Patio Cushions and a Photobomb

I've spent the better part of the week sewing my sister-in-law's cushion covers and I can gladly say that I'm done! Unfortunately, she doesn't live nearby so all I have to show are some close-ups of the covers with one of my little throw pillows stuffed inside.  For this, I used an outdoor fabric (some synthetic material that I can't remember the name of), but it's supposed to be fade and dirt resistant.  I'm gonna mail these out to my sis and hopefully she'll send me some pics to share so you can all see how they look when filled.

This was my first time installing a lapped zipper.  The top half of the zipper has a flap that folds over to cover the zipper.  I mainly chose the lapped zipper because for the largest cushion, we couldn't find a zipper that matched in color and had to use a white zipper.  This way the zipper isn't showing so it really doesn't matter what color it is.

I made some velcro tabs to secure the cushions to the chairs.  We actually found some blue velcro too!

In other news, I've been working on writing up my first tutorial on how to make the pillowcases I posted on last week.  I've got a little more editing and hopefully can post that soon!

And, to celebrate the fact that it's quitting time on Friday, I thought you might enjoy a silly photo.  I totally photobombed this one, but in a good way!

Happy Friday everyone!  Hope you have a great weekend!

Back in the Sewing "Room"

It felt so good to spend some time sewing this week.  All my creativity has been bottled up inside without my sewing machine outlet.  Originally I had planned to sew for most the week, but surprisingly my schedule was filled up by some wonderful friends.  Turns out a friend from the church I grew up in Jersey and his wife are going to be spending a year in Houston, which coincides with our plans.  Having moved so many times, I've learned a thing or two about getting myself situated.  The biggest thing is that it's important to reach out and find at least one good friend.  I've got some friends in the Houston area, but they live up north at least 40 minutes away.  So, I've been praying that God would bring some quality friends into my life as it is harder to find and develop friendships when you don't work.  And wouldn't you know it, I've got two childhood friends living within a 15 mile radius and one of them has a wife who isn't working.  Perfect!  I feel so blessed.

Anyway, I didn't get as much accomplished as I had hoped, but there's always next week.  My first project was one I've had sitting in Singapore for at least half a year.  I finished off my couch pillow collection!

I first made these two in Singapore.  I don't think I ever got around to posting on them.  I bought a couple of white throw pillows from Ikea and had my sister bring over some fabric I ordered in the states.  These are from Amy Butler's Lotus collection.

This pic makes me miss our apartment in Singapore...

Invisible zippers

I bought more pillows and then had my mom bring over some more fabric when she visited Singapore but the project just sat on the shelf for months until I moved back to Houston.  Here they are:

The one in the middle is made from Free Spirit's Pop Garden collection
and the rest are Amy Butler's Lotus collection.

Looks like I flip-flopped the top two in between pics. Haha.

Here they are in action (or should I say inaction - corny I know):

You can see the building blocks under our couch.  Our couch sort of broke in our last move and that bottom beam is not quite connected on the right side.  I put the blocks up to help support the couch so it won't break when we sit down.  I keep meaning to find someone to fix it, but so far, it's been almost 2 years and I still haven't gotten around to it.

This chair has been everywhere, it's one of the first pieces of furniture Andy got after graduating.

Now my living room is complete! Unfortunately the two pillows I made first are flatter from frequent use so I've instructed Andy to only use the new ones until they balance out.  I'm such a perfectionist :-)

I've already got a queue of projects lined up.  Next up - cushion covers for my sister-in-law's new patio set. She got married earlier this year and moved back to the Austin area and bought a beautiful wood patio set. Unfortunately the set has white cushions, which is not so great for the outdoors.  We did a little shopping and found some nice blue fabric to make covers out of.  Better get started, because for now, they're stuck sitting on plastic covered cushions to keep them clean.

Hump Day

I've finally gotten some of my sewing mojo back this week.  Last week, I took a sewing hiatus due to VBS, and have been having a hard time motivating myself to get back into it.  My orders have slowed down momentarily, and it's just so blazing hot outside. Watching TV, taking naps, sitting under the fan, and reading books all day is really quite tempting.  But, I was able to make this project relatively easily (once I figured out the dimensions and logistics).  It's always nice to do a project you can finish in a few hours.

A friend of mine recently cleared out her maternity wardrobe and decided she wanted to keep her favorite maternity  t-shirt that she wore all the time towards the end of her pregnancy.  Not wanting to wear the t-shirt anymore since it brought back memories of being uncomfortably large, she wanted a pillow made out of it as a keepsake.

The t-shirt:

Re-purposed as a pillow:

Now that I'm on a roll, I'd better get working on my next project before I get lazy again!