A Crafty Christmas

This Christmas I decided to make use of Pinterest.  Most of my gifts were hand made by me.  This made it a very special Christmas.  Here's a look at some of the things I made.

I made these Christmas pillows for my mom.  Got the idea here: http://pinterest.com/pin/236509417900690400/

Made this necklace for Hannah from this Pinterest tutorial: http://pinterest.com/pin/236509417900617812/

 I also decorated some REALLY cute ceramic mugs for Hunter, Liz and the boys.  I couldn't find ceramic markers anywhere, but I did find this mug kit at Michael's that had markers with the white mug.  It said they don't wash off...well apparently they do.  And unfortunately I didn't take a picture of them.  They were cute though.

My family has begun a Christmas tradition of making some sort of Christmas craft.  This year I had so many to choose from on pinterest like this one: http://pinterest.com/pin/236509417900709415/

And here is mine.

I also made a Christmas wreath from Pinterest.  Idea here: http://pinterest.com/pin/236509417900757588/

I made earring frames for Megan and Holly.  I forgot to take a picture, but here's what I mean by earring frame:

My favorite project was Eric's T-Shirt quilt.  I worked on it the week before Christmas while he was at work.  I thought I was being sneaky, but Eric is the worst when it comes to gifts.  He guesses them all - little jerk.  Yep.  Even the quilt.  Oh well, he loved it anyways, and I was kinda proud of it too!

I love gifts like these.  You put so much love in them, and they mean so much more than something off of someones list.

First attempt: Pillow sham

I've been wanting a cute decorative pillow for the bed in my guest bedroom.  Hobby Lobby had some super cute Burlap Paris Themed pillows, but I didn't want to pay $30 for one.  I love the look of burlap, and it's so cheap.  

I still had some of the black and white ticking fabric left over from my headboard, so I decided to use that to keep with the theme, and add a little square of burlap on the front.  I wanted the burlap to have some sort of Paris design on it, but still simple.  So, I googled Paris Text, and found the word "Paris" written in a cute font.  I enlarged it to where I wanted it, and printed it out.  Burlap is pretty transparent, so I just laid it over the paper, and traced with a sharpie.

Here's how it turned out.  I pinned it to the fabric, and then stitched it on.

To make the sham, I took two pieces for the back side, and folded and pressed an edge on each.  

I stitched those edges.

Next, I overlapped the edges so that the front piece would be in the center.  To do this, I measured how long the piece should be.  This pillow was 18 x 18, so I needed the length here to be 19".  I made sure the front seam was at about 9".  I didn't take a picture of the next step, but I just stitched the top and bottom to make sure the pieces stayed together.

Afterwards I sewed it together like any other pillow. 

Here is the finished product:

FRONT:

BACK:

Here's how it looks with my headboard:

My first attempt at sewing pillows with zippers!

Recently, I created an addition to my living room decor.  I made a few decorative pillows for the couches.  I've made several pillows before for my classroom, but I just stitched the hole closed.  I wanted these to be nicer, so I bought invisible zippers at Hobby Lobby.  After watching a quick tutorial online, I was ready to go.  Here's how I made my pillow covers with zippers.

First, Check the measurements of the pillow insert.  Mine was 14 x 28.  You'll want to buy zippers as close to your measurement as possible.  

Measure 1 inch past the pillow insert measurements.  I measured 15 x 29.

Pin the zipper to the "good side" of your fabric.

Next, you'll need to put your zipper foot on.  It's the one that has a skinnier foot.

Get the needle as close to the zipper as possible without actually sewing on top of the zipper.  I made that mistake, and pulling out stitches is not fun.

When going over the hardware, I kinda pulled it back to get the stitches as close as I could.

Next, pin the other side (good side) to the fabric, and repeat the above steps.  You should get this result.

Unzip the zipper, and then finish stitching up the other three sides.  It's important to unzip it first, because you will have no way to get inside it if you don't.  Insert your pillow insert, and you're done!  Here's my finished result:

They become so much more meaningful when you know you made them!