Tutorial ~ Leafy Felt Pillow

Hi everyone! Amber of the amazing blog, Crazy Little Projects, is doing a fun sewing challenge every month. This month's theme is "Gift items". I was so excited to be asked to be a part of it and to share my project today!

Halloween is behind us and Thanksgiving is approaching. Is your home all decorated for fall? I love decorating my house with some things appropriate to the season. I thought it would be fun to make a decorative pillow with a bunch of leaves with a little splash of jewel color.

That. is. not. all. I created this pillow on a small budget. You might want to make several to give out to your family, friends, Thanksgiving dinner host, and even to yourself. Isn't it one of our dramas as a sewer/crafter that the cost of materials add up! If you were looking for something nice to make on a tight budget, this might be what you are looking for. :)

{You will need}--- and some tips, please read before you head out to shop

Felt --- They were having 4 for $1 sale when I bought them. I needed 10 felts (4 silver gray and one of each colors) which was only $2.50! They usually cost a little more. Since you only need about half the felt for each color for the leaves, if you decide to make two pillows, you can make each one for slightly less. You will need the colors below.

Gold, Golden rod, orange, coral red, olive, aqua, Silver Gray

The color of the thread you want to use --- I used dull orange colored thread from start to finish. If you don't want the color to pop against the gray felt, it is totally fine to use a different color.

1 3/4 yards of Pom-pom --- this can make the cost go up, but Jo-Ann Fabric always has coupons. Look for a 40% or 50% off coupon!

Fiber fill

{How to}

1. Cut 2 pieces of silver gray felt the long way. Now you have 4 pieces of 4 1/2" x 12" pieces.

2. Sew them on to the sides of the whole felt. Over wrap 1/4" on the seam and sew with zig-zag stitch. Do the same with the other pieces. Now you have 2 pieces of 12" x 17 1/2" silver gray felt.

3.Print out the PDF pattern for the leaves I created. Cut them out.

4. Trace them onto the felt. You need 22 leaves total. You can mix and match however you want.

5 Draw a nice wavy line. This will be a guide line for the placement for the leaves.

6. Pin the first leaf and sew then move on to the second leaf. Repeat the process until the leaves reach to near the end of the line.

7. Lay the back and the top felt together. Starting at the middle of the bottom, pin the pom-pom trim all around the pillow.

8. Switch the presser foot to Zipper foot on your machine. leaving 4" to 5" opening in the bottom, sew all around the pillow.

9. Stuff the pillow with fiber fill. Pin the rest of the pom-poms, front and back felt together. Sew the opening shut with your preferred method.

Now, you have a leafy felt pillow to give or to cozy up part of your house.

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial. :)

Happy fall!

Tutorial ~ Seriously Simple Pillow Case

I have been itching to clean and decorate our front porch for a while. I have been doing that here and there, but the recent nice weather is making me wanna do more...

Ever since we moved into this house, where to spend our limited resource (yes, money to be exact) is our constant struggle. There are always "needs" and "wants". Mr. TRH is better at making the distinction between those two and goes with the "needs". Me? Not so much. I am a pretty practical person, but I "want" to decorate the front room or I "want" to get beadboard in the bathroom and paint, woo can't forget the perfect towel and soap dispenser too! Well, that is my inside voice. We usually meet at a happy medium, but I didn't like to pay as much as we did for a water softener (also, that is part of the reason why I slipped and fell in the shower!). I appreciate the soft water very much... but I could have done so much around the house with that money too.

Ok, I got sidetracked... I was looking at outdoor pillows online and the ones that I liked cost around $50 to $60 a pillow. I wanted several that could easily cost me a couple hundred dollars! I decided to do a quick sewing session last weekend.

Thanks to Joann Fabric's sale, I scored the outdoor fabric and pillow forms for 50% off, yay!
Online version ($60) vs mine (around $12)


I will share a very simple pillow case tutorial, in case you have been looking for one. The beauty of this style of pillowcase is, you don't worry about piping, zipper and all the other fusses, and because it is a very minimal style, it costs less as well.


{You will need}

Pillow form -- Mine is 18"x 18"
Outdoor fabric -- well, if you are making one for the inside you can just get regular fabric, of course!
Thread

{How to}

* Before you begin --- The outdoor fabric I bought is 100% polyester. You need to check your iron setting before you iron, so you don't melt and shrink the fabric.

1. Fold the fabric in fourths and trim the edge. Because my pillow form is 18"x 18", I added an inch for seam allowances(1/2" for one side and 1/2" for the other).
Cut fabric for 19"x width of the fabric.

2. I brought the ends together to test fold and overlapped both ends by 9" in the back, add 1" for both ends for the seam then cut off the excess.

3. Fold both ends 1/2" twice and sew.

4. Fold the fabric again like you did in step 2 and pin the seam. Because I wanted to match the stripes exactly, my finished pillow case is slightly off. If you are working with solid or all over pattern fabric, this process becomes easier.

5. Sew both openings with 1/2" seam and treat the edge with your favorite method to prevent fraying.

6. Turn the fabric inside out and press with iron.

Now, it is ready to stuff the pillow form and enjoy!

This is one of my new favorite places. As for me, satisfaction comes from the knowledge that I didn't break the bank to decorate our home and I am getting the results that I imagined in my head. I will see you at next post everyone, I am gonna go outside and sip my lemonade. :)

Tutorial/ Crate & Barrel Inspired Painted Pillow

I received a new catalog from Crate & Barrel in the mail, there were so many eye candies in there, but I especially LOVED this pillow...

I decided to make my version of  Crate & Barrel’s inspired pillow using what I had.  I will show you how I did it.

{You will need}

1------16" x 16" Pillow form
2------18"x 18" Fabrics (I trimmed them down after I painted them.  I used linen instead of canvas)
1------14"x 14" zipper
Fabric Paint 1 - 2 bottles
Fabric Medium
Roller
Freezer Paper
Craft Punches

{How to}

* Fabric Paint

1. Lay one 18"x 18" fabric on a flat surface and Find the center.  I just used my 10 1/2" dinner plate to draw a circle.  Make sure to draw really lightly, because some of the areas I drew on were too dark, and after I painted once it still showed through.

2. I used three different types of flower punches.  Cut lots of flower pieces out of freezer paper.

3. Place them in the circle you drew.  Press them with a hot iron without steam. 

4. Paint the fabric. I used Martha Stewart multi-purpose paint mixed with fabric medium. Paint the other fabric too.   Let it dry for 24 to 48 hours. After they are completely dry, iron to set the color.

* Assemble the Pillow

1. Lay both fabrics together right sides together on the cutting mat.  Trim off the excess from all sides to make it to 17" x 17" squares.  Then treat one side of the edge from both fabrics to prevent fraying.

2. Lay the zipper on one side of the fabric, and mark about 2 1/2" in from both sides.  Then sew both ends, do not forget to do backstitch so they don't fall apart later.

3. Then switch your stitch length to your largest setting and sew the part in between the 2 1/2" sewed part (can you see the big stitches and small stitches?)

4. Open the seam, and press with the iron.  Lay the zipper front side down.  Pin it to the seam.

5. Switch the stitch length back to normal, and also swap to the zipper foot and sew the zipper on.

Front...

Unpick the basting stitches, so you can use the zipper...

6. Open the zipper, and put the fabrics right sides together again.  Pin them well.

7. Sew the three sides using 1/2" seam.

8. You can choose your preferred method to finish the edges, but I thought that the fabric was pretty stiff from paint, I decided to try pinking scissors.  Cut off the corners for a prettier finish.

9. Turn the pillow case inside out, press the edges with the iron.

Time to enjoy!!

I love love how it turned out, the fabric is a little bit stiffer with paint than I thought it would be, but that's OK. This is meant to be a "decorative" pillow. :) I enjoyed the process so much so that I am thinking about making more.

Tutorial / T-shirt Pillow (just because I found an old t-shirt)

I have been going through my house on and off for the last several months. To get rid of things I usually have a system... There are three piles, such as "Donate", "Sell", "Throw away". Any other place in the house is not hard to do this except in Mr. TRH and my closet.

I have a weakness for fabrics, and there is no exception when I am trying to get rid of some clothes. Even though an item hasn't been worn for such a long time, I start to think "uh, I can use this to make this" or "ah, I bet if I do this and this I can still wear it".

So, this is one of those projects that I just had to try and see. :)

I found this old t-shirt on Mr.TRH’s side of closet. It was in good condition, but he hadn’t worn it AT ALL for several years.



1. First cut it apart.


2. Cut 2 -- 15" X 22" rectangles for the pillow, and many 1" wide strips. If the t-shirt you have is smaller, you can cut smaller rectangles to make a smaller pillow.


3. On one of the rectangles, you can start "drawing". When you stretch the strips, they will curl up; I think this gives an interesting effect to the pillow. I didn't have any plans whatsoever, but I just eye balled the middle, and pinned the first strip and started to sew.



Keep drawing with strips...



4. After I did lots of "drawing" with strips, I made some ruffle strips to fill in some spaces. To make ruffles, sew in the middle of the strips with large stitches and pull one of the threads. Gather the fabric to make ruffles.




5. Put the front and back fabrics right sides together. Pin them and sew all around it with 1/4" seam. Make sure to leave 3" - 4" opening for turning.


7. Snip the corners for a neat finish.


8. Turn, press the edges with an iron. Stuff, slip stitch closed...and ta-da!


When the kids came home from school, Rachel noticed the pillow right away; the boys couldn’t care less about such minor details in life. I thought it was so funny to see the difference. Although, the pillow is loved by everyone, it is so soft and cuddly and perfect for a pillow fight. :)