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Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Tooth Pillow for a Granddaughter

Finished tooth fairy pillow

     After having to make a tooth fairy pillow in a hurry for my grandson, I decided to be better prepared for my granddaughter.  I had her choose her fabrics.  She loves pink and purple so she chose a pretty floral fabric and a purple fabric for the main pillow.  Unfortunately the piece she chose wasn't big enough so I found a similar one that was big enough.

Stitching 

     On the computer, I added her name to the design file and placed it in the proper sequence.  Then it was time to stitch.  I just followed the directions from DigiStitches.

Detail of tooth fairy

    Now she is all ready for losing her first tooth.  Next up is doing one for the next grandchild.

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Bench Cushion

Cushion for metal bench

     I had a client that wanted a cushion for a metal bench in her front hall.  She didn't want anything too 'cushiony' because it was more for show than sitting.

Pattern from the client

     She traced out the seat for me, using wrapping paper.  I had 1 inch soft foam, almost more of a thick batting, that she thought would be perfect.  I made the cushion according to her pattern with just one row of covered cord and no boxing strip.  I added a zipper in the back for easy removal if needed.

Cushion with only one layer of foam

     After putting in the one layer of foam, I felt it didn't fill it out nicely, most likely due to the softness of the insert.  I sent her a photo and suggested to her that we add another layer of the same foam to fill it out better.  It really helped to smooth the puckers and I feel it also looks less like a flat pancake.

Before and after

     She was quite happy with the change.  She now has a neutral cushion on her bench and she will add seasonal pillows to change up the look.

Detail of the fabric and the covered cord

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Recovering Chairs for SMF Sewing Studio

Finished chair for SMF Sewing Studio
     I own and operate two businesses.  One is my Creations by Celeste where I do custom home decor for clients.  The other is Sew Much Fun which is primarily teaching sewing plus an occasional sewing project.

Old, cracked vinyl seat

     Over the years I have slowly upgraded my SMF Sewing Studio.  This year it was time to tackle the folding chairs.  After years of use, the seat cushion fabric was brittle and breaking apart.  Not too bad in the winter but in the summer it was quite uncomfortable for the girls in their shorts.

Fabric from JoAnn's

     I found some fabric on clearance at JoAnn's that was a good match for the floor.  I first tackled the seats.  I unscrewed the bottom from the frame and pulled out all the old staples and got rid of the old vinyl fabric.

Seat off and cleaned up

     I cleaned the frames and then got to stapling the fabric to the seat part.  The foam itself was still okay so I didn't bother to replace it.

Fabric stapled to seat 

     I made sure to have plenty of fabric to wrap under while avoiding the screw holes.  Loved using my Kai scissors for this job, they cut through the fabric, even multiple layers without any problems.

New seat in place

     So much better even with just the seat covered.  I then wanted to add a little something to the back.  I had my Sew Much Fun logo digitized and then stitched it out using the colors from the studio.

Stitching out the logo

Stitched logo

    I then removed the backs from the frame, they were a bit more difficult because of the type of 'screw' they used.  I followed the same process of removing the old fabric and replacing it with the new embroidered fabric.

Back all stapled

     This also was slightly harder as the back piece was curved and then had the curves top and bottom.  I put it all back together and now the SMF Sewing Studio has 'new' comfy chairs for class.

Finished comfy chair

Wednesday, February 5, 2020

Trivets - Christmas 2019 Gifts

Finished poinsettia trivet

     This past Christmas I made trivets for the adults in my family.  I bought the design from Embroidery Library.  I printed out the die-line templates and cut out all my pieces.


Pieces for a dozen trivets

     Once the pieces were all cut, (back plaid piece, green and red front pieces and Insul-Bright insulated batting pieces) which took some time, I then wound bobbins of the three different colors, red green and yellow.

Back of the trivet

     Following the directions from Embroidery Library I hooped tearaway stabilizer and stitched and placed the pieces in the correct order.  For the final stitching after putting on the back piece, I changed the bobbin each time to the matching thread.  This made the back look as nice as the front.

     This project used a lot of thread so I was constantly changing thread and winding bobbins especially since I made 12 of them.  They were a hit with all the family members.