Holiday tutorial, Handmade by Kirsty...

Check out this lovely little lady Kirsty. Lovely projects all over her blog that I browsed and browsed when I first came across it. Just swoon over these lovely little finished projects of the year. And she has only been sewing since May! (should we warn her???). I really hope to make some of these little scented pillows, I wish I had one now to throw in the micro and warm my freezing toes! (guess it will be my poor husband's legs again) Be sure to visit Kirsty's blog and give her a welcome...

If you missed our other Holiday tutorial projects, see 12 pocket bag, Holly Berry Pillow Cover, and Hexagon Handle Holder. Be sure to visit Thursday's through the rest of the year for some more gift ideas. 

Hello, my name is Kirsty and you can find me blogging at allhandmadebykirsty.  This is my first guest blog and tutorial so thank you to Heather and Megan! I am a little excited!  I have only been sewing since May 2012 but have found a real love for it and spend a lot of time reading other blogs for inspiration.

My tutorial is for scented pillows which are very easy and a quick stocking filler.  These are great for putting in drawers or if you scent it with lavender they can assist with sleep and relaxation.

Materials:

Fabric Scraps

Ribbon (if you want to make a ribbon pillow)

Coordinating Thread

Water Soluble Pen (optional)

1 lb or 450g Rice (uncooked)

Essential Oils

For the pillow:

Cut 2 pieces of fabric 51/2"x31/2"

For patchwork:  Cut 4 pieces 11/4"x11/2"  (or if you are making a few pillows, cut strips of 11/4" wide)

For stripes:  Cut 2 pieces 11/2"x31/2"

For ribbon:  Cut 2 lengths at 31/2"

Step 1:  Mix uncooked rice with 15 drops of essential oils in a zip lock bag.  Allow the rice to sit for a couple of hours to dry.

Step 2. Sew patchwork or stripes together.  For patchwork sew the 11/2" edges together and press seams.  For stripes sew 31/2" edges together and press seams. (seam allowance is 1/4" throughout)

Step 3.  With your pen mark each long side 1/4" in from edge and press along that line.


Step 4.  With one piece of pillow fabric, right side up, pin patchwork 21/4" in from the left side and top stitch along each side. Or for the stripes, pin 2" in from the left side and top stitch along each side.


For the ribbon I placed the first strip 11/2" in from the left edge and allowed 1/4" gap in between.

Step 5.  Pin pillow fabric, good sides together, and mark 3/4" in from each edge on one short end.  This will be your guide on where to start and end stitching.  Sew from top right corner around to your other pin.

Step 6.  Trim corners off and turn out the right way.  You can use a stuffing tool or a chopstick as I do to push your corners out.

Step 7.  Press pillow, making sure the opening is pressed inwards.

Step 8.  Add scented rice to the pillow.  I used approx 1/4 cup.

 

Step 9.  Lastly, top stitch around the outside of the bag, ensure
that the opening is caught in the top stitch to seal the pillow.  When you
reach each corner give the pillow a shake and move the rice to the opposite corner.



Then all that's left to do is wrap your pillows.

Ruffle Pillow and Embroidery Hoop Art Tutorial

 I got my second chance to work with some gorgeous Ruffle Fabric.  If you missed my Sweet Ruffles quilt tutorial where I used ruffle fabric strips check it out, turned out so fun!! I also share some tips on working with ruffle fabric if you're scared :)

Look at this fun collection for baby girl!!! And it was sincerely so simple to make (not including the quilt :)  

I am going to share how to make a simple throw pillow and embroidery hoop art, so let's get started!

Ruffle Throw Pillow

Materials Needed:

16" x 16" pillow form

1/2 yard of Ruffle Fabric

Cutting Requirements:

Two pieces of fabric 10" x 17"

One piece of fabric 17" x 17"

*adjust measurements for your size of pillow, generally 1" excess is the right size, if you have a much larger/smaller pillow form adjust accordingly.

With right sides together overlap the two 10" x 17" pieces for the back. IMPORTANT: Ensure your ruffles will all hang the same way.  Pin generously as ruffle fabric does stretch.  It is very forgiving however so don't be too intimidated.  No need to hem your edges, I told you it was simple!

Use a 1/2 inch seam and sew around entire perimeter of pillow.  Pull the pillow right sides out through the opening in the back.  You can hardly tell it's there with the ruffles!

Ta-da!  Love how this sweet pillow turned out, so feminine for my little lady!  This print is called Sunset Cascading, it's a beautiful combination of pink and coral.

Ruffle Embroidery Hoop Art

Materials Needed

hot glue gun

felt (optional)

marking pen

embroidery hoops

fabric piece 2" larger than the hoop

I used three sizes of hoops.  My 4" hoop I used a 6" square of pink mini ruffles.  My 6" hoop I used a pieced block (didn't it turn out cute??) I pieced a 4" block and added a border to make it 8" square.  Lastly I used a  9" hoop with a 11" square piece of fabric.

If you wanted to back the hoops with felt measure and cut that now.  Use the inside of the back hoop and measure out the right size of circle.  I opted not to add felt to mine, it gives a nice finished look so if you're gifting this project I would definitely back it.

Center and tightly screw in the hoop.  Take care that the image is centered and also it is centered to the top of the hoop.  Trim if necessary around the hoop with 1/4"-1/2" excess.

Carefully apply the glue to the inside of the hoop.  Work small sections at a time folding the fabric over as you go.  Careful not to burn yourself!

Again trim if necessary. If you'd like to add the felt to the back of the hoop you can do so now.

And now you've got some super sweet and simple artwork for your nursery!!  I am still working on the rest of the wall decor and will share the whole thing when I'm done.

I had no idea how nuts I'd go having this baby girl :)  It is so fun to go over the top and frilly, I'm loving it!  Thanks for stopping by and hopefully you learned something!!

Holiday tutorial Holly Berry Pillow Cover

Amber is our cute little friend we met at market a couple years ago. We have become friends since. I am in love with this pillow she created for us this year, just sweet and fun! Amber has a great blog, A little bit biased, where she shares all her darling projects. She is also a pattern designer, her business is Gigi's Thimbles,  and she sure whips up some cute quilts. I really love her latest one, Twisted.  Anyhow, we are really happy she did another tutorial for our series this year, her Christmas runner from last year, is still quite a popular post. Thanks Amber!

Hello!  It's Amber here from the blog A Little Bit Biased (and Gigi's Thimble quilt patterns).  I'm so glad Heather and Megan asked me to come back for their annual Holiday Tutorials series.  I was here last year with my Holly Berry Table Topper and this year I've got a coordinating pillow cover to go along with it!  

I'd like to introduce you to my Holly Berry Pillow Cover tutorial.  

It's super easy and no fuss.  Perfect for the holidays!

So here's what you'll need:

 (1) 18" pillow form

1 yard of beige duck cloth

1/8 yd. of burlap

1 fat quarter of green wool (felted)

3 red bells (I got mine at Hobby Lobby)

fat eighth tan ticking fabric for tag

5" x 4" fusible fleece (or batting)

red Perle cotton

1 button

1 needle

water soluble marker

freezer paper

holly leaf and tag templates

Shall we get started then??? 

First, from the 1 yard of beige duck cloth, follow the diagram below to cut the 3 main pieces of the pillow cover (one 19" square for the front of the cover and two 19" x 16.5" pieces for the back).

Now, before we get going on decorating the front of the pillow cover, I want to share with you a little trick I learned to help make a pillow cover fit just right:

Use a water soluble marker to make a mark (on the wrong side of your fabric) at 1/2" and 4-1/2" from each corner of the square piece of duck cloth.  Draw a line, beginning at the edge of the fabric at the 4-1/2" mark on one side of your square and ending at the edge of the fabric at the 1/2" mark on the next side.  Later, we will cut along these lines to give our covers a slightly sloped shape in the corners (we will do the actual cutting right before we sew the back pieces to the front because this fabric tends to fray).  Cutting off these corners will help to eliminate the emptiness that can  occur in a "fitted" pillow cover. 

Follow this same process on just two of the corners of each of the two 19" x 16.5" pieces.

Then it will be time to hem the opposite sides of the 19" x 16.5" pieces to make the envelope enclosure on the back of the pillow.  To do this, you will need to draw a line along the edge of the two sides that don't have the corner cutting marks on them - 2" in from the edge - with a water soluble marker. 

Fold the edge of the fabric (with wrong sides together) onto that line.  Press to get a nice, crisp edge.

Fold over one more time to hide those raw edges.  Press again.

Top stitch this hem down, 1/8" and 7/8" in from the folded edge.  Use matching thread.  Set these two pieces aside.

Now, it's time for the fun part!  Time to decorate the front of the pillow!  

First, cut a 2" x width of fabric strip of burlap.  Cut it in half so that you have two pieces that are 2" x 22".

Center one strip onto the front of the square piece of duck cloth.  Pin in place and stitch along both of the long edges using a 1/4" seam allowance.  Do not trim off the excess burlap yet - wait until the front of the pillow cover is completely finished.

Repeat with the second strip. 

Next, trace the holly leaf template onto the paper side of freezer paper - 3 times.  Roughly cut out the leaves and carefully iron onto the green wool (use a medium-low heat setting).

Cut the three leaves out and peel off the paper.  Pin the leaves in place onto the center of your pillow cover.

Stitch around the leaves using coordinating thread (I just did a straight stitch about 1/8" in from the raw edge but you could do any kind of stitch you like!)

Attach the three red bells to the center of the holly leaves using red Perle cotton.

Then it's time to make the tag.  To do this, trace "To: and From:" onto the tan ticking fabric.  Embroider over the words with red Perle cotton. 

When you're finished embroidering, take the fabric out of the hoop.  Cut it into a tag shape that it 3" x 5".  

 

Layer it on top of a piece of fusible fleece (or batting) and another piece of ticking fabric.  The fusible fleece (or batting) should be between the two pieces of fabric and the right sides of the fabric should be facing out.  If you're using fusible fleece then iron the three layers together.  Sew around the raw edges using an 1/8" seam allowance.  Then trim off the excess fleece and backing fabric.

Attach the tag underneath the bells using a button to secure it in place.  

Now your pillow front is complete.  

Trim the excess burlap...

 

You can trim off those corners now too :)

 

With right sides together, layer the two back pieces and the pillow front together.  Make sure the hemmed back pieces over lap.  Pin around the raw edges and then sew together using a 1/2" seam allowance.

I reinforced the corners by stitching around them one extra time.  

Then trim off the excess leaving an 1/8" seam allowance.

Turn the pillow cover right side out.  Your pillow cover may need a little pressing now ~ just be careful to go around the embellishments and keep the heat setting on medium-low.  Stuff your pillow form in (you may want to use a lint roller now too, to get rid of any loose fibers from the burlap).  

And voila!  You are finished!

I hope you liked this tutorial.  

I think this pillow will go quite nicely with my Holly Berry Table Topper from last year (so be sure to check that out!)  Thank you Megan and Heather for having me here today!  I had a great time :)

♥ Amber