Jingle Pillow

Have you seen a "Jingle" pillow at any of your favorite stores? I saw one at Joann's and then found that they're all over the place.
Here's my 'knock off' of the "Jingle" pillow!

When I first started this pillow, I imagined just one "Jingle" on a long pillow; just like I'd seen in the store... However, after I got the lettering cut out, I didn't want to stop with just one. And besides, Santa Claus sings,

Jingle, jingle, jingle

You will hear my sleigh bells ring

I am ol' Kris Kringle

I'm the king of jing-a-ling

(If you haven't seen Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, you and your kiddos are missing out!)
So clearly, I needed three "Jingles!"

As with most of my pillows, I used Heat-n-Bond to apply the lettering. I actually put the paper up to my laptop screen and traced the letters! (I just had to remember to reverse the lettering before tracing, since the Heat-n-Bond would be applied to the back of the material.)

I wanted the lettering to take up a lot of the pillow cover, and to show off the different materials I was going to use. First, I measuree the size of the pillow to determine how big I could make the lettering, then used my photo editing program to make duplicate layers of the word so that I could move them around to make the letters wider. If you like the fonts that I've used, let me know and I can give you the images I used to trace two of them!

I cut each letter out, to use a different fabric with every letter, but I think it would also look very pretty with just one fabric for the whole word. I'm actually thinking I'll have to make another one like that, because I really love the script font!

Once I had each letter ironed-on and cut out, I started playing with how I should place them on the front of the pillow case; then ironed-on the final layout.

Finishing touches were to sew the little jingle bells above each "i" and sew the pillow case together.

I've been making a lot of new pillow cases this year so that I can change out the pillow for the season/holiday. Most of them could be no-sew projects if you just get a pre-made pillow case or the whole pillow to iron-on the decorations.

So easy and so festive!

Ribbon Christmas Tree Towels

Remember the Ribbon Egg Towels I made back in March? I had said that I planned on making some with Christmas trees, but didn't want to think about winter just then. Well, winter is here and Christmas is just around the corner! These beautiful towels make great decorations, or great gifts!

This picture shows them in order of how I made them - First, I started by using the same process as with the Egg Towels, but working with thinner ribbon made it harder to work with the fusing tape. For the last two towels I tried the following method and loved how they turned out.

Here's what you'll need:

• Towels
• Ribbons
• Heat-n-bond
• Iron
• Wax Paper
• Scissors/Rotor Cutter

First, pick out the ribbons and the order that you want them for your tree, then cut them to about 5 inches. If you want a larger tree, more than 12 or so ribbons, you'll need to cut them longer.

Step 1 - lay the ribbons backside up on a piece of wax paper on your ironing surface. The Heat-n-Bond then gets applied. The wax paper allows the Heat-n-Bond to stick to something other than your ironing board or iron and is easy to peel off.
Step 2 - now you'll have a square of ribbons and you want to cut out the tree shape  
Step 3 - peel off the backing of the Heat-n-Bond. You should have a single piece with all the ribbons on it.
Step 4 - lay the ribbon piece right-side up on the towel where you want it adhered. Place a new sheet of wax paper over the top and iron-on. The wax paper this time, will lift off the extra Heat-n-Bond so that the towel is just lined with beautiful ribbons.

Lastly, I added a quick stitching of trim to the bottom of the towel to give it a little more holiday color.

So, what do you think - do you have some extra ribbon around to make your own?

These would make great gifts too!

Did you have a favorite style - 

the more boxed look of the first towel? no trim at the bottom of the second towel?

However you decide to make one, it will be beautiful!

Let me know how it turns out by leaving a comment or photo below!

Patchwork Pumpkin Pillow

It seems that after Halloween, retailers jump right to Christmas. Anything fall related - leaves, pumpkins, etc. - goes on clearance and the ornaments and lights come out. Thanksgiving tends to get a little passed over; and yet it's probably my favorite holiday. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas decorations too, but the fall leaves aren't completely gone yet.

So hold off on your Christmas decorating, here's another project for fall.

I got the inspiration for my pillow from Knock Off Decor - a great place to find ways of making your own, less expensive version of name/store brand decor.
In this post, they are showing off Angie's pillow that was inspired by a pillow she had seen at Pottery Barn. If you would like to see the pictorial for Angie's no-sew version, just follow the links above or via the photo on the right.

While I absolutely love both of these pillows, I decided that I wanted some color in mine. I got additional inspiration I needed from Etsy when I found this patchwork pumpkin clip art from CherriesArtsnCrafts -


I just thought this patchwork look was too cute to pass up; and I already had some great prints to work with for my fabric pumpkin. I couldn't wait to get started!


I probably could have hand drawn a pumpkin shape faster than it took me to print this one, but I really liked the shape of the one I found at donteatthepaste.com.

First, I cut out the whole pumpkin shape in the solid orange material; then I cut out the sections of the pumpkin to use on the patterned prints.

I'm a huge fan of Heat-n-Bond for crafts like these, so I applied it to the material and then cut out the shapes and ironed them in place on the orange base.

I also cut out a green print stem and ironed it onto the front of the pillow case. Rather than using the Heat-n-Bond to attach the whole pumpkin to the pillow case, I did a quick stitch around the edge. If you want to keep it a no-sew project then the Heat-n-Bond would work just as well.

Finally, I was ready to apply the twine - my favorite part of the pillow I'd found at Knock Off Decor!
Using fabric glue, I slowly positioned the twine a little at a time and added glued it down. This part got very messy and I had to keep getting up to wash the glue off my fingers.

The end results were definitely worth the mess and time spent - I even decided to add some leaves on the vines with the same green print I had used for the stem.

A perfect patchwork pumpkin pillow!

As they say at Knock Off Decor, I hope this inspires you - and if you make your own, I'd love to see it!

Fall Leaf Pillow

I love my Christmas Tree Pillow (if you haven't seen it, you should check out the link); and while I was making it last year, I got the idea to make this leaf pillow. I love the colors of fall leaves, love seeing them fall from the trees, love hearing them crunch beneath my feet, so I thought I should bring some of that inside this year...

One of the things I loved about this craft is that I didn't have to go out and buy any material - I had it all from different sewing projects that I've done, or plan to do. It was a great project to start a couple days ago when the weather was too "bleh" to be outside.

This is done very similarly to the Christmas Tree Pillows, so if you like, take a look at that post first.

I used cookie cutters to get the shape of the larger leaves! And drew my own stencil for the small ones. Apply Heat-n-Bond (iron-on transfer paper) to the material before cutting out the leaves - this will help the material to fray less around the edges. You can trace the leaf shape before of after the heat-n-bond; I did it both ways so that the leaves wouldn't all be the same direction.

After I had cut out each leaf, I started playing with an arrangement, but I left the backing paper on until I was ready to iron the leaves onto the pillow case.

>> If you like super-easy, no-sew projects, grab a pillow case or plain pillow and iron away!

Since I wanted a pillow case to fit the same pillow as my Christmas Tree Pillow, I was going to have to measure and sew it.

I bought this beautiful flannel material months ago from the remnants bin at Joann Fabric's. I've been on a flannel-buying-kick for over a year now to make lots of baby gifts (see the Baby Crafts link at the top of the page). For some reason though, I haven't been able to pair this flannel up with too many baby prints. Lucky day for me - I had just enough of the fabric for this pillow case!
I like the easy, 3-piece pillow case - fold open the back and slide the pillow in. It's probably the second easiest way to make a pillow case (the easiest being just two pieces and leaving the side open). First, measure and cut a piece for the front, then cut another piece the same height, but a few inches longer. The long piece gets cut in half with the inside edges hemmed to create the back flap - there should be an inch or more overlap so that there's no gap once the pillow is stuffed inside. Pin it all together inside out, sew around all four sides, then turn it right-side out.
The back flap is a little loose on mine, so I'm thinking about grabbing some leaf buttons to hold it in place, but I'm not sure about doing button holes...

Once the case was done, I ironed it flat and began positioning and ironing-on the leaves.

As it came together, I decided to make a couple more small leaves to fill in a few spots. I wanted it to look like the leaves were falling down into a little pile, without overlapping the leaves too much that they wouldn't stand out by themselves. I think it turned out perfectly!

It's a bright, beautiful fall day inside no matter how cold it's getting outside. And after Thanksgiving, I can take this pillow case off and put on the Christmas tree pillow case. 

Do you think you'd make one? Would you keep it or gift it?

If you love this, let me know; I'd love to see what you make!

Christmas Tree Pillows

I got the idea for this craft when I saw a similar pillow in a Ten Thousand Villages store. I decided to make one for my sister (who had asked for pillows for Christmas to go with her new couch) and one for myself.

Here's a little picture tutorial on how to make your own Christmas Tree Pillow!

  First, pick out some fabric. I chose to use different green holiday fabrics for the trees with a plain red background, but pick out your favorite tree fabrics even if they are  "painted pink" the way Lucy van Pelt prefers. I also bought a black with white snowflake print that I thought would make a neat background.
Then start cutting out triangles. Try different sizes to create a visual depth for a forest, or try skinny and fat ones; it all depends on what size your pillow is. In the picture to the right, the blue squares are 1in.; I wanted my trees tall and skinny to fit on my long pillows.

Once you have enough trees for your pillow, cut out and apply Heat'n'Bond to the backs on the fabric to create an easy application of the trees to the background. Arrange the trees on the background and start ironing on the bottom layer first. I laid the trees out before peeling off the paper backs, then ironed each tree individually. However, you could try peeling off all the papers and ironing it all at one time. Also, I would recommend you take a picture of your layout before you start ironing, just in case you need to go back to it for a reference. (Maybe you get distracted from ironing with my blog and your kids or pets go over and move things around on you... or maybe I'm just a little o.c.d.)

After all the trees are ironed on, I reinforced them by sewing along the edges. I thought that this would keep the trees on better through multiple washings, while the edges could fray a little and add some nice texture.
    

Now the front of the pillow is ready!

Add whatever style back you like and you're all set.

  For the smaller pillow (the one pictured at the top), I put a zipper up the side and found some fun pom-pom trim to go around the pillow case. And I had a Christmas present for my sister -

For my pillow, I used white ribbon all the way around and, rather than try my luck with another zipper, I left the middle of the back open to fit the pillow into.

So now do you feel ready to make your own? If you do make one, share a picture with me; I'd love to see it!

I have a bit of extra fabric that I'm thinking about sewing into a Christmas quilt... maybe for next year.