What was I making? part 2

This one would NOT be appropriately titled “The Pillow Post.” lol

Any guesses? Anybody? Not that the dyed terry cloth shows up real well at all, but I was making …. REUSABLE WIPES!  After reading somewhere online that directed me here, I found myself thinking “I could make those!” And as my sis has just had a baby and will be going with cloth diapers …. my biggest decision was trying to decide between the green monkeys and the tan monkeys, and as you can tell, I didn’t! The “pretty” fabric is plain ol’ cotton flannel, btw.

Hey! You can see a teeny bit of that terry cloth in this one 😉 At first, I was trying to match my squares up and do the zigzag stitch exactly at the edges, but that was causing more problems, I’d have to go back and restitch an area because it didn’t “grab” one side of the fabric, etc. So I decided to go from approx 8-1/2″ squares to 8″ squares and used the edge of the presser foot as my guide. And I decided to take a pic before I cut the edges off 🙂

So I made myself this REALLY high-tech pattern. 1 – 8-1/2 x 11″ sheet of computer paper, and make a square like we were all taught in kindergarten. To protect the edges since I knew I was going to be using it a bunch, I wrapped the edges in clear mailing tape.

“Wait a minute, I saw some pretty girly fabric in that last one underneath the pattern,” I hear you thinking. Yep; I’m trying to work up the nerve to start using them for me and Teddy. 😉 I have the basket piled with them in the bathroom, and an old trashcan outside that just has to be cleaned out before it can used as my wipes pail. Not so sure about doing the extra laundry, but I know I’ll appreciate the $ not spent of something that’s literally flushed away, and doing my little bit to help with sustainability, and better managing the resources God has blessed us with.

Oh! And one more pic – I saved all my scraps (there’s some more of that terry cloth!) and will be putting them in the compost pile once I get it started… 100% cotton, why let it go fill up space in a landfill?

What was I making? part one

Okay, y’all talked me into it, I’ll share today just what it was I was making with the lace and terry cloth I dyed. First off, the lace (which I’m not done with…)

I’ve been eying some beautiful lace sheets/pillowcases in the Penney’s catalog, 300TC Tivoli Lace and 600 TC EasyCare Lace.  But I didn’t like the price AT ALL! So, what’s a girl to do…. Well, if you’re the slightest bit crafty, you make your own! (And OF COURSE, now that I’ve gone back to look up the links to share the pix with anybody who cares to look at them, they are ON SALE! Foul, not fair, boo-hiss … wait, I still came out cheaper in the long run, and I’ll enjoy mine more because I know I made them; shutting up now *sheepish grin*)

 

 

So I started with this plain pillowcase I picked up at Wal-Mart, pic doesn’t show it very well, but it’s a very light sage-y green.

 

 

 

 

And, drumroll pleae, the finished product!

My bedding is actually pretty new, got one of those “bed in a bag” creations on MASSIVE sale (think it might’ve even been clearance for this item) at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. The queen-size comforter, 2 standard pillow shams, 2 Euro pillow shams, the dust ruffle, and 2 decorator pillows for $55!!!!! What you see the pillow laying against in the pic is the comforter, the small square decorator pillow (but it’s only the solid burgundy on one side, the other side is the same print as the comforter; I don’t get it), and in the far left bottom corner with the burgundy ruffle is the standard pillow sham.

Yes, because I’m goofy (read my page “The Pursuit of Craftiness”) I hand-sewed the lace on the pillowcase – I’m just awesome like that 😉 I still have to hand-sew the mate to this one, and I also got a set of much darker green, guess it’s more of an olive color, that I’m going to sew the crocheted lace around.

No, I don’t like pillows, not one bit *MASSIVE SARCASM* – I only sleep with about 15 of them on my bed. I’m not kidding! There’s the 4 king-size pillowcases (which is what I’m making these pillowcases for, so I can get the shams that DON’T match out of my room), the 2 standard pillowcases, my shaped memory foam pillow – okay, that’s 7. Then there’s the decorator pillows – the 2 that came with the bed-set (no, I don’t take them off at night), 2 more I bought because they were on clearance at Target and matched so well,  and 1 that (even though it was my pillow) had been staying in Mama’s living room until I had back surgery, because it’s the perfect size and shape to go under my knees – but it matches my bedding, and is where I got the idea for the green-themed pillowcases, because it has some in it, and when held up against my new bedspread it pulled out the VERY faint green that was hiding in there! Okay, so that’s 12 pillows I sleep with, and once I get my Euro pillows to go with the Euro shams that are still folded up in the closet, it’ll be 14! So my guess of 15 wasn’t too far off 🙂

So I guess when I post pics of my finished pillowcases – all 4 of them instead of just the one – I’ll include all the other pillows in the shot, just so you’ll believe me about my 12 pillows 😉

A Crafty Post :D

‘Cuz I think so far there’s only been one of them, but even more importantly because I finally figured out how to insert the individual pix where I want them instead of having them all bunched in one place like my first crafty post.

So, I had some things I wanted to sew, but all Wallie-world had was white, white, white. No lovely creamish/tannish color. What’s a girl to do? Go over to the laundry aisle, and buy a bottle of Rit dye, that’s what! Don’t know if you can actually read the bottle, but I got “tan.”

There are 2-1/2 yards of terry cloth, and approx 80″ each of 2 different kinds of lace. A cotton crochet lace (that doesn’t show up well in this pic, far left side), and something NOT cotton that’s more what we thing of when we think lace. That’s what came out “brown” – not tan – brown. Thankfully, it still works as I want it to, and my time and money weren’t wasted. Since I know you’re curious, I re-wet one end of the terry cloth to show the difference in the darkness of how the material looks wet vs. dry.

This is a more close-up pic, and you can see the crochet lace better.

Now I’ve officially blogged about my first dyeing experience, and there will be posts in the future about what was made with the lace and terry cloth 😉 (Gotta give ya some reason to keep coming back!)

God bless!