Pillows

Made a new set of pillows for the camper.

Pretty sure my husband is not going to love them as much as I do...but oh well! Lol

Easy to make pillow covers...Here is a good tutorial. Pillow Tutorial

Simple Sweater Hearts

This project is so simple.

I wasn't sure about them at first.

I mean, what is the point of a bunch of fabric hearts?

But then I decided, 

They are CUTE.

And there needs to be no more point or reason than that. :)

I doubled my material so that I had 2 layers. 

Then free handed a heart onto my material, which  happens to be an old sweater. 

I didn't worry about using a marker. It will be covered once sewn.

Then I pinned both pieces together. 

 

 Cut them out. 

Save the scrap pieces!

This is what I used to stuff my heart.

I had a giant needle on hand. 

Never used it before. 

It's perfect for sewing with yarn!

I cut about 30 inches of yarn. 

And started sewing around the edges. 

After it was all sewn, I hand tied the yarn into a knot, a couple time, then clipped the remaining yarn.

And the knots disappeared right into the fabric.

Working with a sweater is very forgiving.

All finished! 

And what a quick project!

And here I am, collecting my Jar Of Hearts....

DIY Burp Cloth's

Making Burp Cloth's is fairly easy.

Actually, it's really easy.

And quick.

So easy, I did not need to follow any directions.

I used a bath towel for my backside.

And a decorative cotton for the front side.

(If you use flannel, it makes it a bit tricky to sew. 

I used some interfacing when I use flannel, and it made it super easy)

 

I paid about $3.50 for the towel. And the fabric was on sale at Jo Anns. I paid $2.50 for half a yard; Which will do about 6 burp cloths.

 

How cute are those elephants!

PRE-WASH your material. 

FOR REAL, PRE-WASH IT!

I HATE this step. 

But if you DON'T do it, then when they are washed for the first time, the different material could shrink differently and make the whole thing look crooked and badly made.

 If your anything like me, you'll wash it with all of your other towels and clothes. 

So I had to pull out my lint brush. Took care of all the uglies left behind from my brown towels. LOL

My half yard of material measured enough to give me 6 burp cloths. 

I don't know if they are the "real" measurements of  actual store bought ones.

But it looked good to me.

I cut my material 17 1/2 inches by 7 1/2 inches.

And then cut the same measurements from the towel.

The towel was big enough to give me 12 backs of burp cloths. 

But I only cut 6. LOL :) 

Just letting you know how many I can get from it.

 

Take the material and place both pieces with the front sides facing together. 

You will be turning this inside out.

\

And then pin.

PIN.

The bath towel likes to stretch and pull.

So use LOTS of pins.

Sew one of the short ends.

I use a zigzag stitch. It helps catch all the material and make sure no frays happen.

And then sew down each side.

I also find it easier to also sew about 2 inches in on each side at the open end, leaving a hole for turning right side out.

Clip the corners.

Turn right side out.

Fold down your open end, and iron. 

Its easier to fold in because of the 2 inches sewn on each side.

Then stitch it closed.

 I add a decorative zigzag stitch.

I measure my length and divide by 3. 

So if your length is 18 inches, you would sew at 6 inches and 12 inches.

 Brush all of the fuzzes left behind from the bath towel, and admire your work.

I like to fold them  up. And before I give them away, I wrap some decorative ribbon around them and add a tag that says Burp Cloth's. 

Total Cost for 6 Decorative Burp Cloth's...$4.25

I made these for my newest niece to use, who will be joining the world in a little over 2 months. 

Ruffle Curtains

I have always made my own curtains. But rarely anything ever complicated.

My sister asked me to make a set of curtains for her kitchen windows. 

She gave me the fabric, and said to make "Whatever."

I wanted to do something different, but cute. 

I own a Singer Simple sewing machine. (Which I LOVE)

And I looked everywhere for a ruffle foot attachment, 

only to find that for my model machine, they make no 

such attachment. 

So I decided to make my own ruffles,

 and shockingly enough,

it was very easy, although time consuming, to do.

 

 

I decided for larger ruffles.

I cut a back liner piece the size of the window.

And then cut 6 1/2" strips of material wide and almost double the lenght of the liner.

(I did cut off the excess on some pieces. Wasteful I know! LOL)

Here's where I do things the weird and wrong way.

I used my liner as my template. I attached my ruffle material to the liner on one end.

And then about every 1-2 inches I just folded the fabric on my ruffle material ONLY and pinned it to itself.

(DO NOT pin to the liner yet. I didn't want the liner would NOT bunch up)

I did this for every single strip of ruffle material.

I sewed each ruffle piece with a simple straight stitch on my sewing machine.

After I had sewn all of my ruffle pieces. I attached each piece to the liner.

And sewed it on, using a straight stitch. 

After I sewed each ruffle piece to the liner, I added a new row and overlapped it by about one inch or so to hide the previous ruffle thread.

I followed no template. Just a lot of guess work. And they turned out wonderfully, with no mistakes. 

Which is rare for me. :)

I know this is not very detailed. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask and I will answer the best I can. 

 Here are the finished curtains. 

 

Baby Shower Fabric Gift Bag

I have 2 friends I know about to have a baby, both having little girls. 

So while a friend and I were out shopping, 

I came across these fabric bags, for just $1.00 a piece.

She talked me into buying them, saying I could make them cute somehow to use for our gifts. 

Well, not one to sit around and wait, I had to see what I could come up with.

I was actually lucky enough to have every thing on hand that I needed.

I even had a baby onesie sitting around. 

(I know, weird, I don't have any kids. I don't want kids. Nor does my husband.

But when my sister gave me this to give to my nephew who was having a baby, I just couldn't part with it.

Thought maybe one day, it would make us change our mind about having kids. LOL)

I used the onesie to trace around on my pink material. 

You could always print out an image to use as a template. 

I wasn't loving how long the onesie looked, so I shortened it up a bit. 

And this was my cutout. 

I attached some double sided fusible webbing to the back of my cutout and attached to the bag.
 (It gave it more stability, and it held it firmly in place as I sewed around the edges. I used my zigzag stitch, used a regular sewing machine. So it is far from perfect. 

 

And here it is attached to the bag.

 

(You might want to embellish on the onesie before you add it to the bag. But for me, it was just easier doing it this way)
 

Now came the fun part, embellishing.

Actually, this is always the hardest part for me. I never know how much or how little to add, or where to place everything. So I just played around with everything I had. I tried different ribbons in different placements. Different material for either a heart or star. And this is what I came up with...

 

I then sewed it all on. It's far, far from perfect, barely even good. But I still think it's cute enough to use as a gift bag. And it is reusable, even if it just holds junk hidden far away in the back of a closet.

Finished both of them in less than an hour. 

The one with white ribbon on it is my favorite.

 

Using the Cricut to Cut Material

I have made pillows before, easiest thing to sew. 

So when I came across a video on how to cut fabric with your cricut, 

I just knew this would be my next project.

I took my well loved, and well used, and well in need of a replacement, couch throw pillows, 

and I used them as a template. (Instead of using stuffing for my pillows, I plan on using my old pillow itself)

*I did make a set of pillows as a present last week, and they turned out perfect! And I used stuffing for those. My luck with MY pillows, was not on my side.

Measured my pillow, and added about 1/2 inch extra for seam allowance.
 

Cut my material and sewed it, leaving a large opening on one end. (To turn inside out and add the stuffing, or pillow in my case)




I then cut a piece of muslin fabric to use as a backdrop for my design. You can use any material for this or skip it entirely.

 

 

I did not want sew lines to show, nor did I want the extra hassle of cutting and measuring, so I just used steam a seam to attach this piece to my pillow case/cover.

(Jeeze, I really must stop being so lazy!)

I made the template using my Sure Cuts A Lot program.

I am lucky enough that my SCAL still works with my old Cricut.

 (This program no longer works with newer Cricut's)

And I cut it out on a piece of paper first to see how I liked the look of it. 

Here is the design done with the paper...

And I loved how it looked. 

So I decided to cut it on my material.

Now, if you plan on doing this, and you are like me and have never cut material with the cricut,

this YouTube video  explains it perfectly!

(This is the video that inspired me to make my own pillow with this technique.)

I cut my material to size, then added the steam a seam to the back side.

As I learned in the above video,

I attached the material with steam a seam side down to my mat.

Once you have that done, BE SURE TO MIRROR YOUR IMAGINE before cutting!

(This is very important if you are cutting letters!)

I learned this by mistake, by forgetting to mirror mine!

This is where I ran into problems. 

I knew my blade in my cricut needed replaced, but I thought I had a couple more cuts with it. 

 

I was WRONG. 

 

I had ONE cut left with it, and I wasted it when I forgot to mirror my image.

It barely cut the crow out the 2nd time.

So none of my letters cut properly. And after an hour of trying to cut them out with a utility knife, I gave up. 

I decided to made a design with the images that did cut. 

Not sure how much I like it, almost wish I had waited until I got new blades, but I have NO patience at times.

So I attached them, and ironed them in place.

After finishing, something was just off to me.

The muslin was just far to white.

So what I should have done first, I had to do last.

Ya, I told ya luck was NOT with me on this project.

I coffee dyed the muslin. And while I was at it, went ahead and coffee stained another piece of it for my next pillow. (Which I will be waiting for a new cricut blade to attempt! LOL)

 

I used embroidery thread and sewed around the edges.

And here it is all, almost all, finished.

I just have to add the pillow and sew it up. 

But I am waiting until I get my 2nd pillow done so I can have a matching set for my couch.

 

 I found the crow graphic for this project at

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