Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Mother Knows Best!

Right now, my two little girls are very much enthralled with the movie "Tangled."  There is action, adventure, long hair, and a little love.  Rapunzel is not a dippy princess looking for Prince Charming, but an inquisitive girl locked in a tower by a "mean mommy" who only wants to see the floating lights.  It has a snappy soundtrack and a catchy little ditty called, "Mother Knows Best."  This is a link to the song - I am warning you it will be in your head, FOREVER!!!!  My kids love this song and sing it to me a lot when we are eating breakfast.  I don't think they have quite absorbed that the lyrics are kind of mean as the song is sung by the "mean mommy."  But, who am I to argue when my kids tell me that I know best, right?  Well, in a lot of ways mothers really do know best and my mother knows best when it comes to sewing.

"Tangled" fans!  
For about a month or so, I have been less than productive when it comes to working the old sewing machine.  I took some time off around in December.  Then January hit with along with cold season, a small Vegas vacation, and productivity went down, again.  I bought lots of materials and had good intentions but then I started reading directions and decided that my congested head just was not up to the challenge.

Vegas!!!!
This week, I was feeling healthier and sleep schedules started to return to normal.  I broke out the sewing once again.  My mom is going to come over and give me another sewing lesson sometime very soon.  But, I wanted to see if I could figure something out on my own.

I broke out the directions on how to make an envelope pillow which were written in a sewing language I don't understand.  Directions are also written in French but lets face it, I never performed all that well in my French classes.  So, I gave the directions to Kevin.  Kevin kind of understood and we decided to forget the directions.  I cut out the big square for the front and two halves for the back, envelope.  My measuring was a little off - my mom always tells me that if it is off I should start over again.  Yeah, I did not follow those directions. (Mother knows best!)  In the end, my "envelope" opening should have been a little wider and my insert smaller.  I ordered a 17 x 17 insert so that the pillow would be fuller.  Here are the pictures:  

Not bad from the front...

...back needs some tweaking.
I am actually pleased that I did this on my own, with little help.  I think that once I get the measurements down, these pillow covers will look pretty good.  Now, I need to get my mom over to give me advice on all the other projects that I want to do in the next month.  I need advice on supplies, materials, how to, and even tweaking these pillows if I don't get to it before she gives me my lesson.

The moral of this little post: if at first you don't succeed, try again.  So, I will be trying again.  Tonight!

3 comments:

  1. You go girl! You are so far ahead of me in my remedial sewing class that it is not even funny! And how fun it is that you and Kevin make such a good team!

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  2. You need at least 4" for the envelope. So if you make a 17" square pillow...
    Front should be 17" x 17" (1/4" inseam)
    Back pieces: 17" x 13"
    Hem of back pieces. 1/4" folded over twice.

    I've made a quite a few using the basics of this tute:

    http://candacetodd.blogspot.com/2009/02/super-easy-removable-pillow-cover.html

    Matching up can be tricky...I didn't bother, but I bet Kevin could figure it out!!!

    :)

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  3. Hey there Pam and Varina,

    It is funny because Kevin does not know much about sewing, he is good with numbers, reading directions, and figuring out diagrams. So, where I fall short on skills, Kevin is there to help out. My mom came over and helped me out with reading the directions on a couple other projects I want to do.

    Thanks for the measurements and the link. I checked out a couple tutorials online last night. I made another cover last night and it actually turned out really well!

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