How to make a travel pillow

Posted on December 26, 2014 by justelly1

This one I have done long time ago but I couldnt post it because it has been a gift for my godchild Sonja.

She loves to travel a lot with bus, car, train. She never travels without her own pillow.

When traveling she runs with her suitcase in one hand, her bag in her other hand and her pillow under her arm. When I saw this for the first time I thought about how to make it easier for her.

We bought a new pillow for her. Did she choose a small one? NOPE, it has to be a big one LOL

And this is how I made it for her:

Material:

1 Pillow

2 different fabrics ( pillow 1 yard flannel, bag 1 yard cord fabric)

1 Zipper

3 x Clip buckles

2 different ribbons (pillow 40 inches, bag 2x 40 inches)

1 cord 40 inches

2 cord stops

I have chosen a nice flannel with cameras for the pillow.Sonja is an amazing photographer and what better motive I could have bought for her?

First cut the fabric for the pillow,sew the zipper on one of the larger side. (dont buy a zipper about the whole lenghts of the pillow because of the ribbons with the clip buckles.

Then cut the 40 inch ribbon in half.and put the clip buckle on one of it.

Lay this ribbon in half like on the picture above and pin it with a needle 4-5 inches from the end of this side. When sewing this side, sew 3-4 time forward and back over the ribbon.

Close both shorter sides of the pillow. ( Open your zipper after this a little. Had a real fight to turn my pillow because I couldnt opened the zipper LOL )

On the last side put the second ribbon (dont fold it this time !!! ) in the the same distance as you did with the first ribbon and close this side.

On the picture above you see the pillow with the ribbons, one folded, the other not. Put the other part of your clip buckle on it. Fold the end of this ribbon 3 or 4 times and sew it together. Otherwise your clip buckle will slip and will get lost.

your pillow will look like this, when you attach it to a car seat or a bus seat 🙂

It isnt very hygienic to run with your pillow outdoors:Plus Sonja chose a very large pillow. Not so perfect when you will take it on your journey.

Birgid, the dressmaker of my sewing course made the proposal to sew a bag for this pillow. Not for the whole lenghts of the pillow but half of it. So I made the bag big enough to fold the pillow.

AND SHE WAS RIGHT!!!

Here comes the bag for your pillow:

Cut the fabric: 2/3 the length of your pillow and add on each side of the bag 4 inch more then the width of your pillow.

Put the cord stops on your cord.

Fold your pillow and take it into your bag 🙂

If I would do it again I would take a much larger ribbon below. This bag cant be attach directly to your suitcase because the ribbon is to short.

I also would chose a stronger ribbon for the bag and bigger clip buckles.

This is how it looks like.

But it will work this way too 🙂

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Posted on December 24, 2014 by justelly1

I didnt blog for some times because I have been sick for weeks.

No energy to work on my shelf, even missed some sewing lessons.

Now I have a few days off. I will using this time to go on with my shelf 🙂

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone 🙂 🙂 🙂

Elly

Am I a fabric junkie?

Posted on October 13, 2014 by justelly1

I had my third sewing lesson, and no, I cant show pictures of it. First its not ready and second, it will be a gift …

So I will show what I bought the last weeks since my sewing course startet 🙂

After my first lesson I checked my tons of fabric and decided to remove some of the fabric – with other words I gave it to a friend. It was way to much of the same style. Would you like to have a lot of blouse in same colors, stripes? I wont either !!!

I gave away nearly one third of the fabric I had.

But it hasnt been me if I didnt filled my fabric shelf again hehe.

But this time I didnt only bought what I liked. This time I thought about what I will sew when I’m better with the maschine and then I bought the fabric.

the left fabric with my favorite nautical theme will get a shirt with white arms.

The fabric in the middle will get little bags for christmas. Doesnt it look a little like velvet? Its 100% cotton

the fabric on the right side is flannel and will be part of a sweatshirt

I couldnt resist this fabric. Its nearly the same pattern as my chucks. I got 4 yards of it. I will make a jacket and a backpack out of it

I will make some sweatshirts. On the inside with flannel like the one on this picture. And yes, this will get really warm sweatshirts. If you would freeze all the time like I do you would do the same. The nautical fabric will get a jacket.

Look what I found on the internet !!!! Fabrics like photos !!!

OK, shame on me. I dont know what to do with the fabric that looks like the sky. But the water fabric will be part of my decoration. It will be sooooooooo cool to have this as a tablecloth and some nautical deco on it.

Yes I know. Easter is far far away. But the gras fabric will get a tablecloth too. The straw fabric will get little baskets. What do you think when I put some colored eggs into the baskets? I’m sure it will look great.

look what I found last week in the swedish store? This fabric is huge !!!!

Over 2 yards in lenght and over 1.5 yards in width. This will get one curtain. I wont cut it in the middle. So it has to be as a whole. I dont think its so bad to close the curtain only from one side. Hey I will only use it in advent 🙂

Next saturday when I’m done with the gift, I will start with my first sweatshirt YEAHHHHH

Soon it will be cold outside and I can wear my very first selfmade sweatshirt

My second sewing course day

Posted on October 7, 2014 by justelly1

I had my next lesson. This saturday I learned to sew a zipper

I made a pillow for my god child. She loves penguins, owls, foxes

Few months ago I found a beautyful penguin fabric on Ebay and my first thought has been its a must have for Sonja.

I choosed an orange zipper, because its the color of the feet and the pecker.

The teacher said its called invisible zipper. And she is right. If the zipper is closed, you cant see it anymore.

I also worked the first time with an overlock. And felt in love !!!! LOL

An overlock is now on my wishlist.. Its so easy to work with an overlock.

I always wondered about the stitches on t-shirts and sweatshirts. Now I know how they are made.

Today I got my first sewing “job” hehehe

A friend wants a new zipper on her favorite bed linen. I will get payed with a cake.

Isnt this fabric cute???

Do you see my work with the overlock? I Love It !!!

My learn process at working with wood

Posted on October 4, 2014 by justelly1

The last time I wrote about how I have to learn to work with wood my knowledges were nearly nonexistence LOL

But with “courses” on the internet I got a lot of tips how to do things, what tools are needed and so on

Today I will show you what I learned and practicided

the grinding on the new one isnt done so far, but I just wanted to show how I learned working with wood by myself.

I’m damn proud of the result.

My very first sewing day Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Posted on September 28, 2014 by justelly1

I did it !!! I did it!!!

I had my very first sewing lesson and I soooooooooooo loved it !!!!!

Before I went to the store they told me to bring all I would need for the sewing class and I did LOL

I got my new sewing box this week and put all the stuff I could need in it.

Way to much, but I didnt knew what I could need.

I have 2 teachers and they are so nice and helpful. We are 6 women in this class and I’m the only one without sewing knowledge.

2 of the women were nearly pros, who only needed some advise. They made dresses. WOW.

Not the style I would wear, but the dresses looked like the ones you can buy in a store. Just amazing. I have to learn so much to come even close this class.

I have so many fabrics, but I didnt wanted to use it as test piece. I knew as a newbie I only could sew simple things.I decided to make an underlay for my sewing maschine 🙂

The maschine is white, the sewing table is white <—– boooooring

So I went to the store last week and bought fabric ( with stripes LOL ) and Vilene to make it look more thicker. I even bought a bottle of socks stop to prevent the maschine from gliding when on the fabric. Now I know the socks stop has been a stupid idea because the maschine is much to heavy hehe

Before I started this course I searched the internet a lot for DIY sites. A lot of them made their own logo on their selfmade things.

I wanted this too even its only for myself. I wont sell anything I make. Maybe a give it away for family and friends. But sewing will be just for fun. So I ordered my “own” logo hehehe

Here are the picures of what I made yesterday. It isnt perfekt, but Its my very first and I love it 🙂

The first picture shows that I have to sew with hand a little at the site. Its where I turned the underlay inside out. And next time I should turn the compass too. I have to admit, that this little compass made the most problem because its so small. As you can see the seam is crooked. Next time I will ironing this logo first.

After my first sewing day you can count me as a new member to all the sewing fans around the world. YEAH

Photos of a beautiful fall

Posted on September 21, 2014 by justelly1

After a very long time we decided to search geocaches again and looking for lost places. It has been months since the last cache.

Whats there to say? We choosed the worst weather to look for caches: rain, lightnings, thunder. We only found one cache, but also a nice lost place. We couldnt explore the place because of the rain. The terrain has been to slippery.

So we went to a park and made a few photos

Back at home we both were nearly soaked to the skin, were hungry, tired, but had a lot of fun 🙂

As a reward for what we went through LOL we watched Doctor Who yeahhhhhh

Merken

My sewing class will start …. Finally

Posted on September 19, 2014 by justelly1

Guess what !!!!

I called the fabric store the day before yesterday and asked for my course to start.

Unfortunality all members from the former course registered for the next one too. So there hasnt been a place for me anymore. But the store offered me an alternative: 3 hours on saturday. This week I dont have time for it, but I payed for the next 5 saturdays, starting on september, 27th and all saturdays in October.

If I like it, and I’m sure I will, I will go on in November with the next saturdays too. Now as a “member” I will have priority too.

Maybe saturday isnt even a bad choice for me, because some days I work to long and wont even make it right in time to the sewing course.

Saturday is my day off, or most times, so I can sleep late and start fresh with my lessons. Everyone knows your focus is better when rested.

I’m so excited !!!! I have so many ideas what to sew. Most of it are for advanced levels, but I dont care. I will start slow till I’m good enough to realize my ideas.

This week I have been on a photo trade show. I wrote, one of my hobbies is photography. Here a few new photos I made this week

Still waiting for the sewing course to start ……

Posted on September 15, 2014 by justelly1

its been september and I didnt got the phone call for my sewing course so far 😦

when I went to the fabric store weeks ago they told me I will be on the next course in september. I was so excited to start with my sewing lessons.

I will go to this store again this week and ask what happend. Why they didnt called me.

My shelf isnt ready either. In “About me” I wrote, that my free time is very limited. This is the reason I couldnt work on my shelf every day. After 10 to 12 hours a day at work I dont have enough energy to work on my shelf. And some days I have been lazy hehe.

Lets say it, I thought it would be going much faster to make this shelf. I believe I make every mistake with this wood working you can do. This is also one of the reasons I’m not finished yet. I want to make it as perfect as can be. Its unbelievable how often I had to start from the beginning because I didnt liked how I worked. I didnt changed my idea or the plan to make this shelf, but when one door is nearly done, I see something I dont like. Maybe no one but me would see it isnt perfect, but this is way too many LOL

Here a few pictures I made last week. Fall isnt really my season – I love the summer – but the colors are beautyful

Maybe in my next post I can write about my first sewing lesson.

Lets hope ..

First experience about wood working

Posted on August 19, 2014 by justelly1

Since my last post I went 2 times to a DIY store, because I had to buy more wood laths and new tools and and and …

And I’m sure it wont be my last visit there.

Before I started this project I knew exactly what I wanted …. on paper!!! I’m a newbie with an idea and no experience. But everyone has startet off small lol

So I went to the store not exactly knowing what I could get to implement my plan.

I found many different wood laths varying in widths and depths.

The only thing I knew for sure I’ll need, has been the highs of wood lath for the doors. Everything else was dependent on what I would find.

I chosed some wood laths in different widths and depths and went home. At home I started with the first door and what can I say? It didnt look like I wanted it to be and I found out I had bought too less wood laths You know this feeling, too? You have a precise idea how something has to be?

In the meantime I searched for tips in the internet: what tools do I need, how to work with wood and so on.

I went back to the store, this time knowing exactly what I wanted ! So I bought more wood laths, glue, small nails and so on. All things you need when working with wood.

The internet is also very helpful for ordering tools. Sure I had already a saw, hammer, a drill and other tools. Who hasnt? But I needed a tacker, large and small clamps and so on. I spent a lot of money for this tools. First I wanted to save money and buy cheaper tools. But then I have seen how much fun I have working with my hands .At work I’m sitting most of the day on analysis devices or computer. I decided to buy better quality tools for later projects (I have no ideas so far, but I’m sure I will find new ones)

Here is the picture of the wood parts for ONE door.

I got my large clamps today and started to glue the first frame. Guess what!! It has been crooked because I didnt made it on a table, I put it on the carpet. I have seen it early enough to save my work. Puuuuuh

NOTICE to me: never use the carpet again

Here my frame with the clamps on the table

and the next problem appears ……

see the edges or better the not anymore existing edges?

Next NOTICE to me: dont use an abrasive sponge at the cut edges anymore.

Because I prepared only this door, I can change my work with the rest of the doors.

Day 1 to learn about wood working has been very interesting.

Lets see, what will happen tomorrow 🙂

justellydotcom

I'm learning to sew

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