Furry Office Chair

Pottery Barn Teen has some very nice furry office chairs, but the price is a bit high (especially when you factor in shipping).

via PB Teen

So, I looked for a chair to modify. I found an office chair for $15 at IKEA; it is available in blue or red, and is mostly plastic. I decided to spray the back and seat white before assembling the chair, so add in another $5 for spray paint.

Then, I picked out some medium length faux fur fabric. It is at least 60" wide, so you probably could get away with 1/2 or 5/8 yards, but I went for a full yard. Considering it was on sale and the end of the bolt, I got 1 1/3 yards for $14. It ended up just taking a 20" by 40" piece of fur.

Two seams to make a pocket for the chair back and some sticky Velcro, and it's done! It's not as plush, but it'll do.

IKEA chair with fur slipcover

Prairie Apron

Super-easy and quick apron to match the prairie bonnet. Just a rectangle gathered on the long edge and some quilt binding for the tie. It was about a half yard of fabric; 50" of quilting binding. I used a "fancy" stitch to dress up the tie and make it lie flat. Photo coming soon?

Two and a Half Hour Prairie Bonnet

Tuesday I got the request to make a "pioneer sunbonnet"; the deadline was Friday. So I searched on-line and found a great pattern and tutorial.

Wednesday, I took a look through my fabric stash and didn't find anything suitable. So, I stopped at Jo-Ann Fabric and found a nice mini-gingham check in barn red and beige. It had a nice weight and looked antique. I had some heavy white cotton to use as interlining for the brim.

Thursday, from cutting out to finishing, it really did take just 2.5 hours to make the bonnet. I was a bit concerned because it looked small, but it turned out to fit perfectly! Whew!

Modifications: I did add a casing and 8" of elastic across the back neck. I also top-stitched the brim before attaching it to the crown. I folded over one side of the long edge on the brim, and sewed the gathered crown to the unfolded side. Then I tucked the raw edges in and hand-stitched the underside of the brim to the crown. I hand-stitched some grosgrain ribbon for ties.

Aha!

It was 2009 when I bought the jelly roll. Quilting takes a lot of time and space. I can see the attraction of mini quilts. You get to play with color and pattern, but it doesn't take as much space. Perhaps I will try that.

Thoughts on the Hammock Quilt

I don't even want to think about when I picked out the jelly roll for this quilt. I'm going to say it was 2009, but it might have been 2008. I chose a pattern for it and started cutting the strips to size. Then a year passed...

via Amy Butler

I put the strips in order of color value, light to dark, so that each band of the quilt would at least have the same number of light and darker pieces. I didn't want to end up with a bunch of one value or pattern left at the end.
Putting the pieces together into long bands didn't take too long once I got started. Then I needed to press the seams, and that took some time to get around to. More months passed...
The seams were pressed, and then I needed to figure out how to arrange the long bands. I tried laying them out, but I didn't have enough room anywhere to really tell how it would look. My next strategy was to bravely sew the bands together randomly. That also went quickly, but then more pressing was required.

detail of my hammock quilt top

Originally, I had thought about using a small duvet from IKEA for the batting and an IKEA sheet for the backing. The small duvet worked, but none of the colors for the sheets worked with the fabrics. By now, the whole jelly roll fabric line was discontinued. So I took some extra strips to the fabric store to find something for the backing. I found two watery prints that worked, so I could piece them together along with some of the leftover bits of the jelly roll to tie the front and back together.

The pattern calls for making a kind of "sandwich" of the front, back, and batting. I wasn't sure about this...I thought that it might look better with binding. But I didn't want to make my own binding and none of the colors of pre-made binding worked with the jelly roll fabrics, so I went ahead with the "sandwich." Now I'm stuck at the point of top-stitching around the edges and closing the hole I used to turn the quilt.

And I need to figure out if I want to quilt it or not, and if I quilt it, what pattern? Decisions! Choices!

Quilt Thoughts

Maybe I will make the quilt without binding...It doesn't call for binding, but I thought it looked a bit unfinished. I picked out some binding, but I'm not completely happy with it. And then I saw this tutorial, and if I stitch along the edges real close...maybe that will work.

After Pressing

Nothing like a freshly pressed seam...now I need to make the binding/border for the top and sew it on. Currently the top measures 52" x 54". I really need to win this.

Hammock Quilt Progress

All of the strips are now sewn together! I did this completely randomly. And without really being careful about the seams or using pins. I'm not a quilter. :-)

Now I need to press the seams open and check to make sure that I didn't catch any of the cross-seams in the stitching.

It's great to see progress! I may work slowly, but if I like the project I'll eventually finish it.

Online Sewing Classes

What a cool idea! And this project looks like a lot of fun. Too bad I'm a bit too busy right now. Maybe later this summer I'll have time to learn a new trick.

Angry Bird for Kelly

While I wish she'd never told me to get the iPhone app, I thought that this Angry Bird would be a cute gift for Kelly. Obsessively Stitching has this great tutorial, and also tutorials for the pig and blue birds. I also like the Christmas tree ornaments; if I only had more time...

I used felt for my Angry Bird instead of fleece, and hand-stitched it. Next time I will try doing some of the sewing by maching. I'd also use wool felt instead of cheesy craft felt.

Sewing Memories

This is my first sewing book:

And this is my favorite project from it:

The fabrics and fashions look a bit dated, but the projects are still applicable today. They are simple, yet teach valuable skills that can be transferred to more advanced projects.