Fabric and Friday Mish-Mash.

It's Friday. My brain feels like gelatin. But the good news is, I'm going to a little party with my husband's work friends tonight, so I'm sure it's nothing a mojito can't fix.

Speaking of parties, here is the party that is going on in my workspace right now. This is what happens when I try to work with Hendrix there. His favorite thing is to tear apart these pads of post-it notes he found and dump out all my stuff. And I let him. Because it keeps him busy.

Speaking of what I'm working on, here's a sneak peek of my next round of bags. Fall yellows, browns, reds, and deep pinks, all cut and interfaced and ready to be put together. This makes me happy.

Speaking of sneak peeks, have you seen Anna Maria Horner's Innocent Crush line coming out in October? Oh my.

Speaking of fabric I love, I'm getting a ton in the mail, hopefully Monday. I mean, a TON. A lot of it is for a precious little boy's nursery I am helping my friend design. Here's the little scheme for bedding and curtains we came up with. I love it and can't wait to see how the room turns out. (BTW, the upper left looks black and white, but it's really brown and white.)

Speaking of baby rooms, if I were decorating for a new babe, I would use this new line from Ikea- be it a boy or a girl. (Please no one take this to mean I am having a baby. I'm not right now. But I do love this gray house fabric.)

I just realized I have neglected to give you my crafting music lately. Most of you probably don't care, but I think it's fun so whatever. Lately it's been Arcade Fire's The Suburbs and Swell Season's Low Rising. I realize I should probably start listening to obnoxious toddler music for the sake of my child, but I'm probably not going to do that. Maybe he'll just have to grow up with good music taste?

(what a great album cover.)

Sweater Sleeve Accent Pillow How-To

I was working on sprucing up the guest room/ craft room last night, (remember this mess?) and I made a few pillows. I really wanted to do one of those pretty sweater pillows, like this one, but both of the old sweaters I wanted to use already had the bodies chopped off and made into other things. So I made do with the sleeves, and I love the way it turned out!

It's very quick and easy, here's what I did:

You will need 2 contrasting sweaters- at least the sleeves, stuffing (I ripped open an old pillow for mine), and a button or some other type of embellishment.

First I took my black sweater (already just a top half) and cut the  sleeves away from the collar. I tried to cut as close as I could to the collar. Then I opened them up by cutting open the seams on the bottoms- you know, the one that goes from the armpit down. Then I just stacked the two pieces I had left and cut the largest rectangle I could get out of the them- looks like it ended up being about 18" by 9"

Next I cut the sleeves from my white sweater. It is best to use sleeves that already have cuffs for this, but you could also just cuff them yourself.

Unroll both the cuffs and stuff one side into the other. Make sure you shove it deep enough so that when the cuff of the outer sleeve is rolled back up, it looks like it's right in the center and everything is even.

Now sew a seam thru it all right behind the fold of the outside cuff. You will be sewing thru four layers of thick sweater, so if your machine is finicky, you might want to hand sew it. Turn your cuff back over to hide the seam.

Now make a sandwich with your two outside pieces right sides together and the other sleeve piece in the middle. Pin and sew around the outside with a 1/4" seam allowance. Be sure to leave a few inches open on one of the long sides, and backstitch on either side of it.

Now is a good time to cut off the extra bit of sleeves hanging out.

My camera battery died here, but you know the rest. Turn thru the opening you left, stuff, and hand sew shut. I like to use a ladder stitch, which I learned how to do here.

Finally, add a cool button or other pretty embellishment to the middle of your cuff. I used this great button with an anchor on it that came off of an old navy pea coat (not Old Navy, but the actual Navy). I think it's perfect for the black and white pillow.

Best part- $0

Craftsplosion

This is really kind of embarrassing to put in my first real post, but I guess there is something freeing about confession.

See, I am very lucky to have a whole room to myself just to create things in. And mine normally looks like this. At least you can tell I am putting it to use.

It's not the mess that bothers me so much. Although I would like some shelves or some semblance of organization. It's just those awful blank white walls. So uninspiring! There are about a dozen projects in my head that would fill them, but I'm sure I won't get to that until after the holidays. For now I just have that lonely panel curtain I whipped up a couple months ago.

Oh to have a craft room like this kitschy little haven.

Anyway, I did manage to make something today during a very nice 2.5 hour HG nap. (yay!) I made a couple of nursing covers for friends that are due in December. I have seen  several tutorials for these, but I like this one from Little Birdie Secrets

I have one I made before HG was born with leftover robot fabric from his room. It was a diaper bag essential.

This is where he plays when I attempt to work up there while he is still awake. Yeah, that lasts for about ten minutes.