Pillow Cover Tutorial

OK friends, today I am giving you picture overload! I wanted to share a super easy way to recover your throw pillows for each season. If you have a sewing machine and know how to sew in a straight line - I promise you can DO this! =)



First, here are my pillows, I covered them last winter and made the mistake of making the coverings permanent. After the fact, and after they got sorta grungy sorta fast, I wished I had made removable covers so they could be changed or washed at will.
So this fall I finally got smart and made removable pillow covers in this gorgeous deep orange color, sort of a plush suede fabric. Anyway, I put those away with my fall decor and was back to the light blue pillows.

Which could only mean one thing, a trip to my local discount fabric store was in order! They sell everything, EVERYthing, for $2.99 a yard - even the BIG bolts of home dec fabrics! So I picked out 2 co-ordinating fabrics, one in an olive green and one in a deep red. I was totally guessing that they would match well with my couches and I was right! The green is almost identical to my couch color!


Next, decide if you plan to wash your covers or not. For these, I knew I wouldn't. They'll only be out for about a month and they are dark colors anyway, so I'll take a chance that they hopefully won't get spilled on. And even if they did, the fabric was cheap enough I would be OK with it. If you DO want to wash them, make sure you buy fabric that is washable, and bring it home and wash it FIRST before you do anything else. Then, measure your pillows and determine about how long and wide you need your fabric to be.


Here's what I do ... These pillows were approximately 20-22 inches square. So my WIDTH measurement is going to be 22 + 2-3 extra inches for leeway. {You can always cut the excess off, but if you cut it too small, you might not be able to fix it later. Then, for the LENGTH, make it DOUBLE that 22x2 = 44 + some overage for the flaps and stitching. I did mine at about 52 inches length and it was probably a bit too much, but again, I like to be certain that it's enough. An easy way to figure it out is to take the length of fabric and wrap the pillow and overlap the edges a bit. There is a saying that goes 'always measure twice, cut once' ... in other words, you can't redo it once it's cut, so be sure to measure carefully a couple times before cutting your fabric.

So to recap - my piece of fabric is now 24 inches x 52 inches. Next, I sewed the edges of each end - NOT the long sides, only the 2 short sides. Just fold up the edges a bit and sew straight down the side. It should look like this ...

Then, I lay the GOOD side down, and flap the two ends over each other like this ...

See how the left side overlaps the right side a bit? You want that.

Next I want to measure to make sure that my final product will be the proper size to fit the pillows. As I said above, I want the final product to be 22 inches square, so I take my ruler and measure across to be sure it's 22 inches, if it's too short or too long, I can adjust how far it's overlapping until I'm sure that it's 22 inches across ...

Then, I pin all along both sides so that it will STAY 22 inches and won't shift when I start sewing. I pin a little further in so that I can sew without having to remove the pins as I go.

Hard to see in this pic, but here it is with both sides pinned.

Then I want to measure the opposite direction, so that I know where I should sew and again, so I make sure it will end up being 22 inches across. I use my ruler and a dark black pen and I mark where I want my stitch line to go on both sides ...

See how I'll be left with about an inch or so excess on each side? That is fine ... like I said above, better to be left with some excess than to have it turn out too short. The excess can either be cut off {later, after you have sewed!} OR, you can just leave it cause it will be on the inside of the pillow and no one will notice it anyway. {You can guess what I do.}

Now you're ready to sew!! Make a straight stitch all the way down both sides, following the dark black line you made for yourself.

And here it is all sewn - I know you can hardly see the thread except right at the end, but trust me it's there. Now you can remove your pins. Don't trim your excess YET! Wait until you make sure that the cover fits the pillow properly before trimming anything!

Next you're going to flip the pillow cover inside out so that the pretty side of the fabric will show ...

And this is how it will look once it's flipped.

See how the two ends overlap each other?

And now the fun part ... wrestling that pillow into the cover ... it can be something like wrestling an ornery two year old into a snowsuit, but it's worth it in the end!

At this point it's halfway in and you're thinking ... there is no way it will all fit! The second half is a bit trickier cause you have to get it smushed all up to get it under that bottom flap. Just keep squishing and smushing and it WILL fit! Then you need to do a little fluffing and adjusting after you've gotten it squished in there.

And voila! It's in!

And my oh my ... don't they look nice?!

I made two green and two red ... {sad thing is they look nicer than the beat up couches they're sitting on!}

And one last look ...

Now, I know this has been a very WORDY post, and you're probably overwhelmed, but TRUST me, it took me longer to type it all out and explain it than it did to actually make the pillows! This project should take between 30-60 minutes {for all 4!}.

Hope you enjoyed. If you decide to cover your pillows come back and let me know so I can check out your pics!

Oh yeah ... thought I'd include these little cuties too ... Christmas flower pins! Wouldn't they be so cute to wear on a black coat this Christmas season? I'm doing a craft fair on Saturday and hope to sell some of these along with LOTS of other homemade stuff I make. =)

The Christmas Towels

This past weekend we decided to go get our Christmas tree and set up our house for Christmas. It's been a long standing tradition around here to do this on the weekend after Thanksgiving. Since our house guests had gone home on Friday and we had no plans on Sunday we decided it was a great day to go for it.





We went to a beautiful tree farm and cut down our tree. We brought it home and got it set up. Then we proceeded to pull out the SEVEN large rubbermaid bins from the attic which were all full of Christmas stuff {yes, I think it's too much and am trying to downsize a bit this year!}.





The girls were super eager to help and started pulling things out of boxes right away. Now, in case you've never heard me say this, I am a bit of a control freak. I know, I know, you're totally shocked {hahahah - NOT!}. Anyhow, I am one of those people who likes to set the Christmas stuff up JUST SO. I want to arrange and move things and play around with the placement until I'm totally happy that it looks just how I wanted it. But I also recognize that the girls are getting older and want to be a part of the whole process of Christmas decorating more and more.





Oh yeah, I should back up slightly ... the night BEFORE our decorating we went out to this super fun Oldies dance with some friends of ours {I think it's funny that I would enjoy an oldies dance SO much more than a current music dance! Must be getting OLD!}, the girls spent the time with some friends and every one of us had a fantastic night. But, we didn't get home until ONE AM! And I have quickly learned I am TOO OLD to stay out that late! Unfortunately, my internal body clock doesn't know the meaning of 'sleep in' and I was wide awake as usual at 7am. Going to sleep at 1:30am ... getting up at 7:00am = somewhat cranky Mama!

OK, back to the decorating. Decorating for Christmas is a BIG endeavor, as I mentioned, we have 7 huge bins full of Christmas stuff. Plus, there is all the regular, everyday decor that is already filling the house, then you add in the fall decor that needs to be put away for another year. So imagine my little house filled with bins, candles, vases, snowmen, pine needles, ornaments, books, etc etc etc. The place was a WRECK!

We all worked together, but I was just sorta of edgy because of all the mess {and the control issue!}. I would get a little snappy with my family from time to time and was just feeling more head-achy as the day went on. Finally we pulled out a couple mini trees for the girl's rooms, along with some small Christmas village pieces that I also let them have in their rooms ... so they went off to their rooms VERY happily and got busy setting up all their own Christmas decor. Finally, I had a little time to do my own decorating!

Then came dinner time ... we decided to heat up some leftovers which we had from eating out at lunchtime. All of the sudden everyone wanted to eat MY leftovers and I may or may not have had a little mini tantrum about how it was MY food, MY leftovers and *I* wanted them! {It sounds so much worse written out!}

So basically what I'm saying here is that this cranky, over tired Mama was not so nice to her family on a day that should have been filled with fun and memories. Yeah, I blew it. And I think they knew I was maxed out with the mess because they even busted their butts trying to clean up the house before bedtime.

I got the girls all tucked in bed, took a couple Advil for my headache, and walked into the bathroom to pee and saw ... the Christmas towels. I hadn't even seen them come out of a box, but apparently one of my girls saw them, took them out and went and hung them nicely in the bathroom. And then I smiled. Smiled and thought, what sweet girls I have. And then I was sad ...remembering how horribly I treated them today. :(

And in the morning, I asked the girls and Bob to come see me ... I told them I was thankful for all they had done the day before ... and then I said, 'I'm sorry. I'm sorry I was overtired and cranky. And I love you. Very much.'

And they still love me ... this old lady who dances to the oldies and can't stay up too late and gets a little possessive of my leftovers and is a bit controlling with decor and messes up all the time. Yep, they love me.

Holiday Magic

It’s been awhile since I shared some pictures so today you’re in for a treat, LOTS of them! *grin*

Most of our leaves have finally fallen but last week the girls enjoyed playing in the piles before Daddy dragged them off to the woods … thought I’d share some fun pictures of that. I’m glad they still enjoy the innocence of youth doing things like jumping in the leaves.

{yes, my daughter is still wearing shorts and t-shirts in November! That girl is never cold!}

Here is a picture from my first Blessings Unlimited Gathering. On the table are all the items that I got in my consultant kit – SO many beautiful things! I just adore all their stuff.

On Thanksgiving Eve our church had a service and our girls sang a song with the Praise Kids. One of Hope’s best friends sang a solo in the beginning and the whole thing was beautiful! I took pictures during their rehearsal …

{Hope is the one in the back row in the red and grey striped shirt.}

{Joy is in the back row with the black shirt and headband.}   

{There were 2 services, so they sang, then sat through the service, then sang again at the next service.}

{We are soooooo thankful for so many wonderful, Christian friends for the girls! This is such a great group of young ladies!!}

On Thanksgiving Day our whole family participated in a local 5k Turkey Trot. A few of us either walked or ran the 5k, a couple others ran the one mile, and a couple stayed warm in the car to watch {LOL}. It was EARLY, it was COLD, but it was so much fun! I had been struggling with running lately, I ran on Tuesday and could not run a whole 3 miles without stopping … but we got there Thursday morning and my Father in law said ‘don’t worry, you’ll do fine, it’s called race day magic’ … well sure enough he was RIGHT! I ran the whole way without stopping and I felt GREAT! Here is the whole group minus my sis in law who took the picture.

We hosted Thanksgiving so after the race we rushed home to get dinner started. I was so busy all day that I didn’t really take photos. It was just a nice day with family. The girls loved having their cousins here to play with. The kids played outside and were filthy all day. There were no fancy outfits for dinner. It was just simple and good to be together. I did get ONE picture of the cousins all together – so hard to get the nephews to be serious and smile nice for a pic, but this was the best I could do. =)

On Friday I got up early to shop on Black Friday {yes I’m slightly crazy!} I could not sleep well and woke up at 5am so I figured I might as well just get up and go get my shopping done. My tip for Black Friday is to PLAN, PLAN, PLAN! I looked through all the sale flyers on Thursday night, figured out which stores I wanted to hit and what I wanted from each store. I made a list with the name of the store and what I wanted at that store. Then I took the flyers, list and coupons in my purse. I went ALONE {to me this is key, cause when I’m on a mission it’s easier to shop alone}. I picked up a coffee and bagel from Dunkin Donuts and got shopping! The stores were NOT that crazy, I think since many were open at midnight that it wasn’t that crazy in the morning. They were also VERY well staffed so I never even waited in ANY lines! I kid you not, I walked right up to the register in every store and I went to about 8 places! {I also was not looking for any big ticket items – just clothes and toys and such so they had plenty of everything I wanted.} I dare say I had FUN!

I was home by 9:30 with 90% of my shopping done and everyone in my house was just waking up for breakfast!

This year I bought an Elf on the Shelf. My girls know that Santa isn’t real … but I know that they will still have a lot of fun with this new tradition. I’ve been looking at ideas on Pinterest for fun ways this little Elf can get into mischief each night and I really think it’s going to be a FUN month! To me, fun traditions are what it’s all about. These are the things I hope my kids remember about their childhood and maybe even continue on with their own families. {OK, wow, getting WAY ahead of myself!}

So here is where that little elf is hiding out on his very first night in our home ….. we’ll see how long it takes for the girls to find him in the morning!

Isn’t he cute?! We called him “Jingle”.

 

Hope your holidays are filled with ‘magic’!

A B C’s of Thanksgiving ~ 2011

“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.” Psalm 107:1


Tomorrow is Thanksgiving for those of us who live in the United States! Yippee! I absolutely LOVE Thanksgiving, it’s a great day to just connect with family and enjoy each other’s company while reflecting on how very blessed we all are. Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas too, but Thanksgiving is like Christmas without having to worry about all the shopping and decorating and wrapping. ;)

Today I’m sharing my A,B,C’s of Thanks along with http://rachelmariemartin.blogspot.com/. Wanna share yours too? Click over to Rachel’s blog to find out more.

Here we go!

A – ALMIGHTY God our AWESOME Creator

B – BOB, my amazing husband, the BIBLE and great BOOKS

C – COFFEE – you didn’t really think I could get through this whole list without saying coffee, did you? And our awesome CHURCH and church family {this isn’t our church pictured, but it sure is pretty!}

D – DIFFICULT times, that help me to trust God more

E – EVERY morning, His mercies are new, I’m so glad they are!

F – FAMILY & FAITH

G – GRACE of GOD … and GRACIE our crazy pup

H – HOPE, our incredible firstborn & HOMESCHOOLING, having the freedom to do it

I – IN LAWS – I could not have asked for more wonderful in laws – love them so much!

J – JOY, our amazing youngest daughter & JESUS, where would I be without Him?

K – KINDRED SPIRITS {aka: amazing friends!}

L – LAUGHTER – those silly girls of ours bring many hours of laughter to our home!

M – My MOM, love her SO much & MUSIC

N – NATURE

O – OPPORTUNITIES to use our creative talents

P – PHOTOGRAPHY, I may not be a professional, but I absolutely love taking photos everywhere I go

Q – QWIRKLE – one of my fave games, and what else can you write for Q?

R – RELATIONSHIP, with the God of the Universe

S – SISTERS IN CHRIST – I adore my girlfriends!

T – TREES, I love my big maple trees, they bring such beauty to our yard in every season

U – UNDERWEAR … sorry! Corny, I know, but what else starts with U?!

V – VEHICLES – that get us where we need to go!

W – WORSHIP

X – eXtremely fun and blessed life – I am blessed and grateful!

Y – YOU! Yes, you, my friends, my family, I am thankful for each of you this year!

Z – ZIPPERS … yep, how else would you keep your jeans up?!

Have a BLESSED Thanksgiving my friends!!