Drab to Fab

Allow me to show you one of the reasons I cringe at having dinner guests:

because we make them sit on THESE hideous beasts.

BEFORE
(The ONLY reason there is a BEFORE photograph of these gross chairs, is because there is an AFTER.)

BEFORE

 We received these chairs used, but in pristine condition. Our kids have managed to destroy them in less than a year. Gross. I would have taken a close up, but did not want to make my dear readers gag. We considered buying a new set of wooden chairs, but holy money trees! (As in, we would have to plant many, many money trees in order to afford that. Or just chop the trees to make wooden chairs...) So, we decided on reupholstering. We actually made this decision last year when we bought the chairs (you know, back when they were unadulterated), but then decided to wait until they were gross and then take the plunge. We have arrived. They are gross. We took the plunge. I went to JoAnn Fabrics last week and chose a few (okay, maybe fifty) fabrics I liked, took pictures of them all, and came home to view each fabric with the room. We chose one, got it cut, grabbed four cans of Scotch Guard, brought it home, and remade our chairs from drab to fab in 2 hours flat and $50 down! I call that a success.

AFTER

AFTER

We even tested out the "water repellent, stain resistant" claims by pouring water on the chairs ON PURPOSE. Folks, the water beaded up and rolled right off. GO SCOTCH GUARD! I am in love.

Celtic Knot Headband

I found a tutorial on Pinterest for this Celtic Knot Headband, and decided to give it a shot! I made my own tutorial, so that you all can give it a try too. It took less than 10 minutes, and there is no sewing. My kind of project!

Find some jersey stretch material. Old t-shirts work really well. I used an old jersey sheet.

Cut 1-inch strips as long as you need to fit around your head with plenty extra to tie it.  If you want to make an infant headband, only use two strips. If you want a thicker headband, cut four to six strips.

Stretch the strips tightly.

The jagged edges will curl up.

Ok, ready to start knotting. I doubled up two strips for added bulk. This becomes Strip #1. Lay strip #1 as shown below, making sure the RIGHT side of the strip is on top.

Lay Strip #2 on top of Strip #1 as shown.

Pull the RIGHT tail of Strip #1 OVER Strip #2

Pull the LEFT tail of Strip #2 UNDER the loop of Strip #1

Ok, this is the trickiest part. Pull the RIGHT tail of Strip #2 OVER the loop of Strip #1, and UNDER the tail of Strip #2.

This is how it will look.

Now grab all the tails, and slowly pull to tighten the knot.

Voila!

Now, you can stop there, but if you want a bigger knot, just throw in a regular knot on each end to enlarge the knotted area.

Like so.

Then, find an adorable kid like this one, and tie it on!

Or, for a little boho flare, tie it on yourself!