headboard how-to~

here's a basic how-to make your own headboard cover

(warning: it IS time-consuming and fiddly but utterly adored by the recipient so totally worth it in my opinion :) )

each vehicle has a pocket for the 'construction worker' to sit in. the digger bucket is moveable with individual stones that can fit in the bucket and then be 'dumped' into the dump truck.

before i go any further, let me just say i am sure this is not an original idea. in fact, i know it's not. my mum made my older sister and i one of these headboard covers for us when we were kids. they were way cooler than my one - they had houses (with doors that opened), roads, trees, trucks...that's me pictured with my one below:

(take a moment to wipe the drool from the wallpaper-covet moment if you need to. k, ready?)

1. measure your headboard. consider thickness of wood and any other protruding bits of wood. also remember a pillow will block out some of the image. measure again to be sure.

2. measure fabric. measure again to be sure, then cut. you'll need: i piece for the front panel (that will display your amazing image) and a piece for the back.

3. draw up picture with disappearing fabric pen (or, in my case, white charcoal pencil!)

4. cut out all pieces needed for images.

5. sew images up - starting from smallest, working your way up to the largest.

6. place and sew images on to large piece of fabric.

Note: i used my vinyl scraps again because i am too lazy to zig-zag my way around a million corners and edges! to hold the vinyl in place i used sellotape. if you are using fabric (and doing the zig-zag applique thing) you'd be wise to use visafix or something similar.

7. once the image is complete, attach batting (is that what it's called? i'm not a quilter!) to the back of it. because i am not a quilter i didn't have any batting so used polar fleece instead. and because i loathe polar fleece, i only had pink in 'stock'! so...pink it was :)

8. with right sides together, join the fleece to the image panel along THE BOTTOM only. flip around the right way and do a tidy neat topstitch.

9. get your back panel fabric piece and with right sides together, whip up the sides and across the top, making sure you sew through all 3 layers of fabric (back panel, fleece & front panel)

10. flip through the right way, cross your fingers, and try it on.

breathe a sigh of relief........or, start unpicking!!

11. present to offspring and soak up the delight :)

mmmm, sweetness :)

(did you notice the digger cushion? i promise he does NOT use a pillow now. ever!)