September 17, 2018

A Comfy & Easy-to-Make Pillow Lounger

My pillow lounger – ready to use! Next time I might buy enough fabric to match up the print properly; but I don’t think the kiddos will mind this time.

I love to sit on the floor with William (age 3) and Emilia (age 1) and play, but I sure don’t love trying to get up again. Nor am I impressed with how hard the floor feels after a while. Given that and also knowing how much fun the little ones have falling/jumping/snuggling into pillows, I figured we could come up with something that would work for all of us. Continue Reading…

Please follow and like us:

August 29, 2018

How to Sew a Decorative Pillow Cover with an Invisible Zipper

I’m planning to put my new Baby Lock Jazz through its paces by testing how it performs while making a series of different projects. I’m starting with decorative pillow covers with invisible zippers.

Spoiler Alert – this is how my pillows look with their new covers 🙂

If you’d like to make a pillow cover of your own, here is what you’ll need:

square pillow form to cover (or existing pillow that needs a facelift)
invisible zipper, preferably at least 2″ longer than your pillow or pillow form
home decor fabric (if using quilting-weight cotton, I recommend fusing interfacing such as Shape-Flex to the fabric before making the pillow – this will bring the fabric closer to decorator-weight)
zipper foot and/or invisible zipper foot

Since I had 10 pillows to make new covers for, I purchased my invisible zippers in bulk – saving quite a bit of money in the process.

The zippers I purchased for my pillows

Please follow and like us:

September 30, 2016

Infinity Scarves – Sewn with a Serger or a Sewing Machine

Infinity Scarf – looped 3 times

Infinity scarves are one of my favorite sewn gifts to give or to receive – easy to make and easy to wear! The continuous loop means no worrying about the scarf sliding out of position or the scarf ends being blown right off your body in a passing breeze.

There are many Infinity Scarf tutorials online and the majority get the job done just fine, but most of them end with a very wide opening that straddles the intersection where the ends of the scarf are joined. This can be a bit of a pain to hand stitch. I think this method, which I learned from Nancy Zieman, is a little easier and leaves a smaller, easier-to-sew invisibly, opening.

Since I’m working here with Telio Reflection knit fabric, I’m going to use the serger, but it could also be sewn on a regular sewing machine. As we go along, I’ll include photos showing how the stitching would look on a sewing machine. Continue Reading…

Please follow and like us:

June 24, 2016

Folded Fabric Ornaments to Sew – Tutorial, Part 2

Folded Fabric Ornaments made by Connor and Beth Ann Williams

More Christmas in July! In my last post, I gave a step-by-step overview of the process of making the triangular ornament shown in the photo.

I first stumbled across these lovely and unusual fabric ornaments on a post by Katrina, a sewist in New Zealand, at katrinastutorials.blogspot.com. The links below will take you to my saved pins on pinterest – you can click through to get to the original posts.

Fabric Ornament – starting with a circle and Fabric Ornament – starting with a triangle

After a google search, I also found this youtube video by Crouton Crackerjacks.

I’ve since found these oraments in a few other places, but I think the links above are the best.

You can see my step-by-step photos of the process of making the triangular ornament here.

Now let’s look at the process for the 4-Petal Circle-to-Square ornament step by step:

Please follow and like us:

June 24, 2016

Folded Fabric Ornaments to Sew – Tutorial, Part 1

Folded Fabric Ornaments made by Connor and Beth Ann Williams

Christmas in July! It’s not just an excuse for a sale – it’s when many of us start (if we haven’t already) sewing holiday gifts for our friends and family members.

Fabric Ornament – starting with a circle and Fabric Ornament – starting with a triangle

After a google search, I also found this youtube video by Crouton Crackerjacks.

I’ve since found these oraments in a few other places, but I think the links above are the best.