his post contains affiliate links. I will be compensated for purchases made through those links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support! When my husband and I took off on our road trip to Wyoming this past summer, we left without any bedding or pillows! We knew that we were going to be spending one night in our son's new apartment in Kemmerer, WY sleeping on the floor, so this was bad. When we got to Kemmerer, our son took us to one of the few stores in that little town, Family Dollar, where we purchased a blanket and a couple of $6.00 pillows. We survived the night, but I knew that the pillows wouldn't get much use after that trip and I started wondering if I could turn them into sofa pillows. As you can see from the collage of pictures above, I did it! Sofa pillows are pretty simple to make, they cost much less than department store prices when they are handmade, and you can make them for any decor. So, if you know the taste and colors of your recipient, they can make a lovely gift as well. I decided to make some seasonal pillows for the Fall. The pumpkin print fabric that I found at Walmart would be perfect to gift to Lindsey anytime of the year! I love that the colors of pumpkins and gourds on this fabric match many colors and can be easily integrated with the pillows that I already have. For today's Handmade Monthly, you will actually be getting 3 different sets of instructions. These include how to make the forms, How to make a square pillow with trim and a cute idea for a coordinating neck roll pillow. Making the Pillow Forms: From one pillow I made an approximately 19" square pillow and one neck roll. You will have to measure your pillow and decide the size you want your sofa pillow to be. I used a quilter's erasable marker to draw a cutting line. Once the pillows are marked, cut them apart. You will have to cut them a layer at a time because they are so thick. Next, push the fluffy insides into the pillow covering and pin the open side closed. Then, sew the open ends together. Now I had 2 nice pillow forms that only cost about $3.00 a piece! All I needed to do was cover them. Large Square Pillow with Trim: I found the fabric for the pillows at Walmart. You will also need a sewing machine, a tiny bit of fiber fill, thread and trim. You will need to cut 2 pieces of fabric, one for the front and one for the back. Measure them to the size of your pillow. Measure over the fat part of the pillow to get the right measurement. Then, add about 5/8" all around for a seam allowance. Click on the photos below to get directions: I bought some orange mini pom-pom trim. Generally, when adding trim, I put it on the seam line, facing inward and sew it into the seam line. When you flip the fabric right side out, the trim will show on the edge. But, this time, there wasn't very much sewing room on my trim, so I decided to add it on the outside. OH MY GOODNESS, I had such a time of it! I even made a collage about it! Add one more thing to your supplies, a glue gun! I usually hate it when I hear the term "no-sew" pillows, etc. because to me sewing things makes them more lasting and better quality. But, this time I gave myself permission to use the glue gun for this tiny trim! After you glue it around the 3 sewn sides of the pillow, put the form into the pillow cover. Then, for nice crisp corners, take some bits of fiber fill and stuff it into the corners of the pillow. It will fill in where the form cannot go. It looks so much nicer in the final product. Trust me! When that is done, whip stitch the open side closed. Et Voila! You have an adorable pillow! An Envelope Neck Roll PIllow: When I started this pillow, I had something else in mind, but it kind of evolved as I went along. For this pillow, you will need to cut a back according to the width and height of your pillow form, just like you did with the square pillow. For the front, you will need a bottom pocket and an overlapping top flap. Here are some pictures to show you how it is done: By the way, I also tucked some fiber fill into the corners of this pillow as well. I am in love with the cuteness! I have one more pillow that I plan to use for Christmas pillows! I can hardly wait to get started!
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This post contains affiliate links. I will be compensated for purchased made through those links at no additional cost to you. All views expressed are my own. Thank you for your support! I've needed a new curtain on our backdoor for quite some time now. I had one on there that was short and golden brown and not beautiful at all. After I replaced furniture a few years ago, the color scheme has changed and I wanted something new for the backdoor. It faces West and so in the afternoon, the sun comes through it and I needed to keep it from blinding us as we sit in the family room but still not be too heavy and dark. So, one day I was looking in the fabric department in Walmart and I found this fabric that I thought would look great with my sofa and pillows in my family room. It was kind of a bold move for me. What do you think? It is a Waverly decorator fabric. Waverly is known for their decorator fabrics and Walmart is a good place to find them at a good price.
Well, whether you agree with my choice or not, I thought that this would be a great time to show you some basic sewing skills and how to make a simple curtain for a French door. This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you purchase through them. This does not cause any additional cost to you! Thank you for your support! I have finally figured out, after years of sewing, what the point of having a needlebook is. I have seen many sweet little needlebooks but always thought, "Why do I need that when I have a pin cushion?" but then, the other day, while searching for a needle and realizing that it was probably lost inside my pin cushion, a light bulb went on and I knew why a needlebook would be so great to have.
I have a few pin cushions, including the tomato with a strawberry on a string. (Who came up with that design anyway?) Most of the pin cushions are too soft and the pins stab through to the bottom. I like my sawdust filled tomato because it is firmer and I think the sawdust is supposed to keep the pins sharp, or else the strawberry is an emery that sharpens needles. But, my pin cushion must be old because I can't find sawdust filled ones anywhere. This one says it has high quality cotton filling. I have looked at some in stores lately and realized that some of these newer replicas are actually merely filled with Styrofoam! Not a good substitute if you ask me. So, watch for quality. Anyway, the idea came to my mind that I could simply recover my old tomato pin cushion and instead of a strawberry on a string, I could have my needlebook on a string so that they would always stay together. I whipped my idea up and I think it came out kind of sweet. I will tell you how I did it and what I might do differently when I make more as gifts.
This post contains affiliate links. I will be compensated for purchases made through those links at no additional cost to you. All views expressed are my own. Thank you for your support.
I love those little packs of fat quarters that you can pickup at Walmart for about $1.00. I sometimes find packs of them with such cute prints, that are all coordinated together, and I buy them thinking I will do something with them later. I have used them for quilts here and here, for these bow ties, these little owl purses, and there are a myriad of other ideas out there, I'm sure. Well, I fell for some cute Easter prints earlier this year, but I hadn't figured out what I wanted to do with them. Then, just before Easter, when we had decided to do the brunch, I realized I needed 2 tablecloths with a springtime feel and I thought about that package of fat quarters! It came in a coordinated pack of pinks and blues. I thought, why not sew them together into one big tablecloth! Of course, I was going to need more of the fat quarter packs. Unfortunately, the packs like the one I had purchased were all gone! But, there was some of the exact fabric on the bolt and other coordinating prints!
So, I purchased the fabric from the bolt and cut out my own quarters! It would have been much easier if I had purchased the correct number of quarter packs to begin with, so if you know that you are going to make a tablecloth, buy the right number from the start! For my table, it takes about 4 packs of quarters.
Most of the fabrics in my original pack had the pinks like you see above. One of the prints was a coordinating blue. I have plates that were going to look great on the pink, and others that were going to go well on blue. Since we were putting up 2 tables, and I was going to use both sets of plates, I decided to make one cloth in each color, so I purchased blue prints to go with the original blue bunny print. I placed that print right in the middle of the cloth.
The tablecloths came together pretty quickly. I played with how I wanted the placement of the various fabrics. I started from the middle of the cloth, then built around that. I sewed the fat quarters together with french seams so that there wouldn't be messy fraying on the back of the cloth. I once showed you how to do french seams on this pillowcase tutorial.
That's all there is too it! My tables looked sweet and they were perfect for our brunch! Unfortunately, I FORGOT TO TAKE PICTURES OF MY TABLES! Trust me, they were sweet.
You can make tablecloths like this for any time of year and for any event! If you don't want to make an entire tablecloth, try a table runner! Have fun picking out those fat quarter! That's the best part.
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Creators of Hot Cocoa Bombs! (copyrighted)
Author
Helen Reynolds: Mother of six children , grandmother to eleven! I love to cook, craft and create things and I especially love doing that with my family, So, when my lawyer daughter, Lindsey, my artist daughter, Madalynn, and I came up with the idea of Hot Cocoa Bombs, this blog was born. Then, one more daughter, with her technical and science skills, plus creativity has joined in to round us out! Read more about us here! Archives
June 2024
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