First Dress

This is the first dress I ever made. It was my little sister's Easter dress last year. I didn't use a pattern, just referenced various online tutorials. If you search "peasant dress tutorial" you should find lots. This was just an experiment for me, so there are a few changes I would make it I sewed another one. Overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and my sister likes it.

I made some felt flowers and attached them to wide grosgrain ribbon to make a little belt.

Skirts

Here's a bunch skirts that I've made for my sisters and myself over the past year or so. My two younger sisters are modeling the skirts for me. I'll share a tutorial for my favorite skirt pattern soon. 

I love the big poppy flowers on this fabric.

This skirt is made of a set of sheets from the seventies that I found at my grandma's house. They were my mom's sheets when she was little. It's super easy to make a skirt out of a sheet because you have tons of fabric to work with and the hem is already done for you. 

My youngest sister really needed some new skirts so my mom bought four different fabrics for me to make into skirts. I decided to take the easy route and made two reversible skirts instead of four different ones. The stripe and floral one are one reversible, and the polka dot and orange one are reversible. 

This next skirt is one of my favorite skirts that I've made for myself. My sister is the one wearing it in these pictures. The skirt is made out of seersucker so its very light and comfortable.

I love that the stripes on the waistband go the opposite direction. 

This skirt is made out of shot cotton, which means it's woven with two different colors. If you are close up to it, the thread is gold in one direction and red in the other, but from far away it just looks orange. 

I'll be sharing a tutorial of how I made this yellow skirt soon!

Pillows Covers

These are some pillow covers that my mom asked me to make for places around the house. My mom taught me how to sew these and somehow I am now in charge of making all the pillows. I actually enjoy making pillows though. They're really easy and only take a little bit of fabric. 

I've made a few variations of this flower pillow, but I think this is my favorite so far. 

This is also my dog's favorite corner of the couch. :)

Valentine Tree Mailbox

Valentine's Day is coming up, and my little sister has been begging me to help make her Valentine mailbox. In her elementary school each student makes a mailbox to collect the Valentines from the other kids in the class. When I was in elementary school everyone just covered a shoebox in stickers but it's gotten more elaborate since then. My sister was telling me about the cars, animals, robots, iPods, etc that the kids in her class were making. So this year my sister and I decided to try something new- a Valentine Tree.

Just for fun we added this little owl. It's made out of a plastic Easter egg turned upside down. I think it's my favorite part of the tree. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Chevron Pillow

Hi! Today I'm sharing a tutorial for a chevron pillow that I made for my little sisters.

Supplies:

2- 16"x16" pieces of fabric for the base of your pillow

scraps of fabric in the colors of your choice

polyester pillow stuffing

masking tape

rotary cutter and mat

sewing machine, thread, scissors, etc.

You only need a tiny piece of each fabric so I just used scraps leftover from other projects. Most of the fabric I used was quilting cotton but also some flannel. I used a rotary cutter to cut the fabric into 1" strips. It would be best to cut the strips on the bias to prevent fraying but I forgot and it seems to be fine. Next, I cut the strips every four inches at a 45 degree angle. When you are cutting out the strips, alternate the direction of the angle otherwise all your strips will only be able to go one direction.

After you have put all the strips where you would like them, tape down the middle of each column, leaving room on each side to sew. You could pin the strips in place, but taping them was faster and easier for me.

Sew a straight line down both sides of every column. I sewed right next to the edge of the strips, probably an 1/8" seam allowance. Remove the masking tape after you sew the column down. Be very careful when you pull the tape off because it can pull loose threads and make your fabric fray. 

After you sew both ends of every strip, sew down the long side of each chevron. I sewed continuously across each row, just turning at the point of every chevron. 

After each piece is sewn down on all sides, lay your second square of fabric over your chevron one, right sides together. Sew around three sides of the pillow, and leave an eight inch opening in the middle of the fourth side. 

Turn the pillow right side out.

Fill it with polyester stuffing.

Hand-sew the opening closed. There are several ways to do this, but I sew about six loose stitches back and forth like shoelaces and then pull the thread tight. Continue sewing six stitches at a time and pulling them tight until you get to the end, then tie a knot. All done!

Here's the chevron pillow with some flower pillows that I helped my sisters make earlier. 

Enjoy your colorful new pillow!