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Spring Zig Zag Ric Rac Pillows

04
May 2011

It has been approx. five months since I made a new pillow and almost 6 months since I made something with ric-rac.

Seriously. It’s ridiculous.

One can only go so long without using ric rac’s zigzaggy goodness to make something wonderful.
I bet you were saying that just the other day.

Well if you were – I have a set of fun pillows for you – to fulfill all your ric-rac’n zig-zag’n desires!

Ok. Enough with the silliness – but aren’t they pretty?
I have been wanting some new pillows for spring and I think these pretty blues and greens will be perfect through the summer too!

I have a detailed tutorial for you of the Ric Rac Chevron pillow – and simple instructions for the other because it’s quite a few less steps!

Here’s what you’ll need to get going:

• Fabric – I used a linen and this lovely Amy Butler print.
If you make both you’ll need about 1/2 yard of linen and 1 yard of print.
• Ric Rac – at least three packages for color variations
• 2 pillow forms – one 16″ and one 14″
• Glue and felt scraps (for ric rac rosettes on the smaller pillow)

Start by cutting out your pieces for the large pillow. This tutorial is for a pillow cover – but you could easily make it a regular pillow too.
Cut out of linen one piece 16″ x 10″ and one piece 2″ x 16″.
Cut out of your print fabric one piece 24″ x 7″, one piece 16″ x 12″, one piece 16″ x 8″.

Mark your linen piece for the ric rac zig zags.
Measure 1″ down on the left side and make a mark with a fabric marker. Continue marking down the left side every 2″.
Measure across the width at every mark and make a dot every 2″.

Place the end of your ric rac at the 2nd dot on the left side of the linen. Sew the ric rac in a diagonal up to the first 2″ dot on in the top row of marks.
Sew down in a diagonal to the dot in the 2nd row that is 4″ from the left. Continue sewing in a zig zag, hitting every other dot. You will end your zig zag at the 1″ dot on the right side.

Sew your remaining ric rac zig zags – following the line of your first zig zag and using the dots as your guides.

Gather the 24″ x 7″ piece of the print fabric on both long sides until the sides measure 16″.

Sew the ruffled print strip to the left side of the linen piece.

Press the pieces down and sew a top stitch on the linen piece 1/4″ from the seam.

Set the top aside for now. Take the larger of your two back pieces. Cut a small piece of ric rac (about 4″), loop this and pin it to the bottom center of the piece. Fold the 2″ linen piece in half and line up the raw edges with the bottom edge of the print piece. The ric rac loop will be between the linen and print. Sew the pieces together.

Press the linen piece down and sew a top stitch along the print side 1/4″ from the edge.
On the smaller print piece for the back, turn the top under twice and sew down to finish the edge.

Line the top and bottom up so that the top overlaps the bottom and the total square of the two pieces measures 16″. Sew a basting stitch along both sides 1/4″ from the edge.

Place the top and bottom of the pillow pieces right sides together. Sew around all 4 sides.

Clip the corners so they’ll turn right side out nicely.
Turn right side out and insert the pillow form.
Check the placement and sew the button onto the back. Loop the ric rac around the button.

Pillow One done!!

Ok – for pillow 2 – now that you’re a pillow expert – I have instructions but not step by step photos.
This one is a regular pillow, not a cover.
Cut – 1 – 14″ square of print for the back. 1 – 8″ x 14″ piece of print for the front. 1 - 6″ x 14″ piece of linen for the back.
Sew the linen piece to the print for the front. Press the seam and sew a piece of ric rac over the seam.
Sew the front to the back, leaving an opening at the bottom for turning. Turn right side out and insert pillow form.
Sew opening closed.

For the ric rac rosettes – I used the fabulous tutorial from The Crafting Chicks.
I cut out a 4″ circle of linen and cut a small circle in the center. I gathered the center and glued it to circle of felt.
Then I glued the ric rac rosettes in the center and added them to the pillow.

I love these sweet sweet little rosettes!!
If you like the FB page you might have seen last night that I made another rosette into a pretty ring!
I have a feeling I’m going to making a lot of these. ;)

Aren’t the pillows fun?

Mmmmm. Lots of ric-racky zig-zaggy yumminess!

I’m linking to Today’s Creative Blog, Met Monday, Skip to my Lou, Tutorials & Tips Tuesday, Quilt Story,
and the other fabulous parties on the sidebar – make sure you check them out!

Everything Else – Handmade Gifts 3

06
Jan 2011

Beverly

So this is the last installment in the Handmade Gifts for Christmas this year! If you’ve missed the first two – click here and here.

I made a lot more gifts this year than normal and I had such a great time doing it. Elizabeth inspired me. ;)
Though the last two weeks leading up till Christmas were a flurry of sewing, glue gun burns, and a seriously messy dining craft room. Fortunately my family knew Christmas Dinner was coming so I’d have to clear the table off eventually.

I had quite a few little girls on my Christmas list this year - so I made an abundance of headbands.
These are pretty standard – rolled rosettes or circles glued to wrapped headbands. They came out cute though.

These are for the sweetest twin girls – so I made them similar but different haha.

For another family friend I made these headbands -
Love this one – made from wool that I had left over from the Highland Hot Air Balloon Ornament.

This one is foofy – with a black rosette and pink tulle gathered around it. So girly. :)

This one was made with folded circles of T-shirt fabric, then gluing them onto felt circles, and gluing that to the black headband.

Mmmmm. So cute!

We also gave some gift cards this year – and I wanted to dress them up just a bit.
So I made up a little design and printed it out onto fabric – (Instructions here for printing on fabric if you need them)

I cut the rectangles out and then cut a little scoop out of one side of the front. Then I cut out two more pieces the size of the front and back out of the same fabric. Sewed the front together, then the back, turned them right side out and sewed them together.
(That was possibly the worst tutorial ever written right there. ;)

Slip the cards in and ta-da! Snazzy Gift Card holder. Or two.

Here are the images for the Gift Card Holders if you’d like to download them – they’d be great for birthday gifts too!

Gold Card Holder

Red Card Holder

And the last thing I have to share with you is this sweet Chandelier Pillow!

The sweetie this was for just had her room redecorated in Black and White and Bright Pink – so I thought a little bling would be fun!
I used white fabric for the front with an iron-on chandelier – and decorated it up with some rhinestones and glitter.

Here’s the fabric on the back:

And a close up of the glitter and stones on the front.

The ruffle was gathered tulle and I sewed pink boa trim around the inside of the ruffle.

I love it! If you love it too, you can download the chandelier image here.
I put it on a 14″ pillow – and the chain for the chandelier is a separate piece – just trim the pieces close to the image, and place the chain piece above the chandelier.

As a quick side note – I’m over at Or So She Says today sharing the tutorial for my Anthro Recipe Binder. It would be a great way to organize all your printed recipes!

If you haven’t visited Or So She Says before – you should stop by!! Mariel has a great blog and she has lots of fun guest posters!!

Yay!! Thanks for letting me share my gifts this year – I would love to hear about yours! What did you make this year? Did you receive any handmade gifts this year?

Category: Holiday, Sponsors Tags: accessories, Christmas, pillows, Sewing 38 Comments

Fallin’ In Love – Pillow Style

17
Oct 2010

Beverly

There’s something about writing a blog that makes you feel the need to come up with cutesy names for projects and posts.

It’s almost a compulsion.

While I was working on this sweet pillow for Fall – the name just popped in my head. And being a mushy sort of person anyway, I didn’t fight it too hard.
Plus I love Fall and I love pillows. So it’s a good fit. ;)

I’d like to show you my newest project – the Fallin’ In Love Pillow. :)

Everybody say “Aawwwwww”. :)

I have a super easy tutorial for you if you’d like to make one too.

I found some sample decorator fabric squares marked down at Joann’s and I knew they’d be perfect for a pillow. The ended up being $1 each – this pillow uses 3 of them. One each for the front and back and one for the piping. You could use any fabric you have on hand though.

Materials:

1 12 x 16 piece of fabric for pillow front
1 12 x 16 piece of lining if pillow front is sheer
1 12 x 16 piece of fabric for back
1 pillow form
fabric for piping
60″ cording
leaf garland

I had the leaf garland on hand but you can find them almost anywhere. I’ve seen them at Walmart and they might even have them at the Dollar Store. You want to make sure and choose the garland that has the fabric leaves.

Cut a heart shape out of paper and gently remove enough leaves from the plastic backing on the garland to cover the heart.

It’s a little hard to see my heart shape there.

If your top fabric is a little sheer like mine was, sew it to your lining fabric around the edges.

Trace your heart shape onto the top of the pillow.

Marking pens are one of my great frustrations in life.
The two pens I have drive me crazy. One is the blue type and doesn’t come off the fabric unless you talk real nice to it and promise it a dinner out.
The other is a purple pen and fades away faster than you can say “I’m using you because the blue pen won’t wash out so you better not fade away”. Oh it’s gone? Great.
If anyone has found a marking pen that falls somewhere in the middle – I would love to know where you got it.

Enough drama. :)

Begin by sewing your leaves on around the edges of the heart. I wanted mine to be loose so I only did one row of stitching down the middle of each leaf.

(Purple pen already fading away haha). Sewing fast now.

Continue layering and sewing down leaves, keeping within the marking line for the heart.

Overlap the leaves to cover the center.

Set your pillow front aside.
Cut 2″ strips out of your piping fabric and piece them together if needed to make 60″.

It is a good idea to cut your strips out on the bias (diagonal to the selvedge). It also has the added bonus of making the pattern on your fabric angled which looks fun.

Fold the piping in half with the cording in the center, wrong sides together. With your zipper foot on your machine, sew the piping together.

Pin the piping to the front of the pillow, overlapping the piping at the bottom center. Sew to the pillow front, just inside the stitching line on the piping.

Place the pillow backing on the front piece, right sides together. Pin all the edges.

Sew the pillow front and back together, right along the edge of the piping. This stitching line will be the closest yet to the piping.

Make sure you leave an opening for turning large enough for you pillow form. Which of course I didn’t do and spent waaaaayyyy too long stuffing the thing in.

When your pillow form is finally in, hand sew the opening closed.

That’s pretty easy isn’t it?? ;)

It’s a fun addition to our Fall decor and I can leave it out after all the Halloween things come down.