Sewing Tutorial -- Cushion

My First Sewing Tutorial ----Beginner Level ----Cushion

     My wonderful husband Adeimar loves to play video games and would clear off my very solidly built coffee table and sit on it so that he could be up close to the action. I of course got tired of having to move everything back because he would forget too. My best friend and her husband had a dinning room chair that they were going to get rid of because someone had broken the back off it. The rest of the chair was still fine so I saw an opportunity to up-cycle the would be trashed item.

     It is now a stool for Adeimar in our living room instead of the coffee table. I felt pretty clever until he stopped using it because it was uncomfortable for long periods of time like Halo battles with his best friend or younger brothers. So I got to thinking ..."Why don't I make a cushion for it?" I ran the idea by my husband to see if he felt like it would fix the problem and once he agreed I got to work.

    There is just one little detail that I forgot to mention....I had no sewing ability at all (prior to this project of course). I enlisted the help of a dear friend who loves to sew and makes quilts and things all the time. I explained what I wanted to do and being the wonderfully crafty person she is helped me to put it all together.

So here is what you will need for this project:

• a piece of foam that is the appropriate thickness 
• enough fabric to cover the selected piece of foam
•  be sure to allow for the seams. For this project we allowed for 1/4 inch seams throughout.
• we also used two different colors
• scissors
• sewing machine
• thread -----we used a grey thread
• snaps
• tape measure
• rotary cutter
• rotary cutter mat
• ruler or straight edge
• pencil
• ironing board
• Iron

Now then lets get started. After you have found the perfect size piece of foam and the fabric(s) that you wish to use, set up your iron and let it get heated up to the appropriate temperature for the fabric that you are using. While it is getting hot take this opportunity to  set up your sewing machine, if you haven't already. Once the iron is ready begin to iron the pieces of fabric that you plan to use to get rid of wrinkles that can mess you up while cutting the fabric to the appropriate size. 

Once the fabric is wrinkle free measure again the piece of foam that you have. We decided to cut our fabric into triangles so that we could make them into squares that we would later use to make a pinwheel pattern. For our project we made about 21 squares total which were two toned. 

Dont forget that when measuring the fabric to turn it into quilters squares   to allow for the cutting and for  your desired seam in this case 1/4 inch . Place the two pieces of fabric face to face. Using a pencil and a straight edge find the exact center from corner to corner diagonally. Darken this line then make two more lines one on either side of the center line that are 1/4 away from center line.  Sew down each of the two outer lines to form two triangles out of the square. 

**HINT** Instead of stopping at the end of each one and cutting it of keep pressing the pedal slowly until you have a few stiches of just thread formed then slide in the next square and form its seam. Continue this until all your blocks have been "chain stitched" together. Flip the entire chain around and sew the second outer line you drew with the pencil. Once all have been done then snip the chains apart. 

Once all of the squares have been sewn cut down each square on the center line. This will give you double the amount of squares that you had before. take them all to the ironing board and iron the seams gently using the temperature setting that is called for on the fabric you are using. 

Then begin sewing your squares together to form the desired pattern in this case we wanted it to look like a pinwheel. Once you are done simply slip the cushion inside and presto you have completed your slip cover for a cushion.

If you want you can sew snaps to make it stay closed but I didn't do that in this case. I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and be sure to post any questions that you may have below in the comment section.


Have a wonderful day.

Interesting Ideas about Gender

So I wanted to pass this along to all of you. This week we have been talking about gender roles and gender stereotypes in one of my classes this week (early child development) and so I thought I would pass it along just in case you also found it to be interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrmRxGLn0Bk


Have a wonderful day.

Pin the Tail on the Bunny

I was in charge recently of putting together the games for the kids to celebrate Ostara. This year Ostara was March 20th. (Easter for Christians which this year is March 31)

This is one of the games I came up with. The game was pin the tail on the bunny. Now the fact that this one was just a photo was okay because I was able to print a poster size of this photo, or if you are artistic ( I am not) you could draw a tailless bunny to use.  Now for the tails for the kids to stick on the bunny I came up with this gem of an idea. To start out I did a Google search for an image of a tailless bunny and made sure that when I had it printed that the signature of the artist was included on it so that when I posted this the artist would be given credit.




Materials:
poster of tailless bunny  
Post it notes
poster board
cotton balls
glue 

The Bunny without a Tail

I simply glued the poster which in this case was a 12" * 18" poster to a piece of standard half of a poster board which I got two a$1.00 at Dollar Tree. I centered it on the poster put the glue on the back of the poster leaving room for it to spread out when I smoothed it to get rid of bubbles.

The Bunny Tails

 To start out I used heart shaped post it notes to give a tail like shape. I peeled of 4 at a time still grouped together so that it would still be sticky when the children played with them.   Then applied glue to the post it note.

 Next I filled in the post it note with cotton balls. After I had put down all the cotton balls I pressed them firmly to make sure they were secure and then just let  them dry.

This is about 18 of the bunny tails that I made. I like to make sure that I have plenty so that if we had more children than expected we would still have plenty.

 We had young kids so we just had them close their eyes spin them a few times and let them loose. It was a lot of fun. and they kids really seemed to enjoy it which is always the best part of any game.

NO MORE

Today I want to pass this along to all of you. This is a symbol to unify all of us to fight against sexual abuse and domestic violence. Follow this link to learn more. 

 http://nomore.org/check-out-media-highlights-from-no-more-day/

This is now the unifying symbol to help end these massive problems

Carrot Bean Bag Toss Game

I was in charge recently of putting together the games for the kids to celebrate Ostara. This year Ostara was March 20th. (Easter for Christians which this year is March 31)

Now this fun filled game I had the most fun with partially because I was able to take my Pintrest inspiration and make it my own because there was no tutorial to go with the photo and partly because well who doesn't love a good bean bag toss game.

For this one since it is the Ostara and Easter season I wanted to make the bean bags carrot shaped so that we could throw them through the mouth of the bunny.  So here we go:

Carrot Bean Bags

Materaials 

• 1 yard of orange fabric 

• needle and thread

• sewing machine 

• scissors

• paper 

• beans

• pins 

Lay out your template and pin it to your fabric.

Cut out your carrot bean bag out.

Take the yarn stem you created and in between the two carrot pieces the "right" sides facing

Pin the carrot all around.

Sew it together. What I did was I started down on one side and came up to the top where the stem was and went over that 3 times to make sure that the stem was secured. then i across the top and then back the way i came. This gave me a really secure top and a double seam for the bean bag. Since these were going to be handled by kids I wanted it to be really secure.

This is what it looked like after I sewed it up.

                      

Turn it right side out

Fill with beans. I used what I had on hand. and mixed them so that they would all feel and look the same since beans have a different shapes.

Sew up the end little hole really well and tie off . Trim any stray threads and you are ready to play.

Now just pair these fun carrot bean bags with the Bunny Face to have a complete bean bag toss game. 

I hope you found this tutorial helpful and that you try it out for your next Ostara or Easter celebrations.

Spring Wreath Tutorial

Spring Wreath Tutorial

To celebrate the first day of spring I made a wreath for my front door. Here is how I did it:

Materials Needed: 

decorations such as butterflies - if desired

1 -  3.5 oz skein green 

Foam Wreath

  Fake flowers

ribbon

Create a ball out of the yarn and then begin wrapping the yarn around the foam wreath. Wrap it closely together all the way around. Wrapping the yarn over the end of the yarn to keep it tucked in.

This is what you should have when you are finished. Weave in your ends into the yarn. 

Once you have finished wrapping the yarn around the foam wreath you can begin adding the flowers. Simply press a pin through a flower, and then into the wreath. placing them as you want them. 

Once you are finished measure out some of the ribbon and loop it through the wreath and hang on your door. It really is that simple. Enjoy. Feel free to leave any questions that you may have in the comments.

Ostara Blessings

             Wishing you all a wonderful Ostara. I hope that you get the opportunity to go out and enjoy the first day of spring. I have had a wonderful first day of spring so far. Today I have taken the opportunity to create a beautiful spring wreath which I will have a tutorial for in a post in a little while, complete with photos of course. I have also gotten some school work done and am going to start on my spring cleaning....with what else...laundry. It seems the easiest to start with since it is a constant in everyone's life so I am going to be finishing off some laundry and the resorting it, and cleaning up mine and Adeimar's closets and dressers so that we can be nice and organized. 

Take the time today to go for  a walk, listen to the birds, enjoy the sun, be outside if at all possible. Today I have heard birds singing since I woke up.  I hope that you all have a wonderful rest of the day.

Happy Spring Equinox

Ostara Blessings