You’ll need:

16″ pillow form

1/2 yard of fabric

1 4″ invisible zipper (I get mine from ZipIt on Etsy, she ships fast and the prices are awesome!)

Coordinating thread

Your machine’s zipper foot

Let’s talk zippers and zipper feet for a minute:

My zipper foot for my Janome looks like this:

It’s got two different bars that can attach to your machine. One on the left and one on the right. We’ll use both sides for this project.

Before pinning and sewing an invisible zipper there’s a little bit of prep work we need to do. Set your iron set on a medium-high setting. While you’re waiting for the iron to heat up, let’s talk about the zipper for a bit. Invisible zippers look backwards compared to a regular zipper. A regular zipper has the zipper pull and the teeth showing on the same side. An invisible zipper has the zipper pull on one side and the teeth showing on the opposite side.

This is what the back of an invisible zipper looks like. Notice that the teeth are curling back and facing up. The zipper pull is facing down. Now for the prep work! We need to use the tip of a hot iron to press the zipper teeth flat. It will be easier to sew alongside the teeth if they are pressed flat or standing up instead of curled back and around. To do this, unzip the zipper as far as it will go, unroll the zipper teeth, and press flat.

When you’re done with your pressing, the back side of your zipper should look like the zipper side on the left. Now we’re ready to sew on your zipper and complete your pillow.

Pillow Time!

First, cut two squares of fabric that measure 16 1/2″ x 16 1/2″.

To make sure that we’re sewing on the zipper to the right spot on both your front and back pillow pieces we’ll draw a couple of marks on both squares and the zipper. Stack both of your fabric pieces right sides together and place your zipper on top. Measure 2″ in from one side and make a small mark on both fabric pieces and both sides of the zipper with a fabric marking pen. You can see my small ones in the picture above. (I did serge my ends before doing this. That’s optional though! I’ve done plenty of pillows without serging the ends and it’ll be just fine.)

Repeat the process with the other side. In the picture above you can see my small marks 2″ in from both sides.

Zipper Hint: When we sew ANY zipper on, we need to make sure we know which side is the right side of the zipper. Just like sewing two pieces of fabric with right sides together we’ll need to attach the right side of the zipper to the right side of the fabric. It’s super easy to figure out which is the right side of the zipper. It’s ALWAYS the side with the zipper pull! Whether you have a regular zipper or an invisible zipper just look for the zipper pull and you’ve found the right side of the zipper.

Now that you’ve found the right side of your zipper, place it down touching the right side of your front pillow piece. (It should be along the bottom of your fabric.) Match up the marks you made, slide the zipper tape right along the edge of the fabric, and pin.

When you’re done pinning it should look something like this. Now we’re ready to sew! We’ll also use the marks that we made as our stopping and starting points for our sewing.

Attach your zipper foot to your machine, using the bar on the left of your foot to attach it. When you sew on a zipper you’ll use the little channel underneath your presser foot to help guide the zipper teeth through. Start sewing at one mark (making sure to backstitch) and sew as close as you can to the zipper teeth until you reach the other mark.

It should look like this when you’re done sewing this side.

Now we’re ready to attach the other side of the zipper to the back piece of your pillow. Place the back fabric square right side down on top of your front piece. Fold it back slightly. Pull up the zipper side that’s not attached and follow the same steps above. Match up the marks, move the tape to the edge of your fabric and pin in place. Notice that the right side of this zipper side is also touching the right side of your other fabric piece.

It should look like this when you’re done pinning. Now sew this side of the zipper on using the same methods we used above for the first side.

Unfold both your pieces and zip that zipper up! Pretty cool huh?!?

Now we’re ready to finish up our pillow cover! First we’ll need to finish up sewing the bottom seam. The zipper takes up most of the bottom seam but we’ve still got about 2″ on either side to finish up.  To do this, unzip your zipper halfway, then fold it up so that the right sides of the fabric are together and the zipper is along the bottom.

Move your zipper foot so that it’s attached to the machine using the bar on the right side of the foot. Place your pillow underneath the foot and slide it so that the zipper teeth are as close as possible to the right side of the zipper foot. (You may have to feel for the teeth through your fabric.) Find the mark we used to line up the zipper. Start sewing here (backstitch too!) and sew off the edge. Repeat this process with the other side of the zipper.

Now the bottom seam of your pillow is complete. You can breath now too! That was the hardest part. Now we’ll use a 1/2″ seam and sew around the other three sides of the pillow!

Keep your pillow folded with the right sides together and your zipper along the bottom. (Make sure your zipper is still open halfway! We’ll need the opening to turn it right sides out once we sew the other sides together.) Pin the other three edges and we’ll start sewing!

Start on one edge and go all the way around using a 1/2″ seam to complete sewing the sides and top. Pull your zipper away so you don’t sew through it. (I actually did this step in my serger, though you can use a sewing machine for this step too! I was just trying out my new serger!)

Reach through the zippered opening, unzip your zipper all the way, and turn right sides out! Voila! You’ve got a fancy pillow with no zipper showing at all!

Hope that wasn’t too many pictures for you!! I just wanted to make sure that I made it as easy as possible for you to sew on an invisible zipper! Let me know if you have any questions or if this was helpful for you!

Happy Sewing!

Erin

You’ll need:

Blank coir welcome mat (I got mine from IKEA, Target and other stores should have them too.)

3 cans spray paint  in various Valentine’s Day shades(I used a combination of both flat and shiny paint textures. It didn’t seem to matter and you can’t tell which were which on the coir. The darkest pink was a shiny finish and the lt. pink and white were matte finish.)

white contact paper

masking tape

Scrap paper

Tape around the edges and then divide the center into 3 equal horizontal lines with your tape. (Masking tape works best for this, blue painter’s tape doesn’t have enough stick to work well. From your contact paper, cut out your X and O shapes (Or try heart shapes!) and apply them to the mat.

Place scrap paper over the parts of the mat you don’t want to paint just yet.

Paint the exposed part.

Come back in a few minutes when dry and move your paper to another section. Paint. Repeat with the last section.

When dry, remove all the tape, paper, and contact paper shapes.

Place in front of your door and enjoy!

Happy crafting,

Erin

You’ll need:

Dish towel (I get mine in a 4 pack from Home Goods. Less than $10.)

Scrap fabrics

Pencil, Scissors

Heat’n Bond Heavy – paper backed fabric adhesive

Ready to get going?

On the paper side of your heat’n bond, sketch or trace your image. (Remember that if your image has a direction, like a letter, make sure you trace it backwards so it will be the right way when we’re done. Some XOXO’s would be cute on the towel too!)

Roughly cut around your image.

Then iron it to the wrong side of your fabric scrap. (The plastic side of the Heat’n Bond should be placed down facing the wrong side of your fabric.)

Cut around the shape and remove the paper backing.

Place your fabric images where you’d like them on your dish towel and iron them on.

Let them cool and they are ready for use!

(If you’d REALLY like to add some stitching, use the Lite Heat’n Bond and then add hand or machine stitching around the shapes. If you used the Heavy Heat’n Bond it’s a permanent adhesive and there’s no need to sew. Light washing will be just fine for your finished towel.)

Happy Crafting,

Erin

This is a fun color wheel clock I made for my mom’s sewing room. It’s a great intro into hand embroidery too if you want to give it a try!

You’ll need:

7″ Embroidery Hoop

1 Clock Kit

1/4 yard linen (or other fabric) I used linen because I liked the texture, but a plain cotton would work fine too.

1/4 yard extra firm fusible interfacing

Embroidery needle

Various colors embroidery floss

Fabric transfer pen or pencil (My favorite is the FriXion Gel Pen. Draw on your fabric, then erase it with the heat of the iron. As with any fabric marking tool, test in an inconspicuous area first!)

Clock Number Pattern (Download the PDF here for free.)

Ready? Let’s begin:

Start off by printing the number pattern. Make sure that it’s printed at 100% and is not scaling so that it’s too large or too small. The little red box in the center should measure exactly 1″.

Place the pattern underneath your linen and use your fabric transfer pen/pencil to trace the numbers onto your fabric. Also mark the center. The center is where the cross hairs are in the red box. We’ll use this marking later to determine where our clock hands will be. (I had to tape mine to the window to make my own light box so tracing was easier.)

After tracing you’re ready to stitch away. Layout your floss colors to make sure you like how it looks before you start. Use your embroidery hoop and fill in the numbers with the floss however you’d like. I used a variety of stitches (including the backstitch and satin stitch.) Try this website if you need a refresher on your stitches. On the left column is a directory to a large variety of embroidery stitches.

When you’re finished punch a small hole in the center where the cross hairs are. Remove it from the hoop and press your clock front to get out any wrinkles left from the embroidery hoop.

Cut out a 7″ circle from the interfacing, center this over the back of your embroidery and iron in place. Poke a hole in the center of the interfacing circle.

Place your clock front into your embroidery hoop and tighten. Trim your extra fabric off . (Leave about 1″ all the way around.)

Tuck the extra onto the back and glue into place.

Insert your clock kit.

I hope you enjoy this!

Happy Sewing,

Erin

Here’s what you’ll need to make your own star banner:

1 package Heat N Bond (I used Heavy, but Lite will work too.)

White fabric

Ribbon (Cut out the length you’d like to have, plus 24″ extra to allow room on both ends to tie.)

Iron

Fabric Scissors

Star template (Click link to download.)

Decide how long you’d like your completed banner to be. *Warning:  A smidgen of math is required. You’ll place stars approximately every 6″, so if you want a 5′ banner, you’ll need 10 completed stars. Since each completed star takes two shapes you’ll need to cut out 20 stars. (Basically each foot of your banner needs 4 star shapes to make 2 completed stars.)

Print the star template and trace as many as you need onto the paper side of your Heat N Bond. Following the instructions on the package, iron the Heat N Bond onto the back of your white fabric. Using sharp scissors, cut out the star shapes and peel off the paper backing.

Now it’s time to iron it all together!

Grab your length of ribbon and all your star shapes and head to the ironing board. (Have I told you that I don’t ever use my ironing board for clothing?  It has a permanent spot in my craft room!)

Measure in 12″ from one end of your ribbon.  This is where you’ll start attaching your stars. Lay one star shape right side down.  Lay the ribbon on top.

Place another star shape on top. Your ribbon will now be sandwiched between the two star shapes. Both of the Heat N Bond (Plasticky sides) should be facing each other with the ribbon in the middle. Use the iron to press the two together. The stars will stick to one another and hold your ribbon in between them. Continue ironing star shapes onto your ribbon about every 6″. Make sure you leave about 12″ on the other end for tying/hanging your banner up.

Smile and figure out where you want to hang your patriotic star banner!

Happy Crafting,

Erin

You’ll need some fabric paints, dish towels (I like the flour sack ones…they seem to be the easiest to stamp on.)  a foam brush, and stamps.  For this project I used the Joyeux Noel set.

You’ll want to put some paint on your foam brush, but not too much!  It should look something like this:

Then use the brush as an ink pad for your stamps.  Instead of rubbing your stamp on the brush, dab it, exactly like you do to get ink onto your stamp from an ink pad.  The stamp should look like this:

Then lay your towel on a flat, solid surface and stamp away!  See, told you it was super easy!!  Just let it dry, and follow the instructions on the paint bottle to set the paint.

Happy Crafting,

Erin

If you visit Burda Style this week you’ll see my reversible Halloween and Thanksgiving table runner and placemat project there available for download!  (Yep, I said reversible, and it’s free too!)  It includes the basic instructions, fabric requirements, and piecing diagrams as well as the hand embroidered pattern (full sized!)

Happy Crafting,

Erin

Find some of your favorite images online, print and trace them on the vinyl.  Cut it out and place on your glass piece.  Easy peasy!

Happy Crafting!

Erin

Hope you have a fantastic weekend and don’t forget to let your heart soar!

Erin