch is about 3 inches long.

I want to walk you through every single stitch in my video workshop, the Unhooked Quick Crochet Basket Workshop.

In the Unhooked Quick Crochet Basket Workshop, you’ll get to watch me finger crochet this exact basket STEP BY STEP. You’ll have forever access to the video and the Plain-English printable PDF instructions. You’ll be able to make this basket again and again! You won’t believe the holiday-perfect price of the workshop – head over to grab it now!

Love Fest Fibers has a TON of colors to choose from like these brights

or these neutrals

and this season they have these gorgeous variegated stripes!

but back to the cherry blossom pink felted yarn basket I made!

I single crocheted around to the other side of the felted yarn basket, made my second handle (which is just skipping a stitch and chaining once).

In this casual felted yarn basket “pattern”, I ended the second handle and slip stitched until I had about 8 inches of yarn left and I finished by weaving the tail backwards into the slip stitches. This created a gradual conclusion or decrease to the row, rather than an abrupt stop.

I think this felted yarn basket looks darling, if I say so myself 🙂
With 3 balls, I could make a rectangle base and sides to make a crocheted toy box, which would be so cute. I also made the cutest gift baskets in this post here. On the Love Fest Fibers site, they share lots of beautiful inspiration which you should check out to get your wheels turning to plan out what you might make.

Get the step by step PDF guide to help you create this exact basket with ease! It is completely free, easy to understand, and clear…even if you’ve never crocheted before.

Happy Hooking, Wildflowers!

Super Simple Easy Sew Fall Decor Bunting Tutorial

October 7, 2017 by Jenny Gomes Leave a Comment

This post will share a super simple Easy Sew Fall Decor Bunting Tutorial that you can make in under an hour! I also link to the jute rope I love for all my garlands and buntings, as well as some great ribbons to use in the Fall Bunting too.

This post contains affiliate links. That means that if you click through and make a purchase on Amazon, I get a teeny, tiny commission that doesn’t affect your purchase price at all. I only link to products that I think will make your project awesome, that I’d recommend to a friend. Let’s make this bunting!

You might remember my pretty, red and tan striped burlap bunting from this post. I ended up donating it to a local auction that was raising money for my child’s playground that needed a safety update and now, this fall season, I needed a way to spruce up our dining area with some fall color.

So, I decided to make this Easy Sew Fall Decor Bunting and write a tutorial for you all!

I love this jute rope for making buntings because it is inexpensive, great for indoor or outdoor use, and strong enough you could use it to suspend a lantern or a wreath- it’s amazing!

I gathered scraps of wide ribbon (some with wire edge, some wide satin ribbon) and sewing scraps that fit my theme. I hemmed a bridesmaid dress for my cousin that was orange (for a fall wedding- so cute) a few seasons ago, and in classic Jenny fashion, saved the scraps from the hem. These orange chiffon and satin scraps are perfect but I’ll link to some great ribbons you can use here.

Materials for the Easy Sew Fall Decor Bunting

Sheer Chiffon Ribbon |Burlap Ribbon | Leaf Print Ribbon | Velveteen Ribbon | Velvet Ribbon | Jute Rope | Flat Jute Braid

One tip from my quilting experience is to choose fabrics or ribbons that are mix of dark, medium, and light. You don’t have to worry about matching colors so much as you do striving to to get an even-ish mix of dark, medium, and light colors in order to make your bunting (or quilt) sparkle.

Instructions

Cut your fabric scraps (use fabric that won’t fray readily, unless you want to hem about 10 inches long (don’t get hung up on this- 12 inches or 8 inches, all look really cute).

Since you are using up scraps, potentially, take a minute to lay them out first, on the floor or on a table top, in the order you’d like them to be on the bunting. I had only a few dark ribbons, so I spaced those out over the 10 feet of hemp rope FIRST, and then filled in with my many light and medium hued pieces.

Then, stack them up in the order than you liked so they are beside your machine, ready to go.

Once you have assembled your scraps or purchased fabric and ribbon strips then determine about how long your rope should be and cut to length. I cut mine 3 feet at least longer on each end so I have plenty with which to tie to curtain rods, fence posts, etc. Knot the end of each rope in an overhand knot and if it particularly prone to fraying/untwisting, you can secure it with strapping tape (the clear plastic tape on cardboard boxes from Amazon 🙂 like a large scale version of your shoe lace tip.

Fold the ribbon or fabric over the hemp rope with the rope to the LEFT of the foot, and the little banners pointing to the RIGHT.

I like to fold them a little askew, so they create an upside down V shape.

Backstitch, and sew to the end, remembering to backstitch again.

Sew as close to the rope as you can so they don’t slide all over your rope when on display.

Grab your next little banner and repeat, about as far apart as each banner is long.

That is, if your little banners are 5 inches (10 inches long when you cut them) then space them out 5 inches apart on the rope.

Repeat until all banners are sewn on to rope.

Super cute, right? Check out my other bunting project here- I used an upholstery strapping that’s striped and adorable.

Felted Wool Dryer Balls

July 5, 2017 by Jenny Gomes 3 Comments

This post, featuring a guest post from my friend Amika will teach you how to make felted wool dryer balls at home and have you fighting static, wrinkles, and toxic dryer sheets like a superhero. Read on for the full tutorial!

Hey y’all! I’m Amika from DIY Sheep Crafts (shepherdlikeagirl.com), guest posting, How to Make Felted Wool Dryer Balls, for Jenny here at The Domestic Wildflower(thedomesticwildflower.com)!

When I first started making felted wool dryer balls for my peeps, a lot of my friends and family would say, “Weird! What are dryer balls, anyway?” My response was typically, “They are what folks like me use instead of dryer sheets to green-up their laundry game.” If you would like to have a more edified answer to THAT question (optional, but highly recommended) when your peeps ask you, then keep reading!

Queue heroes of eco-friendly laundry, static-fighting champions!

The chemicals, including synthetic fragrances, found in conventional dryer sheets are downright dangerous to your health and the environment! I could list all the toxic chemicals, but why scare the kids (and you can read more about it on my blog post, 4 Tips for Safer Laundry (shepherdlikeagirl.com/4-tips-for-safer-laundry/).

What Are Felted Wool Dreyer Balls?

Felted wool dryer ball are made, typically, from clean sheep fleece. The fleece is carded into roving. Then, all good shepherds and crafters hand wind the roving into 4 oz sized balls. These balls are then matted into a solid structure with a hot soap and water process, called felting. Dryer balls are completely chemical-free and reusable. They will even last up to 5 years!

What Are They For?

Feted wool dryer balls help keep the clothes soft, wrinkle-free and reduce static. Whaaat? Where have you been all my life?

How Do They Work?

The highly-absorbent wool soaks up moisture in your laundry as it dries and then evenly distributes that moisture back into the air as your clothes are drying. This helps the air in your dryer stay humid longer, which reduces static. In addition, this “soaking and releasing” action makes your clothes dry faster. And, all of these things, plus the balls rolling around in your dryer, caressing your sweet, sweet clothes, means fewer wrinkles. Can I get a “heck-ya”?

Ready to Make Your Own Dryer Balls?

Keep on reading and I will teach you how to make your very own felted wool dryer balls from sheep roving in 5 easy steps.

Now, let’s get started.

Supplies

• Roving (www.copiacove.com/product-category/fiber/roving/) I recommend 16 oz of roving to make 4 dryer balls

• Stockings aka nylons, pantyhose, tights, hosiery, hose

• Scissors

• Washer & Dryer

• Scale (optional)

5 Steps to Making Felted Wool Dryer Balls

1. Weight Out Your Roving

This step is optional. You can totally just wing it! Your roving ball should be about the size of a softball (maximum). I weight my roving in a plastic baggie, using a hanging scale (the same one that I use to weight lambs), into 4 oz “handfuls”. If you don’t have your own roving, you can get some from my sheep at Copia Cove Icelandic Sheep in Montana, HERE (www.copiacove.com/product-category/fiber/roving/)!

Expert Tip: Weighing out the roving you use for a set of dryer balls will help you to determine an appropriate price to set if you wish to sell them, because a good shepherd/crafter knows the cost of her materials, in this case, per ounce.

2. Make Your Roving Ball

Roll your roving into a tight ball, like a ball of yarn. Start by doing a few revolutions around your first two fingers to get the ball rolling faster (haha, get it?). Keep winding until you reach a desired size, or use up all 4 ounces or roving.

Expert Tip: I start with three strands of roving and working my way down to two, and then just one strand, before I reach the end of my roving ball shaping. This makes the winding, rocking, and rolling phase go a whole lot faster! Be careful, because this can make your ball lopsided… unless you’re into that, of course. I like my balls nice and round, which is the reason for the three, two, one breakdown.

3. Load Up Your Roving Balls

Grab your stockings, ladies! Carefully squeeze a ball of roving all the way down into a stocking until it’s packed tight. Tie a knot in the stocking after each ball in order to separate the balls from one another and prevent them from felting to each other or loosing their shape. Keep loading balls until the stocking is full.

Expert Tip: Turn the stocking inside-out. Wool will felt to the toe seam, so it’s best to have it facing out.

4. To The Washing Machine

Load Your caterpillar-looking-roving-ball-stockings into the washing machine. Wash with detergent and hot water.

Expert Tip: You will probably need to run them through the wash at least two more times to get them to felt well. Felted well is indicative of a firmness when squeezed. My washing machine is a front loader, and I always do two washes. My machine is also… temperamental. Sometime it won’t go through a spin cycle, I assume, because of the unbalanced weight. To fix that issue, just throw big towel in with the caterpillars.

5. Extract And Dry

You should have sightly damp felted wool dryer balls. Extract those little pretties by using scissors to cut an escape hole for each ball. Sometimes the wool will felt to the stocking- just keep peeling back that hosiery. Once they have all escaped, you can throw them in the dryer. One hot cycle in the dryer should be enough.

Expert Tip: Prevent audio-induced headaches! Throw that big towel in there (the one from step 4), along with your dryer balls, to keep them from banging around in the dryer.

How to Make Felted Wool Dryer Balls for Homemade, Chemical Free Laundry! Read the post for the super clear tutorial!

Easy, right? I like to package mine in groups of four with a cute little tag and a snippet about what they are and how to use them, or I just throw them in my own dryer! Happy felting and remember, Shepherd Like A Girl!

Amika has a sheep farm, Copia Cove Icelandic Sheep (CopiaCove.com) in Montana, and teaches online courses and workshops for sheep enthusiasts and crafters who want to utilize all of the raw materials that sheep so thoughtfully provide; milk, fiber, pelts. You can check out the fun craft community on DIY Sheep Crafts(shepherdlikeagirl.com), which is where wonderful sheep craft lovers come together to grow ideas and learn to make awesome crafts. She believes sheep are the ultimate homestead animal and that each moment is a chance to make happiness possible!

amika@shepherdlikeagirl.com

Thank you SO MUCH, Amika! Share in the comments, Wildflowers, how it goes making you first dryer balls! Wool is such an amazing fiber; I have a post about how to crochet with it here!

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