Tag: sewing

Quick DIY: Mini Heart Pillows

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One would think it would be impossible to forget a holiday that is advertised everywhere for the month and a half leading up to it, but one would be wrong. That is how I found myself desperately making four Valentine’s at 8:00pm Thursday night. At first I attempted to knit some little heart pillows. I found the perfect tutorial and had set about on the knitting, when I looked at the clock, realized it was 9:00pm now, and saw that I was only about a quarter of the way through Valentine #1.

Change of plans, and quick. I don’t have much in the way of craft supplies just lying around. Sure, I could draw up some cards in no time, but these are for little people who are pre-reading and would really rather have something tangible. So I dug through my meager closet stash and found a piece of purple, a piece of yellow, and a large piece of green felt in my “leftovers” basket.

With just the felt, a pair of scissors, some embroidery thread, and a minuscule amount of supplemental yarn to add to the padding, I managed to whip up some cute little love pillows.

Mini Heart Pillow DIY

Materials

  • Colored Craft Felt
  • Scissors
  • Embroidery Thread
  • Stuffing (can use fiber fill, left-over fabric/yarn, basically whatever you have on hand to fill the pillow with)

Instructions

  1. Cut two matching heart shapes from the felt. This can either be done with a template you create on paper or, my favorite method, by folding the felt in half while cutting to keep the hearts as close to each other in shape as possible.
  2. Using all six strands of embroidery thread (to make it stand out; use less if you want a more subtle effect), back-stitch the name of the recipient or your desired message onto one of the felt hearts. This tutorial from wikiHow can help if you have never done a back-stitch before. Note- I don’t knot my thread, i just leave a bit hanging at the beginning of my work on the wrong side of the fabric.
  3. Holding both hearts wrong sides together, take all six strands of thread and a running stitch around the edges to hold the pieces together. Be sure to stuff it as you go so you aren’t trying to push a whole pillow’s-worth of stuffing through a tiny hole at the end.
  4. Bring the end of your thread through the middle of the pillow, putting the needle in between the felt pieces at the edge and taking it out the same way at the opposite edge and cut the thread close to the pillow.

And that is it. You have a nice little gift to show your love and appreciation of a loved one in a very short amount of time. I think each of these took me around ten minutes from start to finish. It may take you more or less time depending on how proficient you are at sewing and embroidery, of course.

What kinds of gifts did you give for Valentine’s day?

DIY Friday: Replacing Buttons

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To some, it may be a simple concept to replace buttons on bedding or clothes when they break or fall off. Others will use the item until all buttons are gone, and still others will pass on an item when it’s lost even one button. This afternoon I replaced all 12 buttons (some broken, some still fine, and some completely non-existent) on the bottom of the duvet cover on my bed. I could have just replaced the four missing buttons and waited until the rest of the buttons fall off, but I decided it would be better to have all the buttons matching.

Because it’s how I spent my afternoon and I want to get a little more practice at writing tutorials like this, I’m going to show you my method for replacing buttons.

First, you have to remove the old, broken, button. Simplest way is just to cut the string right between the button and the fabric.

Next, thread a needle and tie a knot in the end of the thread. Then place the button where you want it to go and bring the needle up from behind through one hole of the button.

Go down through the diagonal hole, then back up and down through the remaining two holes in the same manner (If you only have two holes, just continue in a circle between the two holes).

If the old button pulled through the fabric and left a hole, it may be helpful to put the needle back through the knot to secure the button the first time going to the back of the fabric.

Once you’ve gone through each of the holes three to four times, tie a knot at the back and you are finished.

Hopefully this is helpful. Let me know if anything is unclear. Also, what do you repair instead of giving or throwing away that others might just get rid of?

Bonus tip: Make sure you have fairly sturdy needles before sewing. It’s never a good thing to break a needle while you are hand sewing.

In fact, that was the first time I have ever broken a needle that wasn’t attached to a sewing machine.

Snug and Cozy

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Well, my camera is anyway. It is way too warm still to be thinking of snug and cozy for anything else.

Speaking of my camera, I have a new one that takes awesome pictures and doesn’t run on a pack of AA batteries a week. This camera, if you happen to be so interested. It was on a good sale last week. I’m not taking a picture of my camera. That is just too weird.

You know what I did take a picture of? The cover I made for my camera. A few pictures, actually. Like this one of the front:

And this one from the side:

And this one of the soft inside:

I used a plain cotton for the outer part, and some faux fur on the inside to make it nice and cushioned. I added a button and some suede thread for a looped closure. The way the flap covers the top, I can use the wrist strap of the camera to carry it in the case. A quick and easy way to have a camera case that didn’t cost anything and is much brighter than the cases offered at the store.