Christmas in a Bag

No wrapping paper, no ribbon, no bow for this Christmas. I made those flannel bags to hold Christmas goodies. They are soft and warm, extreme suitable for the snowy winter, and it is used for other purpose after Christmas, no waste at all!

The material costs $5.00 and it took me 4- 5 hours to put them together.

Sewing Workspace

这里是DD裁缝的临时工作台, 它搭在家庭室的中间, 属于违章建筑, 不久将被拆除. DD裁缝会很伤心的.

More Toss Pillows

Toss Pillows for the loveseat.
Back: Pillow #4, #1, #2, #3
Front: Pillow #10, #5


Toss Pillows for the sofa.
Back: Pillow #9, #7, #6, #8
Front: Pillow #10, #5


Some pillow details

Pillow #1, #2

Haha, this is my sewing project #2: Toss Pillows. I am planning to redo all existing 8 pillows, hope I will finish them soon, otherwise, they will never be finished.

The goals of the projects are:

• Add colors to the family room.
• Washable pillow cover, creating separated pillow liner.
• Re-use existing pillow material and fabric if possible, buy new fabric if needed.
  

Existing pillows as shown here: 4 floral ones, 2 yellow ones, 2 blue ones.

Dissemble: it doesn't require much skills, but still time consuming... make it very good time-killer while watching TV.

Assemble: things start to get complicated here. First, it took several trips to the fabric store (Joann Fabric and Crafts) for people like me having problem on decision making. The fabric can be expensive, $7 to $20 per yard. The zipper costs $1.59 for 12" one. I also get some muslin for making the liner for the fillings.

It takes some practices to get the things right. Here are the ones I made so far:

• Pillow #1 (left): this one matches the water heater curtain and seat cushion. The fabric on the back side of the pillow uses the fabric from the blue pillow, inside out, since the color of the outside is faded a little. The piping reuses the one from the yellow pillow. Total cost: $1.59 (zipper) + $0.50 (liner) = $2.09.
• Pillow #2(right): the front uses the fabric I bought yesterday, the remaining are the same as the pillow #1. Total cost: $1.75(fabric) + $1.59 (zipper) + $0.50 (liner) = $3.84.

Stay tuned...

New Slipcover

After I start sewing, QH wants to have "new" sofa set, i.e. the new covers for the sofa/loveseat. The existing cover is not removable, so it has not been maintained well in the past 6 years. And under the California sunshine, the color has faded quite bit. It is time to get new cover.

I get some books about DIY slipcover from the library, I think it is too ambious for me to make the slipcover myself based on my current sewing skill. And the fabric are expensive here, I guess it is better off for me just get the slipcovers from the store directly.

I did some research at surefit.com at home and tried to convince QH that the slipcover will fit since it is called surefit. At least we decide to give it a try. We planned to the local store Linen 'n Thing at the weekend, so in case it doesn't fit, it will be easily to return.

After some discussion and walking (we also checked out the Bed Bath and Beyond across the street), we finally agreed on one (Champagne), even though it is far from the perfect one in my mind, I hope I can work with it. The most important thing comparing to the existing cover is this one is really stain-resistant!!! Hope it will live a long long life. Total Cost : ($70+$80) - 20% = $120 + tax. With $120, I am not sure whether I can get the fabric if i did the slipercover myself, a lot of time and stress are saved too!

Put it on is not hard, but it takes sometime to make it look good, like the picutures on surefit.com. Tuck, tuck, tuck... and you will get there eventually if the shape of the sofa is not too odd. WARNING: most of hardwork will go down the drain if you try to sit on it. It makes to realize that the pretty picture is taken before anyone sitting on it. So in normal situation, it will NOT be picture-prefect!

The picture above is taken with some old toss pillows. It seems a little bit dark for me, maybe it is the lighting in the room, I need to re-work the pillows to add more color for the room.

The picture below shows the details of the fabric.