Pillow Project

Last week I had a blissful afternoon when both boys napped at the same time. It doesn't happen often, and I decided to take full advantage of it, diving into a project I've been thinking about for months. While we were in Maine over the summer, I bought a t-shirt with a neat print on the front that I wanted to make into a pillow for Colter. I picked up a pillow form at a craft store at one point, and some fabric for the back somewhere along the way. Then I shoved it all in a box and didn't do a thing with it. Until that afternoon last week.

An afternoon with both boys napping is a good time for a project because I can actually pull out my sewing machine and ironing board, but it is not a time for futzing around with the details, nor apparently for taking pictures along the way. It is evidently a time for winging it, a time for mental math of questionable accuracy, and a mad dash for the finish line before anyone (myself included) starts crying.

So here's the pillow:

The process went something like this:

• I ironed some fusible interfacing to the t-shirt to make it a bit stiffer and less stretchy, then I cut it to size.
• I cut two strips of my fabric and sewed them on either side. This is where my dubious math comes in; I should have made them wider because the fit is a little tight end-to-end and the borders ended up not being even all the way around.
• Then I sewed a piece across the bottom to fold up over the back, and hemmed the edge. I did the same thing at the top.
• After figuring out how much overlap they needed, I pinned them in place, right sides facing, and sewed up the sides, making a kind of "envelope" for the pillow to fit in.

There you have it. The least-helpful guide to making a pillow case ever.

I considered taking a bit of the stuffing out so it isn't so tight, but Colter plays hard with his pillows so he'll probably beat the fluff out of it.

$50 and 5 M&Ms

Back in the early part of the summer, my brother and his girlfriend came by to spend a Saturday with us and we decided to go to Cabela's. While there, I spotted a really cute raincoat, with trucks and tractors all over it. When I flipped over the price tag and saw that it was $40, I stated that that was simply too much to pay for a kids' raincoat. Heck, I would be hard-pressed to spend it on a raincoat for myself.

Fast forward to our trip to Maine this summer, and a stop at a fantastic little fabric shop. They had on display the cutest kids' poncho, and a great selection of laminated fabrics. I decided, in an uncharacteristically impulsive moment, that I was going to get the pattern, the laminated fabric and some fabric for a lining and make Colter a poncho. Well, apparently I cannot do mental math in these impulsive moments and did not realize until all the fabric was cut and everything was rung up that this poncho was going to cost me just shy of $50. Plus I would still have to make it. Suddenly that $40 raincoat seemed pretty reasonable.

Once home with all my supplies, I was a bit gun-shy to start cutting into my pricey fabric, fearing I would make a mistake and would waste all that money. So I waited until my mom was here to hold my hand through the whole project, and eventually I ended up with a really adorable poncho. A really adorable poncho that my really independent toddler refused to wear. He told me at random times as I was finishing it up, "I do not like the poncho." Finally, when it was all done, I told him I would give him three M&Ms to put it on. He agreed, but when I told him he had to wear it long enough for me to take a picture, he replied, "Five M&Ms."

Could he look less thrilled about his whale poncho?

This is what I got when I said, "Show me how many M&Ms you got for wearing your poncho!"

I am hoping that being allowed to go out and play in the rain on occasion will be enough to make the poncho more enticing!

Hand Off

I never used to think of myself as a procrastinator, but I think I am becoming one. I had purchased the fabric for the border of Bert's quilt when my mom was visiting a couple weeks ago, but it took me a week and a half before I finally got around to cutting it and sewing it on. The main motivator was that we were headed up to see my parents this past weekend, and I would be able to hand the quilt off to my aunt, who is going to hand quilt it for me. I mean, for Bert.

One afternoon while the Bert man napped, I laid out my backing fabric and quilt top to see how much of a border I could add. I had already purchased the backing fabric based on the original size of the quilt and didn't want to buy more, so I needed to find a border size that worked with what I had.

After a little math (which you can't really see on that washed-out notepad), I decided to cut my border 4 1/2" so that it would end up as a 4" border when all the sewing and binding is done. All that orange you see is the border fabric.

So there it is, the first border pinned on...

And the finished quilt top.

My aunt had at least a hundred quilting stencils to choose from, so I pondered over them for awhile. (Wish I had a photo of that!) I am really excited to see how it comes out. And grateful that I don't have to do all that stitching! She tells me it will take a couple months to finish (which sounds like speed-quilting to me, because I'm pretty sure it would take me a lifetime) so I'll be sure to share photos when it is all done.

The Big Project for Bert

I am sure you have all been sitting on the edge of your desk chairs, couches, and recliners since I told you just after New Year's that I was working on a big project for Bert. Maybe you even had some guesses about it. I hope you are not disappointed by this big reveal which is, by the way, a bit premature because the project isn't finished yet.

Without further ado, the BIG PROJECT is a quilt. You have to understand, I like little projects. Ones that only take a couple hours and not a whole lot of advance planning. So a quilt is a pretty major undertaking for me. And considering I bought the pattern and most of the fabric back in September, it's already become a drawn-out endeavor by my standards.

The pattern is called "Hopscotch" and uses 15 fat quarters for the quilt top. Using a rotary cutter and mat, cutting out all the pieces went pretty quickly. The whole quilt is made of just four different sized squares and rectangles, so much to my surprise, it went together quite easily.

The first step was taking all the assorted 3 1/2" squares and pairing them with the largest rectangle.

Once they are all paired and sewn together, you take the 5" long rectangles and pair them together. Then each block is made up of three strips: two of the 3 1/2" and 6 1/2" rectangle strips, and one made of the 5" rectangles. The toughest part was making all those combinations, and then putting them all together for the quilt top without the same fabrics touching. It was one of those times were I really had to stop myself from over-thinking the project because I would have made myself insane. (And there is one spot where the same fabrics touch each other but do me a favor and don't tell me if you see it, ok? I didn't see it until the whole thing was sewn together.)

Once all the blocks were together, Bert and I took a little trip to the fabric store and picked out the border and backing fabrics. Then I cut the border strips solo, without my mom checking on me to be sure I didn't screw it up (she was nearby for cutting all the other pieces).

Cut off the rough edge...

Line it all up, nice and straight...

Chop, chop!

 Phew!

Then all the 4 1/2" pieces become an outer border and it all goes together and ends up looking like this:

Wait, let me get a better shot...

Well, this is as good as it gets. Should have done that while he was napping. Which was all of forty minutes on this particular afternoon.

So that's where I'm at. When I laid it on what will eventually be Bert's "big boy" bed, it seemed a little small. I was already to say "I don't care, that's just the size it is," but upon further review (i.e., over-thinking) I decided I would add another border to it, probably about 5" all the way around, to make it just a bit bigger. I figured I might as well do it and be happy with the whole project rather than wish I had made it bigger down the road. I need to go pick out some fabric for that second border and see if I have enough of the green inner border fabric to do the binding since I will need a bit more than the pattern originally called for. Also, I already bought the backing fabric so I have to do a little figuring there too to see how big the border can be and still use that fabric. And this is why I don't like to go off the map with projects: now I have to do the figuring instead of it all being done for me.

I am leaning towards paying someone to do the actual quilting for me because, let's face it, Bert would still be waiting for this quilt when he headed off to college if I were to try hand-quilting it. And honestly, I like the sewing but the quilting part doesn't interest me that much. 

There it is: the big project. I hope to have a finished big project post for you sooner rather than later.

On Dancer, On Prancer, On Crafter

Do you remember that law of physics that goes something like "an object in motion remains in motion"? I think it has an application to projects as well: a person crafting will remain crafting. (There is another part to that law, concerning opposing forces, which in this case would be good books and cooking dinner. And small children.) At any rate, I'm finding that working on projects spurs me on to work on other projects. And possibly even complete them.

This all started because I was talking with a friend and she mentioned she was getting her Christmas lists together, figuring out what she needed to shop for and what she wanted to make. Which made me realize that if I actually wanted to make anything for a gift, I needed to get my butt in gear. So I did, and I finished one project, but I can't show you yet, because it's a gift.

Once that was done, I was puttering about, cleaning out a drawer, still with Christmas on my mind and came across this t-shirt my mom bought me a couple years ago. It's really cute, but I didn't think I'd wear it anymore. (Sorry, Mommy.) I didn't want to part with it though, because it cracks me up. When my niece saw it and asked what a vixen was, my mom told her it meant "hot mama." I laugh every time I see it.

So if I wasn't going to wear it, and I wasn't going to put it in the thrift store bag, I had to find something else to do with it. I decided to make a little accent pillow, so we could enjoy it as a decoration through the whole holiday season. I have a set of plexiglass template I'm borrowing from my mom for yet another project, so I just found one that was a nice size for the pillow, laid it on the shirt, traced around it, and cut it out. I considered using a different fabric for the back, but in the end opted just to cut the same size out of the back of the shirt and use that.

Then I thought it needed a little something extra, so I dug around in my box of ribbon and came up with a holiday plaid to use as a trim. I had two pieces but neither were long enough to go all the way around so I quick sewed them together.

Then I pinned it to the pillow front, folding the corners in a way I thought would make a little ruffle and you'll see in a moment was a complete failure.

From there, I pinned the back on, sewed around the whole thing, leaving a small opening to stuff the pillow. I filled it up with stuffing and then hand-sewed the opening shut. Now I have a funny little reindeer pillow with wacky corners. I wasn't figuring for my seam allowance and ended up sewing the part that should have stuck out. Considering Bert thinks it is a new toy and likes to throw it on the floor, I'm not going to bother going back and fixing it.

The crafter in motion remains in motion, which is a good thing. Except for the carnage of a half dozen uncompleted projects laying around. And let's face it, the theory does not apply to housekeeping.

By the way, let's get it on record that I beat Keith for getting out a holiday decoration first. He tells me he is putting up the lights this weekend but I am one step ahead of him with my hot mama reindeer pillow.

In the Trenches

At least a year ago, I was given this trench coat. It was longer than I liked, but trench coats never go out of style so I figured I would hold on to it. 

It has hung in the closet ever since, never worn. I kept thinking I could shorten it, and the other week I finally got my ducks in a row and got it done. I certainly wouldn't call it a professional job, but at least I'll wear it now. In fact, I've worn it twice already.

The coat has a lining, so I had to detach that first.

Then I picked apart the hem a bit to see what was going on.

I had decided that I wanted to hem it just below the pockets so that it would hit about mid-thigh. And I didn't want to mess with the pockets. I measured 13" from the bottom all the way around the coat. I have no idea what that other little mark you can see in the picture is.

Then I drew a line to connect all my marks so that I could cut along it.

Chop chop!

Next I pinned the lining to the coat, flipped it over, and cut the extra lining off.

I folded the hem over, ironed and pinned it.

Then I simply sewed the hem. It got a little crooked because the fabric is heavy duty, quality stuff and was about the max of what my sewing machine likes to handle, especially when I got to the seams. So if you are ever walking behind me, don't look too closely at the hem. It might look a little wonky.

Apparently, I forgot to take a photo of hemming the lining but it was pretty much the same process. And it definitely got a little wonky because it was silky and kept sliding around on me. Kind of went from one end of the spectrum to the other with fabric on this project.

And now for the finished product! Thank you, Keith, for chopping off my head.

Actually, I did one more thing. I took off the shoulder tabs and the little straps around the cuffs because in person it seemed a little bulky. Maybe I'll wear it and have Keith take another photo so you can catch the really finished project in another post.

This was another one of those projects I put off for a long time only to discover that an hour or so gets it done.