Whisker Graphics

Here is the third project from the Garage Sale Fabric.

The two pillows below are from when I was in my country french phase. They’ve been living in my linen closet for about 4 years waiting to start their next life. Well, last Saturday was the day for them to be reborn.

Pillows sporting their old attire.

Here they are in their new (garage sale) fabric. The middle pillow has been out of the closet for a couple of years now and is happy to have some company.

Same pillows (on ends) sporting their new duds.

I covered them in the wide wale, light aqua corduroy. It’s so soft. Perfect for a couch pillow.

Below is the easiest way I know to make a pillow cover. There are only 2 seams!! (I do apologize for the  photos. I was figuring out how to make these as I was making them  and didn’t take any photos during the process.)

Place your pillow on your FLAT fabric (not folded as seen in the photo).
Add 1″ to the height (so 12″ high pillow = 13″ high fabric).
Cut your strip of fabric.
With pillow still on fabric strip, wrap the sides of the fabric strip so they overlap about 4″ and trim width if needed. (16″ wide pillow = approx. 40″ wide strip of fabric)

Remove pillow.
Fold the side edges over and stitch to finish the edges.
Place pillow on flat fabric and overlap/wrap finished edges so that the pillow is snug.
Pin at overlap edges at top.
Remove pillow and smooth cover so you can pin the bottom overlap.
Sew top and bottom seams. 1/2″ seams.

Turn case right side out.
Iron if necessary.

Put pillow in cover.

Here is the first project I did with the Garage Sale Fabric.

Back Story: Nine years ago we remodeled our kitchen and got a screaming deal on some kitchen cabinets (someone had rejected them for their kitchen). Many of the upper cabinet door fronts were to supposed to have glass in them. Well, I don’t keep tidy cupboards, so I came up with a solution to hide the contents by making some curtains for those cupboards. Originally we painted the kitchen a dark gray/green color, then 3 years ago I repainted it  aqua/robin’s egg blue color, but I never got around to making new cupboard curtains to match. (Actually, I couldn’t find a fabric I liked at a price I liked.) Well, the buffalo check I scored at the garage sale ended up looking great.

Before shot of kitchen cabinets with old green fabric in them.

After shot of cabinets with garage sale fabric in them.

Before close up.

After close up.

Since I already had done all the measuring and “hardware” installation the first time around, all I had to do was lay the old curtains down on the new fabric, add a couple of inches for the casing, cut and sew.  I used itty-bitty cup hooks and some wooden dowels cut to size to secure the curtains.

Close up of cup hook and dowel I put the curtains on.

I  sewed a zig-zag stitch on the vertical sides so the fabric wouldn’t unravel. I didn’t have enough fabric to have an actual finished edge.

Last Saturday I went to garage sales (again) and this time I scored some fabric. I ended up paying $9 for the fabric in the photos below.

3 yards of patterned fabric and 4 yards of cotton stretch fabric

4 yards wide wale corduroy and 2.5 yard buffalo check

I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to make when I bought all this, but I went ahead and stopped by the fabric store on the way home and spent another $9 on thread and elastic.  I got home and started thinking and came up with quite a few ideas. I then spent the rest of Saturday (about 8 hours) making stuff. What stuff, you may wonder? Stay tuned. Each day this week I will reveal a project.

Disclaimer: I’m not a sewer (a person who sews, nor a waste-carrying pipe), but I have a sewing machine and determination, so the projects I do are very, very easy.

Several years ago when I owned Room With a Past, I went to garage sales EVERY weekend to scout for items to make-over for the shop. After getting up early every weekend (usually both days) for almost 3 years, I had garage sale burnout. But now, enough time has passed and I’ve been jonesing for a fix (of the screaming deal variety). Last Saturday was the day! I spent a grand total of $14, bought loads of goodies and had a great time.

All my goodies

Labels I adore from Cavallini Papers

There must be 1,000 postage meter labels. These will come in handy for gift tags, name tags, file folders, and labeling all sorts of stuff, plus they will be fun to decorate with stamps and gel pens etc.

I’m going to use the graph paper for gift wrapping.