Fun Fall Sewing Project! Owl Pillow

Fun Fall Project! 

Owl Pillow

I had my adorable niece in town the last week of August!  She is going to college this fall!  It is so crazy to think that she is already graduated from high school.  And I have to laugh at myself because I so have those moments... you know the " I remember when you were 2 and you got into my makeup and crushed all my eye shadows all over the floor..."  Which she did!!

But it kinda cracks me up.  Because as a kid you roll your eyes at the reminiscing of old people... and now I am that old reminiscing person, and it is amazing how fast time flies, and how our concept of OLD changes... (I am so not old!)  Here are some pics from her visit!

Anyway since she is going off to college, we went shopping at the mall a lot (and my favorite thrift store! it was 75 cent day!  We both scored big time!) but when funds were running low we decided that it might be fun to make something and that something was an owl pillow.  

I miss doing little simple crafts- we are in big project mode for our house.  I had a lot of fun doing it too!

Here is what my owl looks like!

We went through a ton of fabric...in search of the best!  

'Liza (my niece) did a cute round sleeping owl in all sorts of colors.  

I decided to stick to a fall colors theme.  I thought that it might be fun to use with my huge candy corn pillows, I used a lot fo the scraps of fabric that I had left over from my lighted ragamuffin garland (pictured below!)

Here is the owl coming together!

and sewn on...

Etta helped me stuff it, she was in love with it immediately!  (yes the house was a mess, I decided it was time to go through all the girls clothes and purge... We have a LOT of baby clothes!)

Here is Liza and Etta loving on their owls.

Would you be interested in a pattern?  

Let me know.... if I get enough interest I will try to make one!

Remodelaholic is written by Cassity and Justin. Cassity has a degree in interior design and Justin is a landscape architect, so we adore everything that makes up a HOME! We love to share home remodeling ideas and projects we’re working on. From huge kitchen renovation ideas to small bathroom remodels, there isn’t anything we won’t try to tackle (at least once!). We are in the midst of our third whole home renovation, (check out house 1 and house 2 as well, so there should be a lot more inspiration coming your way. We hope that you will stop by often for home design inspiration, tutorials, interior design tips, delicious recipes and what going on in our family life.

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Wingback Chair Reupholstering Tutorial

Wingback Chair Reupholstering Tutorial 

Submitted By Living Savvy 

 It is done! Done! Done! Done!

I mentioned earlier this week that I started the actual upholstering part of my wingback reupholstering this weekend and finished it in two days!!!!  It was on my "list of things to finish before my parents get here" so I thought once I start I have to get this done.

I started this project over 3 months ago {see first post here} and like many things in design it never turns out exactly the way you think it is going to go.  I first started out {in May}wanting to write a really detailed tutorial about how to reupholster a piece of furniture; even though at that point I had NEVER actually upholstered anything before... I thought if I can do it anyone can.  BUT I was not as detailed as I thought I was going to be at documenting my progress... and in the end {with a great chair but not a great "How To" post} that is the best advice I am going to give you.... BE DETAILED!!!

I started with this:

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Easiest Pillow Cover Tutorial and Monthly Silhouette Promo

I decided to make a little pillow sham this month for the Silhouette promo.  Pillow shams are very easy to make because all you have to do is sew a few straight (or straight-ish) lines and you are done.  So, for those of you that think you can't sew this is the project to give you some confidence that you can...

Supplies:

Sewing Machine

Scissors

Pillow form (any size)

Fabric

Thread

Pins

Iron

(Flocked Heat Transfer optional, but way fun!)


The fabric size will depend on your pillow form.  You can do the same fabric for front and back or different fabric, (which I did since this was a "no shopping, use what I have" project!)
2 fat quarters (which are 18" x 22" inches) will work on any pillow form up to about 16x16.


Step 1.  Iron all fabric!!!  Do not skip this step ironing makes every project more professional, and makes sure that things fit properly!  IRON like the life of your pillow depends on it!

 Step 2. The front piece of fabric should be cut to a square 1 inch more than the size of your pillow.  For example if you are using a 16" x 16" inch pillow cut the square to 17" x 17" inches (piece A).

Step 3.  The back piece of fabric needs to measure at minimum 22 inches x 17 (for 16 x 16 pillow!)

Cut it in two pieces at approximately 2/3 so you have a piece about 14.5" inches (Piece B) and the second piece is about 7.5" inches (Piece C)(or this one can be longer... I made mine longer just because I had the fabric!).

Step 4.  You need to finished one 17" long edge of those two pieces.  By folding over 1/2" an inch of fabric and ironing.  Then folding that again over itself to conceal the raw edge, iron again,  (this will make it easier to sew).  Pin if you need to to hold it all in place and sew that fold in place.  In the end you have a piece that looks like this:  See the one finished edge?

Step 5.  Now place your front piece A fabric, good side up on the table.   Place Piece B  Good Side down aligning to one side.  When sewing remember you want good sides together.  You want the folded portion of the edge to be in the center of the pillow.

Step 6.  Overlap Piece C on top of Piece B so that the finished seam is also in the center of the square of fabric.  Like below:

Step 7.  Now pin the corners and edges in place.  You don't need too many pins.  (technically if your fabric isn't slippery and you feel comfortable just holding it you don't need them at all!)

Step 8.  Sew a straight line along each edge.  4 total.

Step 9. Now use the overlapping pocket to flip the pillow right side out.  Be sure to push the corners out completely and press again.

If you want you can be done at this point, just stuff your pillow in through the flap on back.

Since this is my Silhouette project I decided it would be fun to add some words, so I can put it on Etta's bed someday when she moves into her "big girl bed".

Simply type out, cut with your machine and iron on.  This whole project took about an hour.

Now for the Silhouette promo.

Do you still need a Silhouette?  If you don't have one, I'd consider it.  

They are pretty darn fun and SO versatile!  Here is the deal this month if you do:

1 Silhouette SD machine

1 package of white flocked heat transfer material

1 package of teal smooth heat transfer material (LOVE THIS COLOR ESPECIALLY!)

1 package of dark pink smooth heat transfer

All for $219!

(this is a savings of 125 dollars!!)

To receive the discount just use the code "Remodel". (offer valid May 17-25)

What fun project would you make with your silhouette machine?

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Pottery Barn Inspired Pillows Tutorial

Pottery Barn Inspired Pillows Tutorial

Party Highlight by Michele @ The Scrap Shoppe

I'm just going to tell you up front that this is my 1st knock-off project.

And now I'm thinking I may need to do more of them! I can see why they are so addicting!

Back in the spring I found the most amazing ginormous pillow at Rugged Wearhousefor only $5. It was a blank canvas just waiting to be transformed. But it sat around my house for months and months until... Crafting with the Stars inspired me to finally do something with it! I scoured Pottery Barn for inspiration pillows and stumbled across two that would look great in my living room: the poppy pillow and the lavendar monogram pillow.

Both of these pillows are embroidered and, if you've been hanging around my blog long enough, you know that I DO NOT sew nor own a sewing machine. But that's okay. I had other plans to get these looks!

I used colors that would match my living room (red, olive, and gold) for each side of the pillow.

(Yes, in case you didn't realize, I put both of these designs on the same pillow. You know how I love reversible projects!)

Let's start off with the pillow itself. Like I said, its ginormous! 2 ft x 2 ft. Seriously!

Next up, let's talk about the poppy side of the pillow.

I remember (way back in the day) in high school doing a very fun project in my Spanish class involving Huichol yarn art. Its a technique of creating a design using yarn and moving the yarn in such a fashion as to give your artwork movement. I loved it! And thought it would be perfect for this project.

I scoured several stores looking for the "right" yarn. I tried to find some that looked crocheted to match the Pottery Barn pillow better, but ended up finding this fun ribbed yarn in all of the right colors.

I printed off a full 8.5" x 11" image of the pillow to use as a guide, found a starting point on my pillow, and proceeded to draw out my first poppy.

I drew one poppy at a time, filling each in with yarn befor moving on to the next because adding the yarn actually made the image slightly larger than the original drawing. I didn't want to mess up my spacing and wind up overlapping my images!

Also, I only drew the outline of the red part of the poppy because I knew it would eventually be completely covered with yarn in the end and the marker would never be seen.

I adhered all of my yarn with my favorite fabric adhesive, Fabri-Tac from Beacon.

(This stuff is seriously amazing. Better than a glue gun!! I swear!)

The turquoise line in the above photo represents the outline of the flower (where I drew it with the marker). I always did the outline of the flower first with the yarn then went back and filled it in the rest.

The orange line with arrows represents how I filled in my yarn. There was no specific technique. I just wanted to create movement by keeping the yarn in what would look like a swirly manner.

After finishing a flower with the red yarn, I went back and outlined it with the green yarn. I saved the stems and leaves until the end so I would not overlap them with any of the flowers I had yet to create.

I stopped periodically to compare my version to the Pottery Barn printout and update my star partner, Beckie, of my progress. I was really starting to see it come together!

After finishing with the red and green yarn, I went back to fill in the centers of the fabric with the gold yarn. I tied a knot in the yarn then, to thicken it, tied two more knots on top of the original knot. I trimmed off the knots and layered them in the centers of some of the flowers.

I love the texture the yarn adds to the pillow.

I ended up leaving off the little flowers that Pottery Barn scattered around the pillow. I really like the extra white space and the asymmetric look.

For the monogram side of the pillow, I took some liberties from the Pottery Barn version and instead of using a lavendar plant, I used a poppy floral design to help tie it into the reverse side of the pillow.

I created the design on my computer then separated the images into two so I could cut them out using my Silhouette.

 I cut my images out on freezer paper to iron on and use as a stencil (this is also my first freezer paper stencil project!). I ironed down the floral design first. The little detail images in the poppies were so tiny that I just left them off. I did, however, keep the detail images in the smaller flowers.

I still had all of my acrylic paint from my Custom Wall Art project from last year which is also in my living room so I already had on hand the paint colors I would need. I mixed the paint with some acrylic paint fabric medium and went to work.

Once the floral design was dry, I went back and ironed on the M and painted it also.

This side of the pillow literally only took a couple of hours to complete, including drying time. Whereas the poppy side of the pillow took a good 6 hours or so!

Can you see that I traced around the M with a fabric pen?

Since my pillow was prestuffed with no way of getting the stuffing out without ripping out threads and resewing, I just painted on a stuffed pillow. Probably not the greatest for freezer paper stenciling, but it worked okay. I just used the fabric pen to tidy up the edges of my monogram.

So let's do a tally, shall we?  :)

Pottery Barn Poppy Pillow: $49

Pottery Barn Lavendar Pillow: $29

Total: $78

--------

Pillow: $5

Yarn: ~$4 each so $12

Glue: $5

Paint and Medium: $4

Freezer Paper: $5

Fabric Pen: $4

Total: $35

I had the paint, freezer paper, and fabric pen on hand already so really my total could be ~$22!

Not bad, especially considering it is completely customized to match my living room

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