Peek of the Week - January 6, 2012

What's Peek of the Week, you ask? It's our regular Friday feature and it's all about you! I want to hear (and share with my readers) what wowed you this week. It could be a cool finished project, a work in progress, a personal accomplishment, a cute kid moment, or something that surprised you.

If we could peek into your week - what would you want to show us?

Each week I'll share my own Peek of the Week to get the ball rolling, and invite you to link to your blog post about your Peek of the Week. I know y'all are up to cool stuff - we wanna see it! 

My Peek for today is a fun little oil cloth project I took on in a fit of 5 Minute Mania (what's that? See here.)

I've wanted to play around with oil cloth for years now. There are so many gorgeous oil cloths out there. So, when I was having a spree in Fabric Bliss a few days ago, I sprung for some oil cloth - two beautiful prints and some chalk cloth. 

Chalk cloth, incidentally, is genius. 

I also picked up a handy book full of oil and chalk cloth patterns which I haven't actually gotten to read yet. But in the shower I cooked up a grand plan for some pencil, scissor, and general utensil holders for my desk hutch area. I do my best cooking in the shower. 

That sounded dirty. 

So...a short tutorial. I totally winged it, but it worked. There's probably a real pattern for such a thing, but here's my winged way for what it's worth.

First, make sure you cure your chalk cloth before you begin. Lay a piece of chalk on the side and color all over then wipe off. Repeat. That way what you write first won't leave an eternal shadow.

Cut a circle for the bottom of you cylinder.

Here are the rest of the pieces. A rectangle of oil cloth about 6 inches tall by oh...18 inches or so. Winging it, remember? And a 2 inch wide strip of chalk cloth about 18 inches long.

 

I wanted to use a chalk cloth border so I could label the little cubbies! Clearly. 

Just fold it over the top edge of the oil cloth and zig zag the edge. 

 So then just sew the circle to the bottom edge of the rectangle right sides together. It takes some finagling because they don't really want to get sewn in a circle like that - but they can be convinced. 

Then stitch the two ends of the rectangle together where the meet. Trim off the excess and turn it right side out. 

And viola:

Ok! Your turn!

You could get peeking in three easy steps:
1. Blog about your Peek of the Week - whatever it is. Whatever happened that made you proud, laugh, smile, inspired, excited, or just plain happy - now that's worth sharing.
2. Include a link to this blog or put the Peek of the Week button (on the sidebar) in your post.
3. Link your blog post using the InLinkz button below.

If you don't get a chance to get here on Friday, feel free to link your post up later.
The InLinkz button will be active for 5 days.