Easy Pillow Cover

I am back as promised with my easy to make pillow cover. Here it is all finished and I promise it's easy to do!

I started with a pillow I found on clearance at Tuesday Morning. It was a great price because the fabric was picked, which was fine by me since I just wanted the pillow form and zipper.

Since my pillow has a cover already, I am using it as my pattern and also removing and reusing the zipper. First, remove the pillow form then using your seam ripper remove the zipper. Now measure the old cover to determine what size fabric pieces you need. Mine measures 17”, so I trimmed my skunk embroidery to size and cut my back piece of fabric. I like to taper the edges of my pillows in a bit so the corners don’t get super pointy. On the open edges, I mark in ½” on the corner then taper it to the edge (about four inches). I marked that line then did the other side, then cut along those lines. I do this to all four corners.

Now iron the zipper. Mine was kind of coiled back, so I carefully ironed getting close to the teeth. If it’s not flat the needled can’t get close enough when you sew and the zipper will show. See how it uncurled as I pressed it.

I then eyeballed laying the zipper in the center of my fabric. Once placed I measured in 2½ inches from the edge and marked this on both the fabric and zipper for front and back pieces. 

To make sewing this zipper extra easy (no pins!) I am going to glue it. I read this tip on Pinterest and I am happy to say it works and it works well! I used a purple glue stick to attach the zipper. Just dab the glue along the edge of the fabric and press the zipper to it lining up the marks. Once adhered I used my iron to really set it. Then I did the same to the other side.

Now it’s time to sew. With the zipper, open and using an invisible zipper foot I stitched as close to the zipper pull as I could get then I did the other side.

 

 

Now to finish up the zipper side, mark where the stitching line would continue to the edge. Sew from the edge to about ½” past where your zipper stitches ended. Do the same for the other end. Notice the overlap.

Now open zipper about half way and lay fabric right sides together and stitch the other three sides. For the corners, some people clip and then poke them out I however don’t like this. I have accidentally poked through the fabric this way so instead I fold along one seam then the other making a corner and then flip. 

Crisp corners without worrying about holes!

Now turn and insert the pillow form and zip closed, done! Just look at that invisible zipper! It doesn’t matter what color the zipper is if sewn properly it won’t be seen. Only the pull tab is visible. Also, you can always paint the pull tab with nail polish if you do want a specific color. Isn’t this animal print so cute! I bought it at Joann’s a while back, I think it turned out perfect for my pillow. 

Hope you enjoy my easy pillow cover tutorial! As always comments and questions are always welcome! Check out my previous posting for information on the skunk embroidery by Alyssa Thomas at Penguin and Fish.

Orange Bird Dress

I am a huge Disney fan! I love all things Disney and that includes Disney attire. A few weeks ago I stumbled upon a this Orange Bird necklace and bracelet set!

Just look at that cute Orange Bird face!!

I LOVED it but knew that if I bought it I would have to make a dress to wear with it, so last week I did just that. I made myself an Orange Bird themed dress! I used Butterick pattern B4443, and originally was making style F. I wanted a dress with a vintage flair, but not so extreme that my husband would feel uncomfortable being with me and wearing jeans and a polo shirt. This pattern fit the bill.

I prefer sleeves but when I went to attach them to the bodice they were small and sort of stuck out. Knowing that, I planned on wearing a green sweater with the dress I thought the perky sleeves would just make my sweater look lumpy, so I opted for the sleeveless style in C but with a modified belt. I wanted a wider belt with a perky double bow. Having made bow ties in the past, I was familiar with bow making, so I just guessed about the size I wanted and whipped up a quick belt.

After I finished the dress I made one of my signature felties to adorn the skirt. It just gives it that extra bit of Disney flair! Happy Orange Bird!

Here is the finished dress on my mannequin Helena! Does anyone else name their sewing accessories?

 

Taadaa!

 And with the sweater for the full effect.

What do you think? Next time I'm wearing it to the Magic Kingdom!

Kuchi Kopi Wrist Pincushion

I finally made myself a new and fun version of one my most used sewing tools. Check out my Kuchi Kopi wrist pincushion!

As you already know I am a big fan of the show Bob's Burgers so I thought Kuchi Kopi would make a great pincushion. I had this awesome slap bracelet stylus from Bento Box Entertainment so I thought why not combine the two for something adorable and useful. I may just wear it as a cute plush bracelet when I'm not sewing!

Pieced Quilt Back

I ran into a bit of a problem the other day while working on a queen size quilt. I finished my top:

I was so excited to finally be finishing this up when I realized I did not have enough fabric for the back. Ugh! I couldn't believe it.  I even had three different fabrics in mind that I could use as the back. I had intended on lining up two long panels, matching the prints and sewing them together to make one large back piece. But non of them were large enough. And it was a lot of fabric as in over 6 yards of each print! I was losing so much fabric lining up the patterns that my queen quilt was going to turn into a twin size, not good! So I had three options

      1. Go buy more fabric. Specifically a wide quilting fabric which runs about $15/yard at Joann Fabrics and I needed 3yards.

      2. Go buy a 100% cotton sheet. This is what my Granny used for her large quilt backs, pretty smart in my opinion if only I had done this first.

      3. Get creative and make do with what I had on hand.

Number 3 please! So I got all of my left over strips and pieces from where I cut my flags and just stitched them together one on top of the other until I had a piece the length of my quilt top.  They were all different widths so I just trimmed the excess down to the width of the shortest piece, about 23inches. I also trimming the other edge to make sure it was even.

Then I just stitched my two long pieces to either side of my pieced strip and viola! One queen size quilt back.

Normally I do use one big piece of fabric just because that was how my Granny quilted and I learned from watching her. However, I think she would approve; especially since I made do with what I had on hand. I also used this method in the past on a baby quilt. I think it actually made it cuter and could even be reversible.

Hope this inspires you to get creative with your quilt backs! Just because its the back doesn't mean it can't be as pretty as the front. I will be back with pictures of the quilt once I am finished.

The Making of My Linda Belcher Felt Photo

For those of you that read my blog I have a special preview and behind the scenes look at my latest feltie creation. My Bob's Burgers fan art felt photo of Linda!

 This is a 6"x8" hand cut and stitched felt photo made by me, Rae, and then framed in an 8"x10" frame. 

I love to paint as well as sew and this was an idea I had been toying around with for a while of combining the two to make photo like felties instead of just free standing felt ornaments. I think of this as painting but with felt and thread.  Also I don't use glue at all, I sew everything by hand. I actually considered this image of Linda initially when I was making the individual Belcher family felties because it was so funny, but it just didn't go with that particular idea I had of family portraits in felt. So after completing the others I decided I had to give this a try because I couldn't stop thinking about how funny it would be in felt form especially with the improvised plastic bag pants she wore! Below I am including some in process pictures for those of you who are interested in the creative process behind this piece.

This is the beginning of Linda in her basic felt form.

Again a basic background and adding her to it.

This photo makes me laugh because to me she looks a bit like Lemongrab from Adventure Time, and you know what that means, Unacceptable!!! Better keep working.

This is where things really start to take shape. I just keep adding more and more detail.

I even made my own tiny bag for her pants! That was quite tedious but so worth it in the end.

A few more finishing touches and done! I hope you enjoyed seeing the photos as much as I enjoyed making this and sharing it with you. To be clear I am not affiliated with Fox or Bob's Burgers in any way, (although a girl can dream right lol)?! I am just a huge fan, it is a great show and John Roberts who provides the voice for Linda completely makes the character come to life, hilarious!

Thanks for checking out my artwork, comments and questions are always welcome!

Feltie Making Tutorial

If you follow me on social media you know that I make lots of felt items. For those of you who have asked how I make them this tutorial is for you! Here is a picture of my feltie making supplies and I am going to go through each one so you can create your own felt masterpieces!

First draw your felt image. Nothing special just pen and paper is fine, then cut it out.

Now trace the image on to your felt. 

I use a white Gelly Roll pen or a regular ball point pen.

 For me the secret to making felties is having a great pair of scissors. I use these:

 

They are 4 inch Gingher Knife Edge Sewing scissors and are perfect for cutting felt. They are small which make it easy to cut intricate shapes and sharp so you get nice clean edges. They are a bit pricey, $30 at Joann Fabrics but they are wonderful and last very well.  I have been using these for several years and they are still like new, but I don’t cut paper with them only fabric or felt. Cutting paper with your good scissors is a no no! Don’t do it.

I use embroidery thread to sew my felt pieces. If you have never used embroidery thread it is made up of 6 strands which you separate into how ever many you want to sew with.  I pull out 2 strands to sew with and just hold or pin the piece in place and stitch it. 

 Here is the finished cloud.

 Hope that helps get you started on making your own felties! As always if you have any questions just ask! I am happy to help and I always welcome comments and feedback.

Equilateral Triangle Quilt Part 4- Finished Quilt Top

My apologies for the delay with the tutorial.  I was in England, and yes I had a wonderful time! I will have some blog posts about the trip and my crafting adventures there in upcoming posts.  For now lets finish up this quilt top!

So picking up where I last left off I finished sewing all of my rows together and pressing them.

This is the back to show you how I pressed each row in alternating directions.

Then I began sewing the rows together making pairs.

Remember how I said I alternated which direction I pressed my seams? This is where that comes into play.  When the edges are lined up for sewing the intersecting seams just nest together against each other.

If you managed to keep a consistent seam allowance during the piecing of the rows, and did a good job pressing and nesting your seams your finished quilt will show it.  Look at those intersecting points!

Keep sewing the rows together until your quilt top is complete.  Then step back and enjoy your beautiful work!

So what do you think?  I will admit the triangles may be a bit challenging if this is your first quilt, or even your second. I had to rip out a few seams myself and I have been sewing for years, it happens.   However, if you are patient, think about each step as you go along and pay attention to your seam allowances you can do it! As always questions, comments and sewing tips are always welcome and appreciated!