Tutorial: How To Make A Ruffled Monogram Pillow

Thank goodness for birthdays or I'd never have an excuse to make stuff! I feel like the only time I get to create anymore is when my kids are going to a birthday party. My poor neglected kids don't ever get anything made by me either because it's just getting harder to find the time as they grow. Not to mention the fact that we just moved AND started a new job. But ANYWHO...

Here is an adorable pillow for a little girl's bedroom that you can personalize with her initial.

I used my Cricket to cut this letter "M" but you could easily print it then trace it onto your fabric and cut. This was my first time cutting fabric with my Cricket machine (using these instructions) and it worked great.

It was also my first time applying an applique. I'd had the stuff to do it forever but was intimidated. For no reason I might add. It was so easy. All you need is Fray Check, Heat n' Bond and a somewhat simple shaped applique. For me, sewing around the applique was too hard when I used a super curvy font (i.e. "Curlz").

So this is what you do:

Cut out two squares for your pillow in any size you choose. Also cut out a letter (or anything else you want to use for your applique) and apply Fray Check to the edges. Cut four strips of fabric for you ruffle that are each about 1.5 times as long as one of your pillow's sides, fold them over length-wise with wrong sides together and iron.

Then open them up and sew them right sides together on the shorter sides until you have a big loop. Iron the seams open and then re-iron it length-wise over the seam. Come to think of it you might as well just wait to iron the entire thing lenth-wise until after you've sewed each strip together.

Now gather the whole thing by sewing the raw edges together with an extra long stitch length and pulling on the ends.

Now attach the ruffle to the right side of one square with pins. Use your seams as a guide by pinning them to the corners so that it's all even. Speaking of corners, make sure your ruffles aren't bunched right there because mine were sloppy and I had to use my seam ripper and redo them after sewing over the outter edges of my ruffle the first time.

Use your Heat n' Bond to apply your applique to the other square. Once attached you can sew around the edges of the letter using your zig-zag stitch and a very low stitch length setting.

Next, take your monogramed square and lay it face-down on top, right sides together, and re-pin, removing the pins used in the previous step as you go.

Now you're ready to sew! Leave a small opening to pull it right side out through (it's best if this opening is in the center of two corners instead of at a corner). Once right side out, stuff with batting and sew opening shut using invisible thread or a matching thread if fabric is a solid color.

Tutorial: How To Make A Child's Apron

All this took was a yard of fabric, a spool of ribbon and a 3 year old boy willing to let his mom use him as a model.

Here's my daughter wearing it but she's only 1 so it was a bit big on her:

There were lots of good apron patterns on the web but I wanted something super girly with lots of ruffles so I used this free Home Depot apron as a guide and made my own pattern.

Here are my pieces. The bottom piece is folded with the fold on the very bottom. If I had it to do over I would make each piece's edges either slanted or straight so they were all the same. You'll see why later. My measurements are as follows:

TOP:
7.5" wide on top
9.5" wide on bottom
8.5" tall

MIDDLE:
9.5" tall by 27" wide

BOTTOM:
8" tall by 36" wide (then fold and iron so it's 4" tall)

I hemmed the sides of each and also across the top of the piece on top. This would be a good time to add your neck and waist straps but I forgot and had to figure that part out later. If you do it now you can hide the strap's raw edges in the hem

I then used a french seam to attach them all together since I don't have a serger. This makes the back of the apron (or the "inside") look more clean. I then sewed a straight line just above the seam to hold the french seam in place instead of letting it just hang there sticking out (do this from the right side so you can make sure your stitch line is straight).

Although the name is intimidating, a french seam is so very simple. All you do is sew the pieces wrong sides together first, then sew them right sides together to hide the raw edges of the seam allowance. TIP: after sewing the wrong sides together, trim the seam allowance so there are no frays sticking out and so there's less bulk to have to hide.

Here's what the inside or "wrong" side will look like:

See how the top piece and middle piece don't fit together very well? That's why you need to make sure each piece's sides match eachother (slanted or straight, not both).

Hopefully you already have your straps attached by now but I did not. So I cut my ribbon, used a lighter on the edges to keep it from fraying and ironed the two neck straps (each 14.5" long) as pictured below:

I very carefully attached them to the top on each side



Then I took my longer piece of ribbon (57") and sewed it right on top of the waist's seam in order to cover up my little mistake.



And there you have it!

Faux Vinyl Tile

Looking for a cute home decor item you can make with items you probably have on hand?

Check out The Hybrid Chick's great tutorial here to make your own tile

A few tips:

Home Depot will cut your tile for free even if you don't buy it there

If you don't have Photoshop just use funky fonts in Paint or Word

Don't be stingy with the Mod Podge when adhering the paper to the tile

Hooded Towel

I found a super simple tutorial for a hooded bath towel from Make And Takes here. She adds appliques and bias tape to make it even cuter (perfect for a gift) but mine is plain and simple with no frills... lucky for me my kid loves it anyway because he thinks it's a superhero cape :) The only thing I did differently was rounded the back of the hood (by tracing a dinner plate) to get rid of the point.

I presented this tutorial to a group of women in my church tonight and got some great feedback with even more ideas to try out. One woman used to make these using 2 washcloths instead of half a hand towel (if you decide to use a hand towel, I suggest cutting it even smaller than just in half as the hood is pretty long otherwise). Another woman said to use the leftover half of the hand towel to add triangle pockets to the top corners of the inside so little ones can put their hands in there and hold it on. I'm so doing that!!! Lastly, someone else mentioned adding ears to the hood. CUTE.

I'll definately be making more of these.

Mason Jar Soap Dispenser

Here is the tutorial for turning a mason jar into a soap dispenser by Intimate Weddings. It's so much cuter than the little $1 one's I get from Smiths. I always use my .35 soft soap coupons when they have their deal where all coupons under a dollar are worth $1. And since this was free to do too I was excited to try it. Free plus free equals awesome. I spray painted the lid with brushed nickle (it was originally gold and said Kerr) since I already had some for other house projects. Give it a shot!