Feather Print Infinity Scarf

I am LOVING my new feather print infinity scarf!  Awesome jewel tones with pops of bright colors perfect for matching and coordinating with fall colors...and I love jewel tones. They go with my coloring very well. Pastels? Mustard? Oh no. I look HORRID. But saturated deep teals, oranges, greens, blues? Oh yes.

And now that the weather has turned chilly I am wearing jeans, one of my infintiy scarves, and a cardigan nearly every day! Here is the latest outfit design board I created using the Feather Print infinity scarf:

Find more outfit ideas on my Stylin' board over on Pinterest:


And oh yes, you can purchase your own Feather Print Infinity Scarf in the Vintage Dutch Girl shop here by clicking on the photo:

Happy Fall!

Amanda- Vintage Dutch Girl

Pumpkin Madness...

After spending WAY too much money on pumpkins last fall I decided I should try to grow them myself this year.  My parents have a lot that they will be building a new house on later this year and have a huge garden and extra space.  In exchange for weeding they said I could plant pumpkin starts. Sweet!  I planted two varieties: Jack o Lantern and Pumpkin Pie.

Well:

We had PERFECT growing conditions this summer: Super warm, humid, just enough rain...and lots of fertilizer. We were so excited to see our efforts rewarded with a large amount of perfect pumpkins! It was SO fun to go and harvest a bunch of them and decorate my front porch.

Lil Chick and Mama:

Easiest way to move a large amount of small to mid size pumpkins? Tossing them :)

Yep, filled the back of the car!
 

YES we plan to carve some of the big ones in a few weeks....YES I plan to roast some of the pie pumpkins and freeze the filling (no canned pumpkin needed here!)....and YES I like my front porch looking like a pumpkin patch advertisement.
 

I think I shall make some more of those Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies I've fallen in love with and make every autumn. Recipe is HERE.

I LOVE pumpkins!
 

Happy Fall Y'all!

Amanda - Vintage Dutch Girl

Happy Fall Y'all! Free Printable...

As of this past Sunday it is officially FALL!

I love the colder nights and the foggy mornings. And of course the cozy clothes: Scarves, boots, sweaters.

And pumpkins. I have a THING for pumpkins :)

I made up a fun free printable for you today! It is a square but could be cropped to your desired frame size.

Enjoy!

Right click to download and save. Enjoy!

Amanda- Vintage Dutch Girl

Travel Trailer Makeover, Part 8: Master Bedroom and Privacy Curtains...

We have, er HAD, two ceiling to floor plain dark beige curtains instead of doors to separate and give privacy to the queen bed area from the main part of the trailer:

Just like the shower curtain project, they are attached at the top with glide tracks and glide tape sewn to the top edge of the fabric.

Glide tape is flexible plastic strips with little clips every 6 inches or so:

So, I pulled out the fabric and got to work.  The curtains were simple to design, just rectangles with hemmed edges.  I just copied the original beige curtain measurements. Actually, I added in more yardage width wise so it hung nicer and not so stretched flat.

For attaching the glide tape: Using a zipper foot on your sewing machine, set your (hefty upholstery size) needle to a side position:

and sew along the top and bottom of the plastic glide tape strip directly onto the top inside of your fabric:

Aaaaaaand.....Done!

I just snapped the holders into place along the glide strips. See how the extra yardage made those pretty ruffles? (Please don't tell my hubby I said "pretty" and "ruffles" to describe Lumi our trailer in any way shape or form.)

In order for the curtains to hang nicely I pulled a 'use what you have' trick and put fishing weighs in the corners of the curtains and safety pinned them into place:

The previous velcro tie backs were fixed to the wall with a special screw so I just replaced the blah fabric with chocolate brown, the same fabric that I used to recover the valances. (See valance project HERE.)

Add to that a new mattress (yeah, um, the trailer came with a 4 inch thick "mattress" to sleep on. Nope. Nada. Not happening. We spend A LOT of time camping.) and new bedding and the master bedroom area is looking very nice! Ahhh, it felt good to see nice fun colors and have the trailer looking more like us!

And if "by us" that means a wild and crazy mix that happens to blend, then YES, it looks more like us :)

Reminder of what this space looked like: Bedroom and side curtains BEFORE:

And now: Bedroom and side curtains after!

Next will be the last post in this series: the Bunk Beds! Oooh my FAVE part of this project!


Amanda - Vintage Dutch Girl



 Check out all the posts from this Travel Trailer Makeover Series!

• Part 1: A sassified Shower Curtain

• Part 2: The "before I tore everything apart" Tour
• Part 3: Bright Bold and Beautiful Fabrics
• Part 4: Wallpaper removal, A Dismantled Trailer and New Side Curtains  
• Part 5: Cornici Recoving! 
• Part 6: Dinette Cushions Madeover!
• Part 7: Couch Slipcover
• Part 8: Master Bedroom and Privacy Curtains 
• Part 9: Bunk Beds and Windows

Tribal Infinity Scarf Shopper Outfit...

Tribal Infinity Scarf Shopper by VintageDutchGirl

Featuring the black tribal knit print infinity scarf found in the Vintage Dutch Girl Etsy shop HERE:

Amanda - Vintage Dutch Girl

 

Fall is coming! Mint and Orange outfit...

Featuring the Mint green/Aqua and orange floral infinity scarf found here:

Amanda - Vintage Dutch Girl

Tribal Summer...

New summer tribal outfit idea featuring the new Tribal Print infinity scarf available HERE.

Amanda  - Vintage Dutch Girl

Black White Coral Aqua Dress Up

Black White Coral Aqua Dress Up by VintageDutchGirl

Travel Trailer Makeover, Part 7: Chevron Slipcovered Couch

Hoo boy. Oh yes, that couch.  This was the biggest challenge in my Travel Trailer Makeover project.

Which is why it took me, oh, about 8 months (*ahem* 11 months) to get back to my blogging series. It was THAT traumatic. (NOT because I got lazy and distracted with other things...)


Here is the reminder Before pic, complete with diamond upholstery on the couch cushion back, front kick flap, curtain cornice thingy, dinette cushions as well as the lovely wallpaper border:

And yes, ALL off that diamond pattern fabric is sayonara  (Good riddance)  :)

This couch project took a lot of fabric up because I needed to match up both the chevron zig zag pattern AND the color. OY. AND I miscut and had a piece upside down (the wrong color pattern).  I had to change it, I knew it would bug me forEVAH.

I made the bottom kick pleat flap thingy first.  It's quite simple, just serged on the top, hemmed on the bottom and screwed into place on top of the couch base board :

I had to piece two LONG fabric widths together to match up the entire zig zag and to make the kick pleat which YES I wanted to do. It just made the whole thing look way more "finished".

Held open (ignore my not quite perfect lining up on the inside):

Lying flat:

Making/designing the couch slip cover took a LOT of measuring, remeasuring and then measuring again for good measure.

I sketched out a rough pattern based on the couch fabric pieces and measured like crazy.

This is what the couch slipcover ended up looking like pre-sewing assembly:

Each piece was labeled with where on the couch is went and which was was UP.  Also displayed in this pic a pile of toys. Because recovering a travel trailer couch takes time and I got super lazy with housework. Just keeping it real :)

After plotting the entire thing out, it was stitch time.  I systematically pieced the entire thing together using a tight stitch on my serger. I wanted it super strong!

Next up, take the slip cover out to the trailer and fit it over the original fabric on the couch:


It was at this point that I realized you cannot staple into METAL.  Yes, I though the back of the couch was wood and that I would be able to simple staple gun the fabric to the wood couch frame. Nope. Nada. It's metal.

SO. I have yet to do so, but I am planning on hand stitching/tacking the back of the couch slipcover to the original couch fabric with super strong upholstery thread.  Not ideal, but better than nothing!   It stays pretty well as it is a tight fitting slipcover.

So, there you go, before and after travel trailer couch makeover!

Amanda - Vintage Dutch Girl 

Check out all the posts from this Travel Trailer Makeover Series!

• Part 1: A sassified Shower Curtain

• Part 2: The "before I tore everything apart" Tour
• Part 3: Bright Bold and Beautiful Fabrics
• Part 4: Wallpaper removal, A Dismantled Trailer and New Side Curtains 
• Part 5: Cornici Recoving! 
• Part 6: Dinette Cushions Madeover! 
• Part 7: Couch Slipcover
• Part 8: Master Bedroom and Privacy Curtains
• Part 9: Bunk Beds and Windows

Chevron Maxi skirts...

I LOVE a casual maxi skirt outfit!

Chevron Casual by vintagedutchgirl

YES, the chevron maxi skirts are now available in my Vintage Dutch Girl Etsy shop! So far I have Gray and White Chevron as seen above as well as Coral and White Chevron:

A striking Black and White Chevron:

 

And a fun Teal and White Chevron:

All skirts are custom sized as explained in the listing information.  I am still working on getting aqua, mustard, and multicolored chevron maxi skirts made, photographed and listed! Stay tuned...

Amanda - Vintage Dutch Girl

You guys LOVE maxi skirts....

I have had an idea floating around in my brain for awhile. It's not a NEW idea, I just wanted to put my own lil spin on it.

I decided I wanted to make my own chevron knit maxi skirt and see if there happened to be any interest in them. If so, I was thinking OK, maybe I can sell a few in my Etsy shop.

Um. WOW. I posted this picture on Wednesday afternoon:

And in less than 24 hours with 33 new facebook fans, 800+ views of the photo, 40+ photo likes and many many MANY requests for a chevron maxi skirt...it was pretty clear: I'm now making and selling maxi skirts in the Vintage Dutch Girl Etsy shop!

Wowzers. You guys REALLY like chevron maxi skirts :)  I'm perfecting my pattern and sizing options now, will let you know when the skirts will be listed for sale!


Amanda - Vintage Dutch Girl