Sew Passionate

Venetian Hotel

noreply@blogger.com (Sew Passionate) — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 14:07:00 +0000

Out of the blue a few weeks ago I got a call from a lady up in LA who had been commissioned to make over a hundred banners for the Venetian Hotel on a very short deadline.

The job was to be worked on in a warehouse in LA and we had 2 days to make 148 banners.

These banners ranged from very small 6" wide x 30" long to massive ones that were 96" wide x 240" long.

Since I'm always interested in doing something out of the norm, I agreed to pack up my sewing machine and tools and head to LA.

I spent 2 long 14 hour days sewing away on these banners not knowing what the final project was even going to look like or what these banners would be used for.

But in the warehouse next door, these HUGE masquerade masks were being crafted by some VERY talented artists. I was told that these banners were going to hang from these masks as part of the Venetian Hotels Summer Decor.

Well, it just so happen that the following week I had plans to take a small trip to Las Vegas and so I knew I would get the opportunity then to see my finished work displayed.

The Hotel was still in the process of hanging all these masks and banners, so not all of them were displayed, but here's pictures of the ones that were.

A few masks with banners were displayed indoors.

Some of the masks and banners were hung from the light posts out in front of the hotel.

The Big Bad Boy hangs right out in front of the hotel.

The crew was still working on putting up the lights and perfecting the over all look.

The crew attaching the lights.

It was a tiresome but fun job to work on!

So if you make it out to Vegas this summer, be sure to go by the Venetian Hotel and check out the these truly amazing works of art!

Outdoor Drapery Panels

noreply@blogger.com (Sew Passionate) — Tue, 29 May 2012 15:34:00 +0000

Outdoor drapery panels are becoming increasingly popular! I think they bring a touch of the indoor whimsy to outdoor spaces. They also have a few practical uses too. They can lend a hand with the harsh sun and add a touch of privacy to outdoor seating areas.

Here's just a few images I found on the Internet.

Although in these images a cool summer breeze against the panels looks appealing, the wind can actually blow outdoor panels all over the place causing more havoc than whimsy.

I've been making outdoor panels for clients for years and here's a full tutorial on making outdoor panels with a bonus tip on how to keep them from blowing around when a cool summer breeze comes along.

I'm making 2 panels that will be 2 widths of fabric each. You always want to make sure you have plenty of fullness when making outdoor panels.

My panels will finish at 94" long.

So lets figure our cuts. 94" plus 4" (double 2" bottom hem) plus 4" (double 2" top hem) plus 2" to straighten/table the fabric. Now I'm only making my top hem/header 2" wide because I'm using fairly small grommets. If you decide to use larger grommets than mine, adjust your top hem/header to be wider. You want your grommets to be centered in the top hem.

Cutting- For 2 panels that will be 2 widths of fabric each I cut 4 @ 104" long.

Seam- I made my seams with my over lock/serger. But you can make french seams if you don't have an over lock machine. You just want to make sure your seams look nice on both sides of the panel.

Since I have a special tip for keeping these from blowing around, I construct them in a little different order than I usually do with drapery panels. We will be doing our top hem aka header first.

Top Hem/Header- Press a double 2" top hem. First press down 4", then straighten out and press the top edge to the 4" crease and press over. Pin every 8-10 inches. There is no need to stitch this top edge! The grommets will hold the top hem in place. Next we will do our side hems.

Side Hems- Press over a double 1 1/2 " side hem on both sides of the panel. Start by pressing up a 3" hem, then open out and press the side to the 3" crease mark.

Pin your side hems in place. I pinned mine this way because I intended to sew them with my blind hemmer, but the fabric was not feeding through my blind hemmer correctly so I ended up top stitching my hems instead. Stitch your side hems.

Now we need to "table" our panels and press up the bottom hem. Tabling is when you measure and cut the excess fabric off that you added in your original measures. I'm sure you're wondering why we add excess to begin with if we're just going to cut if off. Well, Folding and pressing and stitching take up slightly more fabric than you would think. Plus the seams gather up the fabric ever so slightly and can cause your panels to be sorter where the seams are.

Tabling- I have a large workroom table that I do mine on, but you can do yours on a hard floor or any other surface you can find that will work. Anchor your top edge of your panels along a straight edge. you can tape it to the straight edge of a floor tile. Now measure down your finished length plus your bottom hem allowance. Mine in this case is 98". You can run a row of painters tape at your measured edge to help guide you where to cut.

Cut the excess off.

Bottom hem-Now press up a double 2" hem using the same method as you did for the side and top hems.

Stitch the bottom hem.

I'm putting size #4 grommets in the top of my panels. You can use whatever size you want.

There's a few things you need to know about grommets....You ALWAYS have to use an even number of grommets!!! I usually set my grommets approx 6" apart. That means center of the grommet to center of the next grommet. But if you want your fabric to droop between the grommets then you might want to space them 10" apart. The spacing isn't as important as the fact that you use an even number of grommets!

So first I decided how far in from the edge I wanted my first and last grommet.

I usually place my first grommet just after the side hem. So mark your first and last grommet placement. Now measure the distance between theses two grommets and divide by 6". Whatever this number turns out to be, round it up or down to be an odd number. Now take this odd number and divide it into the distance between your 2 side grommets....this will be your exact distance between each grommet (center to center) This number may turn out to be anywhere from 5"- 6 1/2". That's ok. It's approx. 6" that we are shooting for.

After you have all your grommet placements marked, count again and make sure you have an even number of grommets. I set grommets all the time and I have even screwed this up before, so now I always double check.

Here's the grommets I will be using.

There are 2 pieces to every grommet. The one with the shank is the front of the grommet, and the one that is flat like a washer (although this one has teeth) is the back of the grommet.

I take the front grommet piece and center it along my header and trace the inside circle with a pencil. This makes it easier for me to see exactly where I need to cut my holes for the grommets.

Being that I make these all the time in my business, I own a grommet setting machine. Since you probably don't have a grommet setter, there are other grommet setting tools on the market. When I first started my business, I just used the ones you hammer with a piece of scrap wood.

Setting Grommets-First you have to cut all the holes for the grommets, so I attached the cutting tool to my grommet machine. Under the cutter goes a plastic cutting mat to help prevent dulling of the cutter.

Cut all the holes.

Once all my holes were cut, I switched the attachments from the cutter to the setter pieces.

The front grommet piece goes down on the setter, then I slip my fabric over the shank and place a back grommet piece on top with the gripper teeth down.

My machine takes a little muscle to set the grommets tight, so I usually have my teenage son do this part for me. I love that he is at the age where I can use his muscle power!

Now here's the tip for keeping these panels from blowing around.......Chain. Just plain old chain that you get at your hardware store.

Measure the finished width of your panel and have a piece of chain cut for each panel. You want your chain to be approx. 2" shorter than the width of your panel. If you are using a dark heavy fabric for your outdoor panels, than there is no need to cover the chain. Simply feed it into your bottom hem and tack it at the side edges with a few hand stitches.

If you're using a white light weight fabric like I am, then you will need to make a casing tube for your chain so that it will not be seen through the sheer fabric.

I cut long lengths of white lining 2" wide. I fold it in half the length of the tube and stitch forming a long tube. I turn it right side out.

Feed the chain into this long tube.

Turn under the edge of one end of the tube and stitch it closed. Your stitching doesn't have to be perfect, no one will ever see this part. Now hand tack your chain to the tube a little ways back from the end of the tube. An inch or so is good.

Once you get all the chain fed into the tube, close off the other end of the tube the same way. Make sure you also hand tack through the chain and tube to keep the chain from slipping around inside the tube.

Feed the tube/chain combo into your bottom hem of your panels. Pull the end of the tube to the very edge of your panels side edges but not far enough where it hangs out the side hems.

Now top stitch across the sides of the bottom hem making sure to catch the tube ends at the same time.

No more outdoor panels flapping around on a windy day!

Fringed Bolster

noreply@blogger.com (Sew Passionate) — Sun, 20 May 2012 12:11:00 +0000

A few weeks ago I shared a fabric that I scored at a thrift store.

It happened to be the color and style my good friend Donnella is doing her outdoor decor in. After rifling through my stash of trims, here's what I created out of that fabric.

I just love the fringe on the ends of this bolster!

Follow along as I show how I made this bolster.

The bolster fill I had was 15"x5"

So I cut my piece 16"x16 3/4" The 16" is for the length of the pillow plus 1" for seam allowance. The 16 3/4" is the diam. of my bolster x pi (5x3.14) plus 1" for seam allowance.

I also cut 2 circles 6" round.

Since I use zipper by the yard I also cut 2 zipper stops out of scraps.

Step 1-Serge along the edges where the zipper will go.

Find the center bottoms of your circles and make a small clip mark. Lay your fringe on the right side of your circle at the center bottom clip. Stitch using 1/2" seam allowances. There's really no need to clip into the fringe to make the curve of the circle.

When you meet up at the starting point, simply clip the stitching that binds the fringe together and butt the fringe edges up next to each other and finish stitching.

Once you've sewn the fringe to both circles, set them aside.

Step 2-Zipper. I use zipper by the yard and I can't stress enough how much easier it is to work with than a store bought zipper. If you haven't tried using zipper by the yard, I highly suggest you give it a try!

Fold under 1/2" on one edge of your zipper stop. Place it on top of your zipper end and stitch close to the zipper teeth.

Now stitch on the other side of the zipper teeth.

With right sides together stitch the zipper edge of your main fabric piece to the long zipper edge. Stitch close to the zipper teeth.

Pause 3-4 inches from the end with your needle down. Fold under 1/2" of your remaining zipper stop and align it with the end of your pillow piece to establish where you need to cut your zipper by the yard off.

Place your zipper stop between the main pillow piece and your zipper end.

And finish stitching.

It should look like this.

Push the fabric over the zipper teeth to form a fold. Stitch on the opposite side of the zipper using your zipper foot as a guide to keep your stitches straight.

Attach your zipper slide at this point.

Step 3- Lay the non zipper edge face down on your circle. Match up the center of the zipper with the clip in the bottom of your circle. Start stitching an inch or so from the clip mark. Cut into the seam allowance as necessary to accommodate the curve of the circle. Stitch all the way around the circle stopping an inch or so from the starting point.

At this point you can see if your main pillow piece is cut the exact right size or not. Sometimes they need to have a little trimmed off this edge and sometimes you just need to make a smaller seam allowance.

Stitch the remaining zipper fabric edge to the other side of the zipper, stitching close to the zipper teeth.

Now you can finish stitching the circle.

Repeat this step on the other end with the circle, making sure you align the center of your zipper with the center bottom clip mark.

Open up the zipper and turn right side out.

Stuff with your pillow fill.

French Bulletin Board

noreply@blogger.com (Sew Passionate) — Wed, 09 May 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Every once in a while I'm asked to make a bulletin board. There's several different styles that I make. Bulletin boards can be with or with out a frame, they can be padded with batting to make them puffy. They can have ribbon or gimp crisscrossed to make places to tuck post cards and keepsakes.

The one I made today is a little simpler.

Didn't it turn out fabulous!

This one was for my favorite designer....you know the one that always has me make cute stuff with lots of details.

She gave me the frame and the fabric and told me she wanted it kind of flat with just a little padding. She wanted it to have cork behind it so her client could pin stuff into it. She also wanted to incorporate some hammered antique style upholstery tacks.

So this is how I made it:

First I measured the opening in the back of the frame. It was just shy of 2 feet x 3 feet. So I went to my local hardware store and had them cut a piece of 1/4" thick luan. Luan seemed to be the only wood I found that was soft enough yet sturdy enough to put behind the cork. I also bought 2 packs of 12"x12" square cork tiles.

I used a spray adhesive to adhere the cork tiles to the luan.

My cork tiles extended slightly beyond my wood, so I just used a utility knife to trim the excess off.

I used a thin piece of fleece batting over the the cork.

I simply stapled it to the cork/board at the very edge. Then I trimmed it flush with the sides of my board.

I measured carefully and marked the center of the board and centered the french saying. I cut the fabric slightly larger than my board and wrapped it to the sides and stapled it to the side edges of my board since the staples wouldn't stay in the front where the cork is. Once I trimmed the excess fabric, I fit it into the frame and secured it with Push Style Glazing Points.

We decided to put the upholstery tacks approx. every 4" around the border of the the fabric. I had to leave about 1/2" between the tacks and the frame to insure I wouldn't hit the frame with my hammer.

I bent a few of the upholstery tacks, but that was OK, because I ordered extra.

Since the shank on the upholstery tacks were so long and extended beyond the wood on the back, I stapled a large piece of chip board/cardboard to the back to give it a nice professional finish and to unsure the tacks would not poke anyone or scratch up the wall during the hanging process.

What do you think? Cute huh?!

Sewing A Parsons Chair Slipcover

noreply@blogger.com (Sew Passionate) — Mon, 07 May 2012 14:15:00 +0000

Making your own slipcovers can be intimidating if you don't know how. Parsons chairs are the perfect beginner project.

If you missed Part 1 How to Pinfit a Parsons Chair Slipcover, you can find it here.

Since I was slip covering 2 identical chairs, I pinfit one and used that to cut out my second one.

Step 1. Cutting- I recommend labeling your slipcover pieces before you take out the pins and remove it from the chair. I use blue painters tape because it won't leave a sticky residue, but the tape can come off, so I pin the tape to each piece as well. Parsons chairs only have a few pieces. An outside back (OB), an inside back (IB), seat, and boxing. My boxing had to have 2 pieces, so I labeled the boxing left box (L box) and right boxing (R box). When I label something left or right I am referring to it as if I'm facing the front of the chair.

If you are only covering one chair, you can skip this part, but if you too are covering more than one chair simply lay your cut pieces on top of your fabric and use them as a pattern. I made sure to line up my stripes.

After you have cut your duplicate pieces, label them as well. I label them according to sets, so my duplicates were labeled IB 2.

Be sure to transfer all the notches to the additional sets.

We will go back and cut our skirts later.

Cut plenty of welt strips. The directions for that can be found here.

Step 2. Overlocking- I overlock/serge all my slipcover pieces. This keeps the raw edges from ravelling when you wash your slipcovers and it gives a more professional finish.

Step 3. Welt- I roughly measure how much welt cord I think I will need and make a little more than that.

After you have serged the edges and made all your welt cord, you are ready to begin to construct your slipcover.

Step 4. Flat seams- I stitch whatever flat seams there are first. The first flat seam to stitch is the tuck in seam. Pin the inside back(IB) to the seat. Match up your notches and stitch, pivoting at the diagonal edges.

This is what it will look like when you are done.

The other flat seam was my boxing. Remember I said I had 2 boxing pieces...a left and a right. Pin and stitch these two pieces together. Make sure to match the pattern.

Step 5. Putting all the pieces together- Now it's time to add welt to our first piece. The first piece to get welt is the OB. I use a zipper foot and stitch close to the welt, but not too tight against the welt...our final stitching of the seams is when we stitch really close the the welt to hide all the previous stitches. Simply lay your welt to the right side starting at the bottom of the OB. Stitch. Clip into the welt seam allowance when you have to go around a curved edge or corner.

This is what it will look like when you are done.

Pin your OB to your IB. Match up the notches. My OB was longer than my IB because I have not attached the boxing yet. That's OK, Just match the notches and start stitching 1/2" from the bottom edge of the IB. Make sure you back stitch at the beginning and end of your seams to secure them.

My IB had pleats around the rounded corners of my chair. Pin those when you are pinning the front to the back.

Tip- I stitch with the piece that already has the welt sewn to it on top. When you sew welt cord to a piece of fabric, it is going to ever so lightly gather up that piece if fabric because it was on the bottom and the feed dogs of the machine feed it in just a tad. So when marrying 2 pieces, put the piece with out the welt cord on the bottom, against the feed dogs so it will be gathered up too. If you don't do this, you might find one piece is smaller than the other and you will have a hard time matching up notches. The slipcover will still fit your chair. As I said, it is a VERY slight gathering up that occurs.

Stop stitching 1/2" from the end and back stitch. Turn the slipcover right side out and check to make sure everything looks good.

Now we're going to stitch our welt to the seat edge. The welt has to go all the way to the edge that will be sewn to the OB, so the welt actually starts at the IB. (where the tuck in seam is)

The tuck in seam should be pushed towards the back. Stitch the welt to the seat top, clipping into the welt seam allowance to go around any curves or corners. This is what mine looked like when I finished stitching it.

Pin your boxing to the top of the seat edge that you just added the welt to. Match all your notches. Because my chair curved at the top of the boxing edge, I had to make a VERY small dart at the corners of the boxing. Here's where I stitched my small darts.

Notice in the picture below that my tuck in seam is pushed to the back and my seat that already has the welt is on top.

Stitch around the curved edges, clipping into the seam allowance of the boxing if necessary to go around the curves or corners.

I hope you are all still with me!

We are about to cross our first welt cord seam. Whenever you have to stitch across a seam edge that has welt cord, you have to dig the welt cord filler out of the last 1/2". Otherwise you will end up with this big edge of bulk. It's not as hard as it sounds, so hang in there.

The welt the we just stitched, the one that went at the top edge of our seat, that's the one that we need to dig out. We need to do it at both ends. See how the welt filler is sticking out ever so slightly?

Grab a hold of the filler and pull it out about an inch or so. Once you have it out, don't let go of the outer welt covering.

Cut off approx. 5/8"-3/4" of this filler cord.

Now you can let go. Grab the outer fabric and pull it back out taught. You want the cut off cord filler to recess back into the welt cord cover. Now this area will lay flat when you stitch over it.

Pin the seam allowance of the boxing towards the boxing and pin the empty welt cover flat.

Now you can stitch the last few inches of the OB over this seam and to the end of the boxing.

Here's what it will look like when you turn it right side out. Notice how the welt we stitched over lays nice and flat. No big lump of bulk.

Find the center of the bottom of the OB. I usually put a little clip mark there. This is where our bottom welt will join together.

If any of you have followed my pillow tutorials, you will be familiar with this next step.

Lay the welt 1/2" beyond the clip mark, but start stitching the welt at the clip mark. You will have to dig the welt filler out of the OB welt before you stitch across it. Sew the welt all the way around the bottom of the slipcover stopping a couple inches shy of the starting point.

When you are few inches away from the starting point, pause with the needle down, lay the welt cord up to the clip mark and fold it back 1/2" and cut.

Open the seam of the welt cord up. Just open a couple inches.

Fold back 1/2".

Lay the beginning welt edge over this.

Cut off the welt filler so it will butt up against the beginning welt.

Fold the welt cover over and stitch across this joint.

This is a good time to put your slipcover on your chair and see how it fits. Make sure there are no tucks in your seams and that the fit is good. Be sure to shove your tuck in pocket into the crevice between the IB and the seat. My fit looked good!

Step 6. Skirt- I chose to do a kick pleat skirt, so my directions will be for a kick pleat skirt. But I didn't want just a plain kick pleat skirt. I wanted to add a little interest, so I plan to add a banding of the stripe running horizontally along the bottom of my skirt. You probably aren't doing yours out of a stripe, so you can skip that part and just hem your skirt.

This Chair was small enough that I only had to cut 2 skirt pieces per chair. I cut 2 @ the width of the fabric x 14". My finished skirt length is 13". I added a 1/2" for the seam allowance and 1/2" for the seam that will attach the banding that will run horizontally along the bottom of my skirt. This banding will also finish the skirt bottom so a traditional hem will not be necessary. You might want to add another inch or so for a hem allowance. I usually line my slip cover skirts, but this time I am not going to.

In addition to cutting 2 skirt pieces per chair, I cut my banding pieces. I chose the part of the stripe I wanted and added 1/2" seam allowance to both sides of it.

Overlock/serge the top edge of your skirt. If you are simply hemming your skirt, then you want to overlock/serge the bottom too.

The pleats in your skirt can be between 2" and 3" deep. I made mine approx. 2" deep. If I wanted to make them deeper I would have needed to cut more skirt pieces and I was a little lazy that day.

Start pinning your skirt pieces to the bottom edge of your slip cover. Start your skirt at a corner of the chair. It doesn't matter which corner. Extend the first 2 1/2" beyond the corner. Then form a 2" pleat. Pin the skirt piece to the slip cover until you come to the next corner. Form and pin your pleats to that corner as well. Continue pinning up to the next corner where you will have to seam your skirt. Pin the next skirt piece to this skirt piece, making sure the joining seam will be hidden in the back of the pleat. Continue pinning your skirt to the bottom of your slip cover forming pleats in the corners and hiding the necessary seams in the back.

Once you have it all pinned, stitch the skirt sections together. You may have to unpin that pleat to stitch the skirt seam. Press the skirt seams open and then re pin it to your slip cover.

Stitch the skirt to the bottom of your slip cover. The backside of the pleats will look like this.

If you are unfamiliar with how to form pleats, you can find better instructions with pictures at my Kick pleat Valance tutorial here.

As I mentioned, I added a contrasting stripe banding to the bottom. I started my banding back in one of the kick pleat areas. I stitched it with the right side of the banding against the wrong side of the skirt. I had a stripe to be my seam allowance guide. I made sure all my seams landed in the back of the pleats.

Press the seam open, and the other the side of the banding under 1/2" Again, I had a stripe to help guide this edge to be straight.

Then fold the banding up over the right side of the skirt and pin.

Top stitch close to the pinned edge.

Press the slipcover and the skirt pleats really well.

Now you can put your slipcover on your chair and sit back and admire your work! Again, make sure you shove the tuck in pocket into the crevice between the IB and the seat.

My skirt was dragging a little because of the grass, but you can see how well it turned out.

Thrift Store Score

noreply@blogger.com (Sew Passionate) — Fri, 04 May 2012 10:08:00 +0000

My little town of Fallbrook doesn't have very many thrift stores...just a few non profit thrift stores who's proceeds go back into the community. I love to meander through these little stores when I'm out running errands and I have a few minutes to spare.

Recently I was in one of these thrift stores digging through a box of thread and zippers when one of the ladies that worked there approached and asked if I sewed. "Oh I love to sew" I answered.

She informed me that they had just received several boxes of fabric in the back and asked if I wanted to dig through them. I guess the more I buy, the less they have to go through and price.

Wow, there were 4 big boxes of fabric and sewing stuff! I think my heart actually skipped a beat I was so excited!

I walked away with 2 HUGE bags of fabric. All for $9.00.

They are all wonderful fabrics and I have future plans for most of them, but this is the one that really stuck out in my mind and had me excited to get home and start sewing!

Isn't it wonderful?!

It reminds me of some of the fabrics you see in the Ballard Designs catalog for $25.00 a yard.

There was a little over a yard of it and after I averaged it out with the rest of the fabric that day, I think it cost me less than $1.00.

NOW THAT'S A SCORE!!!!

It just so happens that this is one of the colors my good friend Donnella is looking to incorporate into her patio.

Although this is not an outdoor fabric, there is no reason it won't work for a few throw pillows for her outdoor furniture.

So off to my workroom I go!

Pictures and post to follow soon.

How To Sew Outdoor Cushions Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Sew Passionate) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 11:32:00 +0000

With summer fast approaching, I'm making my outdoor projects a top priority. I love to spend as much time outdoors as possible during the warm months of the year. Some of our favorite things to do are: Grilling of course, Smores around the fire pit and playing a few rounds of Progressive Rummy with family and friends. So new cushions for the outdoor chairs is definitely at the top of my "to do" list.

A couple weeks ago I showed how to make a custom pattern for your outdoor chairs and today I'm going to show how to sew these cushions from the pattern you made. If you didn't see the original post, you can find it

here.

Mine looked like this

My cushion is going to be boxed with 2" foam, welt cord and a zipper closure.

Cutting- Cut 2 of your pattern pieces for each cushion.

I measured the back part of my cushion to see how long I wanted my zipper to be. Make sure

your zipper is long enough to stuff your foam through it when the cushion is done.

My zipper is going to be 20" long, so I added 1" for seam allowance. I'll be cutting my zipper

21" long.

Now since your cushions might not be 2" thick like mine, here's a formula to determine how wide

to cut your zipper strips: Foam thickness (2") divided by 2= (in my case 1") plus 1 1/8"....so my

zipper strips will be cut 2 1/8" wide by 21" long. Cut 2 of these per cushion.

For the boxing, measure all the way around your cushion, then subtract your zipper length and then

add a few inches for seam allowance. It's OK to cut your boxing a little longer...better too long

than too short. Add 1" to the width of your foam for seam allowances. So my boxing was cut

54" long by 3" wide.

Instructions for cutting bias strips and covering welt cord are here. Make sure you make enough

welt cord to go around the top and the bottom of your cushion.

After you've made all your welt cord it's time to start constructing the cushions. Just take it step by step.

Step 1. Welt to top and bottom cushion pieces-Fold your cushion pieces in half and find the center back of your cushion. Make a small snip there. Place your welt cord a 1/2" beyond this snip mark and begin stitching at the snip mark, leaving that first 1/2" of welt loose.

The first back corner of my cushion is rounded, so I simply cut into the welt about every 3/4" to make the curve of the corner.

But your corner may be squared off like my front corners are. To make those corners, stitch up to, but not beyond 1/2" of the corner. Stop with your needle down.

Clip into the seam allowance of your welt right at the place where your needle is down.

Raise the presser foot and pivot your cushion and welt.

Continue to stitch the welt all the way around your cushion. Stop stitching 2-3" from the center back starting point. Stop with your needle down.

Cut your welt 1/2" beyond the center of the cushion.

Open approx. 2" of the welt cord seam to expose the cotton cording inside.

Turn up 1/2" of the welt cord fabric and lay it flat on your cushion.

Lay the beginning part of your welt cord on top of this.

Now cut the extra cotton cord so that it butts right up against the beginning welt cord.

Fold the fabric over the beginning welt cord and stitch across it.

Following these instructions, add the welt cord to all your cushion pieces.

Part 2. Zipper I know a lot of people are intimidated by zippers, but these zipper instructions are EASY, I promise! I use zipper by the yard, you can use a store bought zipper if you like, just buy your zippers a little longer and extend the actual zipper past the zipper strips on both ends. If you are going to be making a lot of cushions, I highly recommend zipper by the yard. First off, you can make your zipper what ever length you need and second off, zipper by the yard costs pennies compared to store bought zippers that I think run a couple dollars each. I'll attach a link at the end of this post for some sources for zipper by the yard.

OK, back to sewing our zipper. Lay your first zipper strip face down on the zipper and stitch close to the zipper teeth.

Stitch all the way to the end of your zipper strip and cut your zipper off evenly with the zipper strip.

Open out your zipper strip.

Now push the fabric over one side of the zipper teeth. Not all of the zipper teeth, just one side, right down the middle. Top stitch, aligning the right side of the zipper foot along the teeth. This gives you a guide for the perfect distance away from those teeth and helps you stitch straight.

Now lay your second zipper strip on the other side of the zipper and repeat the steps.

When you top stitch this time, you will see that the fabric folds meet at the center of the zipper, hiding all the zipper teeth.

Here's what it will look like.

Now add your zipper slide. Another reason zipper by the yard is so much better and easier, you can add the zipper slide after the zipper is sewn...no more fighting zipper slides to get your stitching straight.

With right sides together, lay one end of your boxing against the end of your zipper and stitch.

Step 3. Stitching the boxing to the first cushion side. Fold your zipper in half and find the center of your zipper strip. Clip on both sides of the zipper strips.

Match the clip mark in your zipper strip to the clip mark in the center back of your cushion. Pin the zipper to the back of the cushion, clipping into the seam allowance where necessary to round the curves.

Stitch the zipper strip to the cushion getting as close to the welt cord as possible.

Continue to stitch the zipper and boxing to the cushion clipping in to the seam allowance as you did for the welt. When you get to a corner, stitch right up to the clip in your welt and pause with the needle down. Clip up to, but not beyond the needle again.

Raise the presser foot and pivot the cushion and boxing.

Make sure you stitch close to the welt at the corners with out actually stitching over the welt. Continue around your cushion until you get to within a few inches of the starting end of your boxing/zipper. Extend the boxing past the starting point by 1/2" and make a clip mark here.

Remove your cushion from the machine and cut the excess boxing off at your clip mark. Cut it straight across.

Using 1/2" seam allowance, stitch the end of the boxing to the end of the zipper.

Finish stitching the last few inches of the boxing/zipper to the cushion.

This is what your cushion should look like at this point. Give yourself a pat on the back because you are past the hardest part of cushion making!!

Step4. Boxing to the second cushion piece. I've seen people try to make boxed cushions before and they had a hard time getting their corners to match up. So here's my tip for helping to match the corners perfectly. Start by matching up those little slit marks we cut in our cushion backs and the center of our zipper strip. Now fold the corners of your cushion like this.

Make a small clip mark in the opposite side of the boxing strip.

This clip mark should line up with the corner of the second cushion piece. You can pin it there if that helps.

Starting at the center back of our cushion, with our clip marks lined up, stitch the boxing to the second cushion piece. Again, making sure your stitching is tight to the welt cord.

Clip around curved corners like you did with the first cushion piece.

As you're approaching your first corner, check to see if your clip mark is going to line up with the corner. If it's just shy of lining up, don't worry about it, the pressure from your presser foot will stretch the boxing and by the time you get to the actual corner it will most likely line up. If it looks like it is lining up past the corner, then you need to try to feed some of the boxing strip into your stitching. I'm not saying to make little tucks! I'm saying gently push the boxing towards your presser foot and needle as you stitch, easing this extra into the seam. At the same time stretching the cushion piece on the bottom. If your corner is within 1/8" of lining up perfectly, that is fine. Anything more than that needs to be adjusted.

When you get to the corner, pause with the needle down and make your slit all the way to the needle, pivot and continue to stitching...just like you did previously.

Stitch all the way around your cushion. Open the zipper and turn right side out.

Yikes! Mine is a little wrinkly now. If yours is too, give it a quick pressing and you are ready to put it on your cushion. If you made your new cushion cover to cover an existing cushion, remove the old cushion cover before putting this cover on your foam. You don't want the old cushion cover showing through and you don't want the old welt making lumps and bumps through your new cushion cover.

Here's few pictures of my finished cushions on my chair. Add a throw pillow and it's an instant upgrade.

Hmm....which pillow to feature on my chair? I think I'm leaning towards this pottery barn inspired coral pillow. Which one do you like better?

Now that my chair has a new cushion, I think it needs to be refinished....that will have to wait for another day.

Here's a link for zipper by the yard

Shoe Rack- My Garage Sale Find

noreply@blogger.com (Sew Passionate) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:16:00 +0000

I don't know how many of you gals do the "Garage Sale" thing, or the "Thrift Store" thing, but I love to do both!

It's a relaxing hobby for me. I naturally wake early, so getting up early on a Saturday morning and driving around prime neighborhoods in hot pursuit of a fabulous find is something I consider a treat! I actually have with drawls if I haven't been in a while.

Lately I've found some really great finds and I thought I would start to share some of them with you all.

Here's the find of the day from last Saturday morning.

No, not all the shoes......the shoe rack. I bought 2 of them for $5.00 each!

Look at all the shoes they hold!!

The top shelf is perfect for boots too.

Here's the second one.

These shoe racks held so many shoes that I actually have some room leftover....hmm, what's a girl to do? Buy more shoes!

They didn't hold all my boots, but I prefer to keep a lot of those in the boxes anyways.

So if you've never tried the "Garage Sale" thing because you think it's just a bunch of junk people are trying to get rid of, think again!

I can't tell you how many times I have gotten compliments on things that were Garage Sale or Thrift Store finds.

I'd love to hear all about your favorite finds. Comment and tell me all about them!

Parsons Chair Slip Cover Tutorial-Part 1 Pinfitting

noreply@blogger.com (Sew Passionate) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 11:54:00 +0000

Parsons chairs are one of the easier pieces of furniture to slipcover. They aren't very big and they have no arms or cushions to worry about. So if you've been wanting to learn to make your own slipcovers, this is the perfect beginner project.

I'll be covering 2 identical Parsons chairs that were picked up at a Goodwill for $5.00 each.

The fabric on them is WAY outdated and they are a little worn, but I don't see all that. What I see are 2 chairs that are perfect for slip covering. The fact that they are white is a huge plus because then I don't have to worry about the original upholstery showing through the new fabric. These would have been perfect to slipcover in white, but I chose a light blue stripe.

Parsons chairs take 4 yards of fabric each. It doesn't matter the size or shape of your Parsons chair, it will take 4 yards. I know it sounds like a lot of fabric for such a small chair, but the skirts take 2 yards alone. If your Parsons chair has decorative legs that you plan on showing with a short skirt, then you can get by with 2 1/2-3 yards.

Before you start, you need to decide if you will be dry cleaning your slipcovers or machine washing them. With a teenage son and 4 cats, I always opt to machine wash mine. If you decide on machine washing them then you need to pre-shrink your fabric ahead of time.

Pre-shrinking should be done with no more than 5 yards at a time. I measure 5 yards off the roll of fabric, cut it off the roll and serge the cut edges so it doesn't fray real bad in the washer. If you don't have a serger, it's ok, just zig zag across the cut ends. Wash your fabric with the same laundry soap, water temp and drying temp that you will be washing your finished slipcovers in. You want to get all the shrinkage out now.

Make sure you take your fabric out of the dryer the minute it's done, you don't want wrinkles to set in.

Step 1. Blocking

The first step in pin fitting a slipcover is blocking the fabric to the chair. Always leave a few extra inches when blocking. You don't know how many times I thought I was leaving plenty of fabric to later discover it was barely enough.

Blocking is done by pinning your fabric to the different sections of your chair and then cutting them out leaving extra inches to go back and pin tightly to the chair later. Use T pins for blocking. They hold the fabric securely to the chair and won't allow your fabric to shift on you.

I always block the back first. Since my fabric is a stripe, I found the center of the back of my chair and lined up one of my stripes there. Make sure you keep the fabric straight, you don't want it to get tilted on you.

As you can see by the picture above, I used 3 T pins at the top, 1 on each side and 1 at each bottom corner. You can use more T pins if you want, but I wouldn't use less.

My stripe fabric made it easy for me to trim my fabric straight a few inches from the chair side edge.

Then I trimmed it approx 2 inches below where the skirt will attach....remember always leave plenty of extra fabric.

Now that you have the back blocked, lets block the front of the chair the same way. I matched up my stripe at the top to ensure it would align with the stripes on the back.

Before you trim your front piece, I need to tell you about "tuck ins". Tuck ins on furniture are those deep crevices where you find change and crumbs and god only knows what. Parsons chairs have a "tuck in" where the front meets the seat. It's usually 2-3 inches deep. Some slipcover professionals ignore the "tuck ins", I choose not to. "Tuck ins" are the perfect place to form a pocket like area and this pocket gets shoved down in the crevice. It helps to keep the slipcover from shifting around on your furniture. If you've ever bought a ready made slipcover and it wouldn't stay in place on your furniture, I can almost guarantee it didn't have these "tuck in pockets".

So I'm gonna show you how to do a tuck in pocket.

Because of the shape and style of my Parsons chairs, my front fabric piece will wrap around and cover the sides. So before trimming my front sides, I had to wrap the fabric to the sides and then trim a few inches away.

I'm leaving about 3 1/2 inches at the bottom of my front because that is where we are going to make our "tuck in pocket".

To block the seat, lift up the pocket from seat area and pin it up out of the way for now. Lay your fabric on the seat and fold 3 1/2" up at the pocket area. Remember to keep your fabric straight. Put a T pin in each corner and center front and back.

I measured my boxing, that's the part that is right under the seat, and cut 2 pieces that were 2 1/2" taller then my boxing. 1 piece will not be enough to go around 3 sides of the seat. I pattern matched my stripes and pinned them together leaving 1/2 seam allowance to make one long strip for the boxing. T pin this to your boxing. The boxing usually does not wrap around to the back side, just the front and two sides.

Step 2. Pinning
Now that you have all your parts of the chair blocked (except the skirt area) it's time to pin it to fit around the curves and corners of your chair. I use old style silver pins that are not too long. I start with the upper back of the chair. Starting in the center top, pin close to the chair edge the back to the front. I made sure my stripes were lining up perfectly. Since my Parsons chair has rounded corners at the top, I pinned the straight areas first and went back at the end and pinned in pleats/darts to neatly follow the curve of my chair.

The next area you need to pin is the "tuck in" pocket. Pin the extra fabric at the bottom of the front and the back of the seat together to form a pocket. Make sure both fabric pieces are sitting down in that crease and then line them up together and pin about 3" from the crease.

As you pin outward towards each side, you need to pin diagonally back to the chair crease. When you get to the crease with your pins, pin as close to the crease as possible. Make sure you head towards the crease a few inches before the side edge of the chair. Structurally there are wood posts behind this area and so the "tuck in" crevice ends 2-3 inches before the side of the seat. By pinning at the crease here, it will allow your fabric to go around these posts when you tuck the pocket into the "tuck in" area.
Trim your fabric 1/2" away from your pins along the diagonal pinning. then 1/2" from the crease. But don't trim too far yet! Take small cuts until you have this whole area pinned. Notice I did not trim into the fabric that needs to wrap around to the sides. In order to release the fabric to wrap around to the side of my chair, I had to cut slits UP TO but NOT past the pins. Make the first slit at the corner where the fabric needs to turn the corner.

Continue cutting slits into the front back at the crease until you get the fabric to release and make the turns to the back .

You can put this area on pause for a minute while you go back and trim the pocket. Trim along the pocket edge, through both layers 1/2" away from pins.

Pin the back chair piece to the front chair piece along the side edges. Stop right before the boxing. Now pin the boxing to the seat. Make sure your pins run along the very edge of the seat. Try to keep them straight and even.

The area where the seat, front, back and boxing all meet at the bottom of the side edge is probably going to be the hardest part of pin fitting this chair. It's not really hard, I just want you to know that once you get past this next step, it's all down hill from there.
This is what this area will kind of look like at this point.

Pin the upper side to the boxing. Pin the boxing to the back. Keep in mind that what and where you pin together fabric is where the seam will be.
Now back to my curves at the top front. I pinned in pleats/darts. I pinned mine several different times trying to figure out how many pleats/darts and exactly where they should be to give the smoothest look.
I ended up with 3 pleats/darts at each curved corner.

Step 3. Trimming
Trim everything 1/2" from your pins. This gives you a perfect 1/2" seam allowance to sew by. Start with the upper part of your chair and work your way down. When you get to an area that has intersecting seams, just make sure you trim those 1/2" from your pins too.

Step 4. Notches
Once you unpin your fabric from your chair, the pieces might look foreign to you and you won't remember exactly how each of them lines up. Never fear...notches will guide the way! Make small notches along every seam. When it comes time to sew, you will just need to match up the notches and you know you will be sewing things correctly. I like to think of notches making it like puzzle pieces. You might later think 2 pieces go together a certain way, but if the notches don't line up then it doesn't fit together that way. Just make sure your notches aren't so big that they go beyond the seam allowance.

Step 5. Trimming the bottom for the skirt.
I usually attach my skirt somewhere in the close vicinity of where the boxing meets the legs. You can put yours slightly higher of lower if you want. When you decide where your skirt will go, put a pin there. Now measure up from the floor to this pin. Tip-if this chair is going to sit on carpet, then measure it on carpet. If this chair is going to be on a hard floor, then measure it on a hard floor.
Using a pencil, mark all around your chair 1/2" less then the skirt height. My skirt length is going to be 14", so I marked 13 1/2" up from the floor all around my slipcover.

Once you have made marks all around the chair, join these marks to make your cutting line.

Cut the excess off along this line. No need to notch this bottom edge.

Congrats! You have just pin fit your first chair slipcover!! It wasn't that hard was it?!

Follow me and stay tuned for the Part 2: How to sew a Parsons Chair Slipcover

Pottery Barn Inspired Coral Pillow

noreply@blogger.com (Sew Passionate) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 12:54:00 +0000

I don't know about you, but I just love all the Coral and Shell decor that I've seen in all the catalogs lately!

The minute I saw this one in Pottery Barns catalog, I knew I wanted to try to make one.

Pottery Barn

I love the texture, the color and the small mitered flange that outlines it like a picture frame.

I had to think about it for a few days to come up with how I wanted to add the texture to my pillow. Then I came across this fabric at JoAnns in the clearance section.

It's a micro fiber suede. It was on clearance for $9.00 a yard and I had a 40% off coupon. Doesn't get better than that!

My drawing skills are pretty good, but my 15 year old sons are even better! I used a large piece of paper and drew a large square the size I wanted my pillow to finish at...20". I showed my son the picture of the pillow in Pottery Barn's catalog and asked if he could draw me some coral like that. He divided my 20" square into 4 squares to help him get the scale right. It took him about an hour and this is how it turned out.

I knew the micro fiber suede would not fray too much and so I decided to use an iron on adhesive. As you can see, I got this one at my local thrift store for a whole .25 cents.

The HeatnBond is see through enough that I was able to lay it on top of the drawing my son made and trace the coral shapes onto the paper side of the HeatnBond.

Following the manufacturers directions I ironed the HeatnBond onto the back side of my fabric.

After cutting out all the coral shapes with a sharp pair of scissors I peeled off the paper backing.

Using the original drawing my son made, I carefully placed all the coral pieces on a piece of off white fabric that I cut 21x21 inches square. I used a few pins here and there to keep it from shifting as I ironed it to the pillow fabric.

Once the coral was set on the front of my pillow fabric I finished constructing the pillow like this:

So as I already said, I cut my pillow front 1" bigger than the finished size (20"), I cut it 21x21". But since we're adding a 1/2 inch mitered flange to frame out the pillow, we can not do the zipper at the very bottom of the pillow. The zipper will land slightly above the mitered flange at the bottom of the back of the pillow. Cut your back 21x21" (the same size as the front) Then cut another piece 21x2".

You can use a store bought zipper, but I always use zipper by the yard, so my instructions will be using zipper by the yard. And since I'm using zipper by the yard, I will need 2 zipper stops. I make them out of fabric so I'm never stitching across the zipper teeth with my sewing machine needle (which will dull the needle)

My zipper stops are about 2 1/2" long by about 1" wide.

Here's what my zipper components look like:

Fold under 1/2" on one of the zipper stop and lay it on your zipper end by 1/2". Stitch right next to both sides of the zipper teeth.

Leave the other end of the zipper free for now.

Place the long edge of the small back piece right side down on the zipper aligning it with the edge of the zipper tape.

Stitch close to the zipper teeth. Pause 3-4 inches from the end. Fold under 1/2" on remaining zipper stop and line it's raw edge up with the pillow end. Cut the zipper off allowing 1/2" to go past folded end of zipper stop.

Slip the zipper stop under the pillow back piece against zipper and finish stitching to the end. When you open it up, it should look like this.

Add your zipper slide to the zipper.

Now once you have your slide on your zipper, slide it down to the center of the zipper.

Place the other back pillow piece along the other side aligning it with the zipper tape. Stitch close to the zipper teeth.

Lay it out flat right side up and then fold the fabric over the teeth of the zipper to form an overlapped zipper. Your fold should just go slightly beyond the zipper teeth, just enough to cover the zipper teeth.

Line the right side of your zipper foot up with the left side of the zipper teeth and stitch.

With wrong sides together, lay your pillow front on top of your pillow back, lining up the edges. The top edge on your back piece may be a little bigger. Trim the excess off.

Cut 2" wide strips of your coral fabric to use as the mitered flange frame. I cut 2 of these the width of my fabric x 2".

Lay one strip face down on the front of your pillow extending the strip past the starting pillow edge. Start stitching 1/2" from the beginning corner using a 1/2" seam allowance.

Stitch to the end stopping 1/2" from the corner. Back stitch and remove from the machine.

Using a clear ruler, make small marks on the strip at 1/2", 1", and 1 1/2".

Hopefully your clear ruler has 45 degree angles on it. Line the 45 degree angle up with the long edge of your strip and draw a line to the 1" mark on your strip. The line you see going across my strip is not the 45 degree line, it is the 30 degree angel line. ( Didn't want you to get confused on where to line up that line)

Fold the strip slightly beyond the point of the "V" and pin. Notice my lines do not go all the way to the edge of the strips. Pin. Stitch through both layers following the "V" and not stitching beyond it.

Turn the corner of your pillow and starting right where the stitching of the "V" ended, stitch the strip to your second edge of the pillow.

Again, stop your stitching a 1/2" from the end, back stitch and remove from the machine. At this corner you will probably need to join the other strip. Although your strip may be long enough to go around the corner, it probably isn't long enough to make it to the next corner, so we will put our seam here where it will never show.

Draw your 3 marks at the 1/2", 1", and 1 1/2" again. And again, draw your "V". Trim the strip about 1/4" past the point of the "V". Seam your next strip to this strip using a 1/4" seam allowance.

Stitch your "V", trim the seam allowance to 1/8". Turn the corner and continue on like this around all 4 corners.

Once you have sewn your strips around all 4 edges, trim the seam allowance along the "V" to 1/8" also.

Turn the strip right side out, pushing the points of those "V"s out to make a nice sharp point.

Press the corners flat along your pillow edge. You will begin to see the mitered edge taking shape.

I had to trim my seam allowance around my pillow to 3/8" because my fabrics had so much bulk that folding this mitered flange to the back was getting too bulky.

On the back side of your pillow, turn under 1/2" along the remaining strip edge and pin all along your pillow.

Hand stitch this edge to the pillow back, making sure your stitches do not show on the front.

Stuff your pillow with a pillow fill and you are finished!!!

What do you think? Not so hard huh?!

The most challenging part about this pillow is the mitered flange and even that wasn't so hard once it is broken up into steps.

Roman Shades with a Shaped Bottom

noreply@blogger.com (Sew Passionate) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 11:30:00 +0000

A couple weeks ago I shared a picture of a Roman shade I made with a shaped bottom, I promised a tutorial and here it is.

Shaped Roman Shades take longer to make than regular Romans, but they are totally worth it!

I construct them completely different then regular Romans, so if you're looking for a tutorial for regular Romans I don't suggest this one. I'll do a tutorial for those soon.

First you have some decision making to do.

1. Will your shade be mounted inside the window frame or outside the molding?

2. What shape do you want for the bottom of your shade?

You can do any shape you want as long as you can draw it. I do not suggest shapes with sharp corners, but they are do-able. Keep in mind that the cut out parts of your shade will expose the bottom part of your window when they are completely lowered. I usually add a few extra inches to the bottom of the shade and allow it to hang down below the bottom of the window sill.

Here's the shape we are doing today.

Unfortunately my drawing on the computer is not as good as my drawing with actual pencil and paper, but you get the drift .

Now that you have measured your window and decided what shape to do, lets figure our cuts and draw our pattern shape.

To cut the face of your roman, add 4" to the finished width and 7" to the length. This number already includes extra to hang past the bottom of your window because of the cut outs.

To cut your lining, cut the width the exact finished width of your shade and add 9 1/2" to the length.

Cut a Facing out of your face fabric. Cut this facing 2" wider then your finished width and 8" long.

Now it's time to test your drawing skills. You need to make a pattern piece for your shaped bottom. You'll need a large piece of paper. You can use butcher paper, craft paper, news paper, wrapping paper etc.

Draw a rectangle the width of your finished shade x 8" long. Now add 1" to each side of your finished width.

Since my shape is going to be quarter circles, I decided how far up and over I wanted the cutouts, 3". So I measured up and over from the bottom corners and made marks at 3 inches.

Using a round 6" template, I drew my circle cut outs.

Since you will probably be doing a different shape then mine, here's what I suggest. Once you have your rectangle with the 1" sides added, fold your paper pattern in half width wise and crease the fold well. Draw your shape on only half of the pattern, on either side of the fold line. Once you have half your pattern perfected, fold the paper back along the crease and cut it out. This will ensure both sides are symmetrical.

Set aside the pattern for now.

Step 1. Side Hems- Fold and press double 1" hems along both sides of your face fabric. Lightly pin and set aside.

Step 2. Weight Bar Pocket- With wrong sides of your lining together press a fold 9 1/2" up from the bottom of your lining. Pin. Stitch 1 1/4" from the fold forming a pocket.

Step 3. Joining the lining to the face- Lay the front of your shade right side down on a flat surface. Unpin and open out side hems. Lay lining wrong side down on top of the shade aligning the bottom edges.

Fold the side hems back over the sides and pin. Now lay your facing piece right side down along the bottom edge. Align the 3 layers at the bottom. The facing should extend 1" past the side hems of the face of the shade. Pin through all three layers at the bottom.

Step 4. Making the shaped bottom- Lay your pattern piece down on top of the facing, lining up all the edges. Using a pen or pencil, trace the shape onto the back of your facing piece.

Cut out the shape through all thicknesses of fabric. Make sure you pin it really well to keep the layers from slipping around.

Stitch along the bottom edge 1/2" from the raw edge of your shaped bottom edge. Keep the double side hems of the face folded and pinned and stitch right through them.

TIP: If your shape is really curvy, use a really small stitch length, this helps to make smooth curves.

Clip the corners if any and clip into the curves making sure you do not clip past the stitching.

I clipped into my curves, but you can hardly see it in the picture above.

Step 5. Turning and Pressing- Turn your facing right side out and press really well. Try to press your shape really well. You also want to try to make sure your facing does not show from the front of the shade, but if it does, it won't show too badly because we cut the facing out of the same fabric as the face.

Press under a 1" hem along the top of the facing. This fold should land right below the weight pocket. Press a little more or a little less if needed to get that fold right below the weight pocket.

Fold under and press an inch hem on the sides of the facing. I take mine in slightly from the side edge of my shade to ensure they don't show from the front or side view.

Hand stitch the facing side hems to the back of the shade side hems. Blind stitch the upper edge of the facing to the lining only, making sure you do not catch the face fabric or the weight pocket in your stitches.

Step 6. Marking for rings- Using a clear ruler, make small dots where the rings will be sewn on the back of your shade. The side rings will be 3/4" from the side hem. The first ring at the bottom will be 8" up. I put that bottom ring at 8" from the bottom so that the bottom 3" of the shade will always show when the shade is drawn up. My cutouts are 3" up from the bottom and I want that shape to always show, the additional 5" is where the shade will fold on itself when drawn up. If your shape comes up higher than 3", then add however many inches to 5" and this is where you should place your bottom rings. The rings are spaced every 6" after that going up from the bottom.

Once you have these side ring placement dots marked, pin through the dots diagonally.

Now for the horizontal ring placement. I measure between the lower side dots (should be 1 1/2" less then your finished width) Take this number and divide it until you get a number between 10 and 12. This is how far apart those horizontal rings are going to be. I prefer to keep my rings around 9-10 inches apart.

I use a long metal ruler. I put small pieces of painters tape at every division where a dot should go to help me visually. Lay the ruler level along the bottom ring dots. I lay it just below the dots and mark the dots right at the rulers edge.

See my blue painters tape at every interval where I plan to make a dot? Mark your horizontal dots at these intervals. It doesn't matter if they are not perfectly divided, what matters is that the are the same going all the way up the shade. Once you have the horizontal row of dots made at the bottom row, move up 6" and do the same for the second row and so on.

Step 7. Color coding- If you are using a solid color fabric, you can skip this step. If you are using a patterned fabric with different colors throughout, you will not want your rings sewn on with one color because you don't want your stitching to show and attract the eye. I try to color coordinate my pins to the color of thread each ring will require. For instance, my fabric had 3 colors in it- cream, tan, and grey. So I used white pins to signify the cream parts of the fabric, yellow pins to signify the tan parts and silver pins to signify the grey. I hope you're all still with me! I know it sounds complicated, but it will make sense soon!

At each dot(ring placement) I put a pin through the layers of fabric.

Then I carefully lift up the fabric to see what color it lands on.

The one above landed on the cream part of the fabric, so on the dot side, I knew that I needed to use a white pin to pin diagonally through it. Make sure you pin through both layers.

Put the appropriate pin through all the dots in this manner.

Step 8. Sewing the rings-I know there are tapes available out there that have rings already sewn on them, but I don't recommend them. I recommend using individual rings. You want to be careful if you buy plastic ones that they are UV rated, otherwise they will rot from the sun. If using metal rings, be sure that if you live where there is a lot of moisture that your rings will not rust.

Set your sewing machine to stitch a wide zigzag stitch. Now raise the throat plate on your machine. What this does is it disengages the feed dogs from feeding the fabric through the machine and your zig zag stitch will now go back and forth over and over in the same spot....which is exactly what we want to sew the rings on.

If you have different color pins to stitch, like I do, figure out which color of thread has the most rings to be sewn. Find a matching thread color and wind a full bobbin with this color. Your bobbin thread will be the thread that will show on the front of your shade. Your upper thread should match your lining.

Once you have your machine threaded, prepare the needle so that when it is going to go down, it is going down to the right.

Slide your shade under the presser foot and line up the dot to be centered under the opening on the presser foot. Lower your needle to the right and pause.

Now slip the pin out and place a ring up against the needle.

Stitch over the ring many times. Not so much that on the front side you have this big mound of thread, but not so little that the thread can come undone either. Don't clip the thread, simply raise the presser foot and shift the fabric to the next ring to be sewn and continue attaching rings. This will leave what is called thread tails between the rings. We will cut them when we are all done.

When all of the first thread colored rings are sewn, change your bobbin color and continue to sew the remaining rings.

Once all the rings are sewn, clip the thread tails between the rings.

Step 9. Trim- My shaped Roman has a flat trim that is to be placed 1 1/4" from the edge, so you can skip this step. But if you are deciding to put trim on your shade too, here's how I do it.

With a pencil and clear ruler, draw a faint line 1 1/4" from the straight side edges. Make sure you stop 1 1/4" from the lower shaped edge.

At the curved edge I use a hem gauge to help me form the placement line. I make several small lines each time I measure in from the curved edge with the hem gauge.

After you have several little lines, just connect them like dot to dots.

Now we're ready to glue the trim on. I normally don't glue trims on a lot of my work, I usually top stitch trim. However, top stitching trim at this point would mean stitching through the lining and that would look unprofessional. So glue it is. I use a glue that is specifically meant for gluing trim to fabrics. You can use any fabric glue you wish as long as it dries clear.

Lay a section of trim right side down and run a thin row of glue down each side of the trim edge.

Place the trim right along the pencil placement line you drew. Put a few pins here and there to hold it in place while it dries.

Continue to glue the trim to the side and bottom edges, following the shape. Miter any sharp corners you may have.

Let the glue dry for about 15-20 minutes and then remove the pins.

Step 10. Tabling the Top of the shade-You may have excess fabric in the length of your shade, so now we need to measure and cut off any excess. Finished shade length+extra 3" for the bottom to show+mounting board width=length to cut your shade down to. My shade is to finish at 37 1/2"+3"+1 1/2"=42"

Measure and mark 2-3 times across the top edge. Draw a line and cut the excess off the top. Serge or zig zag across the top edge to keep it from fraying.

Step 11. Mounting-My shade will finish at 30 1/4" wide. I mounted my shade on a 3/4"x3/4" board since it was going to be inside mounted and there was not a lot of room inside the casing of the window. I suggest either a 3/4"x3/4" board or a 1"x2" board. I cut my board 1/4" smaller then the finished width to ensure it will always fit inside the window casing.
Cut a piece of scrap lining a couple inches longer then your board and wide enough to wrap around your board. I cut mine 3 3/4"x33 1/4".
Cover your board with the lining following the directions you will find here

Lay your shade face side down and staple the top of the shade to your board, extending the shade 1/8" past the board ends. (because we cut the board 1/4" smaller remember?)

Step 12. Weight bar-I use cafe curtain rods for the weight bars in the bottom of my shades. You could use wood slats, but if moisture is an issue, color from the wood could soak through to your fabric. Cut your weight bar 1" smaller then the width of your shade.

I usually in case my weight bar in a fabric tube made out of scrap lining, but you don't have to do this.
Open out a side hem where the weight bar pocket is and slip the weight bar in the pocket. Fold the side hem back over the shade.

Step 13. Screw eyes and Stringing- Place screw eyes on the under side of your board exactly straight up from the rings on the shade. I usually measure over on the board and make a small dot for screw eye placement.

Once you have all your screw eyes on your board, now it's time to string. First you need to decide which side of the shade you want your pull cord to be.
I start from the opposite side of the pull cord. String your roman shade cord through the bottom ring and thread it up the shade and then through all the screw eyes and back down the side of your shade leaving extra as a tail for the pull cord. Clip a few inches below the bottom ring.

Continue stringing in this manner all the way across your shade. Tie triple knots around the bottom rings and dab with a little bit of glue to ensure they will never come untied.

Step 14. Finishing the Shade- Now hold your shade up with the lining facing you and pull the shade up and down getting the slack out of the cords. Knot the cords together an inch or two below the last screw eye. My picture shows a lock cleat instead of a screw eye because the client wanted them to lock, but I don't suggest beginners mess with lock cleats. Even I have a hard time getting them strung correctly sometimes.

Separate your cords and braid. I had 4 cords, so my three braiding sections had 1 cord on the sides and two cords in the middle.

When you get to within 4" of the ends of the cord, knot again and trim the bottoms of the cords evenly.

Your dabs of glue on the knots at the bottom rings should be dry by now, go back and clip close to the knots.

If your shade is wrinkled at all, give it a good pressing.
You're ready to mount your shade to your window. For inside mount- screw directly through the shade board up into the top casing. For outside mount-attach small "L" brackets above your window, set the shade on top of the "L" brackets and screw through the "L" bracket into the bottom of your shade board.
You'll need to attach a cord cleat to the side of the wall or window frame to tie your cord around when it is drawn up.

Your new roman shade will not draw up and down perfectly the first several times. I suggest drawing it up, straightening out all the folds and leaving it drawn up for several days. Fabric has memory and it will eventually start to remember where it is suppose to fold when drawn up.

Here's what my finished shade looked like. This one was for a client, so I don't have a picture of it installed in the window.

Beautiful huh?!

I know some of the supplies that are needed for making these might not be readily available for you to find, so here's a few places I found to purchase them.

Repairing and Adding Shells to a Summer Straw Bag

noreply@blogger.com (Sew Passionate) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 13:48:00 +0000

Hope everyone had a fabulous Easter!

With all the sunshine and warm weather we're having I have really been getting the summer bug!

Recently I did my winter/summer wardrobe swap. That's where I pack up all the heavy winter sweaters and boots and bring out all the swim suits and summer accessories. Am I the only one that doesn't have enough closet and drawer space to keep all my clothes in the closet year round?

Anyways, I have several straw summery purses that I love for spring and summer. I forgot how badly worn this one had become last summer before I packed it away.

All four corners were damaged like this. I was about to throw it out when I realized I really like this straw purse and it was paining me to part with it. So I decided to add some binding to the top edge to prolong it's life. Although it looked just fine with the newly bound edge, I decided to add some shells to the top edge as well.

If you have a summery straw bag that needs some repair or you just want to add some shells, here's how I did it.

First I dug through my scrap fabric bin and found a color that I thought complimented the the purse. My scrap wasn't very wide, so I had to cut 2 bias strips in order to have enough to go all the way around the top edge. Hopefully you will have enough to cut one continuous strip. I cut my bias strip 2 1/2" wide.

If you're not familiar with how to cut fabric on the bias, I've done a tutorial in the past that you can find here.

Since my bias strips were so short I had to seam two strips together.

I pressed my seam open. Then I pressed my bias strip in half lengthwise.

Open out the bias strip and fold under 1/2" on both long raw edges.

Place the center fold over the edge of your bag and pin the edge along outside of the bag.

Using strong thread, hand sew this edge to the straw bag, going all the way through the bag. Straw is pretty soft and I did not have any problems getting the needle through it.

I joined my seam at one of the corners. I left a 1/2" seam allowance and I hand sewed the seam making small close together stitches.

After you have the banding stitched to the front of the bag, wrap the remainder to the inside of the bag and pin about every 4".

Hand stitch this inside edge making your stitches about every 3/8".

This is what the edge looked like when I was finished putting the banding on.

I decided to add shells to the top edge like a fringe. The shells I used were off a shell necklace I picked up at a thrift store. I took the necklace apart and used the shells for this project. The nice part was the shells were already pre-drilled with holes.

I used a heavy clear fishing line, you definitely don't want to use a cotton thread for this because the shells will wear away at the thread and it will break. I placed the shells about every 1/2".

Easy huh?!

How To Make A Pattern For Outdoor Chairs

noreply@blogger.com (Sew Passionate) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 03:51:00 +0000

With summer quickly approaching you can hardly open a Pottery Barn or a Ballard Designs catalog without seeing a wide array of outdoor furniture and cushions.

Pottery Barn

Ballard Designs

You can order outdoor cushions from these catalogs, but with the prices, I prefer to make my own. Plus if you make your own you can make them custom to fit your furniture.
Here's how I make patterns for cushions.
What you'll need:
Paper (newspaper, tissue paper, wrapping paper) any paper that is large enough to cover the area of the cushion you want to make.
Ink Pen
Clear Ruler
Hem Gauge

Lay your paper on the seat of the chair. Make sure you have at least 1/2" extra around all the edges.

Push the pattern paper into the corners and crease along the edges. Using a pen or pencil trace all along the crease edge and along the front of the chair.

The paper may try to wrinkle up at the curved areas, just try to keep it as smooth as possible.

I also like to take the measurements too. My measurements were 18"x18".

No matter how carefully you traced your pattern, it usually won't come out symmetrical. So here's my little trick to getting the pattern symmetrical. Fold your pattern in half lengthwise. Put a pin in the front corner and line it up with the other front corner.

Using a couple more pins align the sides and top.

Lift the folded paper and check to make sure you are pinning with the pattern lines lined up. Don't worry if they all don't line up perfectly, that's what we are correcting with this process.

Once you have the straight edges lined up, use a pin to punch holes through the pattern along the lines you traced. I use a Tpin because it makes a larger hole and makes it easier to see.

Unpin and unfold your pattern and you will be able to see where one or both sides of the pattern need adjusting.

In my case, the rounded upper corners were off by quite a bit and I decided I wanted to go with the sharper corner, so I refolded my pattern and flipped it over and poked holes this time tracing the sharper corner.

Using a ruler, trace over the straight edges to make nice clean straight pattern lines.

Once you have your straight edges drawn, freehand the rounded edges following the holes you punched. I usually cross out the bad line so I don't get them confused.

Using a clear ruler, add 1/2" seam allowances to the straight edges.

I use a hem gauge to make small marks around the curved edges for the seam allowance.

Then just connect the these small marks, kind of like dot to dots.

Cut your pattern out and label it with any important information.

Now you have an accurate pattern to make cushions for your outdoor furniture.

Roman Shade with a Shaped Bottom

noreply@blogger.com (Sew Passionate) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 12:47:00 +0000

Hope everyone is having a great day on this beautiful spring morning! I usually do a tutorial on the projects I share, but this is one I did before I started my blog. I don't always get the opportunity to see my work after it is installed, but I'm doing some additional work for this house and was there last week. I'm really pleased with the way it came out. The designer who hired me to make this is really talented and she is my favorite to sew for. She always adds interesting details that make her projects fun to sew and anything but boring.

Isn't it adorable?! I love the graceful lines this designer chose and the tassels give it that finished detail!
The similar lines of the valance are a perfect topper for this window.

I'll be making some more shaped Roman Shades for this designer this week, I'll try to do a tutorial and break it down in simple steps.

Ottoman Slipcover

noreply@blogger.com (Sew Passionate) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 11:07:00 +0000

Slipcovers are very popular and many people love them for their versatility. They can transform old worn out furniture into fresh updated eye catching pieces that can easily steal the spotlight in any room of the house. They can be easily laundered which makes them a lifesaver for people with small children and pet owners. If you have a love of slipcovers like I do and have always wanted to make your own, then follow along as I start a series of slipcover tutorials.
If you plan to machine wash your slipcover, then you want to make sure you purchase fabric that is machine washable. Before you start your slipcover you must preshrink your fabric. I always suggest washing 5 yards at a time. If you wash anymore than that the fabric will rub against itself and abrade. So if your slipcover requires 15 yards of fabric, measure out 5 yards, cut it off the roll and wash. Then you can do 2 more loads of 5 yards each. If possible, roll the fabric back on the cardboard tube immediately after you remove it from the dryer. If you plan to wash your slipcover in hot water, then preshrink your slipcover in hot water. Dry it on the hottest setting you will be drying your slipcover on.

For today's tutorial I will be slip covering an ottoman. This ottoman is for a friend of mine that is remodeling her RV. If you read my butterfly balloon shade tutorial, this is for the same RV and I was able to get some pics of the almost finished interior.
Most ottomans will take 4 yards or less of fabric depending on the size of the ottoman and the skirt style you choose. Today's ottoman is large and has a box pleated skirt with contrasting insets. In fact we used 5 different fabrics on this ottoman so the yardage varied.
Here's the ottoman we are slip covering.

Since ottomans are not perfectly square or rectangle I do not just measure the top. They have to be formed to fit the top so I pin fit the whole ottoman.
The first step in any slipcover is to block the fabric to the furniture. This means cutting a piece of fabric larger then the area it is to cover and pinning it to the furniture with T pins. If you aren't familiar with T pins, here's what those look like.

Cut a piece of fabric for the top, cut it 3-4" bigger in each direction. Position it on the top of the ottoman and T pin it.

Since the fabric being used for the top of this ottoman is a dark brown fur, it is hard to see the T pins. But pin your fabric in each corner and along any log edges. You don't want the fabric to shift on you in the middle of pinning.
Now measure the side boxing of the ottoman and cut strips that are 2-3" wider and longer then each boxing side. Tpin them to each boxing side.

Following the curve of the corner, using regular pins, pin the boxing sections together at the corners. You want the pins close to each other.

After you have all four corners pinned, using sharp scissors trim these seams down to a 1/2".

I cut small notches in these seam allowances so I will be able to match them up easily when it's time to sew them. I cut the notches of each corner in a little bit different spot and if need be I put 2 notches to easily identify a specific corner.

Now pin the top ottoman fabric to the boxing fabric in the same manner. Keep the fabric taught, but don't stretch it too much. Pin fairly close, 2" apart should be good, but you can put your pins closer if you like. I pin from the top because I can see if I'm following the shape of the top correctly, but here's a view from the bottom since the pins were hard to see with the fur fabric.

After you have the top pinned all the way around, trim this down to a 1/2" seam allowance also. Again cut small notches in the seam allowance every so often to help you figure out what pieces fit together. It's kind of like forming puzzle pieces, the notches are going to help you decipher what pieces match up when it's time to sew them.

If your ottoman is going to be on carpet, measure the skirt on carpet. If your ottoman is going to be on a hard floor surface measure it on a hard floor. Using a ruler, measure how high up you want the skirt.

My skirt is going to be 11" long, so I subtracted 1/2" for seam allowance and marked around all 4 sides of the boxing at 10 1/2". My tailors chalk was not showing up well, so I use an ink pen. I often use an ink pen when marking stuff, because I'm confident in my marks. But since you are a beginner, I don't recommend using an ink pen.

Using a ruler connect these 10 1/2" marks you've made all around the bottom of the boxing. Cut along this line.
You're ready to remove all the pins and Tpins and begin the sewing.

Make enough welt cord to go around the top of the boxing and the bottom of the boxing. The welt for this ottoman was a stripe. You can find my instructions for cutting and making welt cord here. Make sure you cut your fabric strips on the bias for the welt cord, it just lays so much better.

Starting at the center of one side of your top piece, extending the welt 1/2" before you start stitching, stitch the welt to the top of the ottoman.

When you have sewn the welt all around the top and you are approaching your starting point, stop with the needle down approx 3" from the center. Cut the welt an inch or so past the beginning welt edge.

Open up the seam allowance and fold under 1/2". Lay this under the starting welt and trim the cord filler so it will butt up to the beginning welt.

Wrap the ending welt fabric over the beginning welt cord and finish stitching.

Boxing- Match up all four side of your boxing and stitch these seams. If you notched them well, you should have no problem figuring out which ones fit together.

Once you have all your boxing pieces sewn together, pin and stitch them to the ottoman top. Again, follow your notches. Stitch close to the welt cord edge. Sorry, I didn't get a picture of this step. Clip the seam allowances of the boxing to go around the corners just like you did with the welt cord.

Directly down from where you started and stopped your welt on the top of your ottoman, start your welt at the bottom of the boxing.

Attach the welt all the way around finishing off the end like you did with the previous welt.

Place the slipcover top on your ottoman to make sure it fits right. See if there are any adjustments you need to make and make them.

Skirt- My skirt for this ottoman was complicated! It was a box pleat with contrasting inserts. I thought I had measured and figured all my skirt pieces accurately and when I went to pin it to the bottom of the slipcover, it was not lining up right. I had to fudge it a little. You can add whatever skirt style you want to your ottoman. I will attempt to give instructions for this skirt, but it may be confusing.

Measure and jot down all four boxing widths. My long edges were 50" and my short edges were 32". My friend wanted her box pleats to be approx. 4" wide and the contrast insets to be approx. 2" wide. So each pleat and it's contrast would take up 6" of space. Divide your edge by the 6", which told me I would have 8 box pleats on each long edge and 5 box pleats on my short edges.
I wanted the pleats to fold back under 2", so for the front of the box pleats I cut my pieces 9".(4" front+2" fold back+2" fold back+1" for two 1/2" seam allow)
For the contrast inserts, I cut them 7"(2" to show between box pleats+2" fold back+2" fold back+1" two 1/2" seam allow)
To figure the length of your skirt pieces and how to construct the skirt with lining, refer to my box pleat bed skirt tutorial here.
Pin your box pleats to the bottom of the boxing and stitch close to the welt.
Turn and press the pleats in really well.
Here's what mine looks like all finished.

Cute huh! My friend was very happy with it and it looks adorable in their newly remodeled RV!

Mitered Stripe Pillow Tutorial

noreply@blogger.com (Sew Passionate) — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 12:08:00 +0000

I know some of you aren't feeling the spring weather yet, but here in California we have had some really nice spring days. Spring always brings out a certain excitement within me. It means warmer days are ahead. So I've been sprucing up the garden and preparing for the long warm days I enjoy so much. One of the things I'm re-doing is my outdoor pillows and cushions. I usually change them out every year because I get bored and restless with them. Last years colors were browns and greens, this years colors are whites and blues.

I popped in a local thrift store the other day and found 3 of these fabric samples for 25 cents each. Heck with the fabric only costing .75 cents I can switch my pillows out often.

I knew instantly that I would use these striped fabric samples to make a mitered pillow. I'm sure you guys have all seen pictures of these in magazines and catalogs. So here's a tutorial for mitered stripe pillows.

First you have to decide on the size you want your pillow. I decided to make my pillow 20"x20"

I made my pattern from some brown craft paper, you might want to use wax paper or parchment paper. Any paper that you can see through. Simply tape a few sheets together.
On your pattern paper using a ruler, draw a square the finished size of your pillow. Now add 1/2" seam allowance around your pillow. Next draw 2 lines diagonally from corner to corner. This should give you 4 triangles. We're going to focus on just one of these triangles to use as our pattern.

Once you have your 4 triangles like the diagram above, add 1/2" seam allowance to the outside edge of your triangle pattern. Cut this triangle out along the red cutting line, it is the only pattern piece you will need. You can discard the rest of the drawing.
Lay your pattern piece on your striped fabric until you have the stripes you want featured. Keep in mind that your seams will take up 1/2" and plan your stripes accordingly.

Since I could see through my paper, it made lining up the stripes straight really easy. If you need to, trace the stripes of your fabric onto your pattern to help unsure you cut all 4 triangles out with the stripes landing in the exact same place on your pattern piece. Cut 4 triangles.

Once you have all 4 triangles cut out, lay one on top of the other lining the stripes up exactly.

I place pins right at the stripes to keep the fabric from shifting on me as I stitch it.

Stitch carefully keeping the stripes aligned.

Repeat this step with the other 2 triangles. While I'm still at the sewing machine, I always open out my fabric to check and make sure the stripes stayed lined up.

Now you should have 2 large triangles. Press the seams open and pin these two triangles together matching the stripes again.

Stitch carefully making sure everything lines up nicely. Mine did not line up perfectly the first time as the picture below shows.

So I took out a few inches of stitching and gave it a second try. When you have all the stripes lined up, press this seam open as well.

Your pillow front is ready for you to finish constructing the rest of the pillow. You can find instructions for finishing the pillow here.
Here's what mine turned out like.

I decided to add a covered button to the middle of mine.

Box Pleat Bed Skirt

noreply@blogger.com (Sew Passionate) — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 13:07:00 +0000

A month or so back I had received a request for a tutorial on Box Pleat Bed Skirts, so here it is. If anyone else has something they want to learn to make, shoot me an e-mail and I will gladly oblige.

This bed skirt was for a designers client, so I don't have pictures of it on the bed. It was for a day bed and required split corners to accommodate the bed frame.

Always measure the box spring itself, not the mattress, their sizes can vary slightly. This day bed measured 71x39"and was to have a 17" long skirt.
Here's the basic anatomy of this bed skirt and the box pleat divisions.

Notice all of my box pleats are not going to be the same width. That's OK, this small difference won't matter. Also notice I make a flap out of lining to hang down the back edge of the day bed. If you are making this for a regular bed, you will omit this flap and simply do a hem along the head of the lining deck.

There's going to be a lot of math to figure your cuts, but follow carefully and it won't be hard.

The first thing you will cut is the deck. This is cut out of lining, but you can cut it out of an old sheet. The deck is what goes between the mattress and the box spring. Just add a 1/2" seam allowance to all sides, so I cut mine 72"x40".
If you are making this for a day bed like I am, then cut your flap out of lining too. Add 1" to each side for a small hem allowance and make it a little shorter than the height of the bed skirt. I cut mine 73"x15".

Now to figure the cuts for our box pleats for all three sides. First off, I number my cuts starting from the left side of the bed and working my way around to the right side of the bed. This helps when it is time to sew all these box pleat pieces together. It helps ensure I don't sew them out of order. You can either write directly on the fabric up in the right hand corner(inside the seam allowance) or sometimes I use painters tape to number my pieces.
My left side of my bed skirt is 39" wide. As the diagram above shows I will be making my box pleats 9 3/4" wide. The fabric I used was slightly wider then 54" wide which was good because some of my pieces were 56" wide. I made my pleats 2 1/2" deep.
Cut 1- 3"(double 1 1/2" hem allow.)+5 (2 1/2"+2 1/2" which makes up one half of a pleat)+9 3/4"(pleat front)+10"(2 1/2"+2 1/2"+2 1/2"+2 1/2" which equals a whole pleat)+ 9 3/4"(pleat front)+8 (which makes up 3/4 of a pleat plus seam allow 2 1/2"+2 1/2"+2 1/2"+1/2")=45 1/2" This is how wide you will cut piece 1 of your box pleat skirt. We'll figure the length of these cuts in a bit.
Cut 2- 3"(1/4 of a pleat plus 1/2" seam allow)+9 3/4"(front of pleat)+10(whole pleat)+9 3/4"(pleat front)+5"(half of pleat)+3"(double 1 1/2" side hem)=40 1/2"
Those are the 2 cuts for the left side of this day bed skirt. Now for the front of the day bed, remember these pleat fronts will be different sizes.
Cut 3-3"(double 1 1/2" side hem allow)+5"(half of a pleat)+10 1/4"(pleat front)+10"(whole pleat)+10 1/4"(pleat front)+8"(3/4 of a pleat plus 1/2" seam allow)=46 1/2"
Cut 4- 3"(1/4 of a pleat)+10"(pleat front)+10"(whole pleat)+10"(pleat front)+10"(whole pleat)+10"(pleat front)+3"(1/4 of a pleat plus 1/2" seam allow)=56"....this is the cut that if my fabric was only 54" wide I would not have been able to cut it. I would have had to make an extra cut to accommodate my fabric width.
Cut 5- 8"(3/4 of a pleat)+10 1/4"(pleat front)+10"(whole pleat)+10 1/4"(pleat front)+5"(half a pleat)+3"(double 1 1/2" side hem)=46 1/2".
Those are the cuts for the front of this bed skirt. Now for the left side pieces.
Cut 6- 3"(double 1 1/2" side hem)+5"(half a pleat)+9 3/4"(pleat front)+10"(whole pleat)+9 3/4"(pleat front)+8"(3/4 of a pleat plus seam allow)=45 1/2"
Cut 7- 3"(1/4 of a pleat plus seam allow)+9 3/4"(pleat front)+10"(whole pleat)+9 3/4"(pleat front)+5"(1/4 of a pleat)+3"(double 1 1/2" side hem allow)=40 1/2"

Whew! I hope after a while you could see and understand the series of the cuts and why they end up the size they do. Your bed is not going to be the same size as mine, so it's important that you understand how the pleats and the fronts are joined together so you can figure your own cuts.

Now we have to figure the length of our cuts. Since my bed skirt is going to finish at 17" long, and I wrap my face fabric to the back by 2", this is how I figure my cut lengths.

I also add a banding to the top of my deck out of the face fabric. This banding keeps the white lining from ever showing if the bed skirt shifts. So cut 5 pieces the width of your face fabric by 3" long.

All the math and cutting is done, now we can begin to sew!

Step1- Stitch your bed skirt pieces together. Since mine has split corners I will not sew them all together. Instead I will sew pieces 1&2 together, then 3,4 &5 together, then 6&7 together. But if you don't have split corners, all your pieces will be stitched together to make a really long strip.
Stitch all your lining pieces together to make one really long strip.
Stitch all your banding pieces together to make another really long strip.

Step 2- Pressing- I try to do as much pressing as possible every time I go to my pressing station. Press the skirt seams open. Also press your skirt lining seams open. If you're doing a day bed like me and you have a flap, press double 1/2" side hems. Press the banding seams open and the press 1/2" up along one of the long edges.

Step 3- Stitching the skirt fronts to the skirt lining. With right sides together, stitch the bottom edge of your skirt fronts to the bottom edge of the skirt lining using 1/2" seam allowance.
And since you're at the sewing machine, top stitch the side hems of the flap. And set it a side for now.

Step 4- More pressing- Lay your skirt/lining right side down on your pressing surface and press the seam allowances towards the lining. Then bring the top edge of the lining up to meet the top edge of the face fabric, wrong sides together. Pin along the raw edges up top and press the bottom hem nice and crisp.

Once you have that upper edge all pinned together, it's time to press the side hems. I obviously have a lot more side hems to press since my bed skirt has split corners. If yours doesn't have split corners you will only have 2 side hems to press. Press up double 1/2" side hems. I press up 3" first, then open it up and fold my edge to the first crease line and press again. I also press the very bottom corner of these side hems up diagonally, this helps take the bulk out of the bottom corner of our hemmed edge.

Step 5- Using a blind stitch, sew the side hems of the skirt.

Step 6- Attaching the skirt to the deck
I round the corners of my decks because box springs have rounded corners and we want this to fit really nice. I use a 5 1/2" circle template to round my corners. Just draw it on the deck corners making a slight mark where the exact corner is and cut out around the curve.

With wrong sides together, pin your skirt to your deck. Yes, I said wrong sides together. Pin in all your pleats and 1/2 pleats. If they are off a little, you can fudge your pleat depth a little, no one will ever know.

Once you have your skirt pinned to the deck and in my case my flap pinned too, lay the banding on top with the right side down. Turn under 1/2 at the beginning of your banding. Stitch using 1/2" seam allowance. When you get to the end, cut off any excess banding allowing 1/2" to under at this edge too.

Step 7- Top stitching banding. Open out your deck and skirt and push the banding over the right side of the deck. Top stitch close to the folded edge.

Step 8- Final Pressing. Give your bed skirt a good final pressing. Be sure to press those box pleats nice and crisp.

Bolster Pillow- Button Tufted with Flat Ends

noreply@blogger.com (Sew Passionate) — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 16:54:00 +0000

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend! I've been busy in my workroom sewing up a storm for my favorite designer. Which means I have a new tutorial to share.

A Bolster Pillow with Covered Button Tufted Flat Ends.

Isn't it adorable! It's not quite as easy as the other bolsters I have shown, but it is still a pretty easy pillow to make.

I made two of these for my designer. They are for the sides of a daybed. The daybed measured 71x38, so these bolsters were made 38" long and 9" high.

What you'll need:

1 yd of fabric per bolster

1/4 yd contrasting fabric for the ends

zipper or zipper by the yard

thread

2 button forms or large buttons

2 yds of upholstery batting

As always, we have to do our math first.

If the diameter of our finished end circle is 9", then we need to multiply that by pi (3.14) which equals roughly 28 1/4". So it will take 28 1/4" to go around our bolster. Now we need to add our zipper allowance. I add 1 1/2", so we need to have 29 3/4" to go around the circle and accommodate our zipper.

Since I made this bolster to be 38" long, we need to add 1/2" seam allowance to both ends. (38=1/2"=1/2"+=39")

So we will be cutting our main piece 39" wide x 29 3/4" long.

Next we need to cut our two circle ends. Add 1/2" seam allowance all the way around, so we need to cut two 10" circles.

In order to cut circles, you can trace a plate if you have one that measures 10" exactly.

Cut and sew approx. 60" worth of welt cord. See how to cut and cover welt cord here.

Mark the center bottoms of your circles with a small clip into the fabric. Laying your welt 1/2" past that clip mark, start sewing at the clip mark. Use a zipper foot to get close to the welt cord edge. Clip into the seam allowance of your welt about every 3/4" or so to accommodate the curve of the circle.

When you're almost all the way around the circle pause with your needle down and extend the welt 1" past the starting welt. Cut the welt 1" past the starting welt. Open the seam allowance of the welt 2". Turning under 1/2 of the fabric that covers the welt and placing it under your starting welt. Now cut off the ending welt filler cord even with your starting welt. fold the fabric welt cover over the starting welt cord and finish stitching to join the welt cord. Sorry I forgot to get pictures of this whole process on this pillow, but you can see pictures of the process on my Fan Fold Pillow tutorial here.

Once you have the welt cord stitched to both the circle ends, it's time to insert the zipper.

I always serge or finish the edges that are going to be sewn along my zipper. You'd hate to have the fabric fray and then get those fabric threads caught up in your zipper. So serge your 39" long edges.

I use zipper by the yard. It is easier and more economical. I buy mine from Rowley who only distributes to the trade, but you can do a web search to find it retail.

Out of scraps of fabric, I cut what I call my zipper stops. I cut these 1 1/8" wide by 3-4" long. Fold under 1/2" of your zipper stop and lay it on top of your zipper end. Stitch back and forth alongside the zipper teeth.

Now stitch alongside the other side of the zipper teeth. This acts as a zipper stop and will not allow your zipper to unzip past this point. One benefit of doing it this way is you don't have to stitch across the zipper teeth which can dull and sometimes break your needle.

Lay one edge of your 39" long edges on top of the zipper. Right sides together. Stitch along this edge close to the zipper teeth and stopping approx 4" from the end.

Once you've paused with your needle down, lay your 2nd zipper stop next to the zipper and fold under 1/2" of the zipper stop and see where that lines up with the zipper. Cut your zipper here. Your zipper should extend 1/2" under your zipper stop and your zipper stop should align with the end of your pillow length.

Once you cut your zipper, lay your zipper stop under the fabric against the zipper and stitch the rest of the way.

Turn your zipper and fabric right side up. It should look like this.

Push your fabric slightly over the zipper teeth and give it a finger pressing to form a fold. This will be your zipper flap.

With your zipper foot between the zipper teeth and your stitching, stitch along this edge.

Separate the zipper teeth a little at the open end and slide your zipper slide on.

We won't stitch that other edge of the zipper just yet. We'll do that after we are sure our pillow matches up after sewing around the circle.

Lay your end on top of your first end/circle piece. Line the end of the zipper up with the center bottom of the circle. Start stitching an inch or so away from the center bottom. Stitch as close to the welt as possible.

Clip into the seam allowance every 3/4" just like you did when you stitched the welt to the circle.

When you get about an inch and a half from the zipper, stop stitching and see how this end is going to line up with the seam allowance of the zipper. Mine was slightly short, so I took a smaller seam allowance when stitiching the re maining edge to the remaining edge of the zipper.

Once you have it lined up and you can see how big your seam allowance needs to be, remove the pillow from the machine.

Push the zipper flap out of the way and stitch the remaining serged edge to the remaining zipper edge. Since my fabric was a stripe, I took great care to make sure the stripes were lining up perfectly on each side of the zipper.

Now, push the zipper flap back over the zipper and stitch the remaining 2" or so at the bottom of the circle.

Line up the center of the zipper with the center bottom of the 2nd circle and stitch. again stitching as close to the welt as possible and clipping into the seam allowance to accommodate the curve.

Turn right side out and you are ready to stuff and tuft.

If you are using covered buttons like I did, cover your buttons now and set aside. I haven't done a tutorial on covered buttons yet, but I know there are other blogs that have covered this with good directions.

This particular designer has me stuff her bolsters with upholstery batting, especially if they are going to be tufted. There are all kinds of fills you can use, foam, down feathers, polyfil etc. But the batting fill keeps it's round shape unlike feathers and is easy to tuft unlike foam and polyfil. Upholstery batting is a thick batting. It can be purchased at upholstery supply shops.

I cut my batting 38" and rolled it up until I had a 10" tall circle. Our bolster is only 9", but we need that extra 1" to fill out our pillow completely and to ensure we don't end up with a baggy fit.

Once you have your batting figured and cut, unroll it and lay two strands of tufting twine (or very strong thread) across the batting and roll up the batting again with the twine in the very center. Make sure there are several inches of twine hanging out each end. Staple the end of your batting down.

Just to ensure my ends of the bolster get a really good pouf at the tufted ends, I add a circle of batting to the end of the batting fill. Trace two circles using the end of your batting roll as a guide and cut them out.

Fold your circles in fourths and make a dot in the center.

Using a large needle with a LARGE eye, thread your tufting threads onto the needle and insert through he middle of the batting circle.

Staple the edges of the circle to the edges of the bolster fill, all around the circle.

Find the exact center of your pillow circles and pin a pin there. Re-thread the needle with the two twine ends at one end of your batting fill. Stuff the first end of your batting fill in one end of the pillow. Reach in and poke your needle through the pillow end at the center. Attach your button with a triple knot.

Stuff the batting fill the rest of the way in your bolster. Push the seam allowances towards the long part of the pillow. I just think it looks better when the seam allowances are pushed in that direction. Thread your needle again with the twine sticking out of the other end of your fill. Reach in again and poke the needle through the center of the 2nd circle.

Sometimes i use needle nose pliers to pull the needle through. Be careful though, I stuck myself with the needle doing this pillow and didn't know it until I saw a speck of blood on the white fabric.

(which I got out with a Qtip and Hydrogen Peroxide)

Zip up your pillow before you knot the other button to the end. I align the seam of the batting with the zipper along the bottom.

Pull on the the twine until you have the buttons pushing in enough. this is a personal preference thing, but if you pull them in too far, your round ends will start to get out of shape.

So here's the finished bolsters for the day bed. I think maybe we should have used a different fabric for the welt, but that's what this designer wanted and she was happy with it.

Slip Covered Chair

noreply@blogger.com (Sew Passionate) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:50:00 +0000

I was blessed to have a wonderful stepfather Don. Don passed away 6 years ago and I miss him terribly! I inherited a chair that belonged to him and before him it belonged to his mother. Don had a love of animals and every picture I have seen of his chair from years pass is with an animal of some sort taking a snooze on this chair. This chair has definitely seen better days, one of the wood arms has permanent teeth impressions from his mothers dog, one of the legs is attached with an "L" bracket...well you get the picture. I would never think of parting with this chair and I like the flaws/history of this chair. Something about this chair attracts animals and my cats snooze on it daily. So every couple years I have to slip cover it. When I saw the Sew-vivor competition, I knew I wanted to slip cover this chair as my entry.

I didn't take pictures as I worked on this chair, so today there is no tutorial. Just posting my newly slip covered cat lovin beaten up chair that I cherish. It's a hard chair to slip cover because there are so many factors like covering the arms and closures etc. I chose a white fabric and trimmed it out with linen colored welt.

For the closures I used Mother of Pearl buttons. The fan fold pleated skirt is accented with 1/2" of contrasting linen along the bottom. I made it just long enough to hide the "L" bracket that holds the leg on but still allows it's curvy legs to show.

Here's a few more pics.

If you have family favorite that has seen better days, slip covering may be a great option. I plan on doing a couple slip cover tutorials in the near future, so stay tuned for those.

Wish me luck in the sew-vivor competition!!

Knotted Corner Pillow

noreply@blogger.com (Sew Passionate) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 14:15:00 +0000

My favorite designer always has some fun and interesting details she has me add to her creations, that's one of the reasons she's my favorite. Her projects are always interesting and fun to work on. Lately she has been on a Knotted Corner Pillow kick and I can see why. Knotted corners on pillows look so cute.

Wouldn't this be cute with a nautical or beachy fabric?
Follow along as I show how to make these knots.

Cut your pillow as you would for a basic pillow. You can find those instructions here: http://sew-passionate.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-to-sew-basic-pillow.html

You're going to need enough lip cord to go all around your pillow plus about 7" per corner.
You're also going to need a cording foot that is slightly smaller then your lip cord.

My lip cord is 1/2" diam. and I'm using a 1/4" cording foot.

Always start lip cord at the center bottom of your pillow front. I just make a small clip in my fabric to mark the center bottom. Extend the cord 1 1/2" past the center point. This extra will be used to join the lip cord.

Stitch on top of the lip cord biting into the actual cord. Stop with your needle down when you get approx. 2" from the corner. Clip into the lip at 1 1/2" from the corner.

Now depending on the diameter of your cord, leave approx. 5 1/2" and then clip into your lip again. You may have to experiment to get this exact measurement right. It all depends on how thick your cord is and how tight you want your knot.

Remove the lip from your cord between these two clips. Sometimes there is a chain stitch and if you find the right thread you can just pull and the stitching simply unravels.
Tie a knot with the cord.

After you've tied your knot, stitch up to the first clip mark and back stitch. Clip the threads and remove from under the foot. Pivot your pillow and put your cording foot at the 2nd clip mark. Back stitch and continue to sew up the next side of your pillow until you get 2" from the next corner and repeat.

There will be an un-stitched area in the corners. We will go back and stitch that later.

Once you've knotted all your corners and you are on the final stretch (bottom) of your pillow, stop stitching with your needle down about 2" from your center mark. Cut your cord 1 1/2"-2" beyond the center clip. Dab both cut ends of cord with glue.

Let the glue dry for about 5 min. Now separate the lip from the cord the last 1 1/2" of each end.

Unravel your cord slightly and lay those three cords flat like this.

Unravel the other end of the cord just enough to sit/butt up against the flattened out cord. Basically you are criss crossing them.

Holding the cord ends in place, stitch over them.

Finish constructing your pillow following "How to Sew a Basic Pillow" link at the beginning of this post.
After you have the zipper and sides stitched together, go back and stitch diagonally across the corners. Be sure not to catch the knots in the stitching.

Trim the corners.

Turn right side out and press. Stuff your pillow.

Sand Dollar Pillow

noreply@blogger.com (Sew Passionate) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 15:28:00 +0000

I love shells! If you don't know this about me yet, I love summer days spent at the beach! And I love surrounding myself all year long with things that remind me of those summer days.
I for one have never been lucky when it comes to finding unbroken shells at the beach, so I purchased the ones I used on this pillow.

Isn't it cute!

Follow along as I make this summer inspired pillow.

What you'll need:
1 yd of burlap, linen or whatever fabric you desire
1/8 yd of off white fabric
4 sand dollars
zipper
thread
pillow fill

My pillows finished size is 19x12

Since the weave of my burlap is loosely woven and I did not want my pillow fill to show through, I double layered my burlap on the front.
Cut 2 @ 20"x13"
Cut 1 @ 21"x14" (I always cut my back piece 1" bigger)
Use scrap to cut 2 zipper stops. 3 1/2"x 1 1/8"
Off White Fabric
Cut 2 @ 13"x3"

Since burlap tends to frey a lot, I serged all around my pillow pieces. I serged my 2 front layers together.

My banding on this pillow is 1 1/2" wide, but I cut my pieces 3" wide so that when I pressed under the long edges it would not leave shading behind it.
Press one long edge of the banding approx 3/4".

Now press the other long edge over to join that edge.

Turn the banding over and make sure it looks straight and uniform.

Measure and pin the banding about 5" in from the sides. I think if I was doing this pillow over again I would have put the banding a little farther over.

Pin it well, cause it might slip around a little when you go to stitch it.

Top stitch close to both long edges.

I hand tacked the sand dollars on after the pillow was completely constructed.
You can find the instruction for finishing the construction of the pillow here: http://sew-passionate.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-to-sew-basic-pillow.html

After you have finished your pillow, place the sand dollars where you want them. I used some painters tape to hold them in place until I could hand stitch them.

I hand stitched them through the 2 holes at 11 and 1 o clock.
Stuff your pillow and you are done!

It's feeling a little like summer at my house already.

Easy Euro Shams with a 3" Flange

noreply@blogger.com (Sew Passionate) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:51:00 +0000

My biggest designer has me working on a job in Beverly Hills. It's a bedding job and since I have been wanting to share how to make Euro Shams with Flanges, it came at the perfect time. Euro Shams are a fabulous part of a bedding ensemble. Often times they have a top stitched flange around the border. The problem with flanges, especially if they are 3" wide is they flop away from the front of the pillow and don't really give the impact they are meant to give. Here are a few examples of floppy flanges:

I'm going to show you how to get rid of the "flop".

Follow along as I make these Easy Euro Shams.
I usually put a zipper closure in my shams, but this designer specifically asked for french closures. So this really is going to be one of the easiest projects for beginner sewers.

Technically Euro Shams are 26"x26". But you can make them whatever size you want. I am making 26"x26" Euro Shams with a 3" flange. Again, you can make your flange whatever size you desire.
Since Euros are so big, I always estimate 2 yds of fabric per sham.
What you'll need:
2 yds of fabric per sham
matching thread
1 yd of lining per sham
1 yd of batting per sham

Lets figure our cuts.

Take a look at the diagram above. We will cut the front of our sham 33"x33" (26"+3"+3"+1"=33")

The second diagram is a view of the back of our pillow. To figure the cuts of our french closure in the back, we take half the pillow 13"+3" flange+1/2" seam allow.+2" overlap+2" double 1" hem=21 1/2".
So we cut 2 pieces 21 1/2" wide x 33" long.
Also cut a lining piece 33"x33" and a piece of batting 33"x33". Use upholstery batting, not quilt batting. Your batting needs to be thick and have plenty of body to it in order to keep those flanges from flopping.

Press up double 1" hems on the center edges of your back pieces.

Top stitch the hem close to the folded hem edge.

Now we're gonna make a sham sandwich. Place your lining piece down, then your batting, then the front of your sham with the face of the fabric up, then lay your 2 french closure sections on top with the face of the fabric down.. Align the outside edges of all the layers. Remember our back pieces are going to overlap by 4" total. Pin all the way around all 4 edges. I use more pins then usual when pinning these layers together because they tend to slip around when they are under the presser foot of the sewing machine.

Using a 1/2" seam allowance, stitch around all four sides of your sham sandwich. If any of your layers shift, just stitch according to the front 33x33 square. Clip the corners diagonally 1/8" from stitching.

Turn right side out and press the edges flat making sure the fabric on the back does not come around and peek out on the front.

As you're pressing the edges, pin approx. 2 1/2" from the outside edge.

Instead of using tailors chalk or disappearing sewing pens, I use painters tape as a guide to top stitch my 3" flange.

I also keep a hem gauge handy so when I get near the corner I can measure when I'm 3" from the next edge. At that point, I stop with my needle down, lift the presser foot, pivot my pillow, lower the presser foot and continue my top stitching.
Stuff your pillow with a Euro size pillow fill and you are done!

No floppy flanges!! Told you it was easy!! Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and stay tuned for many more!

Ballard Inspired Chalk Boards

noreply@blogger.com (Sew Passionate) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:27:00 +0000

I saw these chalkboards in the Ballard Catalogue and just new I wanted to make something similar.

Aren't they just the cutest!
As you all know, I'm more of a sewer, but during my childhood I used to "putter" in the garage with my father. That's what he would call it...puttering in the garage. I have fond memories watching and helping my father putter. So this project was great because once again I was puttering in the garage with my father!

I used newspaper and a sharpie to draw out and perfect my shapes. My father suggested I use thin Fiber board which I bought at the local hardware store for $3.00 a quarter sheet. I could get 3 of my chalkboards out of a quarter sheet. I traced my newspaper patterns on the fiber board with a sharpie. Now it was time for my dad to get out his favorite toy.....his Shop Smith.

This thing can do everything!!!
We used what I think is called a band saw?

At first I left all the cutting to my dad since he is an expert at this sort of stuff, but I noticed his eyes aren't what they used to be and he was going out side the lines in a few places, so I took over. While I cut the shapes, he sanded the edges on the sander wheel you see right behind the band saw. It was so nice to be puttering in the garage with my dad again!!
I applied chalkboard paint to the fronts, yes I purchased chalkboard paint since this was my first time working with the stuff, I figured I better buy the pre-made stuff. I know there are simple recipes for it all over Pinterest, but I really didn't want to screw this up. I applied 2 coats and sanded each coat with 400 grit sand paper.

Since the fiber board was so thin, I knew attaching picture hangers to the back was not an option. So I decided to hang them with fabric. I drilled 2 holes, Ripped 1 1/2" wide strips of muslin so that it would leave raw edges, and fed the strips through the holes and tied knots....instant hanger!
Next was the challenging part for me. Painting little doo dad lines around the border. I just used some old trim paint I had left over from who knows what. It was perfect because it wasn't white white, it was a creamy white. I let that dry, lightly sanded again and tada.....here's my Ballard Inspired chalkboards.
This one hangs in my kitchen.

The rest I made for a little consignment shop I put some of my pillows and slipcovers in from time to time.

Joining Decorative Cord

noreply@blogger.com (Sew Passionate) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:21:00 +0000

Ever wonder how decorative lip cord is joined on pillows? Where's the seam or the joint? If done correctly no one should ever be able to tell where you joined the lip cord edges.
I made a really cute pillow for a decorator the other day and it was trimmed with Decorative Lip Cord. I haven't had time to post the whole tutorial yet, but I thought I'd share a tutorial for applying and joining lip cord.

Joining or marrying lip cord can be intimidating if you don't know how, but with the right tools and the know how you can make fabulous custom pillows with all sorts of creative lip cords.

The key to applying lip cord is a Cording foot. I have just about every size cording foot for my industrial sewing machine. I know they can be purchased for most home sewing machines too. Search the Internet and you should be able to order them on line.

The trick is to use a smaller cording foot than your lip cord. This lip cord is 1/2 diameter and I'm using a 1/4" cording foot.

I know what you're thinking...."but that will make my lip cord smaller" and in all common sense thinking it would but it doesn't. What it does is "bite" into the cord just enough to hide the lip tape. I promise your lip cord will still be a 1/2" lip cord when you're finished.

Dab a bit of glue, I use Aleene's Tacky Glue, on the end of your lip cord. You don't have to wait for it to dry completely. In fact it's better if you don't let it dry until it gets had, just let it dry enough that it won't smear all over your fabric.

Find the center bottom of your pillow and place the lip cord 1 1/2" beyond the center bottom. Start stitching 1/2" or so from the center point leaving approx 2" of lip cord unstitched.
Stitch all around your pillow with the cording foot riding up on top of the lip cord. Clip into the tape to go around corners.
When you get within a few inches of your starting point, pause with your needle down. Cut the lip cord 1 1/2" past your starting point and dab with glue.

Separate your cord from the lip tape 1 1/2" or so from each end.

Carefully unwind the cord as shown.

Unwind the beginning cord only enough to lay over and join this cord. If you unwind too much, you will see a gap in your finished cord. If you unwind too little, your finished cord will look cramped and uneven.

Making sure the lip tape is out of the way, stitch over the joined/ over lapped cord.

Look how perfectly the cord looks where you joined it.

Not so intimidating any more is it?!

Adding Trim to a Bed Skirt

noreply@blogger.com (Sew Passionate) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:19:00 +0000

Bed skirts are often plain and rather boring. There are 3 basic styles of bed skirts- gathered, box pleat and kick pleat. Custom details can be added to any bed skirt to add interest and to help compliment the rest of the bedding ensemble.
A few months back I made this kick pleat bed skirt for a designers client. The client recently decided she'd like to have a flat trim added to the bottom.
Normally trim would be stitched on during the construction phase, but since this one is already constructed I thought it would be a great opportunity to show how trim can be added to a "ready made" (store bought) bed skirt with trim adhesive.
What you'll need:
Trim
Fringe & Trim adhesive that dries clear and can stand up to dry cleaning
Ruler
Tailors chalk or other fabric marking pen

Decide where you want to place the trim. In my case the designer specified 1" up from the bottom hem.
Using a ruler and tailors chalk, mark the placement line for the bottom of the trim.

Dab a line of glue on the beginning raw edge of your trim and turn the raw edge under 1/2"

Run a solid narrow bead of adhesive close to the long edges of the trim.

Place the bottom of the trim along the placement line starting on the back side and wrapping around to the front.

Put a few pins along the attached trim to hold it down while you work your way all along the lower edge of the bed skirt.

When you get to the other end of the bed skirt, wrap it to the backside just as you did at the starting edge, turning under 1/2". Let glue dry completely, about an hour or so, remove pins and you now have a custom bed skirt.