I Made Pillows!

Sam loves his new pillow!

Last Saturday I finally unboxed the new sewing machine! One look at the 77 page instruction manual and about a dozen individual loose informational sheets and I knew that this was going to require some real concentration! I haven't really done any sewing on a machine since the early 90's, and even then I was really just a novice. My memory isn't all that great either, so this might as well have been my first time.

There are so many stitches and functions! It even sews letters!

With absolute silence in the room, I opened the manual and began to read it methodically. I did my best to absorb each word and understand the terms and the functions before moving on to the next section. I learned some new words (feed dogs) and had a few "aha" moments. It literally took me two full days  of reading and doing, but by Monday night I had the bobbin threaded, the needle threaded, and began to practice sewing on the pillow material.

I had to draw out a diagram to plan how I would sew the pillows, where they would fold, how much of a seam allowance to plan for, where the hand stitch opening would be, what size would work well for the beds etc... I thought having a real pillow inside of a pillowcase would be great, so I planned for both.

Once I had it on paper and felt comfortable with the plan, I cut the fabric. Before I sewed them, I wanted to incorporate name tags. This was probably the largest mental challenge; I'm sewing the pillows inside out, the tags need to be on the right finished side, and the label needs to face up. I really had to sit there for a long while and ponder all the angles! I kicked myself for not making the tags double sided!!! In the end, I figured it out correctly! My hand sewn ends could use more practice, but since they'll be hidden inside the pillowcase, I think they are great!

I used pink thread so that I could keep a good eye on my machine stitches as I went along.

 

A perfect fit for the bed!

After sewing and stuffing the pillows, I was feeling a little more confident with the pillowcases. Rather than just going by my planned measurements, I cut extra fabric and measured for length and width as I went along. It worked out really well! I love how they turned out!

Look at those stitches! Awesome, right!?!

The machine was a dream to use, and I will no longer be intimidated to make my own pillows! Hopefully, I'll be making lots of other great mini items myself, too! Making is the part I really love!

My to-do list is getting shorter and I expect to be finished up with this project by the end of next week. Then I can set up for the photos! In-between now and then, I am doing more on the organizational plan to my work space. More storage and a display shelf are happening this weekend! I'll post some photos when I get it all completed!

Have a great first week of November (OMG!, NOV?)! Anyone else in the mood for meatloaf!

Jodi