Sweater Snowmen

These little guys are the cutest. The cutest ever. And they're so easy to make. I used a couple of thrifted cashmere sweaters that had holes for materials. So, they're not only cute - they're posh.

Cut yourself a rough tube of sweater material. The size you cut will entirely depend on the size of snowman you want to make. You really can't mess this up. You'll be stuffing and shaping the tube to your own specifications. Sweater material is super stretchy. And you can shape it as you stuff it. So, don't worry.

Sew up the side of your tube with a zig-zag stitch on your machine with the fabric's right sides together.

Then, use your glue gun to seal up the top in an X pattern. This will be the top of the head. You could also use thread to simply gather it up and tie the top. Since these guys are wearing cozy hats, no one will see the tops of their little heads.

Turn it right side out and begin to stuff your snowman's head.

Once you think you've created a good sized head, use some thread and wrap at the base to create a neck area. Tie off and trim your thread.

I stuffed the lower portion of the body and simply folded the ends over before securing the base with hot glue.

I made a simple cone shape with a different sweater material. Again, I sewed up the sides of my cone, right sides together, and flipped it right side out. Instant hat.

The little scarf is just an unfinished strip of material.

Dress up your little snowman. Place dabs of glue where you'd like your hat to role up, if you want a brim.

Another dab of hot glue folds the top of the hat down just a bit, if you'd like. They also look really cute when they're left a bit pointy.

Also, secure the scarf to itself right where you want the overlap.

Use hot glue to place some buttons.

Make a whole family!

Or a couple!

I feel cozy just looking at them.

Leafy Runner for Fall

I love this fall table runner, made from an old sheet and stamped with leaves from my yard. The colors are beautiful and it's just the thing to spruce up the dining table or the buffet this fall.

To get the effect, I collected leaves from the yard and lightly brushed them with paint. Though I chose colors traditional to fall, it would be lovely in any colors you like.

Once the leaf was painted, I placed it (paint side down) onto the sheet material I had sized for the purpose. I placed a napkin over the top of the leaf and then used my rolling pin to imprint the leaf on the fabric. Rolling over the leaf only a couple of times is enough to leave a detailed imprint.

Experiment with the amount of paint you brush on the leaves as well as the pressure with which your press your rolling pin.

As you might be able to see, my fabric was folded length wise into a long rectangle. When the paint was dry and I was ready to sew, I simply folded it length wise with right sides together and sewed up the raw edges (no pictures for these steps, sorry). I then turned it right side out and ironed it flat into its long rectangle shape. I decided to top stitch each side so that it would lay nice and flat.

In order to close the ends (which were still raw at this point), I decided to use a small piece of fabric which I folded and ironed to be the width of the runner. You can see below how I prepared the small piece and then attached it to either end of the runner.

With all the edges sealed up and hemmed, it was time to choose its home.

It's such a nice and easy way to bring your outdoor leaves inside.

Sunshine Pillows

Washable pillow covers are the best. Especially when they're made from 97% cotton, 3% spandex fabric that stretches just enough to make the on/off process super easy. The fabric is breathable, stays firmly in place on the pillow, and is super comfy under your noggin.

I have to mention that I covered pillows I bought at Joann Fabric on a St. Patty's day sale at 80% off. That makes these pillows even better.

Remember when I posted about crocheting doilies? These yellow ones happened right around that time.  I had this need to put them up against blue fabric for a sunshine-y effect. It's probably the time of year. I'm aching for summer!

I pinned them carefully, insuring that they were evenly placed and spaced before sewing them onto the squares of fabric that would become the pillow covers.

Sewing them on was a bit painstaking, but went quickly. And the yellow thread matched the yarn perfectly.

I made a simple envelope style closure with two smaller back pieces that were hemmed and overlapped one another. My serger does such an excellent job of finishing fabric. And, since these get washed frequently, the serged edges insure that the ends stay intact. I followed the serger with a clean, tight straight stitch to really reinforce those edges.

Voila! Pretty little sunshine pillows.

Valentine's Day

I made this really simple and small runner for the dining room table. It's a very easy to sew rectangle that I then stamped with some stamps from my small collection.

One end is a French love saying:

The other end is an Italian love saying:

We're so cultured. :)

Christmas Stockings

Look, look! Pretty Christmas stockings! 

I love how these turned out. I think they're pretty, traditional, but also modern in their simplicity. Plus, I already had the fabric! So, buy the trimmings and I'm all set! 

You could really use any fabric at all for these. I had some indoor red canvas type fabric hanging around from an old sewing project. I also had some white cotton fabric from a set of old sheets that I used for lining. My mother-in-law gave me a bunch of them to make pillow cases. Well, I've made quiet a few pillow cases (they're so fast on a serger - have I sung the praises of my serger yet?) and had plenty left over. 

So, first I ironed that fabric. Of course, it was already pre-washed and dried. 

I made myself a template for the stocking. I just taped together three pieces of paper and drew it out free hand. I love having the ability to choose my own shape.

Now, I'm super lazy, so I don't usually use pins for placement when sewing. In fact, I didn't use any pins at all for this project. I have no patience. I just laid out the template and traced around it with a pen. In my opinion, all of this hullabaloo about erasable/vanishing ink is nonsense for this kind of thing. None of those lines will ever show. Ever. So use whatever you have. Not a big deal here.

Of course, I tried to place the template in such a way that I would conserve the most fabric possible. Then, I cut out my shapes. Don't forget that you'll need two for each stocking! Ha. Do the same for the lining.

Once you're finished cutting them out, you'll need to stitch each one together. Since they're Christmas stockings and don't have to fit any bodies, you can choose whatever seam width you're comfortable with on the machine. Just make sure to use the same one consistently so things are uniform.

Then, clip your curves. It makes turning your stockings so much easier! Of course, you won't be turning the linings. They're going to be plopped right down inside your turned red ones. So, I guess it's up to you whether you want to clip them. I didn't think it mattered. I didn't clip them. My hands said no. I'm sure my grandma would slap me.

 Okay, so we know the linings fit inside. But before sewing them in place, we get to do the fun part. Trimmings! Lace and ribbon and bows and other pretty things! I gathered all the ribbon I would need and measured it to fit around the stocking. Of course, trimmings could have been done before the stockings were sewn together, but this way made it so much easier for me to see exactly where things were going in order to line them up. So, that's what I did.

 I found these great snowflake buttons at Joann and the initial charms at Walmart. The awesome thing is that the charms actually fit through the button shank! They dangle and sparkle and please me very much.

I kind of laid out the way that I wanted the ribbon to look on the stocking. Though the thin silver ribbon can be seen in the plans, it didn't make the cut. Just couldn't cut it. Didn't look right. That is all.

Here are all of the trimmings laid out. The top shorter ribbons will be looped (as seen on the far right) in order to hang the stockings. I also ironed flat the ribbon at the bottom. That stuff had a crazy attitude after being wound so tightly for so long. So, I hit it with heat. And it worked. Also, because I wanted to add some more interest and texture to the white ribbon, I sewed thin colored ribbon on top of the white (silver and red), so it was all attached and ready before I began stitching it to the stocking. You could, of course, use whatever decorations you want!

I measured with a ruler where I wanted the lowest ribbon to be sewn. I liked the placement at three inches.

I went ahead and marked around each stocking at three inches down. Then, I sewed around my ribbons, simply folding the ends as I finished and securing them with a back stitch.

When I was finished with the lower ribbons, it was time to stuff the lining. Put your fingers down in the toes and make sure that your curves are all matching up. Since I used a template, they all fit really nicely. I decided to use the top ribbon as a binding. This way, I didn't have to finish and hem the top. So much easier. So much lazier. So me. I did iron the ribbons for this binding in half, long ways. This made them so much easier to handle and was really necessary. Lastly, I folded the short ribbon into a loop and sewed it on to the side where I wanted the stocking to hang. I sewed a nice, strong rectangle to secure that guy in place. Why? To hold lots of nice, heavy stocking stuffers. For me, of course. Wouldn't want someone to have to consider weight when picking me a gift....

Finally, I sewed on those beautiful buttons with the initial charms. And hung them up to snap loads of pictures.

 Seriously, what's better than a stack of pretty Christmas stockings? Not much.