Making Pillows Out of Fabric Napkins

I'm known for visiting thrift stores and one of the first places I head to in the store is the linen section. I just love me some fabric napkins.

This love of napkins started way way back when I inherited a linen table cloth and napkin set from my aunt. It had some embroidery on it in grey and it was just a so so design in my opinion but there was something about those napkins that I loved.

Those napkins became the pillows that you see below and I have not stopped making pillows from fabric napkins since then.

To make the grade the napkins have to have the following:

1. Be attractive to me whether it's the fabric or the texture of the fabric
2.  No stains because once there is a stain it's so hard to remove or should I say impossible and I'd really rather be designing and sewing then trying to get a stain out. 
3. A good size that would translate well into a pillow. Some are just too small and some are too big. Perfect to me is an 18" x 18" napkin.
4. The napkins need to be uniform in size so that when I size them up together one isn't bigger than the other, unless I'm making a different fabric back then it doesn't matter

Below is a picture of some new ones I just made.

I loved these napkins the minute I saw them and the seller at the flea market knew what I wanted them for but was surprised that I didn't care that they were a polyester blend fabric. Nope didn't care because the texture of the material and that little stitch border was calling my name. Size was a perfect 18" x 18".  I got the set of four napkins for $3.00.

First up was finding some images that I could iron on to the front of the pillows. Found some great ones at The Graphic Fairy site and also purchased some on Etsy.

The Transfer Artist Paper from Amazon  is my go to product for iron on. This product works great!

Because I loved the look of this fabric I made the backs of the pillows in linen fabric with the envelope style for ease of inserting the pillow so I could get four pillows instead of two.

Here's a closer look at the texture of the fabric and the stitch on the edge that I love.

Stay tuned for my next post and I'll give you some easy instructions for making your own fabric napkin pillows.

My New Sewing Machine

I love to shop at the local  thrift stores, in fact I love it so much I've been known to drive 1 1/2 hours if someone whispers to me of a good place that they scored some good items.

At the thrift stores I'm drawn to the household items that are made of fabric, such as napkins, tablecloths, doilies, blanket throws, sheets etc.  If the pattern of the fabric attracts me I start to envision how I can transform it to something new and attractive for the home.

I have a large stock of doilies and fabric napkins just waiting to be remade but my 20 year old sewing machine was just kicking and screaming each time I used it.

So off I went to get a new one, just something simple, inexpensive that would do the basics but this Viking machine kept calling me plus the saleswoman was very good at her job of selling and so this not so simple machine came home with me.

The less simple the machine the more of a learning curve there is and I've come to realize at my age I hate, hate learning curves. Having to learn how to use this machine has proved to be a bit exhausting along with my memories of learning to use my new computer, phone, even my rug shampooer. So I set a goal to use the machine a bit each day until I mastered it!

I bought the machine because I really want to keep buying these things I'm drawn to at the thrift stores but to do that I have to start making some things.

So below are two pillows I've made. They are my first with the Viking. The side ruffle one was from an embroidered doily which I made into an envelope pillow with added ruffles, so very shabby chic. Then in my stash of napkins I found the perfect white napkin with a bit of texture that made the perfect companion to the envelope one. I got to use the ruffle attachment to create the flower center. I'm pleased how they both came out, though they are not perfect. 

My son gave me good advice "Just keep at your craft until you are really good at it" and that's what I intend to do. So I look forward to becoming really good at using the Viking sewing machine and  creating new items with my stash of fabric items from the thrift stores.

House Staging For A House Sale

For the last month my home has been on the market with no offers and I am surprised that I didn't have it sold in a week. So after many showings and no offers I had to take a hard look at the home and see what I could do to improve the look of the home so the showings would go better and possible get an offer.
After a review of my home I found three areas that need attention.

1. My lanai.porch. My lanai is a small enclosed screened in porch that is the perfect size for an outdoor sofa and two chairs.
2. My office. This room is really the guest bedroom but I opted when I moved in to use it as my office. It has a closet that spells bedrooms but some buyers might miss this.
3. My guest bedroom is really the office and it's very small. So I need to switch the two rooms so that buyers will know for sure what is what. 

This morning I decided to tackle the lanai.

I have to say that I know better yet I allowed potential buyers to see this lanai this way

With a little bit of time (2 hours) and some fabric and flowers I created an inviting spot to enjoy.  Here's how it looks now

 My goal was to make this room inviting so that potential buyers could see themselves in it. Here's what I did. The sofa and chairs that I had in this space was very tired. So to improve the look of this set I covered the cushions with fabric that I had on hand. Instead of sewing I just used some safety pins to hold the fabric in place and made sure the pins where at the bottom so they couldn't be seen. I could of also used duck tape but didn't have any on hand. I went shopping in my garage and found some (4) accent pillows I had that just happened to be a perfect color so I used them. What was missing was another small accent pillow on each side. I made these accent pillows (the small ones) with coordinating fabric that I also safety pinned together. Then just a quick trip to Walmart for the  pale pink gereniums and I was done.  Total cost $13.00

Tuesday I'll tackle the office and guest bedroom with the help of my son-in-law/

Fabric Rose Pins

My new label pin for my denim jacket

I had a yen for making some fabric roses into label pins. I did it but I have to tell you I'm not so impressed. I was looking to make something a bit bohemian that would look so great on my denim jacket that woman would stop to ask where I got it.

I was inspired by these fabric rose key chains done by InkyPinkies that I saw on Pinterest.  What's a bit different about her technique is that she just starts with a knot which becomes the center of the flower. Here also TatortotsandJello  has a tutorial on how to make them with the knot. Previously I've made fabric roses with a rolled center following the tutorial from My Sparkle. 

Fabric rose made with the rolled center

Each way works great but my personal favorite is the rolled look. The above photo is my first attempt at the rolled center rose. After comparing the two photos for me the rolled technique is the winner.

One of the hard parts for me about making these roses is the hot glue. I've tried all different types of glue but hot glue is the quickest and just overall works the best. Oh but the burnt fingers are not fun. So to save me from the burnt finger syndrome I devised a way to get it done without suffering. So instead of gluing as I go along I tried pinning. I would have two flowers going at the same time and would make about 1/4 of the flower pinning as I went. Once I was happy with it I would hot glue the underside and wait for it to set. Meanwhile I would do the same thing with flower number two. I believe this takes a bit more time this way but the saved fingers are worth it.

I made quite a bit of them

  
 I made a flower template that I sized to fit the rose and then made a cardboard pattern out of it. But first I spray glue some fabric on to a green felt square. Then traced my pattern and then just cut them out hot glued to the bottom of the rose.

 So it's back to the drawing board on the label pins. I might just do something a bit different.

Flipping A House 101

My mom loved houses and always dreamed of buying a poor rundown house, giving it new life and then selling it for a profit.

Mom

This desire filtered down into my brothers who have successful done what my mom would of loved to do. One brother has put his touch on residential homes and the other put his mark on commercial properties.

I also love the idea of fixing up a house and giving it some new life and of course making a profit while I'm doing it.

So come Monday September 10 I'll be closing on a house in a community called Kings Ridge   in Clermont Florida.

My Flip 

The home is 1333 sq ft and has 2 bedroom, 2 bathrooms, an office, an eat in kitchen, a living room and dining room. As I learn the ins and outs of Flipping Houses I'll share my knowledge with you.

It's Been Quite Awhile

I think March was my last post and back then I decided to quit being a blogger.

 It takes focus and a lot of work to make a blog successful and I lacked the drive needed. Part of the problem was I didn't have a clear vision for my blog and I just sort of followed what others were doing which contributed to my being lost and a quitter.

But now I have a big new project (that's all mine) that I'll be working on for the next four weeks and I'm looking forward to taking pictures and writing about my experiences. So stop back tomorrow to check out what I'm up to.  

Using What I Have Challenge!

The challenge that I have accept to take is to Use What I Already Have in my creative projects. This at first seemed to be a bit daunting but it turned out to be so much fun.

So for today my goal was to make some pillows out of cloth napkins.

Right away the opportunity came up to put this challenge to the test. 

I had already printed out this wonderful bird image from the Graphics Fairy web site and once that was done and ironed on the napkin I realized that the image was a bit too small for the size pillow it was going to be.  Normally I'd run to the fabric store frantically trying to find a solution, but nope the challenge was to use what I had on hand.

So hunting in my stash of stuff I found this wonderful ribbon (that I already had) that was perfect.  Not having any brown thread on hand to sew the ribbon onto the pillow I then decided I'd use some of that iron on tape I had saved from some Ikea curtains.  I was pretty surprised this challenge thingy wasn't really a challenge but was a way to get my creative juices going. 

I am so pleased with the design and to think that I had everything that the pillow needed. No running to the store wasting time and dollars, the pillow design ingredients were already there.

Oh yeah you see that line in the image but you are way too polite to mention. Yes it was a goof up on my part. I let the hot iron hit the image and it created that line. Another one of those lessons learned, such as protect your iron on image with cloth if using an iron near it.

This challenge for me is on going and with the stash of stuff I have I should be unstumped for quite a long time. 

BTW with that obvious line the pillow has found a home with me.

I'm Partying At The Following

Sunday's Best at My 1929 Charmer
Brag Monday at the Graphics Fairy