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Make an Impact with Throw Pillows!

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Throw pillows are such a great sewing project – they are simple to sew, quick to finish, and can make a huge impact in any space.  I sewed a pile of pillow covers to use as party decor for Addison’s mermaid party.  
The color and style that they added to the bland outdoor space was incredible.  As a bonus, I used remnants and scraps from the quilts I’m sewing for the girls’ bedroom, and the pillows now have a second (and much longer) life as bedding decor inside!  
Add a quick ruffle strip on the horizontal or vertical center of the pillow or stack two ruffles with a ribbon stitched down the middle.  Insert pom-poms or other trim around the perimeter.  I showed you a while back how to easily make a ruched throw pillow.  It looks so nice with its coordinating pillow friends!
The embroidered mermaid pillow took a little longer to finish, but is still a relatively quick project.  I made a pieced border out of coordinating scrap squares in varied widths and then embroidered this darling mermaid  image onto a white center.  You can find Sarah Jane’s mermaid embroidery pattern in her shop.  Love her whole new line of fabric, Out to Sea, coming out soon.
 I also used a disappearing ink pen and made a square border about 1/2″ inside the white panel.  With embroidery floss, I hand stitched a simple border, mimicking throw pillows (from Pottery Barn Kids) that are already in the girls’ room.  After embroidering the pillow, I stacked the top with a light batting and quilted it in freehand swirls, just around the border.  Just love how this pillow turned out!
Did you notice the finished quilt there under the pillows?  I’ve finished one – just two more to quilt and bind!  When, oh when, will I be done? 

Little Red Riding Hood

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I gave this Little Red Riding Hood cape to Grace for Christmas, but haven’t been able to photograph or share it until now.  I had fun printing up and including the Little Red Riding Hood story as I knew my thrill seeker would love a scary story to go with her new gift.  
 
I found the pattern for the cape with the ric rac detailing in a darling little book called “Making Children’s Clothes” by Emma Hardy.  I used a deep red velvet rather than felt and lined the cape with the same Michael Miller apple fabric that is used in the book (could not resist!!)  I also added a hood.  
On a whim, I tried the beaded pearl machine embroidery around the entire perimeter of the cape and hood and fell IN LOVE with the look.  I knew right after I finished this little number that I wanted to somehow incorporate that embroidery stitch into one of the garments for Project Run and Play (I ended up using it on the Sunday’s Child coat for Outerwear week, also on velvet, remember?).  The contrast of the smooth satin embroidery against the plush velvet is just beautiful.  
 Grace was excited for a photo shoot opportunity and loaded up her basket with apples.  Olivia prowled on the outskirts as the wolf and swiped an apple or two, which was not appreciated by Little Red Riding Hood. 

Sunday’s Child: Project Run and Play, Week Four

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It’s Week Four over at Project Run and Play.  Thank you for all of your votes and support so far.  We’re past the half-way point now; I’m very excited!!  I hope you’ll continue to visit over there and VOTE!!

This week we’re working on Outerwear and I am so, so thrilled with how this outfit came together.  While last week’s 80s look was a lot of fun, this week’s look is much more “me.”   I called this one “Sunday’s Child”, like the poem.  I just think Olivia looks ready to go to church or a fancy lunch date, or to prance down the sidewalk in the rain, happy and curious, full of joy, as every child should be.

Mondays child is fair of face,
Tuesdays child is full of grace,
Wednesdays child is full of woe,
Thursdays child has far to go,
Fridays child is loving and giving,
Saturdays child works hard for his living,
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay.

I will let you read the details on the outfit over at Project Run and Play, but I wanted to share a little about the photo shoot here.  One of the most stressful parts of this process, for me, has been finding the time to photograph the outfit each week in order to get the post put together for the Project Run and Play team.  Between nasty bouts of weather and preset schedules (school…gymnastics…the sun setting), it takes careful planning to go do a photo shoot.

My mom kept the little girls with her so that I could concentrate when I picked Olivia up from school to do these pictures.  Liv was really excited because I told her I’d take her to the church where Graham and I got married to take the pictures.  The church is old and beautiful, with stained glass, and a busy, small town street in the front.  We got out of the car and Olivia just wandered the grounds, twirling her umbrella, and looking every which way to take it in. We had a lot of fun and, in addition to photographing the outfit, I got some great pictures of my little girl. 

The blue cotton velvet was the inspiration for this outfit.  I love how soft it looks and how plush the coat and hat turned out, with their fancy little embroidery and trim details.  And what do you think of the ruffle umbrella?  I’ve been wanting to glue ruffles onto an umbrella for ages!  So glad it finally made sense to do it – Olivia loves it!

 And did you see the boots?  From thrift store ice skates??!!  Aren’t they great?

Olivia got pretty goofy toward the end of our photo shoot.  She flashed me some big, sparkly eyes and when I asked her to do it again, she gave me the biggest eyes ever.  Silly girl.  This picture just makes me laugh.

Alrighty!  Thanks for reading through and please go check out what will surely be another spectacular line-up of outfits – go HERE to VOTE!!!

lucky – Embroidery

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 My lucky friend Christene.  She got a fancy new embroidery machine.  Lucky me.  She let me come over last week and, while our kids played five hundred tiny toy mix-up, I watched her work up a flower applique on this top for Addie.  
With Olivia in school all day (sniff sniff), the little girls took great naps today and I was able to put together this little pair of ruffle pants to match.  Another stroke of luck.
Addie was quite agreeable to taking a little break from her afternoon gymnastics routines on the couch to try on her new outfit.  She flashed me a whole bunch of sweet and sassy smiles while I snapped her photo, then put her leotard back on and held out her hand for her chocolate chip payment.  The other gymnasts held out their hands, too.  Lucky girls.
Any lucky embroidery machine-owners out there?  How I wish I had one of my very own… 

weekend embroidery

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It’s our last weekend before school starts up.  We’ve got some day plans with water, dirt, and lemonade.  And some evening plans with my new pile of Sarah Jane goodies. 
 
I haven’t embroidered in twenty-something years.  Not since I thought a pillowcase with an embroidered rose-laden keyboard was a good idea.  
I think my inspiration is quite a bit better this time around.
What sorts of fun are you having this weekend?

dainty girls need dainty napkins

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If you haven’t met my girls or already guessed by the nature of most every project that I post, let me be the first to tell you that I have three very girly girls.  They love all things pink, lacy, puffy, twirly, sparkly, dainty, and girly.  Which, I suppose, is how my friend, Christene, knew I would love a little collection of hand-embroidered flowers. 
 
Her husband’s grandmother, who was a seamstress for THE Charlie Chaplin, made them and passed them down to her.  Amazing.  So, Christene gives me this little pile of flowered goodness and tells me to make use of them.  And as I’m walking out the door she says, hey! you should make little napkins for the tea party with the flowers!  Brilliant!  So I did. 
This is a very quick project.  You finish a set of four basic napkins in less than 30 minutes.  I used Kona cotton because that is what I had on hand.  Use any material you’d like.  I cut 6-inch squares, pressed them well, then serged a rolled hem around the perimeter, and pressed them again on the diagonal.  I used my sewing machine to embroider Addison’s name on the napkins and then sewed just a couple stitches to hold down the embroidered flower. 
Christene thought it would be fun for each child to have their own little napkin.  Yes. darling, right?  And since it was such a quick project, I made a little set of four for each of the girls.  I haven’t sewn the little flowers onto all of the napkins and I think I may put something else in the corners so that I don’t use up all the treasures.  I like to hoard things, you know.  But I thought the napkin sets would make cute party favors!  See?
If your sewing machine doesn’t do letter embroidery, don’t sweat it!  Try some of the other stitch functions or just plunk a little accent on!  Like this….
Here, I did a scallop stitch all the way around the napkin and then just trimmed the fabric close to the stitching!  Soooo sweet! 
 

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