Finding the Perfect Pink

If you know me well you know I LOVE to decorate. So obviously one of the most exciting parts of being pregnant last year was getting to plan and decorate my baby girls nursery. I was so wishy washy on what colors or theme I wanted to design her room around. I was debating on doing a white room with pops of bright colors or doing a white and cream room with gold and a light pink. I finally made my decision when I saw this swaddle blanket from Little Unicorn . I instantly fell in love and knew I wanted to design Maylees room around that swaddler. I ordered the blanket and then started getting ideas for the room. There was one problem… I couldn’t find any pink things to match the blanket. I wanted a pillow and a backdrop to the crib to match but nothing was catching my eye. Around this same time of year we had a yard sale. In the yard sell I had one of my favorite dresses for sale from Anthropologie. It didn’t fit me anymore so I was trying to sell it and get some money back from it. It didn’t end up selling so back to my closet it went. (I couldn’t let myself give it to a thrift store). Then one day I thought “wait that dress is the exact color of pink I want in Maylees room.” I pulled the dress out of the closet and it went perfect with the blanket. I then had to convince myself that it was okay to cut the dress up to make accessories for Maylees room since it is an anthropologie dress and I did spend lots of money on it. I decided it was so worth it to cut the dress up. I wasn’t going to wear it anymore and it was either going to get stuffed away in my closet or given away. So I decided why not make accessories that we can see and use everyday. Below is a picture of what the dress looked like when it was a dress. This is my sister Mariah wearing it here at my wedding.

So once I had decided I was going to cut it up and use the fabric in the nursery I had to decide what I was going to make with it. I thought a cute pillow to go in the crib would be perfect. I already had an old pillow that I decided to use and just use the fabric from the dress to make the pillow. What I did was lay the pillow form onto the dress and cut around the pillow leaving about an inch around the pillow. I then sewed 3 of the edges together with the right side of the fabric together. I flipped it inside out, put the pillow form inside it and and sewed the bottom by hand. One very cool feature of the dress is that it had these cute little pockets in the front. I made the pockets the front of my pillow so we could put little things in the pillow like little dolls or flowers like I have in the pictures below. 

I then had a lot of the fabric left so I thought it would be fun to add a touch of the fabric somewhere else in the room. I wanted to do some kind of banner above the crib so I thought this fabric would be darling in a banner. I started by cutting out about 2 1/2 inch triangles. I then started sewing them together in a straight line. The fabric was not sewing together well at all so I thought to use my walking foot on my sewing machine. That made all the difference and it then sewed together perfectly. The other banner that I put up with the pink one was actually made from thank you cards that I had laying around. I thought it was such a cute gold pattern. I cut them into different rectangle pieces and sewed them together. I decided how I wanted the layout of the banners to go and then I used a dot of hot glue on the wall to secure them on the wall. I loved how they turned out. I found that M at Hobby Lobby and thought it matched everything perfectly. I still had some of the fabric from the dress left so I thought I would use it some way in a gallery wall I wanted to make above her dresser. My mom had a great oval frame in her basement that I ended up painting white and I covered the back of the frame with the fabric. I then glued on a silk, white, Peony. It was the perfect 3D addition to the gallery wall.

 

I loved how Maylee’s room turned out. It was fun getting to use this dress to add the perfect pink touches. Its been a year now since I decorated this room and it has been so fun getting to see Maylee enjoy her nursery. Lots of times I will go in to find her playing with her toys and reading her books all on her own. 

I had to add this crying picture because it was just too funny. We just wanted to get a picture of her in her crib but she thought she was going to take a nap and she wasn’t liking that idea.

I love how Maylee’s room turned out. From all of this remember if you have something that you absolutely love don’t give it away. Keep it and reuse it in another beautiful way. I never once have regretted the decision of cutting up this dress to use the fabric for Maylee’s room.