Rocking Chair Cushion

      I finished my last project I wanted to sew for the girls' room. This rocking chair is super cute, but not so comfy to sit in. It definitely needed a cushion of some kind.

     My mom kindly did all the hard part and cut everything out for me. I just sewed it together. This is basically how you make a cushion like this. Cut out some foam to fit your particular chair.

      Use the foam as a pattern to cut out your fabric.

       Sew fabric around cording to make your piping.

      Sew the piping and whatever your ties are (I just used ribbon) to one layer of the fabric.

       Sew the second layer of fabric to this, right sides together. Flip right side out and stuff the in the foam.

      Hand sew the opening shut. I would not leave the opening in the front like I did, because then your hand sewing is in the front. My hand sewing is not super lovely so that wasn't the smartest thing to do for me.
     I was going to add fabric covered buttons to make a tuffed cushion. I don't know if I just bought cheap buttons or what, but they kept coming apart while I was sewing them on so I gave up on it. I think it looks just fine without them.

      I'll show you the finished room in my next post. Well, as "finished" as anything ever gets in my house that is!
      
"Wherefore, my beloved brethern, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:"
James 1:19

Linking to:
Freckled Laundry

Freshen up those pillows!

       In a book I was reading recently, one designer said she re-upholstered her furniture every six months. Very few of us will ever have the time or the money for that luxury! However, her point was good, and that was, to keep things looking fresh in your home. It doesn't take a multi-million dollar budget to make that one work! I choose to do it by re-arranging a piece of furniture now and then, moving the decor to different spots, and accent pillows. I am all about my pillows. My hubby has ceased to understand my infatuation with recovering pillows. I have two little black ones on my couch in particular that fall victim most often to my various whims of pillow covering.
     They started out with large burlap flowers on the front. That was very scratchy and burlap sheds. After a month or two, I stripped the flowers from the front, and put nice soft cotton flowers on instead.

      I liked these pretty well for two or three months. Sadly, the flowers started looking rather flat and not very lovely. Off they came, and now I have these!

      The lovely thing about pillows is that anyone can customize them to fit your taste whether you are crafty or sew or not. Plain pillows can be bought for very little money if you aren't so inclined to sew one yourself. I just use hot glue to fancy up the front and it rips right off when I'm tired of looking at it! Trim is often on sale at craft stores and you change up the look however and as often as you please without spending exorbitant amounts of money.

      I didn't take pictures while I was doing this, because the idea struck at around 10 at night...not super lighting to take pictures at that time! I just used strips of lace and ruffled ribbon to get the look I wanted. Yes, I realize this is about the eleventh post using ruffled ribbon....I can't help myself, I'm in love with that stuff.
      So what is your favorite way to freshen up the look of a room?

"I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust." Psalm 91:2

Linking to:
Freckled Laundry
Simple Home Life
Six Sisters
Be Different Act Normal
Lolly Jane

Circle Puff Quilt and Pillows

     I finished the toddler bed's bedding today! Hurray! That's been hanging over my head for a while, so I am glad to be finished with it. I went ahead and made another puff quilt, except this time it is circles instead of squares. It was just as easy as the the other to do. This time I sewed up the two layers and stuffed the whole thing with a thin layer of pollyfill.

     I took a mixing bowl and traced six large circles on the top. Instead of wrestling all fabric with the sewing matching, I decided just to hand sew the circles with embroidery thread. It didn't take long because I made nice long stitches.

      I think the circles are fun twist to an otherwise, pretty standard blanket.

     Again, there is just enough filling to make it puffy, not hard or lumpy.

      And of course, any little lady needs some comfy cute pillows for her bed.

     This puckered pillow is very simple.

     Just make the front panel of the pillow sham a larger than it needs to be and draw dots where you want the puckers on the back side. Gather up bunches of fabric and sew across them nice and tight.

      It gives a great textured look to the front of the pillow. Another easy way to get some texture is to use elastic thread like I did on this one.

     I sewed across the front panel every 2 1/2 inches or so.

     Then I sewed down the other direction, making squares.

     You get gathers on the front without the hastle of actually gathering the material.  I love how all the fabric blends and matches, but it all was purchased or given to me over a long period of time. The plaid skirt, paisley sheet, polkadot pillows, and animal blanket all work just nicely together. The little lady highly approves of her new bedding.

     She was excited to pieces to go to bed, which is totally fine with me! =)

linking to:
Simple Home Life
Sun Scholars
Just a Girl
The Freckled Laundry
The Girl Creative
Homemaker on a Dime

What can you do with a fabric sample?

     Quite a bit it would seem! Several months back, I purchased some home decor fabric samples off of EBay for next to nothing. There are several different prints but all the same color scheme so they all coordinate well together. So far I've used them for kitchen curtains and a pillow. The stack caught my eye again today. I decided it would be just the thing to redo a little footstool I've had laying around for ages. As I recall it was given to me for free with a rocking chair I had bought at a yard sale.

     It wasn't a bad little stool, just not my style. After ripping all the fabric off I had this.

     I painted the legs and covered the old padding with a piece of my fabric sample. Much better.

     I can even pop a tray on top and use if for a mini coffee table...which is about all my miniature living room can handle!

     I had enough pieces left over to do two matching pillow. I adore pillows. The more the merrier I say!

   



     Don't worry, I'm not going print crazy...the rest of the room is pretty solid so it isn't over kill. I hope to make solid white curtains in the near future so that will tone things down a bit too. I have a good amount of a much smaller print in the same red that I'm thinking about doing my dining room chairs with...not sure about that yet.

     At any rate those fabric samples sure were worth the small amount they cost!

Linking to:

The Freckled Laundry

Miss Mustard Seed

Just a Girl

Simple Home Life

Tatertots and Jello

A few minor updates

       Sometimes it surprises me how small changes can really make a big impact. A long time ago I bought a lampshade that, in the store looked red...but at home looked burgundy. While I really like red, I really don't enjoy burgundy. Why I didn't just return it, I'll never know. For some reason I decided to just live with it, until this last weekend when I decided its burgundy days of offending my eyeballs were over. I had a hair brained idea that I wasn't sure would work so I didn't take pictures along the way. The end result is....just...lovely...in my humble opinion of course.

      This was free and easy. I took about a yard and a half of white material, cut it into 2inch wide strips, and tied the strips around my existing lamp shade.  I alternated a knot at the top with a knot at the bottom and so forth, and then trimmed the knots to the length I wanted. I really like how it turned out, and it even looks pretty at night! Ahhh bye bye burgundy!

     The next little update I did was on a few couch pillows. I had made them with black burlap flowers on them several months ago...but the burlap turned from cute to ratty and were super scratchy to boot. I updated it with some softer, better wearing fabric flowers.

      These are all over bloggy world so I'm sure no explanation is needed on how to make them. I just hot glued them on rather than sewing them.

     All in all much better than scratchy burlap. The best thing about both projects is neither are very permanent. If I get tired of them I can rip them off and do something different. The other best thing is that they were free to do. If you don't have tons of fabric laying around you could always use an old sheet.

linking to:

Tea Rose Home: Link party

Someday Crafts: Whatever goes Wednesday

Sew Much Ado: We did it!

Freckled Laundry: Air your laundry friday