Number 1 on my list is this cool chair:
Check it out - don't worry no steers were hurt in the making of this pillow (some Naughas were - although I've never seen a Naugahyde).I know you're thinking, "I heard appliqueing is difficult and time consuming and takes an expert seamstress," but this is Chaos & Gloss's quick, easy and smart version, or "Smeazy" for short. Smart because, probably like a lot of you readers out there, I'm not an expert seamstress but yet I want to make something that looks great.
Lets take a closer look at the helicopter pillow because those Naughas are really shiny creatures. This looks pretty good for being nine years old.
Anyone can make a pillow like this in any type of basic silhouette. The steer silhouette is easy to make as it is a one color silhouette. The helicopter was also easy although a little bit more involved as it is a 4 color pattern.
Materials:
- Fabric for Pillow
- Fabric for Silhouette
- Sewing Machine
- Good Scissors - You really need a good sharp scissors as this is probably the most important part of the pillow making. If you mess up on this part you might have to start over.
- Pattern - You can make your own by finding a silhouette of whatever you want by doing an image search on the internet. Kids coloring books also are a good source of basic images. I used my printer to resize the pattern and taped it together for the perfect size for my pillow.
Directions:
- Decide what size you want your pillow to be. Cut your front and back fabric to size. Don't forget to add in your seam allowance, I used 1/2". Set the back fabric aside.
- Cut your other fabrics a little larger than the silhouette. Stack fabrics right sides up, with your main pillow fabric on top. If you are using more than one fabric, stack the fabric under the main pillow fabric in descending order, from smallest cuts to largest cuts. For example, on the helicopter, I stacked the fabric starting with top layer of blue fabric (main pillow fabric), then yellow fabric used in rotors, then black for base, then blue for windshield, and then the red for the body of helicopter.
- Pin your paper pattern to top of the fabric stack you just put together. Sew around outline. See photo below, the arrow points to the stitched outline.
- Slowly tear off paper pattern. Here's a tip: Use light weight paper - it will tear off a lot easier. I had a heavier copy paper in my printer and I also didn't cut away the overlaps when I put the two pieces together.
- Now comes the cutting part. The steer was fairly simple because I only had one color below. Lift your top fabric away from the next fabric and cut inside the stitching of your silhouette. If you are using a multi-color pattern, make sure know which parts will be which fabric. On the helicopter, I cut the rotors first by lifting the blue fabric up and making a little snip, then carefully cutting away the blue fabric on the inside of the rotor outlines, leaving the rotors showing the yellow fabric below. Next came the black base. For this I cut through the blue fabric and the yellow fabric. To cut the windshield I cut through the blue, yellow and black fabric and for the body; I cut through the blue, yellow, black and pale blue fabric. The cutting is really the most detailed part and you want to cut slowly and carefully, being sure not to cut through your stitching or getting to close to the stitching. I left about 1/4" of fabric around the stitching.
- Put your pillow front (with your silhouette) and pillow back fabric together, right sides together. Stitch around three sides, leaving one side open for stuffing.
- Turn right side out.
- Fill with stuffing.
- Stitch bottom edge closed.
- Now pour yourself a big glass of wine or iced tea and let out the breath you've been holding for an hour.
I was going to share some more great "GO" projects that I did this weekend but I will share those on another day.
-Laurie
No comments:
Post a Comment