Pillow Got Friends!

Pillow found himself some friends!

Envelope Pillow Cover

I bought these cheapo red pillows from Walmart when we got our couch over a year ago since I didn't have a color scheme in the living room as of yet. We have since added a multi-colored rug and faux roman shades to give the room some color. Those are made up of brown, blue, green and ivory. The red pillows were clashing big time.

Cheapo red pillow

I found a tutorial from Teal and Lime on how to make envelope pillow covers. It turned out to be really simple and quick. I got the fabric at Joann's for 40% off, but it's still upholstery grade fabric so not cheap. Well, not cheap by my standards. Full price is $40/yd. With the discount, the fabric was $12.50 for 5/8 yds. This is 1 pillow's worth of fabric. Considering that a new pillow is at least $15, I think that this project was definitely worth it.

Front of freshly covered pillow

Back of pillow, envelope closure

 The new pillow looks so lonely. I need to go back and get more fabric to make a cover for the second pillow.

I should probably get more pillows while I'm at it. ;)

Aaahh much better. New pillow needs some friends!

A British Sunshine Blanket

My good friends Claire and Paul live in England and they are expecting their first child in May! 

They are not going to find out the gender of the baby since it is English tradition not to. I would be so anxious to find out, but they are taking it all in stride. Such good parents already. :) 

For now, they are referring to their little one as BeeBee H. (their last name is Haythornthwaite).

I made a Winnie the Pooh sunshine blanket for BeeBee H. so that he or she would have a little piece of me in his or her life.

I am so excited for you Claire and Paul, and I know that you are going to be fantastic parents!

Sunshine Blanket

At this point in my life, a lot of my friends are getting married and having babies. The easy thing to do is head on down to Babies R Us or BBB and buy something useful for them. But the fun thing to do is to make them something special. I was pondering what I could make for my cousin Koren's son Ben, when Granny and my mom said that I should make a sunshine blanket! I was like, "a what?"

Sunshine Blanket - a lightweight, light colored, small blanket used to shield baby from the summer sun.

We went on down to the fabric store, found some cute animal fabric and trim, and I got to work! It was so super easy to make. I will for sure be making more of these. My mom said that Granny made me one and that she used it all the time.

There are so many things that I want to learn from my Granny. She is the most amazing sewer, crafter, crocheter, knitter and all around DIY'er that I know!

Ruffle Christmas Tree Skirt

My super awesome cousin Robin asked me to make her a Christmas tree skirt after she saw the one I made for my tree (see it in this post). After much deliberation, I decided to go in a completely different direction from the skirt that I made for myself. I got her approval to make a skirt similar to the one here. I really like the ruffled look, but wanted to make 100% sure it was what she wanted. She said yes and asked for it in light green. Here's what I came up with.
 
The tutorial I found said to glue the fabric, but that was not fun to clean off of my tile floor so I switched to sewing very early on. So glad I did. The stitches will be more durable than the glue and sewing was way faster. Sweet.

I'm figuring out some neato things that I can do with my phone camera. All of my pics are taken with my phone since my digital is pretty outdated. Original is on the left. Snazzed up is on the right.

Finally finished!

Aunt Jen's sewing machine is now back in business! Jacob, sweet husband and genius engineer that he is, replaced the wiring that was cracking and peeling apart. He also replaced the plug so that the is no longer a risk of electric shock due to exposed screws and wire.

These 2 pics were taken during the "stripping" process. During this step, I found out that the top layer all over the desk was not real wood, but a laminate wood. :( Booo, bummer, darn, puh, grr..... This was such a let down. At this point, I decided, what the heck. Who cares what it looks like as long as it's clean, not sticky and has a fresh coat of polyurethane finish on it.

So I muscled through and wound up with this. Nowhere near perfection, but it'll do.










So now I have it all put back together and functional, but no sewing projects on the horizon. Hmm, I'll have to fix that...

Happy June!

Well, May has come and gone. Last month I found a cute calendar for my desktop at Leelou Blogs.

This month, I found an even cuter calendar for my desktop here. I love it. Makes me smile when I open my computer.

Craft update:
I finished re-finishing the sewing machine desk, but it's not completely put back together yet. I'll post pics as soon as it's in one piece.

My next project involves acorns, spray paint, and a wreath. You can check out where I found my inspiration here.

Sophie's mobile

This weekend my mom and I threw a baby shower for my friend since Kindergarten Michelle. She is going to have a little girl in June named Sophie. I can't wait to meet her! Michelle's mother in law is making the bedding that will go in Sophie's crib out of a fabric from JoAnn's that has lady bugs, butterflies and flowers on it. I decided to make a mobile for the crib to match. Michelle liked it, which is all that matters. :)

My Great Aunt Jen

The 1950's Singer sewing machine that I have been using to learn to sew once belonged to my Great Aunt Jen. She was my grandfather's brother's wife. She died ~10 years ago and lived with Alzheimer's the last years of her life. I never knew her before she lost her memory, but the sewing machine I inherited has taught me so much about her. You see, this machine is built into a desk with 3 drawers. The contents of those 3 drawers are astounding. Anything and everything I will ever need to replace or use for this machine are in these drawers. She had spare everything. Thread, needles, bobbins, chalk, wax, darning balls, buttons, pearl snaps, measuring tapes, Singer oil, tools and all kinds of other things that I didn't even recognize.
This sewing machine desk has been around the block more than a few times and needs a major refinishing. Having zero experience in refinishing furniture, I naturally decided to tackle this task. Ask me how it went in a few weeks...

Adventures in Sewing

So I'm working on being a domesticated wife and so far it's going pretty well. I haven't set anything on fire yet. Last year, I made a stocking for Jake that had deer and camo. It's a little wompy jomp, but it works. This year I decided to make my own Christmas Tree Skirt. Now, that is a big job, let me tell you. For someone who has limited sewing experience, it was a bumpy ride. My grandma showed me a few things about the old Singer sewing machine that I have and I'm sooooo thankful for that. I would have had no clue how to use it. It ran like a champ though!

I found a vendor on Etsy.com called the Red Marionette and I love her creations. She charges high dollar for them and I now know why. She makes these cute felt animals that I just fell in love with. I didn't want to pay $9.50 for a felt owl, so I tried making one myself. It turned out so cute and I gained confidence. I picked some winter-like animals and forged on with my Christmas Tree Skirt project. Below is the final product.


Cast of characters: Flash, Waddles, Hootie and Chilly