Cloth napkin pillows

I am pretty sure I showed you these napkins from World Market before.

P.S.If you have never been in a World Market you need to plan a trip soon. 

Trust me!

This is the color palate I have used to decorate and paint my house.

I have been whipping up some easy throw pillows from these napkins and I wanted to show you one I just finished.

I just added some cute little pin tucks and then I sewed two napkins together.

Easy, peasy.

I love the mixture of girly fabric and modern clean lines.

On another note, as I was sewing these pillows I had a realization.

This has been a big year of first for me sewing wise.

My first zipper.

My first darts.

and now my first pin pleats!

Yay for me!

In honor of these accomplishments i have decided to make 

"try new sewing techniques"

a late new year's resolution.

I think this may be the only way I keep these resolutions,

to make them after I have already accomplished them.

You may call it cheating, but I call it smart! :)

How are you doing with your new year's resolutions? Have you tried any new sewing techniques this year? I want to hear!!

much love

Floor Cushion

I am REALLY excited about the project today!

I made a cute little floor cushion for Zadie baby as a Christmas present.

Isn't it SO stinking cute?!

I followed a wonderful tutorial made by Susan

at living with punks.

It was simple and took me about two nap times to make.

BUT

Of course I couldn't wait until Christmas to show Z.

Good thing her little memory is short.

I am REALLY going to have to get better at keeping secrets by next year!

Not so sure...

She thinks it might be kind of okay.

And you can bounce on it.... We have a winner! :)

We LOVE our new floor cushion!

And it STILL looks cute even after play time!

That is a mommy winner!



You should totally go make one of these

like - right now!

:)

~Happy holiday gift making!

Polka dot pillow covers, and sewing disasters

Remember how I said I would complete those pillows by the end of the week? Well I didn't hold into account that I have taken such a sewing break that I am now a novice. Nor did I consider how long it would take me to REALLY set up my machine. Let's just say I was one frustrated girl yesterday; broken machine plus teething baby= one grumpy momma! At least dinner turned out REALLY good! I made a ham and cheese quiche with leftover ham from the previous night's dinner and swiss cheese. MMMMM... is was delish! Another positive is that I now know my machine a lot better since I spent plenty of one on one time with the owners manual (and on the phone with my grandmother, the original owner). As for Zadie, she doesn't seem as weepy today... Hallelujah!
I did, in the chaos of yesterday, get two pillow shams done. If you remember in my previous post pillows galore I posted a link for a tutorial I was going to follow for the pillow covers. For some reason that tutorial was really intimidating to me because she did not give exact measurements throughout, and, I am embarrassed to admit this, I just could not understand how it could work! It was one of those times that I looked at her finished product and thought that there is something I am obviously missing so I am just going to go for it and hope I catch on. So on top of everything yesterday, I was working on a project that I assumed would probably not work.
Boy was I wrong! It hit me about 3/4 of the way through the project that I am a complete idiot (duh!) and I was making things WAY harder than they were. So here it goes.

I started by measuring out my fabric like she said in the directions, one 18x18 piece and one 18x26 piece.

I cut out two pillows at the same time.
Note to self: Learn how to cut straight...

Here is the fabric I worked with first.

I folder the longer fabric into 3rds and cut off 1/3. If you are annul like me and are making the same size pillow then your measurements should be: the 2/3 piece is 17 1/2 x 18 and the 1/3 piece is 8 1/2 x 18.

I folded the sides of the material, where I just cut them apart, 1/4 an inch and then ironed it down. I just eyeballed it.

Then I foled it again up to 1 1/2 inches. I only took a picture of the smaller piece for some reason, but I did this to both pieces.

I sewed down the ironed edges far enough down to make sure I got the 1/4 inch fold.

Finally I pinned it all together. This is the step that had me SO confused. For some reason I had it stuck in my mind that the two larger pieces would make up the front and the back and the smaller piece would just flap over. I know, I know... It is called a POCKET pillow. I can just be really slow. But for you other confused people out there what you do is lay the 18 x 18 piece down with the right side up. Lay the shortest piece down, right sides together, at the top of the 18 x18 piece. The hemmed side should be aimed towards the middle. Now lay the last piece down, right sides together, at the bottom of the 18x18 piece with the hemmed side going towards the middle. The 2/3s piece should overlap over the 1/3rd piece. You should now have made two 18x18 pieces. Pin them together.

Sew up all the sides reinforcing the overlapped pieces. Cut your corners and then flip it right side out!

Wa- la! You have a pocketed pillow sham! Again, I know I am showing my stupidity in this post, but I wanted to help any other poor frustrated soul who's brain just wasn't quite working. Pretty much I wanted to help all the new moms out there :)
So, two down and a gazillion to go :) I am thinking about trying one of those cutie patootie flowers I linked on the pillows galore post out today. Wish me luck... and full brain function :)
~ have a lovely, brain functioning day!

Pilows Galore!

Today is a pre-project post. I do still have some older projects to post about, but today I have pillows on my mind! I went to JoAnne's yesterday. I love that store. Between their coupons and my teacher's discount I always end up saving more than I spend. That makes this frugal momma HAPPY! :) Yesterday they were having a sale that was half off all the clearance fabric. What! Let me show you my steals...

I am not sure what I am going to do with the bottom fabric, but it was only two dollars a yard so I could not pass it up! And I think it is really cute. This is what I am thinking for the rest of the fabric. First let me show you the fabric that the color pallet for my house comes from.

This is actually a cloth napkin print from World Market. I fell in love with it and decided to pick the colors of my house from it. But, being the creative loser I tend to be sometimes I have created every throw pillow in my house from this fabric. LAME... So my plan is to spice it up a bit! Here is what I am thinking-

 I am going to make two more throw pillows for my living room couch out of the polka dot fabric. Then I will layer the pillows. My living room is that green/ yellow color of the napkin pillow.

For my family room I was thinking of making a couple of throw pillows in this gray seersucker fabric to go with the napkin pillow. I know that may be a stretch color-wise but my family room is a gray/blue and a more casual room. I bought the seersucker originally to make a summer dress for Zadie next summer. So, I may stick with that plan. We will see :) Here is a great tutorial I found for simple but good looking throw pillow covers that I am planning on following. http://www.piebirds.org/2011/01/how-to-make-throw-pillows.html

Now for the other pillows... I know there are MORE! I warned you. I was thinking of adding this flower
http://treyandlucy.blogspot.com/2010/09/flower-in-my-hair.html

I linked the tutorial above the picture. This is the fabric I am thinking about using.

The Seersucker would look cute too though! Who knows what the finished project will look like. I am planning on getting these done this week so keep checking!  ~happy sewing!