Smocked Pillow Case

I am making a pair of these for a Christmas gift for the daughter of one of my best friends.  The pattern is from an old AS&E issue and the smocking plate from an old Sew Beautiful magazine.  The floss is DMC but I can't remember the number.  I'll look and update this post later.  The fabric is a cotton sateen that I picked up from a fabric shop in Savannah called Fabrika.


The pattern called for piping between the case and the smocked panel.  I decided to use a satin ribbon.  It really didn't have the affect I was going for, so I'll rethink that on the next ones if I decide to make anymore.  I had quite a few issues with these and won't go into a lot of detail.  But many ugly words were said and tantrums thrown.  And I even walked away for a week at one point. LOL

The pattern calls for doing a simple scalloped hem, but I wanted a little frill, so I stitched on some lace with a little entredeux.  I hadn't used this method in I'm guessing 10 years or more.  I definitely need some more practice with this technique.  But I will add more projects to get the practice, because I'd forgotten how much I enjoy heirloom sewing.  The entredeux is from Capitol Imports and the lace I had in my stash.

I hope Gracyn loves her new pillow cases.  Despite all my problems with them, I really enjoyed them after the fact. Lol

Happy Tuesday.
Angela


Linking up with:

Show and Tell Tuesday
Sew Many Ways

Bolster Pillow

This is my official first bolster pillow.  I had attempted one the week before this one, and it did not work out well.  I used the Pi method for determining the circumference, and it did not work.  Let me just give you a word of warning.  Pillow inserts are not perfect!  My insert had a diameter on one side 1/2" off from the other, so when I did the calculation, I used the smaller side.  I hadn't checked the other side, so I didn't know there was a difference.  This pillow insert was off one full inch from one side to the other.  I chose to measure the circumference of the insert itself to be sure I had the right amount of fabric.  Your calculations are only as good as the pillow measurements.

I chose to use a lapped zipper on the pillow versus an invisible or exposed.  There wasn't a lot of extra bulk in the seam, so it worked well.  If you have really thick fabric, this may not work especially if it is piped as this one is.

Because my pillow insert is off in its size, I think it's distorting the shape of my cover. :(   You may want to make adjustments down in the size of your pillow case to fill in any gaps.  This particular customer wanted it true to size, so it isn't filling out all the spaces.

It was also very hard to get perfectly round circles despite my best efforts.  I think in the future, I will interface the circle in hopes that it will retain its shape when stitching it on.  I'll let you know how that works.  I'm still working on another bolster.  I cut is too small using the Pi method, so now I'm trying to decide how to fix it.

Let me know if you have questions.  And as always, thanks for stopping by!

Happy Monday,
Angela

Mad Scientist Halloween Costume

Here is Robbie in his Halloween costume this year.  Isn't he a ham??!!  LOL.  We went back and forth between a number of ideas, and he finally settled on this one.  Best part is it was about $10 to make.  $6 if I count the fact that I removed the $4.00 in grommets and will use those again.

Of course he had to be silly.  A little black powder eyeliner helped get the dirty look.  I used a cotton ball and just pat it round his face and on his lab coat.

He was trying to look menacing here, but he is just too darn cute!  That's a syringe from my pharmacy and I used a coffee stirrer as the fake needle.  We put red food coloring in the test tubes to look like blood.  Not sure why he wanted that.  I told him we should use gooey ooze.

 Here he is again trying to look smexy!  Yes that is a word he and his friends made up.  They aren't allowed to use the word "sexy" at school, so they say smexy instead.  I don't even think any of them know what it means.

 I have no idea what he was trying to do here.  LOL

This is the back.

Oh, and here are some of his best buddies.

The one in the middle is Andrew, and he is Slenderman.  Pretty cool huh?  And the fella on the left is Christopher sporting his Fozzy Bear costume.  I have no earthly idea who Fozzy Bear is.  Some game character I'm told.

Hope your little guys and girls had a terrific Halloween!
Happy Monday!
Angela