Ring Bearer Pillows

  

Ring bearer pillows

     I had a client that I had done a couple of t-shirt quilts for previously reach out to me about doing some ring bearer pillows.  Her one son was getting married soon and she wanted to have a pillow made from her wedding dress.

Wedding dress

     She came over and we discussed sizes and styles.  After looking at several options and her dress we went with a plain pillow but with a lace bow from her dress.  Also since she has two boys, she wanted two pillows made at the same time.

Sleeve ready to be cut

     I took apart the two sleeves and there was enough fabric to cut both the front and back for the pillows.  I cut off one section of the train to make the covered cord for the pillows.  

Form before stuffing

     I made the pillow forms from napped drapery lining to give them more heft as the dress fabric was somewhat light weight.  Originally I made the form 1 inch bigger than the pillow so it would fill it out nicely.  That is what I usually do for my larger pillows.  In this case they were too big so I had to make them smaller.

Finished but no embellishments

     The pillow was nice after finishing but definitely needed more.

Bow from the sleeve

     The bow from the sleeve was the perfect way to make the pillow fancy enough for a wedding.  I hand stitched it in place and then added the ribbon.

Bow and ribbon added to the front

Bow detail

    Isn't that beading on the lace gorgeous?  On the back I put in an elastic band so that the ring bearer wouldn't have to balance the pillow.  I remember how my son when he was little and a ring bearer for his aunt kept tossing the pillow up :-)

Back of the pillow

     Even the elastic was from the dress sleeve.  What a beautiful memory this will be for the mother of the groom.

Pillow Remake Part 2

Frayed cording

      My client brought me another pillow cover to remake.  This one needed new cording as the old cording was frayed.

A mess of threads and feathers

     This one I had to take apart and remove the old cording.  It took time to pick out the feathers from the pillow fabric and remove all the threads.  Another big mess in my sewing room.

Getting them square

     I pressed the fabric carefully and then trimmed the pieces to be the same size.  Then I cut to remove the dog ears from the corners of the pillow.

Tapered corners

     I had some black fabric that I backed with a fusible interfacing to give it more body.  I made my covered cord and then applied it to the pillow front and then sewed the back and front together, leaving an opening to turn and also stuff the form inside.  I hope it is a form and not loose feathers because they might find their way to the outside.

New cording

     I hope to never have to deal with feathers again, it made a huge mess in my sewing room.

Pillow Remake Part 1

Recovered pillows

     A friend brought me several pillows that she wanted recovered.  The corduroy fabric she brought was fairly thick so I didn't think I was going to have to add a lining, then I opened one up!

Feathers!!

     Feathers everywhere!  I did my best vacuuming them off but they were still poking out everywhere.  That is when I decided that I would add lining to the fabric.  I didn't want those feathers poking anyone.

Adding lining

     I serged a heavy-weight lining to the back of all the fabric pieces.  When I cut the pieces for the front and back, I tapered the corners to get rid of the dog-ears.  My client didn't want zippers, so that meant I had to hand sew close all the pillows.

Misshapen pillows

     The pillows before were somewhat misshapen.  When I opened up the two smaller pillows, I found that the covers were put on over old covers.

Cover inside the cover

     When I removed that fabric I found a big lump of batting/stuffing.  I pulled it apart to fluff it up and then added some poly-cluster pillow filling inside to fill it out more.

Wad from inside

      Only one pillow had covered cord and she requested that stay the same.  I had to do the pillows one at a time because I needed to keep the mess at a minimum.  I vacuumed at least twice with each pillow that I did.  My new policy will be no feather pillows except for new ones.  I had feathers everywhere and also felt like I was starting to have an allergic reaction to it all. 

Cap Sleeve Shell

 

Cap Sleeve Shell

     I made this top for myself.  I bought the pattern and fabric at the ASG Conference in NYC this past summer.  The fabric is soft and flowy.  Should be nice for a hot summer day.  

Sleeve detail

     For the sleeve finish I opted for the small flange.  I think it adds just a little detail. 

Neckline detail

     For the neckline finish I chose the small facing option.  I like that the pattern gives different options for finishing.

Back view

     I did add the optional darts in the back, it felt a little too loose when I tried it on without the darts.  I'm looking forward to some warmer weather to be able to wear this pretty top.

Pattern

Letterman Jacket

Letterman Jacket

     I was asked to sew on some patches onto a letterman jacket.  When my kids were in high school, we only bought them the windbreaker style jacket so I didn't have any experience sewing onto a heavier jacket.

Jewel's Tape

     Since I knew I wouldn't be able to pin the patches in place, I used Jewel's Tape that I had gotten for my home decor workroom sewing.  It worked out great to hold everything in place while I sewed.

Zippered lining

     To my surprise, I saw that the lining had a zipper that allowed one to get to the inside of the jacket without going through the quilted lining.  This made the sewing so much easier as I didn't keep that in place also.

Numbers on the sleeve

     Getting the numbers onto the sleeve was trickier since it is a small area and is leather.  Once again though because I didn't have to go through the quilted lining it was better.

Front Porch Table Topper

 

Finished table topper

     I knew I wanted something for the table on the front porch.  At first I was thinking about a tablecloth.  Then I saw a pattern when I was at a quilt show at CLC.  I figured a table topper would be more practical so I bought the pattern.

Pattern used

     Next I needed to decide what fabrics to use.  Since I had fabric left from the cushions I had made I chose to use up what I had rather than getting something else.  Normally I would not use outdoor fabric for a table topper but this seemed like a good choice.

Inside

     I followed the directions for cutting and the first steps for the piecing.  It became very confusing to put on the final four points.  They were supposed to be finished first and then sewn on.  It didn't make any sense to me so I chose to just piece the whole front, apply the fusible fleece and then sew on the backing as one piece, leaving one triangle open for turning.

Trimming close

     I trimmed the fleece really close and also trimmed the points, clipped the inside angles and trimmed the seam allowance.  I then turned it right side out and stitched close to the edge all around after I pressed it.  Outdoor fabric doesn't always like to be pressed, so I had to be careful.  I then stitched about a quarter inch from the inside edge of the accent piece to stabilize it a bit more.

Back of table topper

     I like how neat it looks from the back also, it could be reversible if I wanted just a solid table topper.  It would be fun to try this with some cotton fabrics next time.

Quilt for Violet

 

Finished quilt

     In November our newest grandchild was born, a little girl.  That now makes 6 grandkids for us, 4 boys and 2 girls.  I had this quilt ready to go for a girl and after she was born I just had to make the baby info label and finish up the binding.

Block detail

Border

     I used the Pathways pattern, a Three Yard Quilt pattern.  I have used this pattern many times now for baby quilts.  Aren't those monkeys adorable?

Quilting detail

     My friend Joni did a great job as usual with the quilting.  Nice soft flannel for the backing.

Baby info label

Makers label

     I made the labels with my software and then stitched them out.  I like this design of baby shoes for the quilt label.