Sew Busy

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Corny title. Oh well. I spent all my creative juices on craft projects this weekend.

We had a crazy weekend. I'm sure you did too. All weekends seem like that these days.

We celebrated Oktoberfest with Doug's parents yesterday, and it was fun, and yummy. And on Saturday I had plans to paint the family room, but ended up scrambling to put some birthday gifts together, and then sewing Peach a skirt. At the end of the day I decided that I could not have crammed one more thing in if I tried. Painting will have to happen another time.

Late last week (like Friday night), Doug decided that although our family was going to be all over the map on Saturday, he was going to attend the children's birthday party of some friends on Saturday night. We discussed possible gifts (if you are the kind of person whose kid has everything, pooh on you) and I headed out with the intent of buying gift cards. But, I hate gift cards. I just never trust that they will actually be used. You know, if you give someone an actual gift, there's a pretty good chance it will be used. But a gift card could get lost, or just stuck in a wallet somewhere forever. I know I shouldn't worry about it -- control issues.

Anyway, as I was driving to my gift card destination, I had an idea. Well, actually I had two ideas, but the first one was just mean (buy two gerbils and we'll never get invited back to another birthday party). So, I headed over to JoAnn and stood in line at the cutting counter for almost 30 minutes to buy supplies. I also picked up some cute coordinating fabrics for two skirts for Peach.

This first project was really very simple. I have never made one of these before because it was a no-sew project, and I am a sewing snob. If it doesn't take hours to make and cursing at the machine, it is beneath me. Awful. But, I decided to get over it and make no-sew pillows. They turned out very cute and I'm told the birthday children really liked them (my husband does not pull punches). These would make great Christmas gifts for nieces and nephews.

Mini-Tutorial
To make one pillow you need a pillow form and a piece of fleece, and scissors. That's it. I bought 16-inch pillow forms to make a nice big pillow and one yard of each fleece choice (I made two pillows). I didn't take time to actually find prices on the pillows because I was in a hurry, but if you look, or have a coupon, you can easily find a pillow for about $5. The fabric for each was around $6.

I made five-inch fringe on my pillow, but you can make yours anywhere from four- to seven-inches. Just decide how long you want your fringe to be, double it, and add that to the width of you pillow to know how large your fabric square should be. For a 16-inch pillow and a five-inch fringe, I cut my squares 26 inches (make sure you cut the squares at the same time so they are exactly the same -- just double the fabric over and cut once).

Then, lay your squares down, both pieces of fabric together, edges matching. Starting in each corner, I cut out a four inch square. Then on each side I cut my five-inch fringe. Each fringe piece should be about 3/4-inch wide. They certainly don't have to be perfect.


Then, pull off the top piece, being careful that you remember which side is which -- you want to lay the piece back on top the same way.

Place the pillow in the center and then place the other piece of fabric back on top, straightening the fringe out.

Starting in the corners, tie both corner pieces (one on each side) all the way around. Then start tying the sides. You'll tie these as if you where tying your shoes laces in a knot. Go all the way around until all your knots are finished.

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My second project on Saturday was a skirt for Peach. I quickly washed and dried the fabric I bought and started in the afternoon. I used the method that Regina posted a few weeks ago here. Aren't those little girls too cute? The tutorial for the skirt is here.

When I started my skirt, I decided that Peach was going to need a slightly larger skirt than those in the tutorial -- she wears a size seven. So I added an inch on both sides of the rectangles -- for length and width. After she put on the finished product, I wasn't as happy with the way it looked, compared to the tutorial and Regina's skirts, but it's certainly cute enough. I realized that adding one inch to the unruffled piece made it too long. For the next skirt I will just add length to the ruffle, and I will probably end up ripping out the bottom ruffle on this one and hiking it up. All-in-all it was an easy project and very cute. The fabric I bought was on sale and each skirt ran around $12. You can't beat that with a stick. If you sew, and you have a little girl, try it -- it's all straight lines!






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