by Sherri Sylvester | Dec 10, 2012
I have seen so many Christmas tutorials in the last few weeks and I’m dying to try all (or at least some!) of them. Finally last night I took a break from my Christmas present sewing to make this.
Easy Merry (Christmas) Pillow
I have been wanting to make one of these pillows since my daily email from Sew Can She showed up in my inbox with this tutorial from The Train to Crazy. I have been to her site a few times now and her tutorials and patterns look super cute.
This tutorial is easy to follow, though I am not sure how she managed to finish the pillow in half an hour! It took me about an hour at least, and that was without trying to stitch my way over the “merry” text. It must be the perfectionist in me!
I ended up using a fabric marker to trace the text, which turned out nice I think! Though I may have been happier if the wording was in red… hmmm… maybe next time.
I’d love to hear if you made one of these pillows! Put a link to your photos in the comments or email them to me and I can post them on this blog!
by Sherri Sylvester | Nov 12, 2012
Alright – here we are folks. Better late than never! My sister is visiting for a week and we don’t get to see each other often, so I am using a few precious moments to post something today. Remind me again to have a few posts ready for times like these!
the Library Tote
This bag is made from a Noodlehead tutorial – here. When I found it I was actually looking for a cute tote to use for library trips.
The fabric is an “As Is” piece from Ikea. I pieced the pocket together so I could use more of the cute birdhouse pattern. I think the brown is some linen I had in my stash. As usual I changed it a bit by making the pattern piece a bit wider to accommodate the kids’ larger book size.
Since making this bag I have sewn quite a few more for teacher gifts. It doesn’t require a lot of fabric, and is very quick and easy and looks great. There are reinforcement pieces on the inside at the top, and I have gotten my daughter to write “Thank You” and her name and the year on the inside with fabric markers – something to put a personal touch on the bag. I made them a bit quicker by using a french seam instead of the bias tape on the outside rounded edge. They sound fancy, but are really easy. It is a nice way to hide your raw edges without a lot of work. Here is a good tutorial. Just ignore the part where she says not to use a french seam on thick fabric with curves because of the bulk! I used home decor weight fabric on all of the bags and they worked out fine.
by Sherri Sylvester | Nov 6, 2012
Before we begin – I know what you are thinking… “She didn’t just make a title with the word ‘sew’ in it – that’s so punny”… But I did! And it is amazing, because I could actually spell words with the magnetic letters I found. Given that most of them are lost, or under the fridge or someplace else I don’t want to think about. So, forgive me. (Though it is possible I may do it again!)
A while ago I was online searching for a tutorial for a towel I could hang on my fridge door handle. The fridge is right next to the sink, so it would be super-handy to have it there. I found a whole bunch of really great stove handle tutorials – the kind where the piece of fabric comes up and over the handle and buttons onto the front. The problem is, that the fridge handle is vertical, not horizontal like the stove handle – so those won’t work. I came up with this bunny-ear shape.
I have made 6 of them for myself so far and they are really great! Especially if your fridge is anywhere near your sink. Especially if you have kids that pull on towels when they dry their hands. And especially if those towels inevitably end up on the floor and need to be washed – again… This towel has a tie long enough to be made into a knot, and even if you don’t have kids it will never fall off causing you to have to do unnecessary laundry! (Anything to save doing laundry!)
You will need:
- 1 bath towel (makes 4 towels), or 1 hand towel (makes 2 towels)
- just over 1/4 meter of fabric for the tie portion of the towel (makes 2 towels)
- 1/2″ double fold Bias tape – 2 pieces equal to the height of your towel + 2″ – you will need 2 pieces for each towel you are making (Note: you do not need the bias tape if you are using a hand towel)
- The pattern piece – here.
I bought a cheap bath towel for $5 at my local Walmart, sized 27″ x 50″. The fabric is Michael Miller – Put A Lid On It. The bias tape was made from Kona Cotton Ash.
1) Print the
pattern piece full size (do not select “fit to page”). Fold your fabric and cut 4 top pieces on the fold, as noted on the pattern piece. Make sure that you put the fabric the right way up if it is a one-directional print. Set aside.
2) If you are using a hand towel cut it in half through the middle, the short way. You will end up with 2 square-ish pieces with one raw edge on the top of each, skip to step 5. (Sorry, I don’t have photos to make this using a hand towel.) If you are using a bath towel: Cut the towel in half lengthwise (down the centre the long way) and then cut those long rectangles in half (down each centre the short way) to make shorter rectangles – each with a thickly woven end of the towel to use as the bottom of your fridge towel. (see below photo, ignore the ruler.)
3) You now have 4 towel shapes, each with a raw edge top, a raw edge side, a finished edge side and a finished thick woven bottom. Now, cut the one finished edge off of the side of each towel piece. I know this seems like a make-work idea, but if you want both edges to match you must cover them both with bias tape. Do not cut the thick woven bottom piece off!
4) Now, if you used a
bath towel – go ahead and make your bias tape (or pull it out of the package!) If you want to make your own here is a
good tutorial. I started with 2″ strips and folded each edge into the center, then folded the whole thing in half to get my 1/2″ bias tape. Read the tutorial – it makes more sense! If you did happen to use a 27″x50″ towel, you will need about 36″ (1 yard) of bias tape for each towel. On a side note, I did not cut my bias tape fabric on the bias because we won’t be sewing it around any curves.
Here is what you should have now:
Hooray – the tedious part is done, now we can really start!
5) Iron the bottom straight edge of your fabric up 1/4″ once. Do this for all of your pieces.
6) Place 2 pieces of fabric right sides together, pin, sew around the curved edges with a 1/4″ seam allowance starting at one side, up and down the bunny ears and down the other side to the bottom. Do not sew across the straight edge you just ironed! When you get to the top of each bunny ear stop and pivot the fabric around your needle to make a sharp corner.
7) Clip the top of each ear close to the stitching (1st photo), the bottom edge you ironed up (2nd photo) and clip the curve (3rd photo).
8) Turn the pieces right side out and iron. Set aside – we will topstitch this later.
9) Now it is time to sew on the bias tape to finish any raw edges. (If you used a hand towel skip to step 14 below). Lay one of your towel pieces with the back facing up (right side to the table). Find the end of your bias tape and open it out flat. Pin it (or wing it) with the edge of the bias tape lined up with the edge of your towel. Sew down the bias fold line (should be 1/2″ seam allowance). When you get to the bottom cut the bias tape 1/2″ longer than the bottom of your towel.
10) Now, turn your towel over and fold the bias tape over the edge of your towel to the front. Pin the bias tape to the edge almost all of the way to the bottom.
11) Fold up the extra 1/2″ you left at the bottom carefully and sandwich it between the towel and the fold of the bias tape (see photo). Pin.
12) Sew the edge of the bias tape from the top to the bottom of the towel, insert a tag or folded ribbon in this step if you want.
13) Repeat the bias tape for all of your raw edges.
14) Now, grab a ruler and mark every 1″ across the top of your towel.
15) Make three pleats on each side of the towel, folded towards the centre. (1st Photo shows left pleats only) If you have not used a 27″x50″ bath towel, size the pleats as needed to make the top of your towel 7″ wide. (2nd Photo) If you want you can baste the pleats with a 1/2″ seam allowance and remove the pins – if you hate basting like I do, keep the pins in and move on to step 16.
16) Now, insert the top of your towel 3/4″ into the bottom of your fabric. You should have a towel sandwich with fabric on both sides. The green pins in the photo are holding my towel pleats together, the red pins are pinned through the fabric as well. Make sure that the bottom of your fabric lines up with itself by checking the position of your pins. We are about to sew blindly through the fabric from the top and won’t be able to see the back to line it up.
17) Sew across the bottom straight edge of the fabric 1/8″ away from the fabric edge. Sew slowly over the thick pleats (and the pins!) so you don’t break your needle. Sew a second line 1/4″ away from the bottom straight edge to make sure everything is secure and give added strength.
18) Now, topstitch around the curved edges of your fabric towel top 1/8″ or so away from the edge.
You’re Done, hooray!
Quickly now, tie it to the fridge and enlist someone to wash their hands and try, just try to pull it onto the floor! Now, laugh in delight at the laundry you have saved yourself – really, it’s okay – we can’t hear you!
Update: Find a link to this tutorial on Sew Set! Link here.
As usual, please feel free to use my patterns/tutorials for your personal projects and gifts and for charitable fundraising events. Please do not sell anything made with this pattern. Thanks! Sherri
by Sherri Sylvester | Oct 22, 2012
Scooter Lunch Bag
I made this a while ago (like a year or more ago) with my (almost) favorite fabric ever. It is by Monaluna, Monaco Organic Cotton Scooters in Pink. I especially like the bird riding on the scooter (below), so cute!
The tutorial is on Pink Penguin – here. The instructions are easy to follow and it turns out really great. It also holds a lot, which is good – because I take a lot of lunch and snacks to keep me going for my 10 hour day!
I lined it with an old “hot/cold” reusable bag that had a broken zipper. It makes it look more like a “real” lunch bag and keeps my food cold too!
I think when my oldest daughter goes to school full days next year I will make her one of these for her lunch. It would also make a really cute purse also, if you lengthened the straps.
by Sherri Sylvester | Sep 17, 2012
I am wondering if this Monday series should be called “Great Online Sewing Tutorials I have Found, Pinned, Finished, Photographed and Blogged About”. I suppose with a title like that anyone reading would likely move on before they even got to the content!
Here are more pillows I recently finished. (The other pillows are here and here.) The chevrons started as a one piece table runner with the lighter chevrons in the centre and the dark on the ends – I was aiming for an ombré-ish look. Then I realized that there is no way it would ever stay on the table – much less on the table AND also free from crayon marks and stickers! I happened to have 2 pillows I was going to cover anyhow, so I cut the table runner in half and sewed a quick 2 piece backing for them. (For those of you interested, it took me just over one Dora episode to cut/sew and hem the pillow backings. Such is the life of a sewing mom!)
They look a bit busy together on the couch, so I put one on the hallway bench for now. We’ll see what happens, things don’t seem to stay in one place too long. Especially with 2 kids using them as stepping stones over the hardwood “lake” they are being rescued from. It’s a good thing all of the pillow covers are washable!
I used this tutorial by Crazy Mom Quilts. It is super straightforward if you use one colour for every other chevron/zig zag stripe. Of course I had to be difficult and try to use a different colour for each stripe, which took some figuring and ended up being slower – of course! Either way I am happy with how it turned out. Maybe I will soon be aflicted by an addiction to making quilts? Hmmm… I am thinking about using this Pillow and Maxfield collection to make a picnic blanket. What do you think?
by Sherri Sylvester | Sep 3, 2012
This is a pillow that I made out of a XL Men’s dress shirt. It was not large enough to fit across the whole width of the pillow. So I added in 2 side strips and used white piping that I had laying around.
The back of the pillow also has the side strips. I used the front of the men’s shirt with the buttons still attached to make the centre portion. That way you can take the pillow out to wash the cover.
