DIY Nursery Pillow

Hello Crafters! I had someone ask if I would offer a tutorial on how I made this super cute pillow for my nursery, so here you go!

Materials Needed:

Sewing Machine

Piping Foot or zipper foot

Thread to match the piping material

Fabric for front and back of pillow

1/4 inch piping (enough to wrap around the perimeter of your pillow

Pillow form

So, I had a old pillow from a bedding set I was no longer using and I ended up just using that pillow because it was about the right size and shape I was looking for. If you do not have a pillow that is lying around that you could use for this, then you will need to go buy one. This pillow was 11″ x 18″.

Step 1: Cut your fabric for front of pillow

You will want to measure the length and width of your pillow and then cut your fabric two inches longer and wider than your pillow. For example, my pillow was 11″ x 18″ so I cut my fabric to 13″ x 20″.

Step 2: Cut fabric for back of pillow

You will be cutting 2 pieces for this part. For this, you need to cut the measurement for the length of your pillow in half, then add 2 inches to it and then for the width add two inches also. So, for my pillow I had two pieces measuring 13″ x 11″ because half of my length was 9″.

Step 3: Cutting the fabric for your piping

Measure the perimeter of your pillow. My pillow was 58″. Now Cut the fabric you want to use for the piping into 2 inch strips and make it 2 inches longer than your perimeter. So my pillow was 60″. If your fabric isn’t long enough, you may need to cut a couple different lengths and sew them together to be 2″ x 60″ total (or whatever your measurement is).

Step 4: Sewing on your piping

For this part, I just followed the instructions in this Youtube video:

http://youtu.be/_jKFTqI7YKI

Now for the back, I am going to be making a flap opening, like you commonly see on larger pillow cases that come with bedding sets for adult bedding. Here is a picture of the back of my pillow:

Step 5: Hem one side of both pieces of the back fabric.

It was hard for me to describe which edge you need to hem, in words, so I made this diagram to show you for my pillow size:

So then after you hem it with a 1/4 inch hem, it will be these dimensions

Step 6: Sewing your back fabric to your front

Line up your fabric with the faces of your front fabric and one piece of your back fabric facing each other, then overlap the other peice of your back fabric, with the faces inward as well. Then using your piping foot still, sew around the outside edges.

Now just turn your pillow case right side out, put your pillow form in the pillow, and you are done!

Enjoy your pillow! Don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions! Happy Crafting!

DIY Crib Rail Covers

Hello everyone! I made these crib rail covers a couple of months ago and recently a friend requested that I give instructions on how to make them. The first thing you are going to want to do is measure the …

DIY Stuffed Owl

Hello crafters!

Sorry I haven’t written in a while! I have been hard at work on many DIY projects for my new baby’s nursery and will have MANY posts to come, very soon! Recently, I made this adorable stuffed owl for my soon-to-be-born baby girl’s nursery out of some scraps of left over fabric I had from the rest of the nursery decor that I made.

I thought I would give instructions on how to sew this little owl for my readers! I had seen a similar owl on Pinterest that someone was selling on Etsy but was, to my sadness, no longer available for sale. I quickly turned that frown upside down, though, because I realized that I could probably make it myself! All I had to do was make a pattern for it. Here is the pattern if you would like to print it: 

This is scanned from a regular 8.5×11 sheet of paper so when you print the image make sure that the image size is 8.5×11, unless you want the owl to be smaller, in which case, print the image at whatever size you like! 🙂 The image should line up with the right, left and bottom edges of your paper. The nice thing about this project is that it can be done using small scraps of old fabric and stuffing left over from previous projects, and if you do it that way, it wont cost you a thing!

What you will need for this project is:

-2 pieces of white fabric that are about 8″x9″ (I used a white cotton)

-4 pieces of another fabric for the wings that are about 3.5″x6″ (I used a coral pink cotton fabric with silver polka dots)

– 2 pieces of another fabric that are about 2.5″x2.5″ for the large eye circles (I used a mint cotton)

-2 pieces of white fabric that are about 2″x2″ for the white circles on the eyes (I used white cotton)

-1 piece of another fabric for the beak that is about 1″x1.5″ (I used a grey cotton)

-2 buttons (I used some small 3/4″ grey buttons I had on hand)

-white thread

-(optional)thread to match the fabric you chose for your wings (I used Coral)

-Enough stuffing to fill your owl

Cut out the pattern and place them onto your fabrics of choice for each part of the owl. You can either pin the paper to the pattern and cut it out by following along the edge of the pattern, or you can trace the pattern onto your fabric using a fabric pen or just a regular pencil. I chose to trace it onto the fabric, directly, because the paper i was using was regular printing paper, which is too thick to pin to the fabric. I traced it on using a regular #2 pencil because I didn’t have a fabric pen, but once washed, with a little oxyclean and detergent, the pencil marks came right off!

Once all of your pieces are cut out, you are ready to sew!

First, I sewed the the white circles onto the mint circles. If you have an embroidery machine, this will be much easier for you and probably come out looking nicer, but for the rest of us with just your plain old regular sewing machines, I used a zigzag stitch so that I didn’t have to finish my edges.

Now, sew the Mint circles onto the white fabric. To find where to put them onto the owl, fold your front body piece in half down the center, hotdog style or vertically, press the crease, and then unfold it. Lay the wings onto the front of the body and just estimate where you would like your eyes to be. You can use that center line to make sure that your eyes will be symmetric on both sides. Pin the eyes, then sew with a zigzag stitch.

Now, sew on your buttons into the center of the white circles.

Match up for the bottom corners of the wings and sew them on using a zigzag stitch. I chose to use thread that matched the coral fabric for this part. Sew the wings onto the back body piece at this point, also. Especially if you are changing thread colors.

I chose to do a quilting pattern on the wings. I included notches on the wing pattern so that if you choose to do this, you can just match the notches up (1 to 1 for the first quilt line, 2 to 2 for the second quilt line, etc), trace the wing pattern onto the fabric and then sew your quilting pattern onto the fabric with a straight stitch, using your white thread again, sewing directly on top of the lines you drew using the notches.

Once you have quilted your wings, you are ready to sew the back body piece to the front body piece. Just match up the pieces, right sides together, pin, then sew on with a straight stitch leaving a 1/4″ seam allowance. Make sure to leave a gap at the bottom, large enough to fit your hang through, to stuff the owl with your stuffing. You may also want to double check that the tops of your wings on the front body piece and the back body piece match up, as well, and adjust as needed, if they do not.

Once you have sewn the two pieces together, flip the owl, right side out. Now, stuff the owl with your filling and stuff it as firm as you like. Once, the owl is stuffed to your liking, match up the opening and hand stitch together, keeping the same seam allowance on the underside, or if you are brave, straight stitch together. You will probably need to use both thread colors for this part, unless you want to see the white thread on your coral wings.

Now, you have a sweet stuffed owl and can use it as nursery decor, a baby gift, or just to have for yourself!

Happy DIY-ing!

Crochet Pattern for The Very Hungry Caterpillar Finger Puppet

We are in a play group that consists of babies very similar in age to my son. I knew there weren’t going to be a ton of babies at our party, but I wanted to do something special for them so I made finger puppets! I created this pattern for any one who might be interested in making it!

 

Crochet Pattern for The Very Hungry Caterpillar finger puppet

What you’ll need:

G size hook

Scissors

Yarn sewing needle

4 shades or worsted weight yarn

 Yarn Colors:

A. Red

B. lime green

C. emerald green or a moss shade of green.

D. purple

Start with color A.

Foundation Round: 6 Hdc into a MC

R1. 2 Hdc into each st. (12)

R2. Hdc around

R3-R4. Repeat R2, on R4 finish with a sl st then cut yarn.

If you wish to put eyes and a mouth on it, this would be the time to do it before the body gets too long.

Switch to color B.

R5-R6. Hdc around and on R6 finish with a sl st and cut yarn.

Switch to color C.

R7-R8. Hdc around and on R8 finish with a sl st and cut yarn.

Switch to color B.          

R9-R10. Hdc around and on R6 finish with a sl st and cut yarn.

Switch to color C.

R11-R12. Hdc around and on R8 finish with a sl st and cut yarn.

Switch to color B.          

R13-R14. Hdc around and on R6 finish with a sl st and cut yarn.

Antenna: Color D

Cut a 5 inch long strand of yarn and thread it through needle. Pull it up through the top of the head of the caterpillar and then pull the yarn off of the needle. Tie it in a knot up against the head and trim the yarn to the length of the antenna you want.

I hope you enjoy making your finger puppet and that the kids enjoy playing with it as much as my son does!