The fastest, easiest pillowcase ever

Today turned out to be an incredibly productive day. I finished all 7 of the bridesmaids pouches for my friend Bonz (her name is also Bonnie, she owns huskies, and she's an insatiable crafter. We are soul sisters. Her nickname is Bonz, mine is Boo!), and before continuing onto the groomsmens' bags (which will be fast and easy), I decided to reward myself by indulging in a trend I've been seeing. Pillowcases!

Have you seen the pillowcases popping up lately all over craft blogs? They're so cute! I've always had very simple, basic sheets. Usually I'll decorate more with accessories (blankets, pillow, etc.), and keep things simple for the bed. But when I saw all these adorable pillowcases, I caved. They look so bright and happy, and I have been BADLY in need of some extra happy lately. I won't lie, I've been pretty depressed. It's amazing my crafting inspiration has been as active as it has. It comes and goes, some days are better than others. If it wasn't for my huskies and crafting, it would be a bleak life indeed. When I say it totally makes my day to wake up and read all your comments and crafty love? I really mean it. Some days it's about all that sustains me. OMG! Angst? Feelings? On a crafting blog?! I'm a writer too, so yes. Things other than crafting will appear here. Lately I've been having such a blast communicating over twitter, blogs, and facebook with Jenna of Sewhappygeek, and Shanna of Fiberofallsorts, that I've been super duper inspired, and sewing has pretty much taken over my life. I even joined up with my very first ever quilting bee! It's being organized by Shanna, and I'm so excited. I'm not a quilter, but I'm confident enough in my sewing skills to feel comfortable creating one quilt block a month. I balked a little, because I have a history of letting people down, and because the bee takes place over the course of a year. A year?! Who knows what life will be in a year?! But when I sat and thought about it, one quilt block a month is totally do-able. No matter what turmoil life throws at me, I should be able to complete a single solitary quilt block a month. I'll write more about that in the future. And Jenna, I met her during the whole "Bastard-stole-my-tutorial" fiasco, and she has quickly become a good friend. She wasn't the bastard, she was another victim I contacted about her tutorial being stolen also.  Love you guys! So, to fill the void, sew! Knit! Blog! It's all healthy and productive, right? Just smile and nod. 

My attention span for following people's tutorials hasn't been so great lately, so I've been figuring them out for myself. The bonus of that is I can create new tutorials for you guys! Yay! I know there's lots of pillowcase tutorials out there, but I figured one more wouldn't hurt. Plus, this one's pretty cool. Why? Because they take 20 minutes each, there's no exposed edges, and you get to use ribbon. Awesomesauce! So grab your fabric, ribbon, and follow along!

I measured a pillowcase I already had, I think it's just a "standard size". 

Each pillowcase will take one yard of main fabric (with some leftovers), and a half yard of a contrasting fabric. For the ribbon, I dove back into the stash of vintage ribbon from garage sales. :)

Here we go!

Cut one piece of the main fabric 20"x52"(I didn't want a seam at the end, but if you don't mind feel free to cut two pieces at 20"x 25.5") 

Cut two pieces contrasting fabric 20"x10"

Fold the edge pieces in half so that they measure 20"x5", iron and give it a steam

Place the folded piece on the WRONG SIDE of the fabric so that they 20" edge match up, and sew a 1/2" seam. It's easiest if you have a nice generous seam allowance. Do this for both edges.

It should look like this. You haven't opened the seams yet, so the edges are lying on the wrong side. Make sense?

Iron and steam your seams open. WHAT?! SEAMS SHOWING ON THE RIGHT SIDE?! That's so....WRONG! Nope, you're doing it perfectly. Stick with me here.

Now take your ribbon and line it up, pinning it over the seams. Sneaky, eh?

Woo! All done there!

The underneath looks like this. Look Ma! No exposed seams! Heh heh heh...

Almost done. Promise. Now you're going to fold your pillowcase, bringing the contrasting edges together. 

Sew up the sides with a 1/4" seam (or if you want to do a 1/8" seam that's okay too. You just want a leeeeetle seam) with the RIGHT SIDE FACING OUT! This seems very counterintuitive, but trust me. 

 

Okay. So now it looks like you've sewed up the sides to expose the raw edge. Turn your pillowcase inside out and iron the seams flat. It should look like this.

Here's the part where your trust in me pays off! Sew about 1/2" seam all the way down the sides, like this.   Just make sure that the raw edges are captured inside the new seam. 

VOILA! The raw edges are inside the other seam, leaving you with a "hey, I almost did a french seam but not really" thing. From what I understand, it would be a french seam if you sewed the seam flat, right? I have no idea. I've never done a french seam. I thought I was being a clever Boo.

See? It's like a seam inside of a seam. That way, when you wash it, you won't have any fraying or any pinked edges showing! Yay for neat seams!

Now turn inside out, stuff your pillow inside, and whee! Fun pillow cases!

Man, I love that vintage ribbon. What am I going to do when it runs out? *sob*

Happy bed. Good thing a male doesn't live here, he'd be so embarrassed. And Totoro says hi.  Hi Totoro!

I sewed up the second pillowcase as a test to see just how long it would take without "technical difficulties" (and because I have symmetry issues when it comes to decor), or taking photographs, and it was about 20 minutes. Seriously. This is a quick, easy project, and I would *LOVE* to see anything you guys make! Send me pictures, please!

I reupholstered. I have a new sewing chair, and I am happy.

Let me get the unpleasant stuff out of the way first. My best buddy Loki is sick. Very sick. He's going to be okay, but it's been awful. He has the same thing Rowan had a couple of months ago, which is "hemmoragic gastroenteritis". That's fancy vet-speak for vomiting and shooting a jet of blood out of your behind. Profusely. My Mom woke me up at 5:30am to clean up a mess in the backyard. I had opened my door connected to the backyard in the middle of the night last night so Loki could throw up, and left it open so he could come and go if he needed to. Good call, because it was quite a mess. No details, I promise. You can use your imagination if you really want to, but I highly doubt you'll want to. Eeeeeyoooooo. Anywho, his condition quickly deteriorated and I eagerly counted the minutes until the vet's office opened. After weighing him (last August he was 64 lbs, today he was about 53. WTF?), the wonderful vet Dr. Ryan of Estrella Veterinary Hospital (plug plug plug...I can't say enough about this office. Top quality care, and really awesome people) checked Loki over, took him back to do some x-rays and inject some fluids into him. I waited in the front waiting room, talking with some nice dog owners. A few minutes later, Dr. Ryan poked his head around the corner and beckoned me over. "Umm....Loki's had a bit of a....blowout. I'd really like to run a fecal test since we have a sample". Do it, I said. Whatever it takes. He's my best friend in the whole world and I want him well. X-Rays, full blood panel, fecal test.

     Dr. Ryan was comfortable with sending Loki home with me, and letting him rest and allow the meds to kick in. He'd been given two injections to settle his GI tract, some fluids to rehydrate him, and some antibiotics for the inflammation. Oh, and some gentle-on-the-tummy dog food. While checking out at the front counter, he had another "blowout", and I felt TERRIBLE about it. The other owners in the waiting room didn't look disgusted though, they looked shocked and sympathetic. I suppose if you had just witnessed a big stream of blood comin' out the ol' chute, you'd be pretty shocked too. At home, he rested for a bit, had another "problem" out back, and rested some more. He was really lethargic and unhappy. I hated to leave for work, but there was no choice in the matter. My Dad watched over him, but it was only about an hour before I got a call. There was more bloody mess in the backyard. Awesome. I called the vet between clients, and they wanted him back in right away. My sister (thank you Julia!) was cool enough to take him in, and they got him hooked up on an IV. I later talked to the vet between clients, and Loki was resting comfortably, and hadn't had any more "accidents". Thank. Goodness. They want to keep him until tomorrow evening, and now I'm sitting here with Rowan curled up on the bed next to me, feeling a bit sad and lonely.  

On that note, on to the good stuff to distract me!

Here's my new sewing chair: (As always, click pics for bigger photos)

Right? RIGHT?! I KNOW!!

It didn't start life this adorable. If the above is as cute as Amy Adams, then its previous incarnation is more like Jeff Bridges. *I* think Jeff Bridges is still pretty damn hot, despite a few extra years and a bit of grey around the edges. 

See what I mean? Still not a bad lookin' chair!

This was a Craigslist find for $20. Its frame was still solid, the upholstery was even in decent condition. A couple of little holes, but it could have been usable even in this state. But noooooooooo. Because I'm me, I have to mess with it. So I took it all apart!

Lots and lots of nails and tacks. I have a blister on my palm from prying them all up with the tool.

EEK! Naked chair! Does that make it chair porn?

Lemme tell ya, this is one solid piece of furniture. Nice hardwood, seat springs totally intact, stuffed with the old-fashioned birds-nest-stuff that was still in great shape.

Suddenly, I felt kinda bad for taking this chair apart. This was obviously a nice chair. That remorse lasted all of about ten seconds. Then:

TAPE THE SHIT OUT OF IT AND PAINT IT WHITE!

Oh, in the process of stripping the chair naked, I found this:

B.L Marble Chair Co. Bedford, Ohio

There was that tiny twinge of remorse for messing with the chair again... So I did some research. If you're curious, you can read about this company HERE. I found out this chair was made at least before 1965. That's so cool. Gen-u-wine 1960's (or 50's) Naugahyde! Yeehaw! Next step was to let the paint dry and pick out the fabrics and cut the squares. I decided on 6 inches x 6 inches. 

There are 4 or 6 of each square. I wound up having leftovers. Can you say pillow?

I took the naugahyde pieces and laid them out, arranging the squares and guestimating the general shape.  I could cut more detailed shapes later. Since I was using regular quilting cotton fabric, I decided to iron some fusible fleece onto the back to give it more strength and structure. It was a very, very good call. I LOVE it with the batting on the back. It makes it even more comfy. Once it was all ironed, I cut a more detailed shape around the naugahyde, which wasn't easy. The naugahyde had been in that shape for about 50 years, so getting it to lay flat enough to generalize a shape was a challenge. I used that wonderful, modern contraption known as a staple gun to STAPLE THE CRAP OUT OF IT! MWAHAHAHAHA!!!!! *kachink kachink kachinkkachinkkachinkkachinkkachinkkachinkkachinkkachinkkachinkkachinkkachinkkachinkkachinkkachinkkachinkkachinkkachink* Repeat about a million times. Man, that wood had to be oak. Hard, hard oak. Whew. 

Next, I foraged around in my  (3) ribbon boxes, and found a collection of vintage ribbon that my parents picked up for a song at a garage sale. I first glued the ribbon around the edges to get it to lie nice and flat, then used a rubber mallet to pound in the shiny silver studs I picked up at JoAnn's. (Thank you, JoAnn's for having a memorial day sale!!).

As always, click for full size photo

Actually, the wood was SO hard that I wound up ruining a bunch of the tacks trying to get them in. Thanks to one of my Dad's power drills and a tiny bit, I was able to drill starter holes and get the tacks in. I just wish I'd thought of that before I ruined about 20 tacks. *sigh* It's my first upholstering job, okay?! Sheesh. 

There's my super duper long essay, and I hope I didn't bore you too much. Here's some glamor shots! (The weird coloring is because the lighting in my room sucks, and the sun had gone down.)

Oh yeah, show that backside!

Nice tidy edges, if I do say so myself!

Tucked in nice and tight. I'm so damn proud.

I had rescued the cardboard strip that keeps the bottom back nice and tidy. So glad I did!

I love you chair, I love you so much. I will never leave you.

Not bad for $20, huh?

Super quick post cuteness

It's been a while since I've really felt the sewing bug, with that "MUST MAKE" feeling that comes with color and print inspiration. But it's definitely hit me again, and I'm trying to be as productive with it as possible without going overboard crazy. So here's what I've been making lately! As always, click on thumbnails for full size photos.

A new wallet: (If anybody's interested, drop me an e-mail)

A new iPad case design, inspired by the iPad 2's smartcover (but made for the first iPad...I'd be interested to see if it fits the ipad2 though!): Magnetic closures - don't worry, it's totally safe. The iPad has a solid state hard drive, so magnets won't hurt it at all. I did my research. :)

A WWII bomber jacket inspired iPad case (SO in love!):

And just today, two CUUUUTTTEE pouches!:

So what do you guys think? The gnome wallet and the purple pouch are "unofficially" for sale, which basically means I'm not going to post them on my etsy shop, but you're welcome to contact me if you'd like them.  The wallet is $15, and the pouch is also $15, and I'll even throw in free shipping. They really were just "I must make this to get it out of my brain!" projects, and though I love them, I can't keep all of my creations. More sewing this weekend! Yay! What do you all have planned for the weekend?