Sweater Pillows

Last night while watching Cosby show reruns, I cut out a bunch of felted wool "petals." I really love the linen pillow I posted here a couple of days ago, but I didn't have any linen. I decided I would try to use some charcoal gray felted wool to cut all of my half circles. I made 3 different size cardboard templates and whacked that sweater up-just the sleeves. I left the body in one piece. I hope to use that for my cover and the petals to decorate. So far I have just dropped an old pillow down into the body and I have assembled the flowers on top to see if I like the way they look. Haven't sewn anything together yet. What do you think? I think I might try to embroider something for the center with wool yarn to add a little color. I love the photo from Angella Eisman designs. Those sweater pillows on that vintage sofa are gorgeous!

Organza Flower

One thing I wanted to try while on my break was an organza flower.  These are the ones that start with multiple circles and you cut into each one and then melt the outer edges.  I think I only layered 9 circles that started at 7 inches and went down to 3 1/2. The melting part was easy on the maroon fabric that I bought from Fabric.com, but the black must not have as much synthetic material in it.  I caught a few of those on fire! Never a dull moment when crafting.  I plan on gluing a felt back on along with a clip.  This one is a bit wintry. I hope to make a few sprig/summer ones.

A few little pages

I was a bit frustrated last night about the yellow dress. My daughter is so thin, that this tiny size 6 is just too big for her up top. The skirt area looks pretty good, but the top and waist area are too "poofy" she says. I need a meatier kid! I decided to move on to the scrapbook pages I needed to finish for the baby. This is really a fun idea. Making a useable scrapbook at the baby shower. It was only lacking 3 pages and I finished 2 last night. I have included some of the pages the other ladies made as well.

On another note, I think I will have to start pinning the tissue patterns to my daughter before I ever start sewing garments for her. Then I can adjust areas that are too big.

Pillow tutorial

This is a gorgeous pillow from Burlap + Blue that Kari at Ucreate posted on her blog. Here is the link to the tutorial. http://www.u-createcrafts.com/2011/03/shabby-flower-pillow.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+u-createcrafts%2FOlHW+%28Ucreate%29 Wow that is long! My blogger is acting weird and won't let me type what text to display for a link. Oh well, the pillow is beautiful.

Making some headway

In between loads of laundry, I have been working on Butterick 5351. I managed to attach the straps and get the elastic casing in the top. I put the six darts in the skirt pieces and have sewn the bodice to the skirt. I tried it on Katy and it is hard to believe as tiny as this dress looks it is roomy at the waist. I think I will leave it alone though because it is meant to wear with a belt. That will give her a little moving room. All I have left is the zipper, attach straps at back and hem. Hopefully I can mark this one off my list today. Hubby called and he is bringing home grass seed to spread by our shed we built last summer. Once it gets dark, I think I will finish up the baby scrapbook our women's group worked on. Will try to get some pics of the pages.

Long weekend, little sewing

My hubby was off Friday and we spent most of the day and weekend outdoors. We trimmed our apple trees (probably a bit too late), chipped and shredded all the trimmings into mulch, dug out a beaver dam in our creek so our field would drain and many other miscellaneous tasks. Sunday was church pretty much all day and our homeschool co-op group met Monday instead of our typical Thursday. All that to say, that I haven't done much sewing. I have started on the Project Runway dress we had originally cut out for my daughter's 4H project. I have finished applying most of the store bought piping and it really isn't hard to do. I love the effect and will use it on other projects now. I also got the bodice and straps started on the yellow seersucker dress for the same daughter. This material came from Fabric.com and was only $1.74 a yard! It is going together pretty easily. She did have her sewing class Friday and made great progress on her jacket. Saturday she did all of her topstitching and it looks great! This week we are taking a spring break and I have lofty goals for sewing projects-Lord willing. I want to finish the Runway dress and the yellow dress. I would love to get my Vogue pattern done as well. I will just have to take it one step at a time.

Cake Tester

I realized this weekend how much I love this one skinny little tool in my kitchen! I spin my little Pampered Chef utensil holder around in circles looking for this item all the time. I use it to check muffins, cakes, breads and brownies repeatedly. Toothpicks work, but they are so short. You can get one of these very cheaply and they are such a help. This one was my grandmothers. Makes me think of all the yummy dishes she prepared and shared every time I use it! Don't have one? Ask for one for Mother's Day.