Another Christmas Quickie...

Did the title peak your interest? Alas it is not what you may be thinking…

Now that I have shamelessly drawn you in…I am working diligently to get all my Christmas sewing projects done before Christmas Eve is upon us; which is only next Thursday!!! Can you believe the holiday is almost here??? Yikes.

I just finished up another gift for my daughter. It is a gift that you can quickly put together with a small amount of materials. My daughter has a body pillow she purchased in Target last year and no longer cares for the cover she purchased with it so I decided I’d make her a new one for Christmas. Prior to heading to Joann’s I thought maybe a plaid flannel fabric…inspiration was lacking when I walked into the store.

Once there I realized I picked the right day to head into Joann’s (Joann.com) for they were having their fleece on sale for $ 2.99/yard. What a bargain and I quickly went about trying to find the perfect fabric for her cover. Because she is into “Western” type gear and decorations I looked for similar designs in the fabric and quickly found the perfect fabric for her. A beautiful royal blue fleece with cowboy boots and horseshoes on it…what luck…literally…horseshoes and luck go hand in hand!!!

To make the pillow cover I purchased an 18 inch zipper, thread and 1 ¼ yds. of 56-60” wide fleece. I cut two rectangles from the fleece that were 21 inches by 55 inches; ½ inch seams are included in those figures.

• Serge one 21 inch edge on each rectangle just skimming the edge and not trimming any fabric off

• Take these serged 21 inch edges of fabric, right sides together, stitch as follows:

• ½ inch seam - start with regular stitching for 1 ½ inches, back tack and then baste where the zipper will be, then back tack at 1 ½ inches and finish with regular stitching. Adjust these measurements based upon your pillow size and zipper.

• Press open and install zipper as you usually would. I use wonder tape to baste the zipper down and then I open out the seams and sew the zipper tabs down on each side of the pressed center seam.

• I then flipped to the right side and top-stitched around the zipper at top, sides and bottom.

• Very carefully remove your basting stitches and open your zipper.

• With rights sides together, sew both long edges and finally the last short edge. I stitched with my conventional machine first and then went back and serged the edges without trimming any fabric. I just skimmed the edges once again.

• Turn right sides out and your are done and now have a wonderful Christmas Quickie pillow cover…Enjoy :-D

Happy Holidays and Happy Sewing…

DD Gets Another Early Gift…

I am on a roll here!!!  With notification from my daughter that she was going to make a quick visit home for the day I quickly made up some pillows for her living room from the left over fabric from the snowman wreath I had made earlier.

A few weeks prior to this visit I was perusing the aisles in the Christmas Tree Shop when I came across some bolster pillows that had been marked down from $ 5.99 to $ 2.99. They weren’t exactly in a color I liked but figured…what the heck…you can’t buy the pillow form for that price!!! So I purchased them in the hopes of covering them.

Well…as luck would have it…the left over fabric from the wreath project was perfect to cover these pillows and the project took no time at all to complete. Following is the process I used to make the pillows:

• measure the circumference of the pillow and added 1 ¼” for 5/8ths inch seams
  (mine were 6” + 1 ¼”, I cut two circles at 7 ¼”)
• Measure the width of the pillow and add 1 ¼” for 5/8ths inch seams
• Measure around the pillow and add 1 ¼” for 5/8ths inch seams
• Cut a rectangle from these measurements.
• To be able to remove these covers to wash I added a zipper
• First I serged all fabric pieces before constructing the pillow cover. I did not trim off any fabric just skimmed the edges while serging
• Taking your rectangle of fabric stitch the width ends together, starting with regular stitching and then basting where your zipper is going to be then back to regular stitching. Remember to back tack at the start and end of your basting. You now have a tube.
• Press seam open and install zipper as usual and remove your basting stitches
• You will need to place quarter marks on your circle. Fold your circles in half, mark on wrong side at seam line, fold again and mark
•  Do the same for your sewn tube, these will give you reference points to match up your tube and circles evenly.
• I stitched piping that I made from cording and 2” bias cut strips to the circle pieces and then pinned and sewed the circles to the tube.

Viola…two flannel covered bolster pillows to go and one very happy daughter!

Happy Sewing…