Front Porch Pillows

I live in Daybreak. It's a planned community with the idea of older style homes and front porches. We have a lot of fun colorful houses in our neighborhood. I have mixed feelings about my front porch. I would prefer to have it open so that I can sit out on my bench and watch my kids play in the street. However, I do love that it hides the scooters that are always parked on the front porch. Anyway, I put my cute yellow bench out on the front porch and I wanted to decorate it with some pillows. I have been wanting to make something with burlap... since it's so trendy right now. So, I thought I'd do something with pillows!

I started with this pillow. I bought outdoor fabric at Joann. I followed my own tutorial to make it a slip covered pillow. Then I just cut a strip of burlap and sewed a reinforced stitch around the edge so it wouldn't fray. I sewed it into a band and made another smaller band to cinch it up in the front. Then I attached a fabric (burlap) flower that I made using my tutorial here.

Then came the fun part. I really liked the pattern in the fabric. And I wanted to make a smaller coordinating pillow out of burlap. So, here is what I did.

• I enlarged the pattern on my copy machine. I think it was about 8x8.
• I traced the pattern onto freezer paper.
• I used an exacto knife and small scissors to cut out the pattern. ( I got lazy and just cut out the part that repeated.

If you would like a more detailed tutorial on freezer paper stencils, you can find one here.

• I ironed the freezer paper stencil onto the burlap and used a sponge brush to dab acrylic paint onto the burlap. (this is where the lazy part came in. I had to take the freezer paper off and turn it 4 times to get the repeating pattern. That seemed easier than cutting it out.)
• I heat set the paint on with the iron.
• I sewed the pillow using the same slip covered pillow tutorial.

Here's the funny part... I was worried about a pillow form getting wet on the porch and getting moldy, so I made my pillow form by stuffing a ziploc bag with polyfil!!!

It turned out totally cute!!!

Now my front porch has a cute set of matching pillows. And I love the way they look on my yellow bench (scooters have been removed for the photo) Maybe I don't hate sewing so much after all... I just hate sewing clothes!!!

-Anisa

Countdown to Crafts- Easy Throw Pillow

We have started something new and fun!!! We are doing a Countdown with Crafts to help you get ready for the Holidays. For my first project, I bring to you and fun and easy throw pillow. If you go to Joann Fabric and Craft Stores this week, they have their Soft n' Crafty pillow forms on sale for 40% off. I made this pillow by taking basic white fabric. I pinned the ribbon on to the fabric, then sewed it on.... make sure you sew down both sides of the ribbon. I used ribbon from my stash, but scrapbook ribbon is also on sale at Hobby Lobby this week. After I made this pillow, I saw this post on Ucreate from the guest blogger Polka Dot Chair for a skirt just like my pillow!!! Weird Deja Vu. Check out her tutorial, she does it a little differently.

This pillow is also for sale at my SEEDLINGS boutique this FRIDAY at my home. Check out the blog for details!!!

Super Quick Placemat Pillow

We've had fun with place mats in the past, (see here) and now we're going to have a little season fun with them. Behold the place mat pillow!

Instructions?

1. Find an adorable holiday themed fabric place mat.
2. Cut a piece of coordinating fabric to the same size as the place mat.
3. Place right sides together and sew around 3/4 of the edges with a 1/4" seam allowance.
4. Turn right side out and stuff to desired firmness
5. Discretely sew open end shut
6. Enjoy your fun new throw pillow that required no embroidery, applique or Ric-Rac.

Want another quick Halloween/Fall pillow idea? Check out this one at la*T*da!

We love our readers!

We love our readers. And we especially love it when are readers work on crafts and we get to see what they do! Here are a couple that were sent in to us.

Liberty sent us these adorable pillows! They are made out of old button up shirts! How cool is that?

Shellie made these cute Placemat Purses after she saw Angie's post on them. Love them.... and that little girl is adorable too:) Sydney sent us this super cute purse that she made. She found the tutorial here on Lula Louise. I especially love the button on the front! It looks like we had a lot of our reader sewing this month... we've been busy sewing too! Check back later this week for our One Craft 3 Ways... we made aprons!!! And don't forget if you made anything with Seed Beads to send those in... we'd like to post your projects on our blog!

-Anisa

One Craft 3 Ways.... Applique

One of the great things about starting this craft blog is that we have deadlines. I have been wanting to make this applique pillow for almost a year to match my guest bedroom. But it just kept getting put on the back burner. Then when we decided to do applique for our "One Craft 3 Ways" I was excited that I would now have a deadline to get it done.

What I did.... First, I went fabric shopping (my favorite part). Then I cut out the fabric for my throw pillow. If you would like to see a tutorial on how to make a throw pillow similar to this one, go here. Then I traced my designs on paper. Next, I cut out my fabric about the same size that I needed for my shapes, but I did not cut out the shapes. Then, I ironed on the heatNbond to the wrong side of my fabric. Then I cut out the shapes (you see, this way I don't have to cut out the shapes twice.) Then I ironed the shapes onto my white pillow fabric. Then comes the hard part. I set my machine to a tight zigzag. Then I zigzagged around the outside of the shapes. It was somewhat difficult to make good corners and such. If I were to do this again, I would use a different type of stitch. Then I finished up my pillow. During the process, I would probably have said I would never do it again. But it is so cute finished, that I think I will. I will just learn how to do it better!!! -Anisa

Deadlines...yeah, this is our third and final deadline for this post. :) It is nice to get something like this done.This applique wall hanging measures 11" x 13". I'm framing it and hanging it in my little girl's room. It was a lot of fun doing the embroidery by hand and using several different stitches and styles to complete it all. --Cami

I have been wanting to do some applique on T-shirts for my kiddos for sometime now. I found an uber-cute skirt at The Children's Place and decided I could make a cutie-pie shirt to go with it for my littlest princess. Would I do it again? Maybe. I thought the knit fabric of the tee was hard to work with. I'd definitely be willing to try it on something not quite so stretchy, though. I do love the overall look and am contemplating what else I might like to do for some added embellishment. Happy crafting!

-Ang

Throw Pillow Slip Covers

I never buy throw pillows (okay, hardly ever). I feel like I can make them quickly and inexpensively. I'm not a major sewer, but if you can sew straight lines, you can sew this! The first thing that you want to do is measure your pillow. My pillow was 19" square. Then, I cut the fabric for the front of my pillow. You will want to cut your fabric 1" bigger to allow for 1/2" seam allowances. The back of your pillow is going to have 2 pieces of fabric that overlap. This way, you can take the fabric off and wash it easily. To cut the back pieces, you will want them to be half the size of the pillow plus 2-3". So, I cut my pieces 13". Then, you will need to turn over one edge of each of the pieces. These are the edges that are going to show when you have your finished pillow. The next step is to pin your pieces of your pillow together. You will want to lay the front of the pillow on a table, front side up. Then you will want to lay your two back pieces on top of that front sides down. You will want to have your turned over edges on the inside of the pillow, overlapping. Pin all around the outside, then take it to your sewing machine and sew all around the outside edge. Flip your pillow right side out and stuff your old pillow inside!!! This project takes less than 1 hr. (it probably took me longer to post this on the blog.) It also is quite in expensive if you already have a pillow that you are just recovering. All it costs is the fabric. For this one, I used just a little over 1/2 a yard. Good luck and email me if you have any questions. -Anisa