Special Order - Cailin's Pillows

Cailin called me last week and said she's got company coming! They have a downstairs studio in their home, and she wants to have it in full working order by the time her guests arrive! So, she needed 3 throw pillow covers. And she wanted me to make them. 

Criteria:

1. grey

2. yellow

3. dark blue

My starting off point was these fabrics....

 But if you notice, they do not contain any dark blue, hah. 

You see, I could not envision how dark blue would go with yellow and grey. 

Then I took out my latest obsession: 

the $1 pillow case I got at Salvation Army (which I used on my bandana see post here).

I remembered it had blue and mustard in it. 

But still, not enough dark blue. 

So I went to Sew Special and picked up a reverse version of my 

light grey/navy pinwheel style fabric from their Asian section, 

that I used on my fabric-covered tins (see post here).

And, I remembered I bought Cailin a yellow/grey stripe fabric, 

but had never done anything with it for her yet.

So the collection up to this point was this:

I needed grey, and Cailin said she really loved the yellow/grey paisley... I did too. 

So this is what made the cut (literally):

I cut them at 18", sewed at 17", so they'd fit pillows about 15-16".

 I did an overlapping back

And had to hem one side, but used the end of the fabric on the other side.

 Here's what the back ended up looking like:

I used two complimentary strips of fabric for the fronts of the pillows (back view):

Sewed them together.

Cut off the edges

Best tip ever: for corners, snip them close so they lay better when you turn them inside out. So basic, but makes it so nice. 

Here's #1:

(Ooh! Just noticed that you can see the reverse version 

of the dark blue fabric in the little bunting in the front of the pillow!)

Here's #2:

And #3:

Sorry, Cailin: the little bunting in front of it is not included... 

it's for staging purposes only.

You may recognize it from my "Cord Cover" in this post. 

I love how the 3 colors turned out: grey, yellow and dark blue. 

Great vision Cailin!

Shipping out tomorrow, right after my surprise root canal, in a recycled urban outfitters bag 

(safe to say, UO is our favorite place to make some online purchases... :))

Enjoy!

aloha, 

--becca

Read more ...

Pure Indulgence... No place for the Aqua Birdie Pillow

I bought a cute aqua birdie fabric from Sew Special here on Maui a few weeks back. (I also got 1/4 yard of an adorable matching squirrel print... sounds weird, i know, but it is ADORABLE). 

I love aqua. All my dishes are aqua. But for some reason, it took me a long time to figure out what project was just perfect for this aqua birdie fabric! Well, yesterday I finished Cailin's pillows she requested, and I loved the grey I used in them. Pillows take no time at all to make, so I gave in and used the aqua birdie fabric... and some white... and the leftover grey... to make a teeny little pillow. I already had a random pillow insert floating around, naked without a pillow case. 

A few seams later-- tada!

And this black vinyl chair... I had plans for this chair... but I kind of like it as is.

It was $5 @ Salvation Army. Marked down from $13. 

The metal legs have a hint of rust, but like I said, I kind of like it.

And by the way, my pic of this Urban Outfitters rug under the chair from this post, was reposted a million (exaggerating) times on pinterest. It was my first pin to go viral... !

Back to the aqua birdie pillow:

So, I have my cute pillow... but it really doesn't go anywhere in our house. I think it's because grey is not really one of our home colors... Kit wants more black in our home, so maybe that will help... but for now, I don't care that it doesn't match anything. The pillow is cute. 

Aloha,
--becca

Read more ...

What I made for Kit for Valentine's Day...

I know. I know. Valentine's Day is over. But I couldn't post it before/on V-Day because I didn't want Kit to see it. So, here it is now. I can't remember exactly which blog(s) I saw it on, but this is an idea floating around blog-world. Plus, my husband doesn't read blogs, so it's new to him!

To start, I went out and bought a $6 canvas. Was trying to find some other hard surface that I could upcycle and potentially hang on a wall, but gave in and spent the $6.

Then I chose my current "it" fabric, (which I've used on the no-sew tin and the pillow cover), and cut it so I could fold it over the back. Don't worry, there's not much more of this brown/cream foliage fabric, so you'll probably only have to endure a few more posts that include it...

I've recently (as of last Monday, yes, the day before V-Day) begun to use Modge Podge for the first time ever. So, I covered the canvas with the Podge, then placed it front-side down, and then folded the edges over and "modged" those.

A few days earlier I had downloaded a ton of new fonts, figured out our "important dates" and printed it out onto a sage-colored scrapbook paper cut to size.

After another layer of Modge Podge dried on the outside of the fabric, I placed the paper on the fabric and put another layer of the Podge on it.

Now this is where Kit decided his gift should live:

It's on a shiloh-colored shelf (which matches the desk and mirror in this post), next to Kit's side of the bed. That's his grandfather's watch in front of it. He passed away in August 2010. Our friend from Slovenia took those pics of Ivy last April and he and his girlfriend had them framed for us. (The one on the right ended up in a Slovenian catalog!!) They just had a daughter and I sent them the baby bunting in this post a few weeks back. The ceramic dog is one of Kit's high school art projects.

I like the shine of the Modge Podge. And you can see the brush strokes.

Aloha,
--Becca

Read more ...

Pillow Cover

I've seen a ton of tutorials on making pillow covers, so I've been ready to do this project for a while. It literally took like 10 minutes. 

I chose 3 fabrics that I felt complimented each other:

The brown printed one on the left is this awesome remnant I got for like 40% off at Fabric Mart. It's the same one I used on one of my fabric-covered tins (see post here), and the pillow is going on the couch next to that tin, so I'm glad they'll coordinate!

The center fabric with the birds and flowers is upholstery grade thickness, and I got it about a year ago. My first project with it were these shorts: 

The fabric on the right is actually part of a standard pillow sham set I got at a garage sale... I just keep cutting up these poor pillow shams. 

All pinned up:

Sewed inside out, then turned right side out. 

Voila!

It's perfect on my grandma's afghan, which my mom made for her many years ago. 

After my grandma passed away last March, my mom told me I should have it.

Here's the back of the pillow. There is an opening between these two fabrics, to slide the pillow in through there. 

The End.

Just 12 more followers until we have a giveaway!

-Becca

Read more ...