Be My Valentine

A nice valentine-sy scene. Pillow tutorial here and stenciled chair tutorial here. 

A Long Awaited Trip to Ikea

Well, spring has sprung in the Midwest. And it has motivated me to get going on some projects. T.J. and I have been working in the yard and the garage as much as we can the past week or so and things are starting to come along. Outside updates will have to wait til they come along a little more though. :-)

Last weekend my mom came down for a visit and we traveled to the Windy City for an Ikea trip. This was huge for me because I have not even been to Ikea since buying our house. Which is absurd. My sister and mom kept going without me! But now I have finally gone again, and I can't wait to go back! That is the thing about Ikea - you have to travel to get there and without fail, as soon as you get home you think "shoot, I should have gotten that (one more thing)." I thought that about at least twenty things, but I will work with what I have for now! 

The project I completed first after I got home was making covers for the Euro pillows I bought there ($7 each, $10 for the polka dot fabric = $17 for 2 Euro pillows!)

Lola wanted in on the pillow making (and photo bombing) action.

 

T.J. calls it the Mickey Mouse bed - I think he might be right, and I like it!

 

I also picked up this awesome sun-shiny drum shade for the laundry room. Turns out I had overestimated the size of the laundry room, this thing looks huge in there! So I am coming up with a new plan and will share where the shade ends up soon. 

What have you all been up to this Spring? I am so ready for the semester to wrap up so I can jump into doing more projects and working on our garden.

Super Easy Dog Bed

I have been wanting to sew a dog bed for awhile now. I ran across some adorable dog fabric at Joann's the other day and decided it was time. 

I knew I wanted a pillow that I could wash, because let's face it, dogs can be dirty. :-) The kind of dog beds they sell in stores are bulky and hard to wash, so I went with a different approach.

It is just a $3 bed pillow from Walmart, plus a homemade pillowcase! And it took me all of 5 minutes to complete. I just took my 1 yard of fabric, folded it hamburger style, sewed up 2 of the sides (right side of the fabric facing in), turned it inside out, folded down the remaining opening, and sewed around that like a hem. 

I can easily remove the pillow case, wash it, and put it back on - or change it to something different! I know the white background is a risk, so it will most likely be retired someday, but for now it is super cute and Lexi seems to like it. :-)

 

Merry Christmas Lexi!

Reindeer Silhouette Pillow

I made this reindeer silhouette pillow for my sister this year for her birthday. I think it turned out pretty cute. :-) She does not follow any rules when it comes to Christmas colors - so this grey and blue reindeer pillow will fit right in with her holiday decor.

To start - I found a silhouette I  liked by searching Google Images, copied and pasted it into Word, blew it up, and printed it out. Then I cut around it, pinned it to some felt (30 cents a sheet at Joann's), and cut around it again. Cutting the antlers out of the felt was a bit of a challenge, but not too bad.

Then I cut out my chevron fabric (Hobby Lobby) for the pillow and before sewing the two pieces together I sewed on the reindeer silhouette. This was a bit tricky as well, but with lots of pins it isn't too bad. I just used a simple hand stitch to attach the felt to the fabric - you can see my stitches clearer 2 pictures below.

 

My own Holiday decor is a little more traditional - the silhouette isn't sewn onto this pillow yet, but soon!

And because it is December 1st - I thought I'd share our Christmas lights this year. I put them up all by myself! It was a harrowing experience, but I survived.

Chevron Pillow... Finally!

I have been long been blogging about my love of chevron... so long it sort of feels like maybe this chevron fad is almost over. But it still makes me smile. So bring it on. About a week ago I was in NYC walking around Mood... it is hard to believe.

One of the fabrics I decided on last minute was this green and creamy white chevron. I can't believe I almost passed it up. I vowed to not let my (by my standards) expensive Mood fabric purchases sit around for months after I got home, so I made up this pillow right away.

It was such an easy change and it makes me happy every time I see it! Need to see a bunch more pictures of my chevron pillow? Ok! Here they are...

Outdoor Pillows

In light of my other recent backyard projects (like this flower pot holder and the garden) I thought it was high time for some more fabric outside. I picked up this cheerful yellow, green, and pink outdoor fabric at Hancock fabrics back when I lived in South Carolina. I had promised T.J. I would make him a hammock pillow after I got him a hammock for his birthday in April, so I cut two pieces of fabric - one rectangle for an Adirondack (I am shocked at the spelling of this word) chair pillow, the other longer rectangle for the hammock pillow. I just sort of eyeballed the size for hammock pillow and used a pillow form size + 1/2 inch on each side for the square pillow.

T.J. caught me trying out the new pillow shortly after I put it out there -

 I made it long enough so we can share if we need to!

I think they really help brighten up our outdoor space. I like to think about our backyard as another room in our house, and adding fabric touches makes it feel more comfortable and homey out there.

Father's Day Mustache Pillow

First of all, happy father's day dad! Second, check out this mustache pillow I made him! Third, you have to read this pretending I am saying MOO-stash instead of mustache, because that is how I said it while I made this project.

 
I found this project on Sew Woodsy's weekly link up. This awesome blogger makes applique things - and posts free PDF files of her patterns. So I printed this one off and gave it a go on my own. I wanted my pillow to be a little smaller than her's so I told my printer to print 2 pages on 1 page so it shrunk for me.

I debated on brown or gray for the mustache, but my dad's actual mustache is pretty gray these days, so I went with the closer-to-reality option. I still cut an extra out of brown in case I need to make one for my house too. :-)

I chose this manly red and black flannel for the pillow fabric. The whole package just reminds me of my dad. I do feel like I need to add here that my dad has a regular mustache - not a cowboy/sheriff shaped one like the one I put on the pillow.

I just pinned the piece of felt on the pillow (making sure the fabric wasn't still folded in half) and zig zag stitched around it.

Then I continued like a regular pillow - sewing around the edges leaving a space open for stuffing, then whip stitching it closed after I stuffed it.

Valentines Day Pillow

I have been wanting to make some quick and easy Valentine's Day projects and the other day I stumbled upon just the right inspiration. I get daily emails from Etsy that are filled with promos and products made or found by Etsy sellers... it is like a wealth of inspiration daily. The pillow that inspired me was in one of those emails, but of course I had to make it my own... a little more pink for me please! Valentines Day is one of my favorite holidays because pink and glitter are everywhere, and I am truly in my element!

First I cut out heart shapes from hot pink felt. I just folded the felt in half and free-handed the shapes (years of making Valentines has honed this skill I guess). I started with a few medium sized hearts and added a few as I saw fit.

I used a piece of white almost denim-like fabric I already owned from Walmart to make the pillow . I didn't even measure how big I made it... I just cut out a rectangle. Then I pinned on my heart shapes after laying them out in an eye pleasing pattern.

Next I threaded my machine with matching pink thread, then sewed right down the middle of each heart. This part wasn't too hard... just aim and hope for the best. I switched back to white thread and sewed around the pillow (after putting right sides together) leaving an opening to stuff it.

It got pretty wrinkled when I right sided it out, but I think that was just because of the type of fabric. I ironed it a little, then stuffed it with fiber fill. Last step: whip stitching the hole closed.

I love the way the hearts can stick up a little to add texture and interest to the pillow.

And here is how the beauty looks on my bed. Perfect match!

This post is linked to Sew Woodsy and  Southern Lovely.