Guest Tutorial over at Tatertots and Jello

Hey everyone, I am so excited today! The headboard I have been working on is going to be featured at Tatertots & Jello (one of my favorite blogs) as one of the guest tutorials. So if you have been wondering how it turned out, take a look!

Dana's Headboard

My sister made this spectacular headboard a month or two ago and I thought I'd share it. She started with a piece of MDF, foam, batting, and baseboard molding. I love that it isn't your run of the mill DIY headboard. The molding definitely gives it more personality and makes it stand out. For the molding she actually just used 3 pieces since you can't see the bottom.

I am on the hunt for fabric to match our bedroom so I can make one too. She also gave me the idea to use finishing blocks on the corners since we don't have a saw to cut the 45 angles. Hopefully I will get around to it this summer. I am looking to find a fabric similar to the kind on Carrie and Big's headboard from Sex and the City 2.

Pillowcase Dress

My friend told me about pillowcase dresses that she was going to make for her daughter. I decided to check them out since in my mind I pictured little girls walking around in cloth trash bags. Well they are a lot cuter than trash bags, and I attempted one for my niece.

I think you are supposed to actually use pillowcases, but I had a bunch of this brown fabric left over, so that's what I started with.

Cut the fabric into two identical rectangles depending on the size of the child. My niece is only 6 months old, so I felt like I was making dolls clothes.

Draw a line on each side for the arm holes. Make sure to take into account the inch and a half you will be folding over for the tie. I did not and ended up having to add fabric because I got all worried it would suffocate her little arms.

Then hem up all of the outside edges...arms, bottom hem, neck. For the neck sew down about 1/4 to 1/2 an inch, then fold over about another inch and sew again. This is where you'll thread the ribbon through. Then sew up the sides and you are all done.


I had to include a tag so she would know who gave this to her...(she has 2 other aunts and a crazy-talented dress making G-ma that spoil her).
Just an FYI: My main pet peeve about sewing is all of the measuring. I managed to only measure the overall size of the dress, and eyeballed all of the seams and hems. I think my mom would have slapped my wrist had she seen what was going on.

Can't leave well enough alone

So the pillow cover I made last week was lacking something, at least to me. I made some fabric rosettes and leaves to hot glue onto the corner. Now it has a home on the guest bed where I will finally leave it alone.

Flap closure pillow

While in church...(awful, I know!) I finally figured out how to make an envelope-ish, non zipper pillow. I took my final scraps of muslin left over from the shower curtain and went to work. I think it is the easiest pillow I have made so far. And the best part? No hand sewing at the end!

I first laid out the pillow on the scrap. You'll notice I had to sew extra pieces on the ends to make it big enough. My pillow form was 19"x19" so I made the length 20" to allow for the seams and the width about 46". Just double the pillow width and add about 8" for the flaps that will overlap to hold the pillow in.

I wanted to give the pillow more flare so I randomly cut diagonal strips down the center of the pillow. I sewed the strips with the seams facing out to give it more texture.
When you are ready to sew the pillow case together, hem the the lose edges of the short ends and then fold each end toward the center. I folded them on top of the pillow first and marked where the two ends would meet on the overlap.
Pin everything together on the two open ends and head over to the sewing machine.
Sew down both ends, strait over the flaps and everything. Once sewn, flip that bad boy right side out and stuff the pillow in. I pressed my seams down at the end to make them stand out more.


Here is the flap. I lucked out and used the seared ends of the fabric so I didn't need to sew a hem to close any raw edges.

Rosette Headbands

My two older sisters constantly spoil my little niece, so I figured I better send her something. I think the huge flower headbands are the cutest thing for little girls and I wanted to make her a version that is a little different. To make the actual flower I found a tutorial online and the best part is that you can make the whole thing without sewing...so break out that glue gun!

After making the flowers you can glue beads or buttons on for an extra touch...I was going for girly, so I had to include some beads. The last step was to attach a snap clip on the back so that my sister could change out the rosettes. I covered the clip with felt just to make it more comfortable on her head. And that's that! Now she has some cute girly headbands to wear with all of her cute outfits!



As of right now I have no baby's head to model the headbands on, so I decided that this candle would do just fine. It loved the spotlight.

I'm not being lazy...promise!

Here are some tid-bits of things I have been working on. There are about 3 different projects I have going including my sister's birthday present. Hopefully I will finish all of them up by the end of the week.

The suspense is just killing you, isn't it?