Here's my Pillows...

Wow, has it really been almost 2 months since my Pillow Talk post?? It's so funny, because after I posted that I became deathly ill with some kind of food poisoning and just last week, it happened again. But this time it was the stomach flu & colon inflammation, which also meant a trip to the ER = Not fun at all...

Anyways, I probably finished these pillows about a month ago and I absolutely love them! While outdoor fabric can be kind of stiff and rigid, I've noticed that after a few uses they have definitely eased up. I used a basic square pillow pattern with an envelope style back.


Notice the "Karate Chop" indentation on the pillows? It gives the pillows a cuter flair don't you think? Kinda like they have ears?!

Pillow Talk...

A few weeks ago I picked up two yards of this Waverly Coral Sun and Shade outdoor fabric in navy at Jo-ann Fabrics. I loved the coral pattern (and the fact that it was 50% off per yard) and can't wait to add it to our living room!

You may be wondering why I chose outdoor fabric. Well, simply because it is fade proof, water proof, and stain resistant. It's not the softest fabric out there, but I figured these pillows could be used either as floor cushions or pillows and should I decide to take a nap, I don't have to worry about my makeup leaving any stains or God forbid any drool marks! Ha!

I already have two existing 18x18 pillows that I am going to use. So, now all I gotta do is find my Sewing for dummies pillow pattern and a little bit of free time.

Stay tuned for the reveal!

Owl update...His new home!

This morning Tara's sister showed me a picture of the the owl in the nursery!! I was so excited! When I was making the owl I had no idea what her nursery colors were or what crib bedding she had chosen! I'm so stoked to see that he fit in so well with her jungle theme!!

Baby Gift Reveal...Part whoo...twooo!

Tara's theme for her baby shower was owls. Very cute and very adorable!! So, I decided that I wanted to make her an owl pillow for her baby boy to cuddle with. This also gave me an excuse to take my poor sewing machine out of the closet and into the light!

I searched the web for several free owl patterns and came up short. What I did come across was this template for Otis the Owl and used that as my starting point.

I ended up drawing my own template on a piece of cardboard and cut out each piece for the body, eye, pupil, nose, tummy, and face. I was using several fabrics for this owl, so I labeled each piece with its corresponding fabric.

Now, since I had "hand drawn" my template, it wasn't exactly symmetrical. So, when cutting out my two body pieces (front side & back side), for the back side, I had to turn over my cardboard template and trace it with the opposing side , so that when I put the "right sides" of the fabric together, they would match! Whew, that was a long sentence!


Then using my Disappearing ink pen, I traced the cut outs onto my fabric.


Then I laid out all the pieces and pinned them in place.


One change I did make right before I started sewing the tummy part, was I trimmed the edges with my pinking shears to give it a nice zig zag edge. Once everything we sewn into place, I started sewing around the edge of the owl with a 1/4" inseam and left an opening at the bottom about 4 inches long, so I could stuff him with some poly-fil. Once filled, I sewed the opening closed by hand with a slip stitch.


Here is the finished back side:

And the finished front side:

If you are wondering about the crazy & uneven stitching...pardon me, but it's been awhile since I have sewn anything and so sewing a circle was no easy task! In the end, I just ended up doing crazy stitching all over the owl...It made it look kinda feathery?!

And here is the lovely couple at their shower with their new owl and baby afghan handmade with love from The Mariano Project!