Stop staring and start sewing!

In a Snap pillow covers (another tutorial!)

Sorry for the glut of tutorials (not really!  I think they're awesome!) but I am still doing a major spruce up here at the house and every little improvement lifts my heart so it's fun to share.  I've been making envelope pillow covers and they are so quick and satisfying that I can't believe I haven't been making them forever.  I bought my pillow forms at Jo-Ann (they are the Fairfield/Jo-Ann brand and I'm really happy with them) with my 1/2 off coupons, or catching a sale, and the biggest ones I got (22" x 22") were only 10.00 so these are really affordable.

I've seen other tutorials but mine has a little shortcut (only you will know) and a smart little touch at the end to give them a crisp shape.  They only take a few minutes to make and a little fabric from your stash.  So here we go!

These instructions are for the 16" x 16" pillow and the finished cover will be 15" x 15" to give it a nice full (no sags!) finished look.  Cut your fabric 16" x 35" (or put together a patchwork and trim it to those dimensions!).  I got this terrific gingham at IKEA and I'm really in love with it.

 

Now fold one end over 1" and hem it.  Leave the other end unhemmed because it's going to be tucked on the inside and nobody will ever see it (and I've decided to stop worrying about things people will never see or notice).

 

Now fold your ends in toward the middle and overlap them until your pillow measures 15" across.  Make sure the wrong side of the hemmed end is facing upward and the un-hemmed end is on top of that.  Yours will look more over-lapped than this picture since I made the dimensions longer after I finished this one and realized it needed more overlap.

Now pin or glue (I used my purple glue stick and got great results) the un-sewn sides together and sew across both sides using 1/2" seam allowance.

Now here comes the smart part.  Turn your pillow right side out, press your seams nicely, and press the top and bottom edges to give them a crisp fold.  Then stitch along the folded edge as close to the edge as you can get without falling off.

 

I stitched mine about 1/16" from the edge.  Take your time so you can control your seam and keep it straight.

 

Here's what it looks like when the pillow is in it.  So much nicer than a round, quasi-shapeless edge.

 

I didn't stitch the rounded edge on the yellow pillow so you can see how much sharper the edge and corner are on the gingham one.  The extra effort makes a difference.  Make a bunch of these and layer them and you can change the look of your room in an instant!  They just add so much personality and they are so quick and easy, there is no reason to wait.  Plus they make great gifts!

And here's a look at the over-lapped envelope closure on the big pillow (22" x 22").  No velcro needed!

Have a great week and keep on sewing!

Sweet storage solution (another tutorial)

Look at these cute boxes!  They were plain and boring but I'm determined to start working through my fabric stash this year and this is a great payoff for finally cutting into some of my precious fabric.  My daughter uses our guest bathroom (which is very short on storage) and I desperately needed a way to keep the shelves looking orderly but still give her a place for her stuff.

Here's why it was worth the effort!  Such a difference!

I bought three of the "before" boxes at Big Lots for 5.00 each.  The are 7 inches deep which was just what I needed for the bathroom shelves I was sprucing up.  They have a lot of bigger ones in this style and I saw a bunch at Michael's as well.  But I'm going to show you how to cover the smaller box and if you get the bigger one's you can use the same method I'm explaining here just fine.

This box is actually made from two pieces.  I didn't realize that until I got home and I wasn't happy trying to figure out how I was going to wrap the darn thing with fabric.  It turned out to be a blessing in disguise because it allowed me the easy opportunity of using two fabrics once I separated the two elements that made the box.  

So just take a razor knife and slide it between the box and the lid flap all the way around and they'll come apart.  Be careful.

 

So now you'll have two pieces.  The lid flap and the box.

To cover the lip flap just lay it down on the fabric you've chosen (this fabric will be on the top, back and bottom of the box when you're done).  Cut around it leaving an extra 1/2" of fabric on each side for wrapping.  If your box has a curved flap then snip some notches along the curve to reduce the bulk.

 

I used Scotch Super 77 for my spray adhesive.  It was around 6.00 for the small can (but I had a good coupon!).  It did a great job but I had to work quicker than I'm used to (it's much more aggressive than basting spray).  For this part be sure to cover your work surface with some form of drop cloth since it gets very messy and sticky in the area where you're working.  I used brown craft paper and it was perfect to used then toss.

 

Spray the wrong side of the fabric evenly.  Lay your lid flap down on the fabric.  Turn it over and smooth it out nicely on the right side of the lid flap.  Lift the fabric and re-set it carefully if you have too.  Now on the under-side wrap the edges over and smooth them in place.  You can tuck the corners and be sure to cut the fabric around your velcro dot.

 

 

 

Now on to the box.  Measure around the 3 exposed sides of the box and add 1 inch to that number.  Measure the height and add an inch to that number as well.  Now cut your rectangle of fabric out using those dimensions.

 

Lay your fabric on the box in place and draw a circle around the place where the velcro dot is.  Cut the circle out.

Now spray the wrong side of the fabric evenly and, setting in on the front where the circle is first, smooth it into place all around.  Tuck in into the inside corners and fold and tuck it around the bottom, corners, and the back.

Now use a glue gun to glue it back together.  Glue it far enough from the edges so the glue can't be seen when it's assembled.  

If you feel the need to keep going then use the adhesive spray to apply some pretty vintage trim down the middle and get some fun embellishments (buttons, numbers, handles, etc.) for the front.  I bought these cute retro-locks at Michael's.  They are designed by Tim Holtz and I think they add the final touch.  I spray painted them with black "hammered metal" spray paint.  I put a tiny piece of black fabric behind each lock because I didn't like the trim showing through the hole.

 

Anyway, there they are and I love them!  They turned out much prettier than I'd anticipated and so I couldn't wait to share!

Another timely towel tutorial (totally!)

I'm having guests tomorrow.  So I'm panicking.  I want my guest bath spruced up so I grabbed a couple of cheap, fluffy, white towels at Big Lots (about 3.00 each).  A little fabric, a little time, and now they're cute!

Here's how to "get the look".  Measure across the end of your towel.

Cut a 2" strip long enough for both ends plus 8" (2" to tuck under the ends and 6" for the tab to hang it with).  The towel tab tutorial (say it 5 times quick) is here.  If you have some pretty ribbon or twill tape you can totally by-pass this part and go straight to the glueing and stitching part.

Fold in half, press, then fold into the middle.  Press again.

Cut each strip to go across the ends with about 1/2" overhang on each side.  I placed mine 1.5 inches from the bottom of the towel.

Now glue the bottom side of each strip.  Work quickly since this stuff dries pretty fast.  If you don't have glue....get some!  It makes sewing so much easier and you'll see I didn't use even one pin while making this!

Now set in place (press down with your fingers as you're going along) and tuck the ends under.  Dab a little glue on the ends and set them in place.

Stitch all the way around and across the ends.  Make, and attach the tab and you're done!

So fast!  So cheap (I used a fabric scrap from my stash)!  So cute!

A shout out to Fran's Sewing Circle!

I was thrilled when my friend Allison (over here at Within A Quarter Inch) let me know her local quilt shop had been having a contest with my book!  At Fran's Sewing Circle (in Wilmington, North Carolina at 5751 Oleander Dr., Unit 5, if you are lucky enough to live nearby) the employees made their choice of a skirt from the book (17 skirts to chose from, plus maternity!) and then held a contest where the customers guessed which employee made each skirt.  Such a cute idea, especially in a place where customers and employees become friends (it's like Cheers but with fabric instead of beer).

Here is a view of all the skirts hanging together (I love the clothes line idea too).

 Here is a close-up.  I'm so thrilled to see they took the leap to try different things.  Look at how great these look!

 More!  Such cute fabrics and you can never go wrong with a solid black skirt (ever).  It's a wardrobe staple.

 And more!  Seriously, these are so darling and the work looks impeccable.  

 

Such a great idea for a store (or for a sewing circle).  A huge thank you to the folks at Fran's Sewing Circle for including my book in their fun!  If you have a shop and have made any projects from my book please let me know ([email protected])!  I'd love to let people know!

2014: Hitting the ground running

I started a project on the 30th of December and we finished it on the 1st of January.  I love ringing in the new year with a finished project!

Here is a view of our upstairs as it was being built more than 10 years ago.  I made a point of taking pictures of any spaces that looked like they might have "retro-fitting" potential.  We've already used a couple of those spaces like knocking out the back of the coat closet to open a huge amount of storage under the stairs and knocking out the wall in our bedroom as we were converting part of it into our office.  The spaces with the oval around them show my intended target.  I got a good shot because I was actually standing in my future closet on the other side of the soon-to-be wall.

 

 

Our bedroom door is on the left so there's not a lot of traffic in the hallway here.  I figured it would be a good place to try a project because if we totally mess up it's not out there for the whole world to see.  And it's practice for the other projects I'm planning (the ones that will actually be out there for the whole world to see).

 

We (Asher and myself) found the studs and got started tearing into the wall.  He wanted to take a hammer to everything but I insisted we start carefully (killjoy that I am).

 

This didn't take long and that rip in the wall on the right just meant I needed wider molding when I finished it up.

 

I was hoping to used the tall space to the left for built in dvd/cd storage but we poked our heads in there and saw a pipe that looked like it might be important so we left that space alone.

 

Joey came home and saw what we had done and graciously took on the task of removing the pesky studs that were in our way.  It took some work since he had to saw some nails off and remove the stud that was attached to that wall there (the one with the duct tape covering the nail holes).  The animals thought it was interesting to have a hole in the wall.

 

Off to Home Depot with my boys.  Less than $90.00 later we had everything we needed.

 

Here is the beginning.  We used a decent amount of Gorilla wood glue and it's good stuff.  Plus we got to use my new pneumatic nail gun again and that's always fun.

 

Gluing the back on.

 

It fits!  Now to shim that sucker up.  This took a few tries (and un-doing and trying again) but we got it nice and level for the most part.

 

Then I got to do the pretty work of trimming it out (with my fun sliding compoung miter saw, weee!).  I'm getting pretty good at my mitered corners.

 

A couple coats of primer and some crisp white paint and bam!  Done! (except for the bottom but we are getting new floors so that will wait)

 

So here is the before and after.  It's 11" deep and 46" wide.  The shelves are 9" tall on the top one and 10" tall on the two bottom ones.  Joey had stacks of books next to his bedside and all over our bedroom but not anymore baby!  How great is that?  There are a few "flaws" in it but nothing really huge and we are confident our next project will be even nicer since we are learning so many new things.

 

Even the animals held a hallway convention and after much discussion decided they approved.

 

Our new flooring is being delivered tomorrow so we are taking a deep breath and heading into our next project pretty quick here.  Onward!