Eva : First Pouch Down

It's 10:45 am and I've just completed my first box pouch.
I spent about an hour working on it. That's including breaks to change laundry loads and put my baby down for her morning nap.
Now that I've gotten the feel for the project I won't have to spend time referring to the instructions. That will cut a good amount of time off the total. If I could sew without interruption I'm pretty sure I could widdle the process down to about fifteen minutes. Gotta love that.

Meet Eva : This week's guestblogger

We are so excited at Presserfoot to have Eva as our guestblogger this week. She is sassy, fun, and uber talented. Here she is:


When I was eleven or so I convinced my older sister to show me a thing or two on the sewing machine. From there on out I considered myself a seamstress.
My overconfidence and tendency to dig in and start cutting willy nilly nearly drove my mother to insanity and produced a monstrosity or two but in the end I'd learned to sew. I've never been scared to take scissors to fabric and while I did finally learn to follow a pattern, I still prefer to draft my own, figuring as I go along.
I write about my sewing, my kids, and whatever else I take a fancy to on my blog Uniquety. I'm happy to be here, now let's see how many box pouches we can get done in a week!

No, seriously.

Every time you finish a pouch, leave a comment. Anyone who out-pouches me will be in the running for a prize! Don't ask me what the prize is though, I typed that before I had a chance to think it through. I make these things up as I go along, remember?

Now get sewing!

Pleated Pillow done + Tutorial

I finally finished up my pleated pillow yesterday and wanted to show you how I made it.

First I measured my thrifted pillow - mine was 17 x17 inches. So I cut out the following:

1 back piece 18in x 19in in yellow linen (I added 1 inch all around for 1/2 seam allowance and an extra inch to the height to add a zipper)
1 front piece 18in x 36 inches in yellow linen
1 front lining piece 18in x 18 in in muslin (this is just to stabilize the pleats and won't be seen)

Back piece :

To attach the zipper I cut horizontally where I wanted the zipper to go - I placed it 1/4 of the way from the top. (make sure you cut the long side not the shorter side of the back piece)


Then I attached the zipper using this tutorial and 1/2 inch seam allowance. Now the back piece should be square.


Set back piece aside.

Front piece:

On the two long sides (starting 2 inched from the top and bottom) I measured every 1/2 inch and put a small mark in the seam allowance. This will make 1 inch pleats. If you want smaller or larger pleats you will need to adjust accordingly.


Now the tedious process of ironing out the pleats. I used a lot of pins and a lot of steam to make them as visually perfect as possible. Keep pleating until the front piece is square and the same size as the muslin lining.


Pin the back of the front pleated piece to the muslin matching corners. Lift up each pleat and top stitch the front linen to the muslin close to the fold. Once the pleat is lying back down you should not be able to see this stitching. It will keep the pleat folded even when the fabric is pulled taut and filled with a pillow.


Now the Muslin should be attached to the front and the front and back pieces should be the same size - 18x18inches.



Open zipper. Pin right sides together. Stitch all 4 sides at 1/2 inch seam allowance and clip corners. Turn right side out. Press. Insert pillow.

And now you have a gorgeous new pillow at a fraction of the cost.

Front view:

Back view:

Felt Circle Pillow Done + Tutorial

I finally finished the other pillow that I started. I love the way that it turned out and it looks great in my living room.

Here is how I made it:

First I measured my pillow and cut out two rectangles out of my gray broadcloth adding a 1/2 inch seam allowance on all sides and an extra inch on the back piece for the zipper.


Next I decided where I wanted my zipper to go (I chose about 1/3 from the top) and cut a straight line across the back piece of broadcloth.


Next I attached the zipper using this tutorial.




Now I set aside the back piece and focused on the front. First I cut out about 1 1/2 yards worth of circles out of my felt (it takes a lot more than you might think). I used the top of a glass for a stencil - mine was about 3 inches in diameter, but yours can be whatever size you want.


Next I folded each circle in half and pressed it to make them stand up and to give a stitching line.


I started randomly placing the circles on the front of my broadcloth and sewing each one in the ditch of the pressed crease. I left about an inch around the edges to assure that I could stitch the front and back together.



Once the pillow front was looking pretty full I stitched the top and one side together at a 1/2 inch seam allowance. I pinned the circles away from the seam allowance first so that I wouldn't get them caught in the stitching (don't worry if you get small bit caught in - it's inevitable and not noticable once the pillow is finished).



Now I can go back and fill in the edges, allowing the circles to overlap the seam line a bit.


Turning it inside out again, I stitched the remaining two edges together and then flipped it right side out through the zipper. Now I was able to fill in the edges of these last two sides.

Lastly, I clipped the many loose strings off, put my thrifted pillow inside, and I was done.

I couldn't be more happy with how this turned out.

front:

back:

Winners!!!

Finally, here are the winners for our three mini diy gift ideas for this month.





week #1- perfect box pouch = Eva of http://uniquety.blogspot.com/ (week of Nov. 8th)

week #2- HB's Headband = Jessica of http://justgiveitago.blogspot.com/ (week of Nov. 15th)

week #3- Cocktail Coasters = Crissy of http://crissybell.blogspot.com/ (week of Nov. 22nd)


Please email me asap with your mailing address to dearpresserfoot (dot) gmail (dot) com so I can mail your fabric out to you right away.

I hope you are as excited as I am to have you as our mini guest bloggers this month and to make these great and easy handmade gifts.

Sugar Rush Sewing

Finally Sunday has arrived, the last day of our quarantine. It is amazing to me how little we have accomplished with being home for so long, although I did squeeze in the important things like finishing Halloween costumes and taking a nap everyday. We ended up letting both kids go Trick or Treating. We figured there is no real contact in having candy dropped in your bag and we stayed within three blocks of the house. My pillows for October's project will be finished soon, just give me a couple more days. My energy is still pretty low, but that's what Halloween candy is for, right?

November giveaway/guestblogger #3

Here is our third giveaway for our month of small handmade gifts - Mix it up Cocktail Toasters by Sew Mama Sew




use this:


to make this:



What you get:

assorted fall fabrics - enough to make 6 matching coasters
batting for the inside of the coasters

This should be everything that you need to make these coasters.

What you do for us:

Make the coasters and post about the process and any other sewing tips as our guestblogger during the week of November 22nd.

If you want to enter this giveaway just leave a comment on this post telling us who you are making this gift for (even if it is yourself). It closes Saturday at midnight.

p.s. don't forget about our other two giveaways currently going on - week #1 and week #2

November giveaway/guestblogger #2

Here is our second giveaway for our month of small handmade gifts -Heather Bailey's Headband



use this:


to make this:


What you get:

1/8 yard of 2 amy butler fabrics

(enough fabric to make two headbands)

What you do for us:

Make the headbands and post about the process and any other sewing tips as our guestblogger during the week of November 15th.

If you want to enter this giveaway just leave a comment on this post telling us who you are making this gift for (even if it is yourself). It closes Friday at midnight.

p.s. don't forget about our other giveaway going on for week#1!

Quarantined Costumes

So, what would you do if you were quarantined in your home for seven days with the suspicion of swine flu? I spent the first day wrapped around the toilet unsuccessfully keeping the Tamiflu down. This morning, start of day two, I am feeling much better and decided to finally cut out my daughter's Halloween costume. Last week we had the stomach flu and had decided to give up and buy hers. Unfortunately I didn't act on that prompting soon enough because I am now not allowed to be in any public settings until the day after Halloween and out of the four of us she is the only one who has somehow escaped the ravaging pig. She asked to be a fairy, no particular one, thank goodness, as I have a lovely coral-pink bridesmaid dress waiting to be refashioned into this:

I finished cutting out the pattern and started sewing the petals when my energy gave out and I decided to let you all know I hadn't totally fallen off the earth, although my pillows may have, we'll see what tomorrow brings. Regardless, there will be one more fairy in the world this Halloween. Our son, on the other hand, has a great pirate costume, home sewn, and ready to go...around our house. I should have know, he was born in the year of the pig.

November giveaway/guestblogger #1

Here is the first giveaway to start off our month of small handmade gifts - the perfect box pouch by Indie House.




use this:

to make this:


What you get:

approx. 1/8 of a yard of Echino fabric
approx. 1/8 of a yard of mustard yellow linen
medium weight non fusible interfacing
1 - 12 inch turquoise zipper

This should be everything that you need to make this adorable little bag.

What you do for us:

Make the bag and post about the process and any other sewing tips as our guestblogger during the week of November 8th.

If you want to enter this giveaway just leave a comment on this post telling us who you are making this gift for (even if it is yourself). It closes Thursday at midnight.