Pillow cases

I know the holidays are over, but I had left over Christmas fabric and I had to do something with it, so I made pillow cases.  My in-laws love getting pillow cases every year, they love the fact that they have no raw edges showing, therefore no loose threads. They don't sew, so they are easily amazed at how talented I am (ha! ha!).
 I'm constantly being asked how to make them, I thought of doing a tutorial, but by the time I thought about it I was well into my last pillow case.  So lets just call this a kwiktorial!

Start out with body of the pillow case (standard pillow case: 26 1/2 x 41).  I made mine a little longer, my pillows are queen size.
The border will be 10 x 41 (contrasting color).
Lay the contrasting color (border) flat and right side up and lay the body of the pillow right side down on top of the border, roll the body up until you see the edge of the contrasting color, at this point you take the contrasting color and sandwich the body of the pillow case, pin  and sew, so that it looks like this:

 You will then start pulling out the body, like this:

Iron, border of pillow case, and add any embroidery you like or you can zig zag or not do anything at all if you like.  I like to add different embroidery to mine.

Now we're ready to sew up the side, you will be sewing this right side out, it should look like this when you're done:

Cut as close as possible to the seam without cutting into it:

Now you want to iron the seam flat and turn inside out and sew along the edge being careful to sandwich the raw edges, this is called a french seam, its just makes things neater.

Now you repeat the above steps to finish the bottom, when finished it will look like this:

You're done!

Just one more and you've got a set!

Coral slip

I've been following a sew-a-long over at pattern~scissors~cloth.  Sherry has a self designed pattern for an awesome slip, so when I heard she was doing a sew-a-long using her pattern, I had to participate.  I'm not quite finished yet, I haven't decided if I will do spaghetti straps or store bought adjustable straps, either way I will have to make another trip to Hancock Fabrics, so it won't be till next week when I get done, but I couldn't wait until then to submit something to  Sew & Tell Saturday over at Sew Country Chick.
Any way this is what I have done  so far:

 I've never cut anything on the bias, so I was a little skeptical cutting this out, I was afraid I would mess it up and it wouldn't hang nicely, but over all I think I did a pretty good job and cutting it out wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, you just have to be more careful and not pull on the fabric when cutting it out and handling it.

Christmas Scarves

In our family, we try not to buy gifts for Christmas, when ever possible we  make our gifts.  I think it means more when you take the time and effort into making something for someone and its one of a kind.  Well this year I got started a little late, so I have a lot of catching up to do.  Between now and Christmas, I will be busy making all my gifts, I have a good idea what I'll be making everyone, its just a matter of having the time to do it.  It seems fashion scarves are in this season, so I thought I'd make a few, as well as winter scarves, this is my first infinity scarf I crocheted, I think it turned out pretty good.  I'll definitely be making more.

 

Update

 I just  had to post the pictures of my daughter in her new dress, she loved it and it fit her perfectly!

Party Dress

I've been wanting to sew a party dress for my daughter, for years now, this is the year it finally got done!   I used M6281, it was so easy, I couldn't believe it.  It's not totally finished as you can see by the pictures, I need to top stitch the skirt where it comes together with the  top and take up the hem, but I'm waiting for my daughter to try it on  and see if there's any adjustments to be made.  I put it on my dress form,  and adjusted the dress form to the smallest size,but unfortunately my daughter and I are no where near the same size ( what a shocker!), its a good thing I used a knit fabric, so it stretches!  Maybe she'll let me take pictures when she tries it on, she won't be home until Thanksgiving, so I'll have to wait until then.

And yes that is a Christmas tree in the back ground, my husband doesn't think a month is long enough to keep up the tree, so he always puts it up a week  or so before Thanksgiving.

Simplicity 2226

I recently joined a sew-a-long at Noodle-head.com .  Anna is awesome and offered some very helpful tips.  I love sew-a-longs, you learn so much from other people and you really do feel a sense of accomplishment when you're done.  Unlike sewing on your own, you have a schedule to follow and it keeps you from getting overwhelmed when you run into  problems, you can also see how other people do things and learn from them.
I followed Anna's instructions except instead of using view C, I used A and I omitted the belt loops, I made them, but didn't like the way they turned out and I thought it looked better without them.  The fabric I used was a light weight corduroy.

Post crossing

I recently joined a group that exchanges post cards with other members in different parts of the world, its something different for anyone that looks forward to getting snail mail, other than circulars/flyers.  Since email and direct pay is so popular I think I forgot how slow regular mail can be.  The first post card I sent took 14 days to get from the U.S. to Poland, well guess what? I got my first one today from a someone that lives in Canada.  I was excited to finally get one, and on my birthday too!