Crafty Creations for the Baby's Room! A Refurbished Dresser for the Nursery and a Pair of Handmade Nuno Felted Curtain Valances

It seems like it is far and between when I have time and energy to blog anymore, but I plan to do better and start sharing more of what I've been up to for the baby's nursery. Here are two things that I've recently been working on. I have plans to do a few more things and will keep posting as I decorate.


The first thing that I did was refurbish an old dresser. My husband and I purchased it at a thrift store a couple of years ago for less than twenty dollars. It was originally black, and my husband painted it a matte white to be used for storage. In the last few weeks, I painted each of the drawers alternating glossy pink and yellow, put on a fresh coat of white paint on the top and front, and changed the drawer pulls to plain white. Now I think it is worthy to reside in the baby's nursery for storage. And, all together, it cost less than fifty dollars and just a few hours of my time. I think it was well worth it. By the way, that sheep in front of the dresser was a gift from my parents. It is a rocking sheep that the baby can use when it is older. I've nicknamed him "Edward" and think it is adorable!

The next thing that I decided to do was create some window curtain valances. A set came with my crib bedding, but they ended up being too small to adequately fit the nursery windows. After looking at several (and I mean several!) different stores for some new curtains without finding anything appropriate, I decided to make my own. As you can see from the photos, the curtain valances that I made are still a work in progress. I have yet to sew on loops or another way to attach them to rods for hanging. I'm still working on that, but I do really like the results so far. Each valance was made through nuno felting. I used white silk gauze as a base along with white blue face leicester roving and some bits of white linen roving. After wet felting each of the valances, I then dyed each piece a medium shade of pink. Part of my objective was to make lightweight valances that allowed the light to shine through and show the texture of the fibers. I think it worked out very well! I can't wait to get them hung so that I can see how they look next to the pale yellow walls. I also plan to eventually dye some silk chiffon for curtains to hang under these valances. When it is all finished, I'll post some photos.

So that's a sneak peak of what I've been up to for the nursery and my limited feltmaking adventures lately. I must say that wet felting those valances really wore me out. I spent the better part of a day working on them and could barely walk that evening because my hips and lower back hurt so badly. I do think it was good for me to get back in the studio though and plan to do it again fairly soon. Hopefully I'll have some more nursery creations or other felted goodies to post in a week or so.