Personalized Beaded Napkin Rings

While I’ve never been a big user of napkin rings (or my husband a user of napkins), I still love them. I used to have a neighbor that always used cloth napkins. After they finished eating, they would fold them in half and hang them on the back of their chairs. I always thought this was so neat and “fancy but casual”. I’ve tried it, but because I’m always using the kitchen table as my craft table, the napkins fall to the floor, the dog claims them, and I later find them in the backyard. But…Thanksgiving is a different story. Thanksgiving calls for all kinds of fancy; honestly, other than Christmas, when do you insist on hand washing the dishes instead of putting them through the dishwasher?

I found the idea for these napkin rings in a craft magazine I grabbed at a yard sale. (Hello, my name is Kelley and I’m addicted to Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications.) Although I didn’t come up with the idea on my own, I did put my own little twist to them. So here ya go:

Supplies:

• Beading Wire: You’ll need the kind that is malleable. I bought 20 guage. The higher the number, the finer the wire. You want the stiffer stuff, but you don’t want it too big for your beads.

• Beads: Use whatever suits your fancy.

• Head Pins: These are what you use to make drop earrings.

• Needle nose Pliers and Wire Cutters

1. Decide on your bead layout and string them on your beading wire. Don’t cut the wire yet.

2. Once you have the desired length of beaded string (mine was about nine inches), make a small loop on the end of your wire. This is where you’ll attach the head pin.

3. Get a bead (or two) that matches your ensemble and put it on your head pin. Cut the head pin to leave the right about needed for a loop. Make sure you don’t close the loop before you hook it onto your beading wire. Personally, I found that closing the loop on the head pin last was easier than the beading wire. The head pin will take more “strength” to close, but if you do it slowly and carefully, I think you’ll end up with a nicer looking product.

4. Here’s where I give my other two cents’ worth: Instead of using a toilet paper roll to wrap the wire around, use a spool of thread. And here’s why: When you wrap the wire and then release it, it’s going to expand a bit. Using a spool of thread allows it to expand to the normal size of a napkin ring. When I tried using a toilet paper roll, it expanded to something that looked like a bracelet.

5. When you wrap your wire around the spool of thread take into account how much you’ll need for a loop on the end and then cut your wire. You don’t want to cut it before wrapping because you’ll need more length as you wrap. Put more beads on another headpin, cut, loop, and attach to the other end of your beading wire.

I did put my own twist to the these napkin rings. I decided to personalize the rings for each person. I know that it’s somewhat impractical if you aren’t sure who will be dining with you or if you plan on using them for regular meals, but I wanted to add a little extra. There’s also the fact that Marissa and her kiddos traveled down to have a big Thanksgiving with Jen and Debbie. And even though I wasn’t there, I wanted it to be super special for them. So…I thought I’d go ahead and send these napkin rings on over for them to use.

And so here’s what we have:

Debbie, Jen, and Marissa’s rings are made with various styles of pearled beads…because they really are pearls.

Jen and Marissa’s daughters are the two girliest girls you’ll ever meet. I made theirs with pink beads.

Jen’s son is a master soccer player. He has soccer beads with his team colors.

Marissa’s son is really into cub scouts (future eagle scout, I’m sure!). He has blue, yellow, and wooden beads.

Jen’s husband has a purple belt in Brazilian Jujitsu. Although I made his with purple and black beads, don’t laugh, because he can totally kick your butt…or twist you into a pretzel…whichever you prefer.

Marissa’s husband is in the navy, and although he is deployed and won’t be there for Thanksgiving, he still get’s a spot at the table. I made his with red, white, and blue beads (they also have stars and stripes on them!).

A little tacky? Maybe.

A little extra special? I really hope so.

Thankful for all of them? You have no idea.

Tags: table setting, Thanksgiving

This Turkey is Stuffed

I had hoped to have this up on the site BEFORE Thanksgiving, but it was not to be … but, this stuffed meal (as opposed to the condition you’ll be in — stuffed — when you finish your Thanksgiving feast) would still be a fun gift or centerpiece for the Christmas table!  Thanksgiving is about family, food, and fun … so, since part of the “family” could only be here the weekend before Thanksgiving this year, that is when we celebrated! I did tell Jen that my universe feels a bit like it is tilted since everyone else is in the kitchen making their big Thanksgiving meal and I’m putting together a leftover turkey sandwich … homemade pizza at her house later today for the shopping strategizing session!

I downsized my diningroom furniture a few years ago, and “the grands” are “upsizing” so we decided to have our first “kids’ table” this year (Josh suggested that next year it be moved to the patio!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This fun little centerpiece idea came from Smashed Peas and Carrots, a young mother’s fun blog full of recipes and craft ideas. You’ll see from my close-up pictures that I made a few changes, mainly for simplicity’s sake (and because I have limited time and need to make two of them!).

 

 

 

 

 

1.  Draw the pattern pieces freehand (no kidding!) on paper.

2. Cut out fabric pieces (I used felt for all pieces).

3. On one of the ”meat” pieces for each drumstick, sew velcro.

4. I topstitched the “bone” pieces together without stuffing. May insert a bit of stuffing or a piece of interfacing for the second one I made since the bones are a bit floppy.

5.  Pin together two meat pieces (inside out, making sure the velcro piece is the one you want stuck to the side of the turkey body), with a bone inserted.

6. Sew the pieces of the drumsticks together (inside out), leaving an opening to insert stuffing. Stuff, and whipstitch opening closed.

7. Repeat with the second drumstick.

8. Sew the matching velcro in the appropriate place on each of the body pieces.

9. Sew the two body pieces together, inside out.

10. Sew the body to the bottom piece (you will probably have to do some adjusting here, I ended up trimming about 1 1/2″ off one end of the bottom to get the body to fit the right way), leaving an opening on the rear end to stuff. Stuff as tightly as possible. Whipstitch closed. Using dark embroidery floss or perle cotton, stitch “Xs” across where you whipstitched so it looks like he’s been stuffed and sewn shut (since that is exactly what has happened!).

11. Attach the drumstick pieces.

12. For the other veggies, use your imagination! I made carrots by sewing together triangles and inserting the “top” after stuffing, then tied it off with embroidery floss. The green beans are just two strips of felt sewn together with a bit of stuffing inserted (used the eraser end of a pencil to do the “insert” part!).

13. I purchased a pack of 3 inexpensive foil pizza pans to use as the serving tray.

This little guy was a big hit, especially with the girl “grands” … they entertained themselves and the family for about an hour that evening “serving” up turkey dinner!

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” — William Arthur Ward

I certainly have much to be thankful for, so hope that everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving (no matter when you celebrate or what you eat)!

Tags: Crafts, Holiday centerpiece, Sewing, Thanksgiving

Pinecone Place Card Holders

Hello again everyone!  Today I am highlighting the pinecone place card holders originally featured in our 100th post with Thanksgiving table designs.  I had a lot of fun making these, mostly because they were SO easy to do!  I pulled out the materials and from start to finish I don’t know if this even took me ten minutes.

Materials:

• Designer stones with flat bottoms, usually found around the stepping stone area of your local craft store or Wal-Mart
• Glitter in the color of your choice – I used gold to make it look more Autumn-ish
• Pinecones – I just picked mine at the local park! but you can also buy a bag for usually $1 -3
• Spray adhesive (you will also see regular tacky glue in the picture…I didn’t use it)
• Glue gun and sticks
• Container to work on/put glitter on – in our family we use recycled meat and veggie trays as can be seen in Jen’s post
• Card stock

Directions:

1. If the bottom of the pinecone is not level, pull or cut off excess pine spokes
2. Pour a small amount of glitter into your container
3. Spray pinecone generously with spray adhesive, coating entire cone
4. Roll pinecone in glitter making sure to thoroughly cover the outside of the cone and allow to dry
5. Using glue gun, put a dime-sized amount of hot glue on the bottom of the pinecone and immediately place pinecone on rounded part of designer stone; hold steady in place until glue dries, usually less than one minute
6. Print out or hand-write the names of your guests on 2 x 3 inch pieces of card stock and place holder at the top of your place setting

At the end of this project, the design was SCREAMING Christmas tree at me, so I guess I will be making these again at Christmas time with green glitter instead.  I will probably still use the orange stones though because they will make great “tree trunks!”

Tags: Marissa, quick., table setting, Thanksgiving

Turkey Placemats for Thanksgiving

When we decided at Threaded Together to each do a piece of the Thanksgiving table, I was assigned placemats.  I automatically thought about having the kids do turkey handprints or something similar on construction paper.  What we decided to do was cut out turkey feathers and a turkey body.  I let the kids put together each turkey and then we glued them to the whole sheet of construction paper.  Laminate them and you have fun placemats for Thanksgiving!

A few days ago as I was reading some craft blogs, I saw a suggestion where you should let the kids make the placemats on Thanksgiving day.  I wish I could remember the site!  What a great way for the kids to stay entertained and out of your hair while you get Thanksgiving dinner together!

Tags: Entertaining, Jennifer, placemats, Thanksgiving

Halloween Stitching – Alternate Finishing

I finally finished a little Halloween cross-stitch project which I started, oh, I don’t know, probably FIVE years ago!!! The problem with holiday-themed projects is that I only like to work on them around that holiday! So, every year, Mr. Sweet Tooth got packed in with my projects to take to the annual Needle Fair stitching retreat sponsored by my favorite local needlework shop, Needle Delights, only to be put away at the end of the weekend until the following year’s retreat. I’m afraid this little project had kind of become the “mascot” of the retreat and I was getting sick of looking at him. So, I was determined that not only would I have the stitching finished before the retreat, but that the project would also be “finished” and on display with other finished works at the retreat.

Since this little guy will only be hanging up a few weeks each year, I decided that a professional frame job was not in the budget. I had seen another like-project finished in this manner hanging up in the shop a few years ago and decided to give it a try myself.

Supplies:

finished cross-stitch project

burlap fabric

thread/floss to match burlap

raffia

straight branch or dowel (I used a crape myrtle branch because they are so nice and straight)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Directions:

Cut finished project to desired size, allowing 1-1 ½ inches to fray. Cut burlap large enough across the top to allow for making a casing (large enough for branch or dowel to fit through).  Cut burlap two to three inches larger than the finished project on two sides and the bottom, allowing for fraying.

 

Fray top about ½ inch and fold over to the back, making a casing large enough for the branch/dowel. Stitch in place by hand or machine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Center finished project and pin in place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Long stitch around edges using 2 strands of thread/floss and allowing desired amount to fray.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Insert branch/dowel and use long raffia to make hanger. When the holiday is over, roll it up and store with other decorations until it is time to come out again next year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Halloween!

 

Tags: cross-stitch, Finishing, Halloween

How to Make Candied Cinnamon Almonds

Yesterday, my son walked in a parade with his Cub Scout pack.  It was a good ole hometown fall festival and parade with high school marching bands, games, amazing food, generous smiles, Civil War re-enactors, monster trucks, and more! 

My daughter and I sat on the sidelines waiting for the parade to start, and during the parade, enjoying the friends and fun.  I thought ahead and brought drinks and snacks so I wouldn’t be breaking my budget.  However, a certain food trailer was calling out to both of us (especially after our friends went and bought some)…Candied Nuts.  Almonds, walnuts, peanuts and pecans.  All covered in crispy wonderfulness and incredibly addicting.

After delighting in the fantastic taste, as is usually the case, my first thought was: I can make this!!!  I had several bags of almonds from a plan to make a previous recipe, so I figured I would go ahead and give it a try!  Often times, I try foods like this and think, surely it must be difficult to make them, especially since they can get away with charging $4.00 for a cup of them!  Wrong!  They were super duper easy and quick and provided instant taste gratification!

I went to my usual resource, allrecipes.com, and looked up the recipe.  The original called for two cups of nuts, but my 16 oz. bag was three cups so I changed the serving size to get an accurate recipe.  For this one I could have just done it on my own, but in case you don’t know, you can change the size of the recipe in allrecipes.com.  You just put in the number of servings you want to make, press calculate, and it makes the alterations for you!  Here are the numbers I ended up using:

Candied Nuts

• 3/4 cups water
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 3 cups almonds (any nuts of your liking will do)

Mix all ingredients except almonds in a large saucepan and bring to a boil.  Add almonds.  Boil and continuously stir until water has evaporated.  Spread out on wax paper lined cookie sheets and cool 15 minutes.

The trick to this, as per the comments on allrecipes is to constantly stir and MAKE SURE you cook away all the liquid.  If it is syrupy at all still, you are not done!  It took just under 30 minutes for this process to complete.  30 minutes of standing and stirring is SO WORTH IT for this recipe.  They are DELICIOUS!  As soon as I do everything else I need to accomplish today, I am going back to make the recipe with my walnuts and peanuts too!  I’ll probably try adding something like pumpkin pie spice and see if it changes the taste at all.

I even used a cake decorating parchment triangle to wrap the candy up.  It looked just like the package we bought the nuts in at the festival.  Very authentic and this would make a GREAT homemade gift to hand out to friends at the holidays!

YUM!

Tags: almonds, candied, gifts, how to, Marissa, nuts

Mummy’s Brunch!

Cheesy, I know, but I couldn’t help myself…it is Halloween season, after all!  Today we will be highlighting my most recent entertaining extravaganza (this morning!)….Mummy’s Bruch!!!  (list of setup and design details shown at the end of the post)

A group of my girl friends, mostly from the neighborhood, are always looking for an excuse to get together and have a good time.  Last month, to celebrate our children’s return to school we went out to eat at a local brunchery.  Inspired, we decided to make it a monthly ordeal, but to host it at our own houses.  This month was our first, and I volunteered to start the partying at my place!

There are two things we KPB girls (yes, we have a name for ourselves) take very seriously in life: 1) our food and 2) our alcohol.  Both must be present in abundance whenever we get together…the majority of us are military wives!  Most of our children are all in school so this was a Mummies only meeting.

I began my planning by putting together a menu of the foods I wanted people to try the most.  I knew I would need some things sweet, some savory, some heavy and some light to make everyone happy and keep the food interesting.  After making the menu I tried to figure out how I was going to lay my house out to hold all the women.  Today there were 13 of us, but there can easily be 30 or more depending on how many of us are able to show up!

My mother would be proud of me…I decided today was finally the day to bust out the good silver!!!  That’s right!  Those boxes came out of the closet and were used (the silver, not the boxes) for the FIRST time since I have had them.  Probably the first time in 20 years!!!  Why you ask?  Well, why the heck not?  All they have been doing is sitting and wasting space in my closet.  You know what I do to things that waste space in my closet?  My family does!  I THROW THEM AWAY!  Obviously, that was not an option here, so I figure I better use them!  They were so gross and tarnished and I was NOT looking forward to polishing them…hence the reason why they have been in their containers for so long!  How do I do it?  Where do I start?  Do I need to have hazmat on speed dial?

Well, when I moved into my house the people we bought it from actually left a container of silver polish in a cabinet.  I have stopped myself from throwing it away a million times because “you never know when I’ll need it.”  And I finally needed it!  I prepared myself for a long night of scrubbing and polishing and sweating, and bleeding and aggravated skin.  Guess what though?  I polished ALL of my pieces in under an hour!  It was so stinking easy and actually remarkably FUN!  I know, right?  But seeing the age disappear from the silver pitcher before my very eyes was amazing.  They shined up like I had just bought them yesterday!  Needless to say, I highly recommend Wright’s Silver Cream. 

Before polishing the silver, I had no plans to do a theme at all.  I was simply going to make some yummy (mummy) food and put it out to eat.  However, after I had all these beautiful pieces lying around I thought, “October!  I HAVE to do a haunted style brunch set up!”  It was so fun!  I spent very little money making it all happen.  I bought the candies webs, bugs, etc. at the Dollar Tree, and since it was brunch, I had most of the items on hand to make the food I was making.  So below I will entail all that I did and  How to Throw a Mummy Brunch!

Theme:

MUMMY’S Brunch! 

Decorations:  

1) “Haunted” silver platters and bowls.  The perfect touch to make the room look like one on the Haunted Mansion ride at Disney.  Don’t have silver?  The Dollar Tree carries a plastic type of silver looking stuff (sorry, I really don’t know how to describe it) that really would do just fine.  I would have had no problem using it!

2) Cobwebs on the wall, tables, staircase, and hanging from the chandeliers.  I only purchased one bag at the Dollar Tree and STILL had leftover!

3) Foil wrapped chocolates that looked like eyeballs tossed over the tables amongst the cobwebs. One bag (Dollar Tree) was more than enough for four tables.

4) Wine glasses.  I have had my eyes on these glasses since I spotted them this summer.  They are tall, big, thick and pretty darn sturdy glasses.  Why so special?  DOLLAR TREE!  I had thought about buying the throw away champagne flutes to have fun with them, but those were sold two in a pack for a dollar.  So instead, I spent 16 dollars buying the 16 brand new glasses I have wanted for a while.  Now what to do with my miss-matched Waterford glasses that I never use because I don’t ever want anyone to break them!!!?

5) Three bags of small plastic creepy crawlies (Dollar Tree):

• The long skinny ones were placed in napkin rings with long black paper napkins
• Medium sized ones were tossed around the tables with the foil eyeball chocolates
• Small ones were rings.  These I used to “label” the wine glasses.  These rings are so small they always have slits so you can break them apart in the back.  It was a super easy, cheap thing I came across on accident to wrap around the wine glass stems.

I know this seems like an advertisement for the Dollar Tree, but really, I have become a DT addict!  I never knew I could find so many things there that I need, for my entertaining needs especially!

6) Table cloths that match my normal rooms.  These really made the silver POP!  I found the BEST tablecloths at Bed Bath and Beyond.  They feel soft and look nice, but they are totally stain resistant!  When you spill something on it, the water literally beads up and doesn’t soak in.  Any food that was spilled, I had NO problem wiping up with a sponge.  I am SO excited to have these now!  And they are made out of recycled plastic bottles.  Good for the environment too!!!

Mummy Menu:

Drinks:

1. Bloody Mary’s
2. Bloody Mummy Mimosa’s: 2 bottles champagne mixed with almost one full carton OJ and a splash of pomegranate juice in each individual glass
3. Brainy Bellinis: 1 bottle Prosecco mixed with 2/3 cup white peach puree
4. Coffee with the option of Bailey’s or a fall tasting creamer (cinnamon, caramel, etc), also make sure you have regular milk and sugar out for it
5. Sparkling water
6. OJ, Cranberry Juice, etc

Appetizers:

1. Cheese and crackers (I had a goat cheese, smoked gouda, pepper jack, and rosemary)
2. Garlic Olives (these were torn up…I try to always have something out that people can just pop)
3. Fruit and fruit dip (strawberries, cantaloupe, pineapple, grapes)
   1. pull the grapes off the stems before you put them on the platter…people will be more likely to eat them
   2. fruit dip: one small container of marshmallow fluff and one package of cream cheese (8 oz?) – put them in a bowl and beat the heck out of it on high until it’s nice and creamy…YUM

Mains/Sides:

1. Brunch Strata (made a perfect amount…two or three more people and there would have been no leftovers)
2. Pumpkin Scones/Bread served with sweet potato butter
3. Tomato Basil Tart – a tradition of my mom’s…I’ll have to post another day
4. Maple Bacon Cupcakes

On a side note….Garrett, from Vanilla Garlic comment on my Maple Bacon Cupcake last night..  His taste buds must have been tingling because I received a text from my sister who is aware of my little bloggy blog crush.  Literally while I was in the middle of baking the same dish for my brunch: “Vanilla garlic left a comment on your bacon cupcake post!!!  I know u r swooning right now lol!”  My response: “Please catch me while I fall!”  :)

Dessert:

1. Monkey Bread brought by a friend of mine, but her recipe is pretty similar to mine – again, I’ll have to reserve another day of posting for this one, even though it is super easy and quick.

Well, I fear this post has already turned into a novel.  I’ll let you go now and leave you to your own mummification.  Don’t forget…use the junk you’ve got sitting in a closet.  What’s the point in having the beautiful extras in life if you aren’t ever going to use them?  ANY occasion can be made special enough to dust the china off for!

Linking up to:

Tags: brunch, drinks, Entertaining, food, Halloween, hosting, How to throw a Mummy Brunch, silver

Tam Hat

Gift giving season is in the air…especially in my family!  29 years ago when I was born I did everyone a favor…I came in June.  Nice, simple, middle of the year.  No huge holidays around.  I was good.  The rest of my family (with the exception of my daughter who’s birthday is in July) was less considerate when they first showed their faces to the world.  Beginning at the end of August, we have 7 birthdays in four months.  Ridiculous.  I feel like as soon as I get one out of the way, planning for the next commences.  Not to mention this is the time I should be working on the billions of Christmas presents that I am trying to knock out.  Oh,and now would be a good time to mention that I also decided to make the kids Halloween costumes this year.  It really puts a damper on my social life.  Really.

This year I am doing my best to make as many homemade gifts as possible.  For me, of course, this means I am turning into the crazy old grandma who knits something for everyone.  At the ripe young age of 29.  Knitted socks, slippers, wash cloths, hats, scarfs, pot holders.  Oh yes, you guys had better prepare yourselves.  I think I may even knit my BIL a guitar strap or two.  Ssh.  Don’t tell him!

At the moment I have three projects going…one for myself (like that one will ever get finished!!!) one for my son, and one for – well, I don’t know who it’s for yet.  In the evenings after the kids have gone to bed and I have washed the dishes and cleaned the house, and made lunches for the next day and walked the dogs, and folded the laundry I REALLY look forward to picking up my knitting and relaxing with one of my Blockbuster mail deliveries! 

This hat was the result of some of that work and I think it is such a cute, stylish hat.  I was pretty tired of making the same old beanies every time I made a hat for someone…especially the ladies.  I had never heard it called a Tam hat before, but apparently that is the correct name.  The one in the pattern, found at Learning My Way Through is definitely easy enough to knit.  It is an easily memorized pattern, and after making three of them now, I feel like an old pro!  The one I have shown on my beautiful little model here, I adapted by simply reducing the number of stitches I casted on. Just be sure that the number of stitches you CO is in multiples of 8.  I think I CO 32 stitches using Lion Brand Homespun for this one.  I didn’t really care too much for the Homespun for this hat, but it worked well enough.  It just doesn’t look simple and clean, and I am usually pretty OCD when it comes to nice lines.  Maybe my mother will post a picture of the one she got for HER birthday! :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: adult, Fashion, Hat, homespun, Kids, knit, Marissa, Tam

Anniversary Cupcakes…Completed!

Yay!  The day is here!  The cupcakes for my friend are done and they were a big hit at her anniversary party!  Today I am going to show you the process of putting them together.  This was a super fun project and I cannot wait to try more new things with cupcakes!  I definitely stretched the limit with how many different things you can do to one cupcake, but I think they still looked cute!  I little busy, but still funky and fun.  I was so happy to be able to make these for J on her special day.

First I iced the refrigerated cupcakes (super chocolate with chips recipe…YUM!) with the basic buttercream icing recipe.  One batch was enough to cover all of the cupcakes and still have enough to color pink and put the dollop on the top.  After I put the white icing on, I dipped the top of the cupcake into white sugar sprinkles.  Just make sure to put enough of the sprinkles in a bowl and dip the cupcake top in before the icing hardens.

 

Next I placed the pink icing I colored into a piping bag with a decorative tip.  Anything with a larger opening will do.  I made a quick pink swirl on the top of each cupcake.  It is so tempting to just swipe those right off with your finger and eat them!

 

 

 

 

After I put the “cherry on top” I CAREFULLY placed a candy heart in the middle of each cake, gently pushing the long bottom into the cake like a pick.  These are incredibly fragile, so be gentle!

 

 

 

 

 

I then put each of the “D and J” fondant pieces on each cupcake, making sure it didn’t over crowd the candy hearts too much! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last, but most certainly not least, came the homemade cupcake wrappers!  How FUN!  These were such a blast to make and I think they came out so cute!  I placed them in a white cake box (with a cardboard piece in the bottom) for transport.  The only thing that I really had to learn with this project: make sure your cupcakes aren’t too tall when they are finished!  The hearts were already pushing on the top of the box and then when I had to slam on the breaks on my way to dinner….at least 1/3 of the heart pieces broke.  The great heartbreak of 2010.  So sad…but the ones that were still together were still awesome.

Happy Anniversary D and J!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: anniversary, buttercream, Cupcake Toppers, Cupcakes, Hearts, icing, sprinkles

Piles of Pillowcases

These instructions will make one standard size pillowcase (approximately 32” x 20”).  I have adapted these into EASY instructions from some complicated directions I got for free from a quilt shop in California about 15 years ago. There are almost no limits to the fabrics and colors available. The instructions can be adapted to any size pillow. 

 

• I first made pillowcases when my daughters were headed off to college:
  • If your students attend a large school it is fairly easy to find novelty fabric, otherwise use the school colors
  • Use stencils to cut out the school/sorority letters out of iron-on patch material; zigzag around to make sure they stay on through repeated washings
• I have also made them to decorate beds
  •  An inexpensive way for decorator pillows to coordinate with sheets on the bed – pick up a twin size flat to match to use as the fabric
  • Use  ribbons and buttons to close up the end
• Now I make them for the “grands”
  • for holidays
  • to decorate their bedrooms (e.g., anything pink, baseball)
  • or  their hobbies and interests (e.g., Boy Scouts, dance, soccer)

 

Fabric (44-45” wide) required:       

1 yard  (44-45” wide) for body of pillowcase

1/3 yard for end of pillowcase

1/8 yard for accent strip

 Recommended fabrics:

It is up to you to decide whether you want to use something recommended for children’s wear (e.g., flame retardant fabrics). I’ve always used 100% cotton (e.g., quilting-type fabrics, novelty & holiday-print fabrics and flannel). Prewash all fabrics.

 Optional:  Rickrack and other embellishments

 Cutting (or “ripping”) Directions:

From the 1 yard piece, cut one piece 27” x 41”

From 1/3 yard piece, cut one piece 10” x 41”

From 1/8 yard piece, cut one piece 3” x 41”

 Instructions:

Press the 3” x 41 accent strip in half lengthwise, right side out, raw edges together (strip will now be 1 ½” x 41”) .

Press the 10” x 41” end piece in half lengthwise, right side out, raw edges together (strip will now be 5” x 41”).

Sandwich the accent (1 ½” wide) strip between the end piece (5” wide) and right side of the bottom long edge of the body fabric with all raw edges together.  You can pin them together if you are hesitant about feeding them along, or do like I do and just hold them in place. Make sure that your “body” fabric is going in the desired direction. 

Sew a 5/8” wide seam along the bottom edge.  Don’t panic if they don’t match up exactly on the other end, just trim accordingly!

Press:  1) seams up; 2) accent piece up; and 3) end piece down.

Top stitch the accent piece to keep it standing up.  This is a good time/place to add rickrack or ribbon, if desired.  I only add buttons and other embellishments if the pillowcases won’t actually be used for sleeping (who wants a button in their ear?).

Fold the body piece (with attached accent and end piece) in half with right sides together, matching the edges (should be starting to look like a pillowcase at this point!).

Sew a 5/8” seam around the long side and top open edges.  You can doublestitch this if you think it will get heavy duty wear.

Clip close to the seam and the corners.

Turn inside out and press.

Taking pictures and all, this one took me about 30 minutes. Usually I make these in “assembly-line” fashion.  In no time at all you’ll have a Pile of Pillowcases.

I just had a brilliant idea to make “tooth” pillows – will let you know how those work out (when I get around to them).

Sweet Dreams!

 

 

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