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Drop Cloth-Grain Sack Slipcover Reveal

I am happy to finally be able to share these drop cloth-grain sack chair slipcovers with you all…
🙂



Not only did I buy a Cricut machine three weeks ago
{as hand-cutting stencils with carpal tunnel syndrome plus
having three bad neck disks… Not such a good idea.}
I was hesitant to learn its programming
for a full week
thinking I might take it back and buy
the brand new Cricut version
that is just out called:
The Maker.
But, I didn’t and saved money
with the Cricut Explore Air 2.

When I finally decided to unwrap the Explore
and began playing around with importing files
I found out you can’t just pull in any old picture ~
Cricut will only load certain “picture” saved versions,
not how Word saves…

How to Save a Word Document on a Mac to Use in Cricut

1. Save your photo or word(s) you want to print
like usual in Microsoft Word.
 
2. Go to “Finder” in your regular Chrome or Safari
{I use Chrome mostly}
and find “Export” under “File or Edit or View.”
 
3.  In “Export” there is a spot to “Save file as”
and this is where you change your file type to a
.png file.
Cricut uses picture files which includes:
.jpg, .gif, .png, .bmp, .svg, .dxf
 
4. Save this new copy and recheck your Finder
to make sure you now have a second copy with
the correct file name.
This is the time to rename the file if you create
multiple copies of the same thing like I did.
 
5. Go to Cricut and import your file to create.
😀
 
Hope that helps if you decide to
create some stencils!
It has literally taken me a week to remember
where to find the way to make .png files and
to then create seven stencils…
 
 

Perseverance

Okay, I have to share something…
I have never done anything the easy way
like using something
that is in an already downloadable-form-
already-made-kinda-way…


My first sewing project the summer,
after I took a beginner sewing class in high school
working with a sewing machine,
I made a sleeveless eyelet dress.
It had three skirt tiers and 1/2″ wide satin ribbon
which needed to be sewn along the
lower edge of each skirts layer.
What was I thinking?

I cried. A lot. I was 15 years old.
And it took a week with those tears every day
some frustration and a lot of learning
and the use of a seam ripper
{Oh! and adding a zipper}
but
I finished and wore that dress!

Such were some of the trials with making these
drop cloth-grain sack slipcovers.
🙂





Making Stencils

I looked all around for some wreaths I could download
for free but only came across ones available
for quite a sum from Shutterstock and
a company which creates stencils as their business.

Another site found while looking at all the
wreaths and sprays on Shutterstock
took me to Vectors.
Vectors had another free downloadable tutorial.
It’s good!
Later in the week I found a guy named
Billy Argel who makes German Style Fonts
and you can use them for free
for your own personal use.
IT’S JUST WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR
only…
If I could figure out how to open and use the font…
Seriously.
{are we sensing a pattern here? *Hubby helped this past weekend.}
😉

If you want to use his fonts for any business
purposes, then he has a way to do so and
of course there is a charge.
If I decide to do something more with stenciling
then of course I will be happy to pay him.

Downloading Fonts

Turns out it isn’t too hard ~ I just didn’t know
what file to open.
🙂

1. Hubby showed me that once you have your font
downloaded, they should have been saved to a folder.

2. Find the folder and font, then double click on the “.tnt” file.
This is the file which will bring up the actual font type.

3. From this, you’ll see the “Save font” button
and it should automatically save into your
Word or word processing application.

4. Go into Word and under “Font” you’ll see
“Font Collections” at the very top.
You may have to name a folder but your new font(s)
should be stored there in Font Collections.
It was that easy.  Yeah!

Then I came across Haley’s blog called
The Mountain View Cottage
and she had a few free printables
which she has created to make her own artwork.
So… this is where I downloaded a spray of wheat!
 
I ended up not using her spray of wheat. 
Perhaps in another project.
She just asks that whomever downloads
her printables to please publicize
her pin, and here it is!
 
I finally found some great German fonts and Cricut had a leaf vector spray that I was able to use.
The Reveal
So all that leads us to sharing the Big Reveal
of our dining room chairs’ slipcovers!
I created a different kind of back ~ 
more like a little summer sundress…
with a flirty bare midriff…

ooh la la!!!
 
These were finished up with sweet sundress ties
and a rosette holding the ties closed
made from leftover dropcloth.
 


I got this idea for this rosette from
Marie at The Interior Frugalista
when
Debra over at Shoppe No. 5 {Day 1}
posted a two-day drop cloth event earlier this summer
of which the
settee covers tutorial
I made a few years ago were included on Day 2.



The seat covers now have their little skirt bottoms covered
with the fourth skirting piece plus a tie closure
with sweet pearly buttons
that mimick the
bigger sundress tie closures
on the chair backs.
 

 


My signature style ~ buttons

On our dining room chair cushions that I made
about five years ago
I used button closures, too.
I ran with the idea because a few years earlier
I had recovered a barrel chair with
renaissance style buttons
I had saved since I was a teen and
I used them to tuft the chair back.

The button closures can just be seen on the dining room chairs which, coincidentally, are reversible.  I used an two old
Martha Stewart curtains found at K-Mart years ago to make the tops, and a red floral paisley to make the bottoms.
I do like buttons! and have collected them
since I was taking them out of my
mom’s sewing box when I was around
7 years of age.
😉
The 1970’s barrel chair  {by the Christmas tree, right} I found at a thriftstore and repainted white using all kinds of old
shank buttons for tufting the back of the chair.  Sorry, not visible here as it’s hidden by the Christmas pillow.
Bauernladen-Klein is an actual cattle and pig farm with a butcher store on site over in Leverkusen, Germany.  I was an
exchange student to Leverkusen when I was 19, so it seemed like a fun idea to pick a farm name from there!

 

Business in the front ~ Party in the back!

So there we are… This project has had its challenges
for sure but I really like the results!
I changed the back to be less like a tank top and
{my original design}
to a more traditional style as I realized the grain sack idea
wasn’t going to work with the tank top design.


(Might just have to make the cute tanktop
idea with a fun print later on!)


Here is the beginning of this slipcover project
if you’d like to read or learn more:
Just click on these links to see
Part 1 and Part 2.


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Thank-you!



*P.S. ~ This post was Featured at: 
Wow Us Wednesday
Savvy Southern Style
on
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Woot Woot!
😀

“For no word from God will ever fail.” 

Luke 1:37 NIV

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,”

Hebrews 12:1 NASB

Blessings to you,

Barb

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