White linen pillows

Let me just start off by saying these pillows were quite time consuming....but well worth it. They turned out amazing. My client gave me a picture of some pillows that she wanted me to replicate.

The front one has a torn edge  ruffle with a 1" cream ribbon topstitched over it. The pillow in the back has a rolled hem on both edges of the ruffle and is made out of a gauze type linen (ruffle part only). The main body is made from white linen.

Close up to show the ribbon and frayed edge.

Gauze linen ruffle...gathered and topstitched on the front of the pillow.

The ruffles for both pillows were topstitched to the front of the pillow (leaving about a half inch from the edge...so that I could attatch the back). Once the front of the pillow was finished I sewed the back onto the front...keeping the ruffle out of the way as I sewed.

Wish my pictures were better for you, so you could appreciate them as much as my client will. We used down forms in them...so they are squishy and yummy, the way pillows should be.

White Denim Wingback chair

I love the before and after on this one....HUGE transformation!

Before dated old wingback in some type of velour/velvet fabric...my client's husband loves this chair and sits in it all the time. The old cushion's foam was pretty old, so we ordered a down envelope and slid the existing foam in it. So the cushion went from 3" thick to 5" thick. I thought the squishy thicker cushion helped to bring this chair up to date.

After.... she chose a white denim fabric, and we did a 3/4 length skirt to let the bottom of the legs show. She's planning on refinishing the legs.

Close up of wing.

Close up of inside arm...and those "telephone" arms...at least that's what I call them.

Outside wing.

Front

Side Note-- took the boys to Vegas for spring break. We went and checked out the Hoover Dam, swam at the pool, and went on a short hike at Red Rock.

Here we are at the Hoover Dam...pretty cool, the boys loved it. We went early, because the pool didn't open till 10 am. We decided we couldn't happily hold the boys off for two hours, so we headed to the dam.

Here are my three boys at Red Rock hiking and climbing on all the big rocks.

Three days after we got home Heber went in to get his knees scoped (they have still been hurting him a bunch since he had his ACL replaced last August). So now he is recovering and limping around. He can no longer do any of the races with me...he's pretty bummed. Me too, but he is going to come and be our driver for Wasatch Back in June.

My front room chairs

I have been loving my new menswear slipcovers in the front room, but I felt like something was missing. I think it was because all my prints were small or solid. Then I remembered the second set of slipcovers I had made for my chairs years ago made of black and cream toile. I pulled them out to see if they'd work with everything else I had going on.

I thought they worked pretty well, so I am going to give my white set a break for a little while.

I had topstitched brown pom pom balls along the bottom edge.

I think the large print is what I needed for a little "wow" factor...or at least it's fun to look at something different for a bit.

Here's the whole room put together  (I missed the overflowing shoe basket in the corner...that has baseball gloves, bats, and back packs piled up on it)

I messed around with my pillows for a bit...I am not sure which I like best

I even threw on the steel blue/cream houndstooth too...just to see. Any opinions? Solid, pieced, or houndstooth?

Ticking Stripe Chair

This client had this old dated chair...and she bought some great ticking stripe to slipcover it in. We ordered some new wood legs for it as well, that will be coming this week. So we left the chair without a skirt so the legs will show. We chose to do a skirt on the ottoman and save some money (that way she only needed to order 4 legs instead of 8).

Chair before...great shape, but diamond blue fabric.

After...Darling gray/black ticking stripe.

Chair...I ended it with piping to show off the legs once they come.

I had to get a shot of the turquoise armoire....turquoise is on of my colors as well as green.

Another after.

My client posted about her new slipcover on her blog. Her blog is called House to Home. She's got some other great stuff on there!


-Side Note- I am heading out of town tomorrow to enjoy the 80 degree weather in Vegas with the kids for spring break! Can't wait to lounge poolside with my book...in my dreams right?




Linking up to the following...

Todays creative blog and the DIY showoff...link below.

Ruffled Fabric

So today has been a lazy day...cleaned out my closet, made cookies, debated about buying a leather sectional (talked myself out of it)....we need to put a new roof on the cabin as soon as the snow melts, so I figured I'd better save my money.

I've also debated about going running in the snow, I almost talked myself into it...but here I am on the computer still in my pajamas at 5:30pm and I've been looking around in blog land at different sewing blogs. I just came across this amazing fabric....it is layers of ruffles already sewn for you!!!! Here is the link of where you can buy it ruffled fabric. It's about $15-$18/yd. It's sewn on knit backing

Just imagine...pillows, bedskirt, shower curtain, a skirt/ dress for me, etc. and how fast would it be!!! The ruffles are already done for you! They have 2" ruffles down to mini ruffles that look like 3/4".

Michelle's Chaise and bedding

Michelle has been a client of mine for the past 8-9 years. We have done many things for her house..couches, loveseats, ottomans, chairs, pillows, parson chairs, wingbacks, window seat cushions, and now a CHAISE LOUNGE for her bedroom! Her room before was red/tans. She decided she needed a change and decided to go with a Robins egg blue and brown.

Before...the chaise matched her old room. Sorry no cushions, I had already put the new covers on.

After...Cheetah print with a blue stripe. Originally she bought a solid brown velvet fabric and changed her mind...she wanted to make a statement and make it fun, so she went with the cheetah.

Another after. We did a 2"knife pleat around the bottom of the cover. We also did a 1" pleat ruffle on the back cushion.

Of course I had to match up the stripes. Tip on doing this I usually choose which stripe I want to center..and then I put pins down the center of my furniture every so often, so I can feel them underneath and make sure my chosen stripe is centered over the pins. Then when it's time to make the cushions you just need to center that stripe when cutting them out.

Here is a shot showing off her new bedding as well. I did all the pillows, and Michelle made the bedskirt.

We did 3-24" pillows in the back with a 1" ruffle. Then 2 standard shams with a topstitched flange (I always sew piping around the outside edge of the flange..it helps the flange to stand up better). Then we did two 20" pillows out of paisley fabric with fat piping.

Then we pieced the front pillow (12x26) out of her scraps, which she had a neighbor embroider.

I love how it turned out! Michelle has a great eye for fabric, and I always love to see what fabrics she got.

Here is her whole room...she had Phil our curtain guy make her pinch pleat panels out of the same silk stripe as the bedskirt. I don't do windows.

Owl baby blanket

Today my baby sister is having her baby! I wanted to make her a baby blanket...so I grabbed my bag of my grandpa's old shirts and found some old satin pillow cases and linen napkins of my grandmas and got to work.

I used this owl pattern that was for a pillow, but I just used the front side of it and appliqued it onto the blanket. Since the edge was curvy I cut out an owl shape out of muslin and sewed right sides together all the way around. Then I cut a horizontal 3-4" slit in the middle of the muslin and flipped the whole thing right side out. That way there are clean edges all the way around and I didn't have to struggle to get the edge to turn under. 

I cut open the two satin pillow cases that were grandma and pieced them together to make the back of the blanket. I decided to do a 1"ruffle around the edge out of some scrap fabric I had kicking around that I almost threw out.

The background plaid and eyes was from my grandpas flannel shirt. The bib part was made from one of grandmas old linen napkins that had a crocheted edge. The gray dot was from some pillows nik (baby sister) and I just made for her girls' room.

I sewed the owl onto a piece of tan linen that I bought at a yard sale on our sisters trip in Manhattan Beach, CA.

The lace dickey was from my other sisters collection that she had gotten at an estate sale years ago. I finally had a good use for it!

My grandmas pillow cases had some light blue embroidery on the edges...so I kept it. I have been keeping this blanket a secret for weeks!  Now Nikki's in the hospital today having her baby....so now I can show it off. I love that it's going to be so sentimental for the new baby (Jane?). They are still deciding on the name. Our grandparents passed away about 6 years ago.


Side Note #1--
Last weekend we took the boys up to the cabin for the weekend...we had two beautiful days of 65-70 degree weather. We didn't even have to start the fire when we got there. All 4 feet of snow had melted from the deck, since the last time we were there. There's still of TON of snow there.

Here are the boys digging a tunnel.

Even though it was this beautiful, I snuck down to my favorite thrift store and found a pair of Joe's Jeans for $3!!!! Then I brought back stuff for smores in the fireplace.

Heber borrowed his buddies snow mobile and took the boys for rides. It was nice that we could drive to the top of the driveway! Usually we take the four wheeler up and have to park it at the bottom of the driveway and pull the sled full of our stuff up the hill.

All the snow on the road is starting to melt, so the boys had a blast playing in the slushy dirty run off. Carter was trying to tell me that it was "fresh" water and would dip his hand in it and suck it off.

- Side note #2-- Sausha at Show and Tell showed off her new slipcovers that I made for her in December.