DIY Pretty Pillow from Placemats

Hi Pocket Full of Pink readers! I'm so excited to be here with you today!  My name is Barbara and I blog over at Chase the Star, where I share simple and inexpensive craft tutorials, furniture transformations, and even a recipe or two!

I'm always drawn to throw pillows everywhere I go.  I certainly don't need any more, but of course I can always make room for one more.  Well, while perusing the GW (Goodwill Thrift Store) this past weekend, I spotted these pretty placemats:

Another thing I didn't need more of, and especially a small set of just 2..BUT...they were new with tags from Target, a rare occurrence at the GW.  They were my fave color, blue.  I was digging the Ikat pattern, and they were just 99 cents each.  Duh, no brainer! 

More throw pillows for me!

Pretty Ikat pattern I dig

Placemat to Pillow Tutorial:

Once I ran them through the washer (they are from a thrift store after all), I ironed them gently to remove any wrinkles and creases.

A seam ripper easily opened up one of the short sides of the placemat:

Recycled a pillow insert I already had and put it inside the opened up placemat:

Folded the ends down and held them together with sewing pins:
















Lastly, I sewed a simple straight line across with my sewing machine (by the way, this is the only sewing I can do, with or without a machine.  Don't judge me!)

Side Note:

Special thanks to my MIL for the sewing tute a few weeks back.  Otherwise, I'd be sharing with you on how to add fabric glue to 'sew' this baby up! 

Again don't judge me, and don't knock the fabric glue; it's how I made these pillows (and so many more that I don't have pics of)!



Pillows on my front porch

That was all it took to go from this:

To this!



!!99 cents total price for this project--!!HOLLA!!

I had one pillow insert, so I made just one throw pillow and still have another placemat to get creative with!

Thanks so much to Karen for having me here today, I love your blog, and it's an honor to get to share my project with your fabulous readers!

I'd love to have you visit my blog soon, and look for me here:                    

                                


Thanks so much for hanging out at my blog Barbara!  What a great idea:) 

Autumn Burlap Table Runner tutorial

Hello Happy Hour Projects readers!  My name is Karen and I blog over at Pocket Full of Pink, where I post crafts, tutorials, recipes and sometimes just random stuff!  I am so excited to be here.

Today I am going to show you my Ruffled Burlap Table Runner:

I am absolutely LOVING my Table Runner!  I love how it turned out.  Wanna know how I made it?  

Here is what you will need:

Burlap (I used a piece about 17 inches wide, 45 inches long)

2 different fabrics about 1/4- 1/2 yard of each

sewing machine

thread

scissors, tape measure

I don't quilt, but I use the long plastic thingy (what is the name of it!!) in the picture and a cutting mat.

That's all you need!  This is so inexpensive to make!!

First I cut the burlap into the 17 x 45 inch piece.  Do ya know how to cut Burlap?  You make a little snip where you want to cut it, then pull out a burlap thread.  This will make a straight line through your burlap!  Now you can use scissors or a quilting cutter (I can't think of the right name for it!) to cut your burlap.  I hope that made sense.  It really makes it easy to cut the Burlap.

After you have cut your burlap in the desired length and width, iron it.  Mine had lots of creases in it.  Don't leave the hot iron on the burlap for long:)

Next, you cut your 2 different fabrics into strips about 2 inches by 34 inches long (twice the amount of the width of your runner).  I cut 4 strips of one pattern and 3 of the other pattern.  

Now here's the fun part.  I hated making ruffles until I learned how to make them!  My machine is very basic and I know every machine is different, so this probably varies depending on your machine.  You turn the thread tension up to the highest number.  I know the picture is hard to see, but my thread tension is at about 8 or 9.  

Next, you turn the stitch width to the highest.  Mine is 5.  

Here is what the ruffles looked like when I got done.  All you have to do is guide the fabric piece through the machine, and it makes the ruffles for you!  This works perfectly!  Remember, don't back stitch. I am a new woman now that I have discovered this!!

Next, I placed each ruffle about 6 inches apart.  Now, pin each ruffle onto the burlap in a straight line.

Sew each ruffle down, right down the center, but make sure you are not sewing on top of the stitch you sewed to make the ruffle.  Get as close as you can to it.  Then after each ruffle is sewn on, take your seam ripper and take out the ruffle seam (the one on the right that my seam ripper is pointing to).  The seam should come out really easy. 

After picking out the ruffle seam, I frayed each ruffle a little along the edges of the fabric.  I also cut any threads that were hanging.  

Admire your fabulous work and show it off on your table!!

We had some friends over for dinner last night and they absolutely LOVED this!  

It was so nice to say I MADE IT!! 

If you have any questions about my directions, e-mail me and I'd be happy to help:

kweight@byu.net

Thanks so much Adrianne for letting me stop by! 

{Savannah's refashioned Backpack}

A few days before school was going to start, my 9 year old daughter started asking me to buy her a new backpack.  I told her that her backpack was fine, there wasn't anything wrong with it.  She insisted and started whining about it.

We have a motto at our house some of you may  have heard of it:

Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without!

She wasn't buyin' it.  I told her, ok I will add some cute stuff to your backpack, like cute fabric or something.  She picked out some fabric from my stash, and I went to work.  Here is what I came up with.  It isn't anything too fantastic, but she was VERY excited about it!

I started with sewing on the ruffles, but the backpack was SO hard to manuver on my sewing machine that I decided to hot glue the fabric on.  I don't know how long it will last, but for now Savannah is one happy camper!

Have a great weekend!

New Obsession: Yellow and Grey

Have you noticed how much Yellow and Grey you have seen around lately?  I am lovin' everything Yellow and Grey.  I can't get enough of it.  I want to redo my whole house in Yellow and Grey!

Recently I have been looking on Pinterest and here are some of my favorite Yellow and Grey finds:

Isn't this the cutest nursery in the whole wide world?  If I had another baby (which I am NOT), I would decorate the room like this!

Who would have thought to paint their walls Grey?  I love how it looks with this bedding and especially the headboard!!

Such a sweet card!  Love the cute little butterflies...

I want...I want...really bad!  Love this Joel Dewberry Fabric.

I love this song!  My mom used to always sing this to my at night:)  It gives me warm fuzzies....

This felt flower is so pretty!  Just love the color combination.

I love all the cute digital scrapbook paper out there!  This would make some awesome layouts.

These are just a few of my favorites.  What do you think of Yellow and Grey?  Which one is your favorite?

I have an addiction to Aprons

I love them....especially ones that look like you can just wear them all alone with nothing else.  Not that I would, I'm just sayin'.  Here are some of my all time favorites:

I Love, love the fabrics used for this apron!  They are so bright and cheerful.  The only problem is I wouldn't want to get anything on it....There is a fabulous tutorial here.

Aren't these absolutely to die for?  They are called cupcake aprons.  I saw them here.

I am soooo in love with this one!  The ruffles just kill me:) Find it here.  Wouldn't this be cute as a dress??

Lovin' those bright colors!  Saw these here.

Oh, so dang cute!!

These are pretty enough to wear out on the town....Here they are.

I want....I want.....Party aprons here.

There ya go.  My obsession with aprons.  The possibilities are endless....

Eco-Chic Shopping Tote

Yesterday I got the bug to sew something.  My 17 yr. old wanted to sew (yay!) and we decided to make these cute Shopping totes:

Ooooh, don't you just adore that fabric?  It is my favorite!  

I made this one and I can't wait to use it!  I think I just decided what I am making for Christmas gifts this year!

They are even reversible!  Look at that cuteness:)  My DD whipped out 3 yesterday.  I made 2.  She didn't want to stop!!

I am working on a tutorial for this bag.  I will post it soon.  It seriously took me 30-45 minutes to make.  I love a quick, easy project!

I am linking here:
Sisters stuff
A Little Tipsy
Sew Much Ado
Sassy Sites
The Answer is Chocolate
Craftomaniac
Keeping it Simple
Crafty Confessions

Black Shirt makeover

My SIL gave me some clothes a while back that she didn't want anymore.  I was happy to take them!  I don't mind hand me downs!  Here is what the shirt looked like before:

It's cute, and I love the gross grain ribbon tie, but it was a little plain and needed some more color.  Here is what I did:

I took some black and white fabric from my stash and cut 3-4 strips about 12-15 inches long and about 2 inches wide.  I liked the thinner strips better for this shirt.  

Now, I didn't take enough pictures for this tutorial and I apologize! 

 I have to tell you something that I have learned lately with my sewing machine.  I made ruffles out of these strips turning my thread tension to about 6-7 and the thread stitch length dial all the way up to 7.  Don't back stitch.

 I was so excited when I found out about this!  It makes the ruffle for you!!  SOOO COOL.  This piece of precious information made me jump for joy.  I was jazzed!!

Here is where I have all the ruffles pinned.  I decided to add a little ruffle embellishment on the right side.   

I pinned it REALLY good.  

Next, I sewed the ruffles on using a regular stitch and making sure I back stitched at both ends.

I made sure that I sewed right next to the ruffle stitch.  Then after I am finished, I could just pull out the ruffle stitch.  

Here is the after picture.  I was really pleased how it turned out!  Here's is what the picture looks like when I took it in the mirror:

Looks like an "S" ha!  Reminds me of those shirts that Laverne and Shirley wore (does that date me big time?)!!  It was NOT meant to be an "S!"

I think I'm gonna wear this to school this week!