DIY Floor Pillows

Tutorials for floor pillows are easy to find on pinterest, so I won't regurgitate the directions here. What I do want to add is getting into the specifics, like size and cost that some of the other bloggers fail to mention.

Both floor pillows I made are 32" squares, and that is massive. My 3 year old is dwarfed by it so I know that it will be very useful for years to come. Any larger than that and you're honestly giving up a lot of valuable floor space. Just keep that in mind.

The second thing I wanted to mention is the fiber fill itself. I highly recommend that in the interest of cost savings, DO NOT go to a craft store like Joanns or Hobby Lobby for the filling, because you will pay a fortune (I learned this the hard way). At 32", these pillows require about 100 oz of filling each. This number sounds useless, but trust me, the poly fill bags will have an ounce amount on them. The original filling I bought was a bag at 40 oz for a whopping $20 each at Joanns! Yikes! Sorry, but that's the whole reason I DIY--to make things on the cheap. The stuffing part of the pillow shouldn't be that much. So I went to Walmart and found a 50 oz poly fill bag for $7.44. I can handle that so much better. So there's my two cents on the stuffing amount and cost.

Happy sewing!

No More Head Banging! DIY High Chair Pillow

My little guy is a head banger. Aside from freaking out guests and making quite a bit of racket, it really bothers me that he is smacking his precious head into the back of his high chair that contains virtually no padding. 

I needed to do something about it, and it's been a long time coming. This is a quick and easy fix, and a bit ugly, but that's usually how my first editions go. Here's a brief tutorial to lay out the basic design so you can make your own hooded pillow to go over your high chair. 

You will need:

sewing machine

1 yd fabric (I used a soft flannel) 

 .25 yds of junk fabric (not seen)

scissors

the fabric cloth covering to your high chair

old pillow/stuffing

1. Trace the shape of your high chair cover onto the fabric. You will need to cut 3 pieces. 

    (Sorry, only 1 shown above).

 2. Sew your 3 pieces together like a sandwich: lay the ugly fabric down, followed by the pretty fabric face up followed by a pretty fabric face down. Sew along the outside edge.

3. Turn out your sandwich. You should have the good fabric facing front and back with the ugly fabric in the middle. Sew a line down 3/4 of your ugly middle piece and front piece (sewing them together). Note: Get your back piece of your fabric out of the way-it must be separate or your cover can't go over your chair!  

4. Take the stuffing out of an old pillow and stuff your new pillow with it through the 1/4 space you left open. Sew that space up when you're done. Hem the raw edges so it looks more complete.

Fit it on your high chair, and you're done!

DIY Kid's Book (Junk) Tote for the Car

Fell in love with this idea:

Inspiration

My version!

The only tutorial I found for making these was a bit vague, so here’s my attempt for a version for sewing-impaired people like myself to get through this project.

Need:

1 yard heavier fabric (front and back pieces)

1 yard colorful fabric

1 yard of colorful coordinating fabric (to make bias tape, but you can buy this as well)

I was able to use scraps from other projects, so try to do that first if you want to be more cost efficient!

Time: approximately 2 hours 

Design

1.       Cut the fabric out. Here’s my design with lots of colors so you can differentiate the different pieces. Obviously, if there is a x#, then you need multiples of that size. NOTE: So I’m not doing the bias tape bit like it’s supposed to be done at all, the reason being I simply didn’t have enough fabric of that color and I wasn’t going to buy more stuff for this project. So you amazing sew-ers, try not to cringe too much as I get through this in a modified way…haha. Great tutorial to learn how to make bias tape found here.

  

2.       Iron. I hate this step. I’ve skipped it on other projects only to realize how much it would have helped. You need to iron the fake-bias tape strips and handle/ties into shape. Just suck it up and go for it. 30 minutes of work and it will make your life so much easier.

3.       Sew on the ironed bias tape strips to the tops of your pocket pieces. Following my design, you should be using 4 of the 6 you made.

4.       Arrange the pockets and pin the sides. Sew the bottom ONLY of each pocket to the back layer. SKIP the last pocket bottom, but leave it pinned. You’ll get to it later.

5.       NOW you will sew the sides down and bottom-most pocket. Remember to leave the top open!

Close-up

I know. It looks sloppy and gross. Patience.

.    6. Tie/handle time! If you want to make it easier, just buy ribbon. I didn’t have any on hand, so here we go. Sew the edges along all sides.

7.       Time to add the back pieces. Your pocket/print side up, put the back down (right sides facing). Pin and sew along the edges and bottom, leaving the top open.

8.       Here’s the tricky part. You should have sock-like looking thing with pockets facing inward. Pin the handles downwards INSIDE and on the back piece. Sew them into place and backstitch over them. Now turn your project so everything looks as it should (pockets facing outwards). NOTE: In theory, you could end the project here since you have those nice, turned edges. I choose to add some extra fabric cuteness, but you could top stitch around the outside and call it done. 

9.       Add the top bias tape piece to seal those open top edges and then sew more along the sides and bottom. DONE!! (phew!)   

  

Moving into the car shortly!

Making a Tote Bag

The Christmas season is upon us. I'm all for gifts that come from the heart but that are also practical. I decided to make this tote bag as a gift for someone based off of this blog. I was going for a Vera Bradley look at a fraction of the price.

If you want to make it with two coordinating fabrics, like I did, it will cost a bit more but look very polished! I bought way too much fabric and I still only spent $15. I have plenty more to make another 2 bags at least.

You Need:
2 yd fabric (1 of each design)
1 piece of single faced quilting fabric (optional, I used to reinforce the handles) 
sewing machine

My rough sketch--my bag is bigger than the blog's version

I'm not going to list step by step, because you can find that on the blog I linked to above. Here are a couple pictures of my progress.

The worst part--cutting everything out!

 

Finished bag!

 Phew! Done in about 1.5 hrs, and that's because of my pokey beginner self. I'm sure someone more experienced could move really quick on this project.