Handmade Christmas

I know it's April, but I wanted to post the projects I made for my family for Christmas.  This large floor pillow was made for my brother and sister-in-law.  It's made of charm squares for the front and that awesome polka-dot fabric I used for my curtains for the back.  I also added a cute little edging out of the scraps of the charm squares.

 I added a small rosette in the middle to give the pillow some shape, but I don't think it survived in the shipping process.

 Here's a picture of the back and my signature star.  I try to put a star on everything I make.  :)

Then I made them a small decorator pillow with a rosette in the middle.  I hope it's not being used a ton because it's kind of fragile.  :P  If it did fall apart, I can put it back together.

I thought the middle of the rosette needed something, so I put a button in the middle - my sister-in-law loves buttons.  :)

The star on the back of the decorator pillow.

 The two of the pillows together.  I hope they like and use them!  :)

 For my dad, I made a bow-tie pillow - because bow-ties are COOL!  I found the flannel at WalMart and got the pattern from Sew4Home.

I was really impressed with how easy this pillow went together.  I stuffed it kind of full and yet left it squishy.  I'm glad I did because he uses it to support his neck while napping in his chair.  :)  He says it's the perfect amount of squishiness.  :P

 My signature star.  :)  I also made a pillowcase for my dad with the same fabric as this bow-tie pillow but when I went to take a picture of the two together, my camera battery died.

 I made my mom and my mother-in-law pillowcases (tutorial here).  I also found these neat flannel prints for my mom at WalMart.  I was impressed with these flannels so much!  They washed really nicely and came out of the dryer so soft!

I also found the doggy prints for my mother-in-law at WalMart.  She is so hard to make and buy for since her only two interests are dogs and horses.  However, every time we visit I notice that she is using this pillowcase - or she takes time to put it on her pillow when she knows I'm coming.  :P

 For my coworkers I also made pillowcases - Christmas pillowcases from fabric I found for half off.  :)  All the little sashing pieces match on all four pillowcases - but I'm not sure if they noticed.

I love creating gifts for family and friends.  Although, for the past two years, I've done pillows and pillow-related projects for everyone...anyone have any new ideas for gifts for this year?!

Look What I Made Monday!

For Christmas this year, I made pillows or pillow related things.  I made 8 pillowcases for various people and they all loved them.  :)  They are so easy to make so I decided to put an easy tutorial here so everyone can make their own pillowcases!  This is my first tutorial, so be kind.  Just to be clear, this is not my idea.  :)

This pillowcase is called the "Magic Pillowcase" which just means that when you are done, all the seam allowances - or raw edges - are hidden.

What you will need:

27" fabric for the body of the fabric (WOF - width of fabric)
11" fabric for the sashing (WOF)
4" for the border (WOF)
Pins
Iron
Scissors
Sewing machine
Thread

For this tutorial, I decided to use the same fabric for the body and the sashing, since the pattern is so busy, and a coordinating fabric for the border.  You can use three different fabrics, or even piece fabric together to form the sashing if you like.  First, iron the border fabric in half lengthwise.  Then, take the sashing fabric and lay it out RIGHT side up on your sewing table or cutting table.  If you are using a directional fabric, make sure when you lay out this sashing fabric that the pattern is UPSIDE DOWN:

Lay your border fabric on top of your sashing fabric with raw edges along the top of the sashing fabric:

Place the body fabric on the top of the sashing and border fabric WRONG side up, matching the salvage edge to the salvage edge of the sashing fabric.  This is an important step since if your fabric is directional, it will insure that the sashing and the body fabric is going in the same direction:

Now here's where we get fancy and stuff!  Pick up the body fabric and roll it to about half way up the sashing fabric:

Fold up the sashing fabric and pin all layers into place.  If you are using a flannel like this one, pin the HECK out of it or it will stretch on you.

Take this pinned and rolled up pillowcase to the sewing machine and sew all of it together with a 1/4" seam allowance creating a pocket of fabric with the body fabric INSIDE the sashing fabric:

Once sewn, turn the tub right side out by gently pulling the body fabric out of the sashing fabric.  Iron the seam of the sashing on the back:

And the front:

Now, at this time I noticed that my border fabric was not as long as my body and sashing fabric so I trimmed it up as best I could:

Before you go any farther, you'll notice that the border fabric is only sewn on one side and loose on the folded side.  At this time I would recommend sewing down the border fabric or you will have to iron it down after washing:

Next, I cut the salvage edges off the pillowcase, only because the salvages were SO wide and I was afraid that they would show after I sewed the pillowcase together.  This is an optional step:

Now we are going to sew the pillowcase together with a French seam!  :)  First, fold your pillowcase in half lengthwise, matching up salvage edges - or where the salvage edges would have been.  At this time, we are folding the WRONG sides together - trust me, it will work out - and sew up the side and bottom with either a 1/4" or 1/2" seam allowances:

Trim up the seam allowances to about 1/8" or less to make the seams less bulky.

If you're lucky, you'll get a helper!

Turn pillowcase inside out and iron the seams making sure to press out the seams out as much as possible:

Sew down the seams with a 1/2" seam allowance making sure to encase the previous seam allowance.  (I don't have a picture of this as I got too carried away!)  All your raw edges will be hidden and it your seams will look like this:

Turn your pillowcase right-side-out.  Put on your pillow and take a well deserved nap!

These two I made for Mom:

 This one I made for my MIL:

Here are the ones I made for my coworkers:

I decided to wrap these pillowcases up with their salvages since their salvages were so cute.  :)

I made one for my dad too, but right when I was going to snap a picture, my camera died and I had to get all the family presents boxed up to mail bright and early the next morning so I didn't have time to charge the battery.  Anyway, pillowcases are fun and easy to make and I hope you take them on too!  They don't take that long to make either.  Have fun!  :)

Merry Christmas! :)

Our tiny tree.  :)

With the dining room lights off.

With the dining room lights on.

Merry Christmas!

Wish List Wednesday

On this Wish List Wednesday, I would like to wish for more time. I don't seem to have enough these days. My day consists of getting up, going to work, going home then going to bed. It's like I have no time in between work and bed - or that time just FLIES. I *do* have some Christmas presents done, not all of them, but I don't any of them will get to their prospective places before Christmas. I need one day - really two - but I'll settle for just the one - one day to knock out those gifts. I hear about women how work full time AND make all their gifts AND cook AND clean for their families. To that I say - HOW?! Right now it's just P and me and I am struggling to just keep the house clean, even with his help! And then to save money, I decided to make presents?! What was I thinking? Yeah well, it does save on money, but really not on time.

So, on this loverly Wish List Wednesday - my wish is for more time.

*On a side note, I just saw my "waffles" label while labeling this post...guess what's for dinner? (Now I can add the waffles label! Awesome!)

50 Free Cards From Shutterfly!

The other day I was over at Sew Dang Cute Crafts and saw this post about 50 free cards from Shutterfly. I was intrigued and decided to sign up. Since P and I just got married, I thought we could send out a picture from our wedding on a card for our first holiday together as a married couple.  There are tons of Christmas Photo Cards to choose from.  I think this one is my favorite:

I just love the bright flowers on this card!  It also has a cute message.  :)

If you are stumped for a gift, Shutterfly offers some pretty unique gifts like Photo Calendars or Photo Mugs.  How cute are these?!

This is the desk calendar style.  They had other styles
including the regular wall calendar and a poster style

The mugs even come with chocolate!

They also have some very cute Thank You cards to create and send out after the holidays.  I am BIG collector of Thank You cards!  I feel that when somebody gives you a gift, it's only polite and appreciated when you send back a Thank You.  Of course, I'm not perfect and have been very late and have forgotten, but if I had some cute ones like Shutterfly offers, maybe I would have been more on the ball.  :P  If I had gotten my act together a little sooner after the wedding, I could have planned ahead, ordered and sent out these Thank You cards:

The simplicity of this Thank You is what won me over.
You can arrange the pictures in a few different layouts as well.

I hope everyone checks out this great offer from Shutterfly.  We could all use a little help during the holidays and how awesome would it be to check cards off our lists!  :)