Handmade Goodness

I'm very excited about today's post. When I saw this tutorial on Elise's blog, I knew I had to make this pillow. Elise's blog is a delight to read everyday. Be sure to check it out.

I don't have a lot (or any really) experience sewing. I did make a small quilt when I was in college, but that was a loooonnng time ago. I have no recollection of how I did it. So, I asked the one master sewer I know for help. My Mom. She has created many, many projects over the years and most recently has sewn pajamas every Christmas for all four of her grandkids. She's amazing.

I bought all the necessary supplies and headed home. My Mom and I followed the tutorial almost to the tee. It was extremely helpful and very easy to follow. Thanks Elise!

I decided to make a dark gray pillow. We started by cutting the strips. This was quite tedious, but after a few it got easier.

Then we ironed each strip. This was one heck of a hot day and the ironing board and the sewing machine are both in the room upstairs, where no air circulates. My Mom made homemade lemonade which I highly recommend drinking while making this project.

Then we started to put the ruffles together. This is where we parted ways with Elise. My Mom and I think she is very brave. She sewed each strip on the machine, freehand. Now that is talent! I am very impressed. We found out very quickly that this wasn't going to work for us. We found that we needed to pin each ruffle row and then sew it. Several times we had to take the pins out and start over because we ran out of cloth in the row because our ruffles were too close together. But, like cutting the strips, it got easier as we went along.

We sewed each row as we went. I much preferred the sewing, so eventually my Mom pinned on the rows and I sewed. For the last strip on the top, my Mom suggested an extra zig-zag strip to have a clean finish on the top.

We made a good team. It took most of the day Saturday and several hours on Sunday to finish.

I absolutely loved how it turned out. The ruffles are so pretty and each are uniquely different.

Now, it has a home on my bed. Unfortunately, my bed hardly ever looks this way. There is enough fabric left over to make another pillow. I'm thinking of getting some red fringe to put on it to match my comforter.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my sewing adventure.

The poster is from Elise's etsy shop. Very fun things can be found there.