Pillow Project - Pillow #1

Thanks, everyone, for your great suggestions for pillows!  I decided to make several pillows, so here's Pillow #1.  I decided to focus on texture for this one.

 

This pillow is incredibly soft - the shell is natural flannel, a new favorite fabric of mine.

 

The flowers are made of denim, muslin and flannel, and the adorable buttons were Christmas gifts from my co-Magpie...aren't they pretty and shiny?

 

I decided to sew inside the circles so that the edges of the flowers would eventually fray and give the pillow a pretty, almost shabby chic effect.

So pillow number one is done! Thank you again for all the advice, much of which I will be using as I go along.  Take care and much love!

My First Muslin AND First Darts

by Kimberlee
 I've been terrified by one of my patterns that I've also been dying to make, Simplicity 2444.  I haven't been sewing that long, about a year, and I only made my first dress about a month ago, but I've had the pattern for A WHILE now, back to when I used my archaic New Home/Janome machine.  Did you know that only one place in the entire US carries parts for this type of machine, and it's in California?  Yeah, me neither until it broke.  Which is ok because it weighed about 25 lbs and didn't even have a reverse setting.

Anyway, one of the reasons I was so scared of the pattern was the presence of darting in the bodice, but I shouldn't have been.  I also am so relieved I chose to do a muslin of this dress!  I killed two birds with one stone (not that I would, I love birds) by getting a jump start on the apron I've been wanting to make and discovering that the pattern I was using would be a little too snug for me.

 Don't say you haven't ever used a chair as a dress form.

Fairly well made darts, not bad for the first time.

So that's it!  Next time, I'll try not to be so afraid of trying a new trick!  It's only sewing, after all.