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D.I.Y Basket Wall
Hey Boo Thang, Thanks for stopping by my blog! Getting right into it this post is all about the basket wall I created in my living room. You may have seen basket walls floating around on Pinterest. I feel like it’s pretty trendy in home decor right now. Pinterest sparked this basket wall idea for me and some pictures of my inspiration are below.
When I decided I wanted to make this wall I ended up going down a rabbit hole and researching everything about baskets and how they are made. The history behind baskets is very interesting and our ancestors used them for many things. I know when you think of our ancestors and baskets an image of a woman holding one on top of her head may come to mind.
1984. Carrying on the head is a common practice in many parts of the world. In addition to balancing things like food and water in the baskets on our heads, we also made the baskets! Basket Making is a beautiful art form that I don’t think many people know about. I found it mesmerizing to watch women and men make these beautiful baskets BY HAND! The amount of time, patience, and skill it takes to create just one basket is amazing. Now going down a rabbit hole is not required in order to make a basket wall. However, if you are geeky like me and love to see how people make certain things with their hands then jump head first down the rabbit hole and stay there for a few hours. LOL
So onto the good stuff, first, where to buy materials for your basket wall. There are plenty of places you can buy decorative baskets from. Etsy, Amazon, and Home Goods are good places to start. If you want to take a more budget friendly approach like me then just go to the thrift store. All of my baskets came from different thrift stores. I told my grandma I wanted to make this wall and she went out and got me a bunch of baskets from thrift stores in Maryland. I do think buying your items from the thrift store will take a bit more prep and shopping to find the perfect combination but the final cost will be worth it. I think I paid about $20-25 for all the baskets on my wall.
I do think in order for the basket wall to flow and look cute you need to have the perfect combo of colors, shapes, and sizes. In the end I didn’t use every single basket I bought because some of them just didn’t flow, or the colors didn’t work when I laid everything out.
This is what I started with. I reallyyyy wanted to use the colorful circle basket but it just didn’t work. Follow these steps and tips to create your very own accent basket wall.
First decide where you want the baskets to go. This will make it much easier when it comes time to shop for your baskets because you will know what sizes and shapes will work best for you. If you are doing a small area then you won’t need that many baskets and you may not opt for huge ones and vice versa.
Choose a color scheme (optional) Most thrifted baskets are shades of brown and tan which can very much be the color scheme. Depending on your space you may want to choose a color scheme so that the basket wall will tie in with your other decor. This was my case. I knew I wanted a splash of black in my basket wall and I didn’t use the basket that was colorful because it just didn’t go.
Once you have all your baskets lay them out on the floor and play with the layout until you are happy with the look. This took me a while because the space I wanted to cover was kind of big. Every time I laid the baskets out I felt I was missing something. I wanted an accent wall of baskets above my couch so this was kind of a big area to fill. Some layout options are having the baskets clustered together with no spaces in between, leaving spaces, curving your baskets, or having them go from big to small in some kind of way.
Other items besides baskets to add to the wall. You may find you need a few “filler baskets/items” to go on your wall to make it look full.
Tiny Baskets– Small baskets in weird shapes are good for fillers. The leaf shaped basket, oval shaped basket, and another small random circle thingy are what used to fill in my mines.
Placemats– Two of the items on my wall are actually hard placemats from the Goodwill. Target and Walmart have cute placemats that could work as well.
Serving trays– These are great because they are usually flat, lightweight, and come in a variety of shapes, colors, and textures.
Faux or Real Greenery– A couple of the basket walls I saw did incorporate some greenery. Real plants may be a bit hard to maintain for this project. If you want to use real plants make sure your basket wall is in a place that gets sunlight, and you are still able to water the plant without making a mess. Faux plants may be less of a hassle for this. Buy your favorite faux plant/greenery and place in or around one or two of the baskets.
Make your own– Of course you can make some other accents which I did, and they are pictured below. Those items were made using rope from the dollar tree, a glue gun, cardboard, and brown raffia from Michaels.
Hang your baskets! Now it’s time to put the basket wall together! It is helpful if you have a friend for this part! I didn’t have anyone available to help so I just did the best I could hanging these baskets by myself. I thought I would be able to hang all these baskets with command strips but because of the texture most of the command strips wouldn’t adhere to the baskets. So to hang most of the baskets I ended up using a very tiny nail and hammer.
How do you think the basket wall turned out?? Would you try this? Let me know if you have any questions! Follow me on IG @itsnichelleb!
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D.I.Y. Bathroom Mirror Frame
Hey Boo! Thanks for stopping by! So, I recently moved and the mirror in my bathroom was plain and boring. You can see a picture of it below.
There was a bunch of crap on my bathroom counter as I was still moving in so I cropped the pic, but you can get the idea of how the frame looked before. Not bad… Just super plain.. lol I was thinking of ways to spruce up my bathroom and good ole Pinterest came through! I definitely can’t take credit for the idea or assembly of this project. This tutorial was very detailed, and helpful. I pretty much followed her exact instructions. I also
hadneeded the help of my mom and brother. This project was kind of out of my element, y’all know I’m more of a sewing, Martha Stewart crafts kinda gal, so trying to go shopping, with a list, in The Home Depot, was soo overwhelming. Especially because the most experience I have with tools is putting a nail in the wall with a hammer, oh and I’ve screwed things with a screwdriver before! LOL So I did have to go back a few times before I had everything, but all the trips were worth it in the end.
I got my wood cut to size at Home Depot, the stain I used was Varathane in color Special Walnut.
The only thing that was different about our frames was the color stain. I REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted a darker stain wood. I’ve never stained wood before and I thought this would be dark enough. I used the same color stain as her “Special Walnut” but I did use a different brand so I guess that made a difference. I kept thinking the stain would get darker as it dried, when I realized this was the final color I was so mad. I just started at the can of stain like how could you betray me like this???? LOL Although I didn’t like the color of the stain, I refused to go back to Home Depot. So I just went with it… You could paint or even spray paint this frame if the wood stain doesn’t suit you.
The tutorial said to paint the mending plates before you use them but I still went back to touch up the paint and paint over the screws. I used some regular black acrylic paint I already had at home to paint these. 
Here you can see how the frame is hung on the wall. You attach the frame using D-ring hangers. Im lifting it a bit here so you can see, but it does sit flush with the wall. As far as price this project is pretty budget friendly.
- Wood- About $10
- Wood Stain- $6 or regular paint/spray paint
- Mending plates-$3
- Screws$2
- D-ring hangers- $3
- Acrylic paint- $1-2
- Wood Glue- $3
- Drop Cloth- $1 (My local dollar tree had some)
- You will also need a drill or screwdriver or some sort
In conclusion, I think if you have experience with wood working and shopping in Home Depot, this would be a simple project for you. For me, the hardest part was shopping for all the things. Y’all should have saw me staring at the power drills! LOL A couple times I just said “Forget this, I’m gonna go look at the plants..” I did all the shopping and planning of the project by myself, my mom and brother just helped with the assembly. So do seek help if you start to feel overwhelmed.
Even though the stain didn’t come out the shade I wanted, I still like the end result and I think the mirror looks way better with it!!
What do you think of this project?? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading this far and visiting my blog! Appreciate you boo! XOXO
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Did Someone Say Macramae?
Hey darling!! Welcome back to my blog! If you follow me on IG I mentioned yesterday that I recently became obsessed with a new craft. That craft is… Macramae! I have been sewing for a long time and every once in a while I just get the itch to try my hand at something else creative! The last time I got this itch, I started embroidery and found it to be really cool.. I completed 1 project and my itch was scratched because I really dislike hand sewing, so I knew that wasn’t going to last long. lol
Now macrame is something I can get with because (there is no hand sewing involved) if you played with gimp as a kid or you know how to tie your shoes, you will most likely be good at Macramae. lol
Macramae is a technique or method of crafting a textile that uses several knots to form the basic shape and function of the piece. Each knot can be created with your hands, and there are no other tools required other than mounting rings or something similar to hold your project place while you work. Macramae is also an inexpensive hobby to start.
Since moving into my apartment I’ve become obsessed with D.I.Y home projects and videos. I’ve actually done a few D.I.Y’S I found on Pinterest. I installed a pegboard wall in my sewing area, I aded a wood frame around the mirror in my bathroom, and I also tried out those painted vases that you see all over Instagram and Pinterest. All of those projects turned out great, with the help of my mom and brother!
When it comes to decorating my walls I really like adding texture. So I loved the idea of macrame. I currently have wall with a raffia leaf, a wood picture frame and a straw basket on it, if that gives you an idea of what I mean when I say texture on the walls. lol I would say my interior style is like Afro- Boho. I think if I style my mini macrame hangings they right it will fit right in with the rest of the decor.
So these are “mini” macrame projects. That means they are small in size, don’t require much to get started, and most of the mini hangings I saw are made up of basic knots. I did 3 different projects and they all look different but use the same 3-4 basic knots. I got string for my project and the wooden dowel from Hobby Lobby. However you can find a wider variety of macrame string on Amazon, Etsy, or another online shop. The dowel I got was really long so I went to Home Depot and borrowed their saw and cut them to the size I wanted. lol You can also just buy 6-8 inch dowels so you won’t have to cut anything.
To complete this project I followed a tutorial by @madebyhandbyallison. Her tutorial can be found here. I really like this tutorial because it was easy to follow, quality was good, she didn’t talk, and she played peaceful music in the background. I love videos where the person doesn’t talk.. Of course it depends on the video, sometimes you watch it to actually hear the info but most times I don’t need the commentary and I end up skipping through the talking anyway. I know Im not the only one who does this. LOL
Anyway what do you think about this mini macrame wall hanging? Have you tried a macrame project before? Let me know.
Also this picture was taken at night so the lighting was very weird.
I could have brushed out the fringe to make it fuller but I just untwisted it and left it as is! -
Top 3 Houseplants for Total Beginners
Thanks for visiting my blog! In this post I’m going to tell you 3 of the easiest houseplants to care for! It’s no doubt that people who love plants like REALLY love their plants. The same way some people adore their pets is the same way I feel about my plants. My plants may not be able to bark or lick me, but they still need love and attention, they keep me grounded, they need to be fed and cared for, they grow, they live, they die, and most importantly nature and animals show us the beauty of something bigger than ourselves.
If you don’t know I’m a quote lover. LOL I have a book of all my favorite quotes. I used to just jot down quotes and not put the name of the person who wrote the quote. Now that I don’t know who said what, it’s kind of annoying me so I’m starting my quote book over. I love it because whenever I’m feeling down or need a reminder of certain things I just look through this book and instantly feel uplifted. It’s not only quotes, its intentions, affirmations, and just any words that made me feel good. One page is literally just a page of words. Yes I’m geeky like that. Lol I love books, and words, the dictionary app is on the homescreen of my phone. Lol I digress, but, I said all that to say, the quote below best describes how I feel when I’m in nature, around pets, or caring for my plants at home. I feel closer to God.
I love brainyquote.com. They get me. lol It also doesn’t hurt that “Animals (and plants) are such agreeable friends. They ask no questions. They pass no criticisms.” -George Eliot
I started caring for houseplants about 2-3 years ago. I started with a Pothos, a Spider plant, and then a Snake plant. These are my top 3 plant choices for a total for a beginner. These plants are all really easy to care for, easy to find, inexpensive, and easy to propagate. There are of course other easy houseplant options, but I like these 3 because they are also air purifying plants!
Spider Plant– I got mine about 2 years ago at a farmers market. I think I paid about $5 for it. It has grown and been through some things since I got her, including a 6 hour road trip in the blazing hot summer. She did not like that trip at all and was really sad after that. I almost thought she wasn’t going to make it. All the leaves turned pale yellow-brown and most of the leaves were wilted. But here she is a year later still thriving and surviving. Lol She used have a bunch of pups hanging from her but after that road trip she didn’t grow anymore except the one that is pictured beside her.
Pothos Plant– This is one of those plants of steel. Lol It’s a hardy plant that is super hard to kill and can last for years if cared for properly. I started my pothos from a cutting. This plant started with only 4 leaves! It is growing beautifully. I recently got a Queen Marble Pothos cutting that I’m currently propagating.
Snake Plant– Also called Mother- in- laws- Tongue. This is another hardy plant that is super hard to kill. Only thing I will say about this plant is watch how much you water it. I had my snake plant for about 2 years, it was doing good, but then my roommate severely overwatered it, it got all mushy and rotten and I had to throw it away. I was only able to save 1 healthy leaf from that plant and I’m currently trying to propagate it. My sister gave me the snake plant pictured below and it has been growing like crazy lately. Her name is Tamera. My sister has the same one named Tia. lol
So there you have it! These are the 3 Easiest Houseplants to care for! Let me know if you found this post useful! Drop a comment, follow me on IG, tell a friend! Thanks for stopping by!
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Birthday Outfit 2020!!!!
Hey Loves! Thanks for visiting my blog! As the title states this post is about the outfit I made for my birthday! I’ll get the basics out of the way first… The fabric is Power Mesh from Fabricwholesaledirect.com. This website has great quality power mesh and you can’t beat the price, only $4 a yard! This year I had a lot of ideas for an outfit and couldn’t decide what I wanted to make. The only thing I knew for sure was that I wanted to wear black. I love me some color and prints but I also looove an all black look.
Last year I was inspired by designer FeNoel and this year was no different. I truly love her designs. Like every single thing. The moment I can afford to splurge on (black owned) designer garments, Im going to buy something from her. The dress I decided to recreate is the Fe Noel Dancehall Jersey Knit Dress (pictured below) and it retails for a little over $1000. The Fenoel dress is not power mesh but some type of knit jersey fabric. I felt like the power mesh was pretty close in texture and drape so I went with that.
I stared at this dress for a long time trying to figure out how to recreate it. lol I started with a raglan sleeve t-shirt and went from there. I used the t-shirt as my pattern and turned it into a floor length dress. Once I had that pattern, I doubled the length so I would be able to gather the dress and still have it be long. I did the same thing with the sleeves, made them long sleeves first, then doubled the length of the sleeve.
Gathering
There are alot of ways you can create the ruching or gathering effect in this dress, I’ll explain below.
By Hand: On the description of this dress it says it is “hand ruched.” I definitely didn’t plan on hand ruching the whole dress but I did have to do some areas by hand.
Elastic and serger- This is a great method I saw in a youtube video. The girl used clear 1/4 inch elastic. She placed the elastic between 2 layers of fabric and stretched it as she sewed the elastic in between the fabric with her serger blades. Believe she took her serger blades off for this. I think its a great method but only ideal if you are ruching a seam. If I find the Youtube video I will link it on this post.
Zig-Zag Yarn method- This is a technique I often use when I have really long pieces to gather. In this case I think this method could work, however, I did not try it. I know the zig zag yarn method is not ideal when gathering around an armhole or a side seam, that’s why I did not do it.
Clear Elastic and Sewing Machine- In the end went with clear elastic. I set my machine to a small stitch, stretched my elastic, and sewed with a zig zag stitch. This method worked perfectly and I didn’t have to do a center seam in the front or back. When it came to the sides of the dress I gathered by hand, but you can also do the elastic and serger method on the side seams.
The most confusing part of making this dress was the armhole area for me. I feel like no matter what I did or how much I gathered it, it didn’t look like the picture. In the end I know in order to properly execute this dress I needed to make a muslin, which I did not make due to time constraints. lol I almost did not wear or post this dress because of my perfectionist ways eating at me. So many of you commented and DM’d me about it so I posted it and wrote this blog post. So thank you for that! If there is anything I missed in this post leave a comment here, or on IG @itsnichelleb!
Thank you for visiting!
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Linen Men’s Shirt Flip
Hey boo, thanks for stopping by. I don’t take it lightly that you took the time out of your day to visit my blog! I appreciate you! If you want to further show your love for me or my little blog feel free to share my IG post in your story or simply tell a friend to check it out!
So about my latest creation. This linen set! I’ve made at least 3 items out of linen so far this summer and I have no intentions of stopping! lol I just loveee linen for summer. It’s cool, it’s easy to sew with, and idk I just like the vibe of it. The wrinkles in linen used to turn me off from making garments with it but I’ve learned to “embrace the wrinkles” and just go with it. I’ve also learned about different linen weights, blends, and prewash techniques that can affect the end result of the fabric and/or your garment.
My original plan for making this set was to just buy some linen fabric and make it from scratch. However, as I mentioned in my IG post linen can be kind of pricey, usually running at about $20 a yard. Since this whole lockdown/quarantine thing I’ve been trying to be resourceful, and think of other options before I just go out and buy (or search online) for new fabric. It’s no secret that mens shirts make a great canvas for creating new garments. So when I saw one in linen fabric in a nude tone I knew I would find something to do with it. Random, but I love me some nude tones! I saw some cute linen sets on Pinterest but they all retailed for about $100 or more. I told y’all I sew because I have expensive taste.. lol So here are some pics of the sets I used as inspiration to create my set.
All these images were found on Pinterest. Both of these sets are from Australian based brands that specialize in linen garments and goods. The websites are www.ilovelinen.com.au and deijistudios.com.
So to make this 2 piece set I basically chopped the shirt in half and used the bottom portion for the shorts. Then I cut the the sleeve off and used the left over fabric from the sleeves for the waistband on the shorts. lol Now, I will say that this was definitely a stretch on the use of fabric. I used every bit of fabric on this. The only thing I didn’t use was the shirt cuffs. I did a flat front waistband with elastic in the back. You can also consider using multiple shirts to get the same look!
Y’all the funny story about this pic is that I planned to take this pic with shoes on then at the last min I took my shoes off and hopped in front of the camera but the deck was hot AF! lol Thats why I’m on my tippy toes lol I ran right back to put my shoes on after this pic! You May Also Like
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Men’s Button Up Shirt Refashion
Hey boo!!! I miss you all! So much has been going on in the world lately I don’t even know where to start.. All Im going to say is that during these weird and somewhat trying times I hope you are still taking time to care for yourself! A form of self care for me was visiting my family in Maryland recently so that was great! Anyway I had quite a bit of thrifted clothing DIYs saved and I thought I would try this one out.
This idea and tutorial came from my girl @FashionWizadry on Instagram and Youtube. She is one of my favorite DIY bloggers! Pretty much every DIY from her page that I try turns out great, this button up shirt included. I followed her tutorial which can be found here. Now in this tutorial she did do some math calculations and she kinda lost me on that part. Lol Although I didn’t do the calculations I do recommend it so you will know exactly how big or small your tucks should be. My shirt was from Goodwill I believe, it had a pocket on it and I just seam ripped it off. Other than that I just followed the tutorial! Its amazing what you can do with a men’s button up shirt!
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D.I.Y JUMPSUIT
Another jumpsuit!! This is the 3rd one I’ve made since “Quarantine”. I like this one because I feel like its right in between the other 2 jumpsuits I made as far as style and construction. The first jumpsuit was super easy and beginner friendly. The second one was super detailed, not really for a beginner. This jumpsuit is right in the middle.. Chill but still chic, and not too heavy on the details. lol
If you like my pink “quarantine jumpsuit” but want something that’s quicker and easier to make then this is for you! This pattern would work great in a cotton, linen, lightweight denim, or lightweight twill fabric. This fabric has been in my stash for a long time so Im not exactly sure what kind of fabric it is, but it’s lightweight and it has some stretch. If I had to take a guess I would say it is a cotton twill fabric. This was only going to be a test garment but I like how it turned out.
This jumpsuit has an invisible zipper in the back, side pockets, and an optional tie belt with a small waist bag attached.
I ran out of fabric and matching thread during this project so there are some small imperfections. For example I couldn’t do any topstitching, I wanted the belt to be longer, and I had to piece together some fabric in the back that isn’t very noticeable but still there is a seam in a random place.
So to make this I combined 2 patterns. I used #M7872 for the top and the pattern I used for the bottom is out of print but you can use any pant pattern that isn’t made for knits and does NOT have an elastic waist. Honestly I would recommend just buying the McCalls pattern instead of hacking because it took a lot more time to hack and you pretty much get the same result. If I had the pattern I would have just used that. LOL I love jumpsuits because they are so easy to dress up or down.
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D.I.Y Paper Bag Waist Pants
Hey loves! Im just going to skip over the fact that I haven’t wrote a blog post in months… LOL To sum it up… I had a crazy work schedule before Covid-19 sat us all down and I was simply too exhausted to sew anything let alone write a blog post.. I absolutely love blogging but it does not pay my bills… So it had to take a backseat for a while. I hope you all understand that and know I missed you dearly while I was away. lol
Ok on to the pants… This fabric is from Fabric Joint in Atlanta. I like the fabric shopping scene here in Georgia. It’s not like New York or LA fabric shopping but there are definitely options. I like Fabric joint for my solid colored fabrics. I feel like their print selection is kind of outdated, but that’s just me. I also like their prices I don’t think I’ve ever bought a fabric over $5 from there. This is actually a kind of heavy fabric, I think its sweatshirt material.
To create these pants I used McCalls pattern #7577 (pictured below) .
I have other paperbag waist patterns however, none of them were as casual as these pants. Sewing these pants is really easy and doesn’t take long at all.
Lay out your pattern pieces according to the instructions. You are going to add to the top of the pants pattern. How much you add will depend on the size elastic you use in the casing and how tall you want your paper bag to be. My paperbag waist (meaning this top of the pant that is hanging free) is about 3 inches tall and I used 1 inch elastic in the casing so I added about 5 inches to the top of the pants. Here is a little diagram to help you understand better if this doesn’t make sense.
The blue portion is where you would add to the pattern. What you add at the top will become the paperbag waist and the casing. You don’t need to worry too much about the curve of the hip because the pants are very loose fitting. Once you have your pants cut out they will look kind of weird but you are going to assemble the pants according to the directions, sew them up and add your side pockets. When it comes to the waist part you will fold the top down to create the paper bag and a casing. Hopefully this makes sense! Leave any questions below!
The only thing about using this method for a paperbag waist is that you will have a center seam in the waistband. I know some people don’t like that that’s why they do the waistband separately. For these particular pants I didn’t mind the center seam!
I think paper bag waists are super cute paired with crop tops, sports bras, or really close fitting clothing like a bodysuit. The bodysuit and sports bra also have posts which can be found here and here!! As I mentioned on my IG page these pants are perfect for lounging, and you can dress them up or down. What do you think!? Are you a fan of the paperbag waist? I honestly think these pants would look great on many body shapes.
Thank you for stopping by!
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1 Dress, Styled 3 ways
Heyyy Loves,
I told you I would be showing you ways to style the Simplicity Pinafore Dress so here it is! Again the reason I love pinafore style dresses is because you have the option to dress them up or down! You can keep it simple and chic by pairing a turtleneck underneath, or you can go a bit more dressy by adding a fancy blouse underneath, or if you want to be really chill you can throw on a vintage tee underneath!
With a white button up shirt underneath you can take this look to the office or to church! 
Paired with a t-shirt I feel like I’m ready for a concert! lol You can also wear a shirt on top of this dress, to make it appear as if you have on a skirt. I couldn’t get the individual pics to upload for some reason.. But which style is your favorite? Have I convinced you to make a pinafore style dress yet? ?