Even though the weather here in NoVA is pretty nice. You don’t even need a jacket today. It has not stopped me from dreaming about cooler weather.

It doesn’t hurt that I’m also super excited for Thanksgiving to hurry up and get done, because I can’t wait to put up Christmas!

But seeing as how I still have to wait, and I get a little sad that Christmas comes down. I miss the glitter and glitz.

So I have created a pillow that will solve my dilemma. It might be a little soon to have it out, but I’m not too worried about it.

This pillow is super simple to do.
This pillow actually started out as a curtain, but I didn't need the curtain anymore so I cut it up, because it was a nice weight for  pillows. I ended up getting two 16" pillows  out of it.

I found a tree silhouette that I liked in my Photoshop shapes. I don’t know where I got it. I downloaded it a while ago. I sized this shape to fit my paper, then saved it as a jpeg.

I opened up Silhouette Studio and imported my tree jpeg and then traced it and cut it out. Now, I just cut it out on regular paper, but you could certainly use freezer paper.

After I had my stencil, I took my fabric marker (the kind that disappears after a bit) and traced inside each of my cut sections on my pillow square.

I watered down some matte Tulip fabric paint in chocolate brown.  I thinned it down so that it was a bit like ink. Might have been slightly more watery than that and then with a careful hand and a small paintbrush I filled in each of my tracings. Let the paint dry.

After the tree was dry, I pulled out the Tulip glitter bond.  I took another paintbrush and kind of dabbed/ dragged the paintbrush over the tops of some of the boughs of the tree. Then I dumped glitter all over that. I did this until I was  happy with the effect. I then put all my glitter back into its bottle, and prayed that I didn’t dump it all over myself.

Then I let the glue dry for a couple of hours.

Now I’m enjoying my oh-so-pretty pillow. I love how understated she is. I am also loving that I can leave her out through January.

What do you guys think?

I cannot tell you guys how excited I am to share this with you!

SO VERY EXCITED!!! Can ya dig it?

Remember the auction haul from last year?

Wha!?!? You don't remember? Well let me just jog your memories. :)
There's the bed! The one off to the right.

It needed some love. The veneer was destroyed on the footboard and the finish had seen better days. I fixed the worse of the veneer damage with some wood epoxy, but then here's where the trouble started. The epoxy wouldn't take the stain or any color, which threw a huge monkey wrench in my plans.

I had originally wanted to show off the detail of the scroll work by having the upholstery only go to the line created by the scroll work, but because of the veneer damage on the footboard I  couldn't do that. The color difference was too great, so I decided the best way to deal with the veneer problem was to cover it up - completely.

So the first thing I did was cover the pieces with some high loft batting, and I stapled sporadically around the piece. The just cut around the edges. I made sure to not cut to close in, because you can always take more off, but you can't put it back on.
So next was the vinyl. I spread the vinyl over the entire piece and then began to staple every few inches for about 8 inches. Then I pulled the vinyl taut from the opposite side and staple a few inches like I did before. Then I moved to one side and pulled that side taut against the edge and lay down a few staples. I do the same for the last side, afterwards I just move around the piece, smoothing and pulling on the vinyl and stapling it down. After all that I just trim around the staples, trying to get as close to the staples as possible.
 Then it was time to bust out the glue gun.

Until it broke. Crap! I had an O-ring fall out of my glue gun, but it was still working - kind of.

Even though I had to manually feed the glue sticks through the gun, I got the flexible braid adhered.

I am loving the look!
 I love this bed! I almost wish I hadn't told my friend that I'd sell it to her, but I did, and she's got it all set up already in her guest bedroom.

Doesn't it look perfect?
I love it! I really like the red against the warm tones of the brown, and the worn look of the vinyl is perfect. :)

I hope you guys have enjoyed this post, because I certainly enjoyed sharing it!

See ya later Alligators :)
Heather

Hey guys! I don't know if you've noticed, but we're up at 260 followers. How exciting is that?

I'm super excited about that. So I thought today I'd show you guys a post from way back when and what I did to update it. :)

So the original post is HERE! This post is originally from April!

Here's a picture of what I made though.


So I wanted to update it for the shop, and I had this oh so lovely silk, so here's what I came up with. :)

The run down on what I did is this:
Cut out two 15" x 19" panels and eight 4" x 22" strips. Follow the instructions in the original tutorial for preparing the strips.

On one of your panels find the center point of the 15" sides and make a small mark. Then make a mark 1-1/2" on either side of the center mark that you made. Make 6 more marks each 1-1/2" from the previous mark. You will end up with 9 marks. One in the center and then 4 on either side of the center, as shown below. Repeat for the opposite edge.

The equation for this is basically - finished size/how many strips = spacing for strips from center point of side

so 14"/8 = 1-3/4" but since my strips were only 1-1/2" wide I used that measurement instead, but if you were to do your own figuring... your strips should not be larger than the measurement you come up with, but it can be smaller.

Now we're going to start placing the strips, and we're going to weave them just as we did with the other tutorial, so I won't go into that, but this is what you should end up with. :)


Now here's what the finished product looks like!



This silk beauty is for sale in the shop!
I hope you guys liked the update to the tutorial. Have a great day and enjoy yourselves!

Well here is another pleated pillow. I am in love with pleats. I love my boys, but boys do not like girly pleats or girly pillows, and husbands do not like girly pleats or girly pillows in their sons' rooms. So I will make these girly pillows for you guys and then put them up in my shop so that someone else can enjoy them. :) I like this plan. Do you know what's nice about this particular pillow? Imagine doing it with a boldly color variegated thread against a gray. That's not girly at all. Maybe I will end up with a full on boy pillow that's pleated. Ruh roh...the gears are turning. Ok well I'll consider the most recent idea that just vomited itself from my keyboard, I will tell all of you how to create your own square pleated pillow.


What you'll need:
18-1/2" x 18-1/2" cut of fabric {easily ironable, pleatable fabric....like cotton, linen or lightweight denim}
15" x 15" cut of fabric
6" x 24" clear ruler
Fabric Marking Stick {pen, pen or chalk, whatever disappears with time or water}
14" pillow form

What you'll do:
Line up your 18-1/2" square cut of fabric and measure 1-3/4" in from one edge and make a line the entire length of the square. Then measure 2-1/2" in from the line you just made and make another line on the fabric the entire length. Continue making lines 2-1/2" from the previous line until you reach 1-3/4" from the opposite edge. Rotate the fabric 90 degrees and then repeat the above steps again. You should end up with your fabric looking like a checkerboard. Each side will have 7 pleats.

Now here's the fun part. Everyone of those lines you just made is a pleat. Starting on one side, fold the fabric with wrong sides together and stitch a 1/4" seam down the entire length of fabric. Repeat until all of the lines are pleated on one side. Iron the pleats all one direction, gently pulling the fabric taut so that you do not iron any wrinkles or additional pleats in it.

Rotate the fabric 90 degrees and let's start on the next set of pleats. You will sew these pleats same as the previous ones but you will be sewing over the pleats you just made. Make sure that your previous pleats are all going the same way when stitch the second set of pleats down. Go slowly because the additional fabric under the needle can bunch and be pulled down inside the machine. After all of the pleats are made iron the fabric again. Gently pull the fabric taut while ironing it out. Push all of the new pleats in one direction.

Now we're going to start adding the design to our pleats and pull out a new tool. I don't know if you guys have this tool, but I am in love with it. Its a stitching guide. I set up my stitching guide to be 1" from the needle, which was the center of the boxes. So lets start on the pleats that we just put in, line up the stitching line on the first pleat with the 1" stitching line or your guide on your machine and stitch the pleats in the opposite direction that they were ironed. Now line up the guide with the 2nd pleat stitching line and stitch the pleats down in the opposite direction, or the direction in which they were ironed. The picture below shows the pattern emerging.

Please ignore the mis-stitched line in that second square. :)

This picture shows the guide being set at 2" inches, but 1" would work as well. The guide would be lined up with the pleat's stitching line.

Rotate your fabric so that we're working with the first set of pleats you made. These pleats are the one sewn to the other set of pleats. Line up the stitching line of the first pleat on your 1" stitching line and start stitching down the center of the square pushing the pleats in the opposite direction that they are sewn. Do this for each of your pleats on this side of the pillow. Below is the pattern emerging.



To ensure that the pleats don't get mussed while we're stitching the seams we need to stitch down the pleats inside the seam line. Just a quick run down the edges will solve this. Make sure that the pleats are being sewn down in the direction that they were ironed.

Now you can just finish the pillow as you like. I put an invisible zipper in mine and finished it off with 5/8" seams. I like over stuffed pillows. :) Here's the finished product.


Well I hope you guys have enjoyed this little tute. I had a lot of fun making this and I will definitely be trying it with some variegated thread. :) These lovelies are currently in my shop.

Have a great day guys!



Linking up to:

Well as promised here is the first of a few pillow tutorials for pillows that I made for the Gift Fair this past weekend. The pillow we're making today is a nod back to when dresses had smocking and intricate pintucked patterns. So without further ado, lets get started!


What you'll need:
17" x 28-1/4" piece of lightweight fabric (cotton, linen, linen blends, lightweight denim, etc)
17" x 17" piece of fabric (can be the same as the front or different)
6" x 24" clear ruler
16" pillow form or stuffing

What we're going to do:
On the larger rectangle of fabric, measure 1-1/4" from the edge and make a line the entire length of fabric (should be 17"). Measure a 1/2" from this line and make another line. Repeat the last step until you are 1-1/4" from the opposite edge. There should be 25 lines. Make sure your fabric does not shift {as mine did} and you end up with crooked lines. Make sure these lines are straight. You will notice that my fabric is longer than 28-1/4" long and that's because I gave myself more fabric allowance while I figured out how long I needed it to actually be. :)

After you have your lines drawn, fold the fabric on the first line, closest to one edge. Double check that it is 1-1/4" from the edge and pin. This will be our first tuck. Press and then sew a 1/4" from the fold.


Fold the fabric on the next line you made, making sure to not catch in any of the fabric you just sewed. Press and then sew another line 1/4" from that folded edge. Repeat this step until all your lines have been sewn. I pressed all of the pleats to one side for easier manipulation.



Press your entire piece making sure to stretch the fabric as you're ironing it so that nothing bunches. Iron all of the pleats in one direction. The rectangle should look like this now.

Now this step is up to you on how you want to proceed, but we're going to be manipulating each of these pleats in opposite directions with each pass. I started off using pins to hold the pleats down, but then realized it was easier to finger-pin them down as the presser foot approached the pleat.

What we're going to do is turn your fabric 90 degrees so that your presser foot will be running perpendicular to all of the pleats and we're going to start about an 1" away from the edge. I say about an inch because I just lined up the edge of my fabric with where the presser plate meets the body of my sewing machine and used that as my guide for each line. In the picture below you can see the pattern we're going to be making. Each pleat is folded in towards its neighbor. You're going to sew a line down the entire length of fabric with your pleats looking like this.

This would be why I abandoned the pinning idea. Not to mention that I kept stabbing myself.

So here is your completed face. Very pretty, no? I love it, too bad I have no little girl to foist this upon. Just finish the pillow as normal.

I finished mine with a back in the same material with an invisible zipper so that it closes nicely.

I am in love with the tucks. :) This little pretty is in my shop right now looking for a good home. :)

I hope you guys have enjoyed this tutorial, and will go make one of your own. Have a great day and enjoy yourselves!