Crafts of the week

I've been spending some time every week crafting with friends and by myself.  This week, I finally got around to turning some cute alphabet fabric I found at Pacific Fabrics into a simple blanket.  I was inspired by a Purl Bee project, but made some modifications.  Instead of using fleece, I used some flannel I had left over from another project.  I also sewed the rickrack on in the same way I'd been attaching ribbons to taggie blankets since I didn't have excess fabric to work with.  I'm happy with how it turned out even though the rick rack wasn't quite centered.

The blanket looks good with the rocker that's been re-located from our living room to the nursery.  The mid-century la-z-boy style chair is something we bought when we first moved to Seattle from a vintage store in the Magnolia/Interbay area.  It's really comfortable and I've taken quite a few naps there, especially now that I seem to get sleepy every afternoon.  I also sewed the pillow for the chair to give me a little more lumbar support.  I used leftover echino fabric and added a zipper so the cover can be easily washed.

I actually spent a day just sewing pillows.  I was going buy pillows at IKEA, but didn't want to make the trek.  I found pretty cheap pillows at TJ Maxx instead ($10-14 each).  They were actually cheaper and more comfortable than the pillow forms for sale at the fabric store too.  I was tempted by some cute Ralph Lauren pillows they had, but ultimately the cheaper ones were more comfortable and since I was going to sew new covers, it didn't matter if they were a bit on the ugly side.  I used fabric that I had actually bought last year at a massive fabric market in Seoul.  I had intended to use the fabric for some big floor pillows, but they work really well with the sofa and the rug.  I took the time to add zippers so these can easily be washed.  I also made sure to pre-wash them before sewing.  This was the first time I tried using a zig-zag stitch to keep the edges from fraying - I wasn't totally happy with the results, so I took time to properly hem some of the sides before sewing it together.  This will hopefully help them hold up better when they're washed.  This was also my first time sewing with hidden zippers and I used this tutorial to help me with it.  I got a bit confused with the first pillow, but since I made four in a row, it was a lot easier by the end.