Pillow Week: Sand Dollar Pillow Tutorial by Leslie

I was inspired by this Pottery Barn pillow for this tutorial which I instantly fell in love with. I'm ready for the summer and thought it would be great to add a beach feel to my house :)

So let's start:

Materials:
-2 17 x 17 pieces of white fabric
-beige fabric (scraps will do)
-hot glue gun
-1 button
-5 pieces of rope each 5 1/2"
- pencil
-blank piece of paper
-white thread
-sewing machine
-scissors
-poly-fil

1. Draw your sand dollar on a blank sheet of paper to create your pattern. Then cut the pattern out and place it on your beige fabric.

2. Center the sand dollar on one of your 17 x 17 pieces of white fabric and sew around the edges. You can also zig zag the sand dollar on to give it a design.

3. Take the five pieces of rope and place them on the sand dollar, creating a tear drop with each. Then hot glue each one into place like this.....

4. Hot glue the button in the center of the sand dollar. Next, draw five small tear drops in between the ropes with a pencil.

5. You will then zig zag stitch inside the lines.

This is what it should look like when its all done!

6. Time to make the pillow :) Take both pieces of white fabric and place them right sides together. Sew around with a 3/8" seam. Making sure you leave an opening to turn the pillow inside out and for stuffing!

7. Hand sew the pillow closed using a slip stitch. ALL DONE!

I heart pillows!

Hope you enjoyed our last tutorial for Pillow Week!! We had so much fun doing this. A BIG thank you to Obsessively Stitching, Samster Mommy and The Sewing Dork for doing all the beautiful pillow tutorials this week. You girls ROCK!


Lots of Pillow Love,

Leslie & Melissa

Pillow Week: Sentimental Scrap Pillow by Cynthia at Sewing Dork

Please welcome Cynthia from Sewing Dork here today at Mamma Tortilla with another pillow tutorial! We are so happy to have her here and she has done a really cute pillow that you can cherish forever :)

**********

Like to have a keepsake of your child's outgrown clothes?


Got an old pillow that needs a facelift?


Here's a tutorial to turn those old clothes into a pieced pillow:

1. Cut strips of several coordinating fabrics which are slightly longer than your pillow on all four sides. You need enough strips to completely cover the pillow with a few extra pieces overhanging the edges at left and right.


2. The strips of fabric can be all the same width, or of varying widths. Leave some in their rectangular shape, and cut others off centre as shown below.




3. Arrange your scraps:



4. Start sewing them together like a quilt top:


5. You will need your pieced-top to slightly overhang the pillow on all four sides.


6. Use a coordinating fabric for the backer. Cut one backer piece exactly the same size as your pieced top.


7. With right sides together, sew the backer to the top leaving one end open (like a pillowcase). Turn right side out and press. Insert your pillow, then sew up the fourth side. Done!



- The Sewing Dork (www.sewingdork.blogspot.com)

*********************

We are definitely making this!! That was awesome. Thank you so much Cynthia! Please go check her blog out you won't regret it. Check in tomorrow for our last pillow tutorial!

Leslie & Melissa

Luvin The Pillows!

Here are some fabulous pillow's that we found that we wanted to share with everyone. Take a look and drool. It's spring time, update the house add some PILLOWS! If a pillow inspires you, click on the name and get the tutorial :)

The Purl Bee: Felt Flower Pillows

Pillow With Rosette Cluster by Felt Furnishings

Summer Accents

Anthro Tea Towel and Napkin Pillows


Button Throw Pillow

Be sure to check in tomorrow:)

Pillow Week: Samster Mommy & Ruffles

The lovely Natasha from Samster Mommy is here today to lavish us with ruffles!! We are so giddy about having her here today. Enjoy her tutorial!

*******************

When the lovely girls here at Mamma Tortilla asked me if I wanted to participate in their super cute pillow tutorial week, they enclosed a few pics of some pillow ideas. As soon as I saw this one I knew I had to have it...But do you know what makes that ruffly goodness even better? Making it for free with nothing more than my sewing machine & an old bedsheet. Sigh. Makes a girl feel good.

Want to make one too? Good! Here's how I did it...

I chose to make mine from a bedsheet because a.) I had one & b.) whenever you're creating long lengths of ruffles it requires a lot of fabric & then it can get pricey quick. You'll also need a pillow insert & a sewing machine.

The measurements are going to be based on the size of the pillow insert you're using (mine is 18"x18", I'll include my measurements throughout in parenthesis) so instead of just giving you numbers I'm going to show you how to figure out your own. It requires a bit of math but don't worry, I seriously suck at math & was able to handle this pretty well.

First you'll need to cut out the basic pillowcase pieces. One big square for the front (19" x 19") & two rectangles that will make the envelope opening in the back. The length of these rectangles is going to be the same as the length of the pillow + 1" for seam allowance (19"), for the width you'll want to take 1/2 of your width + 4" so the pieces will overlap. (13"). Also I was sure to line up my fabric so that the "envelope" seam was already part of the sheet's finished hem, if you're not using a sheet now would be a good time to hem that side of the rectangleSet these aside, now it's time for tedious part, cutting & creating the ruffled strips. Get your good scissors/rotary cutter along with a ruler & a calculator if you're me. A good basic rule of thumb for creating ruffles is that you'll want to use a piece of fabric that is twice the length of what you want the finished ruffle to be. When I measure the total length of what I want my biggest square ruffle row to be it's 72", that means I'll need a strip of fabric to be 144" to make the ruffle. (See why a bedsheet sounded like a good idea??) Even with the twin sheet I didn't have 144" to make one long strip but that's ok, I could make two 72" strips.
So first ruffle step, cut out two 1"x72" strips.Now we have to finish the edge of the strips so they won't go fray crazy on us. I used my serger to create a sort of rolled edge but on a regular sewing machine you could either do a type of overlock stitch that wraps the edge or you could just do a small zig-zag stitch as close to the edge as possible & let the fabric fray up to that stitch line. I think this could actually look really cool, kind of a shabby chic look. So go ahead & finish your edges. This is gonna take you a minute so have a sweet treat to get you through.

Mmmm...jelly belly's...

Ready? Good! Take your beautifully seamed strips & start ruffling. There are a few ways to do this...
One, you could set your machine to your longest stitch setting & stitch down the center. After, hold onto your bobbin thread with one hand & pull your fabric up along your top thread with the other. Then pin & stitch the ruffle to your piece. Pros of this method- you can adjust the gathers to get them perfect. Cons- after you stitch the ruffle on you'll have to go back & pull out the ruffling thread. I hate extra steps.

Two, I've read lots of tutorials where people set their tension to the tightest setting & their width to the longest. Then when they stitch down the center of the strip it automatically gathers the ruffle as you go. After you would pin & stitch the ruffle to your piece like the previous method. Pros- your machine does the ruffling for you. Cons- I hate touching my tension, it makes me nervous. Also you'll still have to get rid of that extra thread.

Three- this is how I ruffle because I'm impatient. I gather the fabric under the needle as I go. Pro- saves you the extra step of having to pin & stitch your ruffled strip as well as no pulling out the extra stitch. Con- you kind of just have to wing it, there's no pinning & seeing how it looks before you stitch it to the piece. Here's a pic of what it looks like as I'm doing it...

(EW! Please pardon the dirty nails, we spent the day at the zoo & no matter how many times I wash them they still look dirty. Yick!)

Whichever method you use you'll want to place your ruffle 1" down & 1" in from the edge of your pillow top piece. I figure this will give me a 1/4" seam allowance & will put the ruffle 3/4" in from the seam once the pillow is all done. Start attaching your ruffle by folding the short edge in on itself, this is also how you'll want to connect pieces if your ruffle runs out. By starting on a fold it disguises the ends so they look like part of a ruffle...

When you get to a corner just leave your needle down in the ruffle, lift your foot & turn your fabric so you're heading in the new direction. Put the foot back down & keep on stitchin'!
Whew, one row done!Now that you have your 1st square row of ruffles done you can take new measurements for the length of the next inner row of ruffles. Just remember, the strip needs to be twice that length. If you need to make that out of several strips, no biggie. Repeat the entire process for as many rows of ruffles as you'd like. Or like in my case for as long as the naptime lasts. (:

Once your ruffled front piece is finished you're ready for the last step, attaching the front square to the back rectangles. Pin the 3 pieces right sides together with the 2 back rectangles overlapping several inches.Finally stitch around the entire outside of the pillow using a 1/2" seam allowance. Turn the piece right side out (a chopstick is a great tool for pushing out the corners) & stuff your pillow! Sit back & admire your mad skillz.

Thanks so much Leslie & Melissa for letting me join your fun pillow party! And thanks readers for letting me share a long but fun project with you, I hope you'll come see me at Samster Mommy for other tutorials!

*********************

Thank you so much Natasha for stopping by our blog and doing an amazing tutorial. Go visit her and let her know Mamma T sent you. She's got tutorials, naptime crafts and yummy recipes!

Pillow Week: Shirred Pillow Tutorial from Obsessively Stiching

We are through the roof that Care, from Obsessively Stitching, is here with us today. She is sharing such a beautiful tutorial for out second day of Pillow Week! Be sure to visit her and see all of her tutorials.  If you don't fall in love with her finger puppets...

*****

Hello, I'm Care from Obsessively Stitching. I've been creating and sewing for as long as I can remember, and I absolutely love having a blog as an outlet to share my projects! I've got oodles of fun tutorials, and would love for you to stop by and visit!


I'm thrilled to be here as a guest today, and am so excited to share my shirred pillow cover tutorial!

I've recently realized that I love TEXTURE. I've been experimenting with many ways of creating texture with fabric. This shirred pillow showcases one of my very favorite textures -- gathers galore! Why shirring? Because I wanted as many lines of gathers as possible, but without having to actually do any gathering myself! AND, with elastic thread, all your gathers are ensured to be perfectly even!

My instructions are for a 16" square pillow cover, but you could certainly adjust the measurements to fit any size. Here we go!

What you need:
~ 16" pillow form
~ One yard fabric of your choice
(a solid-color fabric that is not too heavy works best for this pillow. I used a cream quilt-weight cotton.)
~ Elastic thread
~ Disappearing ink marker
~ long ruler or yardstick
~ spray bottle
~ iron
~ your sewing machine, of course!

PREPARATION:

Cut your fabric as follows:
one 17" square
two 17" x 12" rectangles
one 18" x 30" rectangle

Load your BOBBIN with the elastic thread:

You will need to wind the elastic thread onto your bobbin by hand, being careful not to stretch the thread. (Sounds like a huge pain, but it goes quickly!) You will definitely need more than one bobbin of elastic thread.

Hem one long edge of each of your two 17" x 12" rectangles:
Press the edge down 1/4", then 3/4" and hem.

You're ready to sew!

STEP ONE: Set your machine's stitch length to about 4 1/2. With your elastic thread loaded in the bobbin and a thread to match your fabric loaded in the top, begin sewing along your marked lines. Be sure to backstitch at the beginning and end of each line! When I get to the end of a line of shirring, I like to turn the fabric around and sew the next line the other direction. This minimizes waste on the elastic thread, and also means I don't have to clip threads until I am completely done with the shirring.

Shirred! I am loving the texture already!

STEP TWO: Spray your lines to make them disappear. You want them to be GONE before you press, since ironing over your disappearing ink may make it permanent!

STEP THREE: You need to press your fabric while it's wet to shrink up your elastic a little more and create even more texture. Pin one end to your ironing board, spreading it as flat as possible.

STEP FOUR: S-t-r-e-t-c-h your fabric flat ahead of your iron and press. (Don't you love my old-school iron? I could never replace that baby!) Once you've steamed all the water out of your fabric, you're done!

STEP FIVE: Lay your 17" square on a flat surface. Layer your shirred fabric on top (elastic side DOWN -- that's the back!) and pin one side as shown. Your shirred fabric will be scrunched up smaller than your 17" square. *Note that, pre-shirring, your fabric was 18". This was intentional, as the shirring will take up just a little bit of that width. Just make sure you are lining up one edge (in my case, the top) with the edge of your 17" square.

STEP SIX: Sew your pinned edge with a 1/4" (or less) seam allowance. Make sure those raw edges line up nicely!

STEP SEVEN: Repeat for the opposite side.

STEP EIGHT: The purpose of the second layer of fabric is to stabilize the stretchiness of the shirred layer. You now need to sew the top and bottom edges of your layers together. Pin your fabric to your ironing board, stretching it so that the 17" square underneath is flat.

Pin the two layers together at the top and bottom. Stretching the top fabric to exactly the width of your square will mean you have perfectly even gathers all the way across. Yay!

Carefully sew, again using a 1/4" (or less) seam allowance.
(*Note: When you sew the one edge that doesn't match up exactly to your square, sew it from the BACK to ensure you are making your square a finished 17" -- then trim away that little bit of excess fabric on the front.)

STEP NINE: I decided to tack my two layers together in four places on my pillow top. I used pints to mark where I wanted to tack...

...then carefully sewed a back and forth a few stitches right on top of the shirring, stretching all those gathers out of the way. The tiny little tack marks will hide in all those gathers.

Your pillow top is done -- now you just need to add the back!

STEP TEN: This is an envelope-style pillow cover, which means you don't need any piping, binding, zippers, or handstitching to finish it off! Lay your pillow top right side UP on your ironing board, again pinning it flat. Layer each rectangle on top, right side DOWN, with the hemmed edge towards the middle and the raw edges along the outside edges. Pin.

STEP ELEVEN: Sew all the way around, using a 1/2" seam allowance.
Turn it right side out and TRY IT on your pillow form to check for fit!

If it fits, go ahead and serge or zigzag your raw edges. You are FINISHED!

TA-DA!! Gorgeous!

I just LOVE all that yummy texture, and can't stop myself from running my hands over it just to feel it!

THANKS to Melissa and Leslie for having me here as a guest! I hope you will give my little pillow tutorial a try!

*****

Thank YOU, Care!  We love the pillow and one (or two) may soon find their way to our couches and beds=)

Tomorrow, come back and visit Natasha, from Samster Mommy, and her pillow refashion=)