Simple Pillow Case Tutorial

Hello blogland! Over the weekend I made a few new pillow covers for the couch pillows we keep downstairs in the den/living room/family room/whateveryoucallit room.  I've probably mentioned this before, but I've decided to start changing up the color scheme in this house hold.

I blame Pinterest.

Our current colors are reds, browns, beige, and sage green.  However, I've decided I want to switch things up in here.  I'm going for more of the whites, beiges, teals, greens, blues...can ya dig it?? Yes, I’m trying to bring back sayings from previous decades…who’s with me?

Ok, anyways, on to the pillow cover.  I got the original idea from Thrifty and Chic.  You should check out her site, she’s got an amazing eye for design and is so incredibly resourceful! 

Here we go.  Materials you’ll need:

Fabric

No, seriously, other than a sewing machine, that is all you will need.  You’ll need fabric that is about 2 inches wider than the pillow you are covering, and about 2.5 times longer.  Here is the piece I started with.

I believe I got 2.25 yards of each type of fabric I was using, and that was enough to cover 4 of my pillows. 

Step 1: Lay the fabric out face down.

Step 2: Fold up the edge along the short sides about a half inch to an inch. 

Step 3:  Sew those edges

Step 4:  Lay the fabric out face up and place the pillow on top

Step 5:  Fold the bottom half of the fabric up over the pillow and put a pin about where that bottom crease should be

Step 6: Remove the pillow, and fold down the top to where it is over lapping the bottom half by about an inch and a half.  Then lay the pillow back on top to make sure that it will still fit after you’ve sewn it.  Just a note to remember, pillows squish, so if it looks like it’ll be a bit of a tight fit, that’s ok.  It just means that you won’t have a bunch of excess fabric around the edges.

Step 7:  Sew the sides of the pillow case shut.  I only sewed on the left and right sides.  You can sew all the way around if you want, but it’s not necessary.

Step 8: Turn right side in and stuff that pillow inside!  Feel free to do a top stitch here if you want to add a little border.  I didn’t on these, but I may on future covers.

Simple right?  Great way to totally transform the look of some tired old pillows. 

Don’t forget to link up with Jaime over at Crafty Scrappy Happy for her HUGE 1 Year Blogiversary Link Party!!  See my previous post J 

Happy Sewing!

Lined Zipper Pouch Tutorial

I was a busy sewing bee over the weekend.  I finished all of the pouches that I wanted to make for my sister.  Just as a refresher, she’s a makeup guru and therefore has many different lipsticks/glosses/liners and what not.  And she wanted a fun way to organize them and make it easy for her to just grab the colors she needed instead of having to sort through everything.  So she gave me the list of color families that she wanted them all organized into, and I got to work. 

Now, while I tried to take as many helpful pictures as I could, this may still be a tad confusing if you’re brand new to sewing.  If that is the case, you can refer to this blog which is where I got the original idea. 

I apologize for picking the one color which is probably the hardest to tell the difference in the outer material vs. the liner material…didn’t really think that one through.  But hopefully this gives you enough of a starting point!

Ok, let’s get started.  Here’s what you will need:

• 1 quarter yard of fabric for the outside material
• 1 quarter yard of fabric for the liner material (I got the little quarter pieces that Joann’s sells for 2 bucks.
• 1 All purpose zipper – mine was 7 inches but you can get one however long you want.  Just make sure your fabric is at least as long as the zipper.

Step 1: Cut out two squares/rectangles of liner, and two squares/rectangles of outer material.  Make sure they are all roughly the same size.  And make sure that the width is at least as long as your zipper.

Step 2:  Lay down one piece of the liner material face up.  Then line up the top of the zipper with the top of the material.  Then lay a piece of the outer material on top (tops lined up) face down.

Step 3:  Pin and sew

Step 4:  Open up the material so that the right sides are facing out.  Repeat steps 2 and 3 with the other two pieces of fabric on the other side of the zipper.  Making sure that the liner material is on the bottom face up, and the outer material is on top, face down (right sides together).

Once you open it up, it should look like this

Step 5:  now you will put both pieces of the outer material on one side, and both pieces of the liner material on the other.  The zipper should be hidden on the inside. NOTE: Make sure the zipper is at least half way open so that you can turn the pouch right side in when you’re done.

Step 6:  Sew all the way around making sure to leave a few inches open at the bottom of the liner material

Step 7: Reach through the opening you left, all the way to the other side, and turn your pouch right side in. 

Step 8:  Stitch closed the opening that was left on the bottom of the liner.  It’s ok if this is slightly visible since it will be tucked inside the outer material.

Step 9:  Stuff the liner back inside the outer material, and now you have a lined zipper pouch!

Hopefully I didn’t confuse you too much, and the pictures helped!  Feel free to leave comments and ask questions!  Stay tuned for an easy pillow cover tutorial!

And don’t forget to follow me for a chance to win the Giveaway!

Casserole Holder Tutorial

I will preface this post by warning you all that it is long!  But, there are a lot of pictures.  Since this is my first semi complicated tutorial, I wanted to be as thorough as possible so I took a ton of pictures and I will try to explain it all as clearly as I can! 

This weekend I made another casserole holder.  This one was for my mom and was part of her Christmas present as I mentioned before.  I got the initial idea from this pin.  Which led me to the original tutorial which is found at this blog.  Now, I’m not an expert on the sewing machine so I thought I would create this tutorial for anyone else who is beginning just like me.

First things first, here are the materials you will need:

1 Yard of InsulBright – It’s sold in bulk, usually with the batting type material and the label looks like this

2 Yards of fabric – Now, for me I did two different patterned fabrics, so I used 1 yard of each.  So, you will need either 2 yards of the same fabric or 1 yard each of two different fabrics, make sense?

2 yards of canvas handle material – I found mine over by the “by the yard” Velcro and things.  It comes in a few different colors and looks like this

Color coordinated thread – Just normal thread, no special type needed

Measuring tape – I used my husbands, but if you have the fabric/sizing kind, that works too.

Some sort of closure – Be it buttons, or Velcro, or ribbon to use as ties

Let’s get started! 

Step 1:  Layout your InsulBright and cut out a 37” by 12” rectangle and a 30” by 15” rectangle.  So one should be shorter and wider, and the other longer and skinnier.

Step 2: Place the two rectangles of InsulBright on top of your fabric.  If you are using two types of fabric, you will need to cut one of each size rectangle out of each type of fabric.   When you cut out the fabric, cut about a 1 inch outline around the InsulBright.  This doesn’t need to be exact.

You should end up with your two pieces of InsulBright, a 37”x12” and 30”x15” piece of fabric 1, and a 37”x12” and 30”x15” piece of fabric 2 (if using two different pieces of fabric, otherwise you will have 4 pieces out of the same fabric)

Step 3:  Take your two 37”x12” pieces of fabric and place them right sides together.  So it should look like its inside out.  Then place your 37”x12” piece of InsulBright and place it on top of those.  Like so

Step 4:  Sew these 3 pieces together (straight stitch).  Make sure to leave a 4” or so gap on one of the 12” sides so that you can turn it right side in.  

Step 5:  Repeat step 4 with the 30”x15” pieces.  You should have two pieces like this. I cut off the excess material.  If you do this, make sure to leave some excess material where your 4" gap is.

Step 6:  Now you turn each piece right side in. Reach in between the two pieces of fabric, and turn it right side in.

Step 7:  Next you will do what’s called a top stitch all the way around.  This is really the same thing that you did the first time around (just a straight stitch) except that this one will be visible.  It kind of makes it look like there is piping around the edge.  The purpose of this is to make sure all of the layers stay together and the InsulBright doesn’t shift and bunch.  The top stitch also closes that 4” gap that we left when we turned it outside in.  Now your two pieces look like this

Step 8:  Now we want to sew the two pieces together.  Lay the 30”x15” down horizontally (placing the side you want to show on the outside face down).  Then lay the 37”x12” down vertically on top of that (again placing the side you want to show on the outside face down).  Make sure that you measure the sides and that you have the top piece centered.  And pin those together.

Be sure to double check with a real casserole dish to make sure all the sides will close before you sew it together.

Step 9:  Sew the two pieces together.  You should end up with a square in the center.

Step 10:  You’re almost done!  Now we just need to attach the handles and the closures.  To attach the handles lay them in a loop along the backside of the 30”x15” piece like so

Step 11:  Pin the handles down, and mark about 3” to either side of the center square.  This is where you will stop sewing the handles.

Step 12: Sew on the handles

Step 13: Now you get to decide what kind of closure you want.  I used buttons and loops on my first one (I don’t know how to sew buttons holes yet).  In the tutorial I linked to at the top of this post, she used Velcro which is probably the easiest.  You can find sew on Velcro at Joanns (make sure you get the kind made for sewing) .  You can refer to the tutorial I linked to above to see how she sewed on the Velcro. 

And that’s it!  You are done!  These make great gifts and they definitely get easier the more you make.  Please feel free to leave comments and questions!  And if you end up making one yourself, tell me about it, I would love to know!

Weekend Catch-up - Finally

I know, I know,....it's already Wednesday and I'm JUST now doing my weekend catch-up.  I'm a slacker...sorry!  So, this weekend was quite productive.  Although most of it I don't have pictures of because it was cleaning and rearranging type activities.  But, we did get a chance to go to Ikea and picked out a lovely little corner desk for me and all my crafts :-)  This is the one we picked:


Except mine has white legs instead of silver.  Pretty right?  It's simple and functional and fits juuuust barely into the corner next to our regular computer desk.

Then, on Monday since I had the day off for MLK Day, I decided to go get some lovely things to accessorize my lovely desk...naturally.  I went to Target and they have some really great designs right now.  Lots of greens and teal/turquoise.  So pretty.  Here are some of the items I brought home with me:

Pretty right?  You'll have to excuse the crappy quality pictures.  I took them in a huge rush this morning before heading in to work.  But I promise, in real life these are very pretty, vibrant pieces.  I'm really excited to get some nice crisp white shelves up so that I can organize and arrange them all.

On another note, while at Target, I also purchased some items for the rest of the house including the following:

I love the glass containers, it makes everything look so much classier and less cluttered.  I also ordered some glass jugs from Amazon to put our milk in.  The nerd organizer/milk lover in me is super excited about those.  I can't wait to borrow my friend's Cricut machine to make some awesome labels for these babies.  Anyone else have experience with a Cricut machine or something similar?  I'm trying to decide if/when I should get one, and if I'm willing to wait the 5 months to ask for it for my birthday.  (Can you sense the impatience??)

Hopefully next week I'll be posting with some finished Craft Corner pictures!  Check back soon :-)