Pillow Mat Tutorial

The kid loves to lie around on the carpet and takes her naps on her Dora sofa/bed in her princess tent that we have set up in the living room.  When I saw these pillow mats online, my first thought was why didn’t I think of this before and my next was I have to make it!  So here’s my tutorial on how to make your own pillow mat!    

I purchased 5 yards of this cute fabric and I had a coupon for 60% off so it ended up being about $16 and then I also purchased 4 pillows from Ikea a few weeks back when I saw the sign that said $2 each!  I must say though that these pillows are pretty thin so if you want something fluffier/fuller you could shell out another $4 for some Walmart pillows. Either way, you can switch your pillows out whenever you want so anywho material cost wise it all came up to about $24.  I even had some fabric left over so that’s always a plus!   If you have old bed sheets or you don’t care about the pattern, you could pretty much make it for even cheaper. 

I prewashed my fabric because cotton shrinks, but I hate wrinkles and ironing so a tip for minimal wrinkles and getting away with not having to iron 5 yards of fabric….once the drying process is done take it out of the dryer right away and lay it out flat. 

Also a quick course on sewing terms:

Selvage edges are the sides that are finished edges of the fabric.  Typically, fabric designers and companies print their names along one of these finished edges.

Raw edges are the edges that are cut and fraying.  It’s the edges that the fabric person at the store cuts. When you prewash your fabric, you’ll see all the threads all tangled together on those ends. 

Seams are where two pieces of fabric are sewn together.  We will be using 1/2 seams in most of this tutorial so from the edge, measure 1/2 and that is where you will be sewing the line to sew the fabric together.

Right side is the front (pretty if you have a pattern) side of the fabric.

Wrong side is the back (faded if you have a pattern) side of the fabric.

Now let’s get started!

I folded my 5 yards in half so that I could cut in in two and have a piece for the front and one for the back (you can get about 2.5 yards of two different fabrics, but I loved this pattern so much!) Because of the shrinkage, it wasn’t perfect and straight on all sides so I lined up one of the long selvage sides and straightened everything out as best I could.  My pillows were standard pillow sizes (20 x 26) so I measured out 80 inches (20 x 4) and then I laid my four pillows down for a helping visual.  The cut and where the pillows lined up to were a bit off, but that’s okay because the pillows need room to be stuffed into. 

Next, because I had folded the 5 yards in half, one of the pieces was upside down so I turned both pieces right sides together (the pretty sides facing each other) and also made sure the pattern on both sides were going in the same direction.  I lined up one of the selvage sides again and pinned along that side using lots of pins.  I then trimmed and cut the short raw edge sides (ends) so that I could have straight edges to work with and added a few pins along the raw edges near the selvage edge that I pinned to help hold the pieces together as I sewed. 

I sewed down the long edge that I pinned together (one piece of the fabric had the selvage edge thatshows the designer of the fabric so I sewed a 5/8 seam instead of a 1/2 seam for this selvage side to ensure that the designer label would not show when I turned in right side out).

  

I opened up my two pieces of fabric (right side up).  Starting with the piece that does not have the selvage side with the designer label showing and using the short, straight cut raw edge, I measured 26 inches out from the seam that was sewn and folded the long edge in.  I then pinned the raw edge fold down with a few pins.  I did this to the other raw edge end too and then going along the middle section, adjusted the fabric fold so that it was all at 26 inches from the seam and added some pins along the fold to help hold it in place.

Once that was done, I flipped the side that I folded and pinned over onto the piece that had the selvage edge.  Now here is where you will learn from my mistake.  Originally, I had just folded the bottom piece over onto the folded piece, but I realized after I was turning everything right side out that it was hard to keep all the folded fabric straight.    So I didn’t take pictures of this next part, but will explain it.  I hope it makes sense! 

You see where the top fold lays on the bottom piece?  I should have cut the bottom piece along where this fold was and then hemmed the long, raw edge of that bottom piece.  And I mean hemmed as in, folded the cut edge over 1/2 inch (wrong sides together), fold it again 1/2 inch, and then sewn it down.  This helps keep the raw edge from fraying too much later on after washes and it looks cleaner. And, be careful when cutting the bottom piece that you don’t cut into your folded piece!

Now back to the tutorial. 

I lined up all my edges and taking my pins that I already had on the first piece I folded, I pinned the bottom piece onto the rest of the pieces to hold everything together.  You should now have the something that looks like this. 26 inches from long side to long side.

Next I just sewed a 1/2 inch seam from raw edge (short ends) on both sides.  Then if you have a serger you can serg the ends to help keep the ends from fraying and I do have one, it’s just that my prego self was too lazy to go lug it to where I was because I don’t have nice huge crafting room so instead I took pinking shears and pinked the edges.  This also helps it fray less because of the zigzag way it cuts the fabric.  

After I took out all of my pins and turned the entire thing right side out.  It looked like a huge pillow case. I straighten out my fabric/folds and made sure that the width all along the case was 26 inches wide.  Then ironed it flat and I added pins to help hold all the fabric pieces together after ironing. 

From the top down, I measured 20 inches and marked it using my washable fabric pencil.  From that line I measured another 20 inches and marked it.  I did this until I had 4 sections for my 4 pillows. If it’s not exactly 20 inches, it’s okay and the pillow should still fit as long as it’s not way off.  Then I sewed all the way across from one long side to the other long side using these lines to separate out my pillow sections and stuffed the sections with the pillows!  Done!

Here’s my chubby cheeks enjoying her new pillow mat.  Nummy isn’t it?  I was going to make her a blanket to go with this pillow mat, but she still loves her fleece pah-pah that I made for her when she was 1 so no need! 

You can fold the top pillow under to prop the head up.  Or you could roll it under twice to prop it even higher to be more in the reclining position. 

Hope you enjoyed my tutorial.  Happy sewing!!!

Fleece Bow Muffie

Over the humid/hot weekend, other than opening up my Nummy Shop on my blog and on Etsy (OhSoNummy), I made Lydia a scarf out of fleece.  Lol.  I know…crazy...it’s still too hot to be thinking about keeping warm, but it’s been one of the various projects floating around in my head and since I wanted to make something that wasn’t going to take long, I thought and then I did.  As always, I love it.  I think it’s super cute!! There’s a bow on one end that acts like a button and the other end has a button hole.  So you just wrap it around the neck and pull the bow through the hole to secure it in place.  Simple and stylish, don’t you think?  And I found out since it’s a short scarf, it’s technically called a Muffler.  The things I learn while I teach myself. It doesn’t sound Oh So Nummy though so I’m going to call it a Muffie!  Lol. Here’s my little princess modeling her new Fleece Bow Muffie for me! 

Check out my Nummy Shop if you’d like to place an order for a Muffie for a little girl in your life!  Maybe I will have to make one for myself too, although I don’t think I will look as cute as Lydia!

Washcloths and bibs

So I wanted to write a post of what ran through my head as I was preparing washcloths and bibs for Baby and the Kid. 

Initially I had made some washcloths to get ready for baby #2 because the ones bought from the store just never worked for me for Lydia (even now).  They were so thin or rough and every time we hung them on the towel rack to dry, they always ended up on the ground somehow.  Annoying!  So I figured this time around I should make some with flannel and terry cloth WITH a ribbon loop for easy hanging to dry!  I made them big like a normal adult sized washcloth too.  Lydia of course was my tester and I mainly used the washcloth in the mornings for her face.  The flannel side was great because it was soft on her kid skin and the terry cloth side was great for those mornings where she needed a little extra scrubbing.  I found after a while though that her face was so small, I only really ended up wetting a corner section of the washcloth so I thought….what a waste.  Ding ding ding!  Why not make a smaller washcloth for her little face?  Hence, the creation of a baby/kid face washcloth…perfect for her little hands to hold and use on her own little face.  The big washcloth is still good for bath time or food time messes so that didn’t really go to waste.  Oh and how or where do I hang the washcloth?  If you have not yet used these 3M Command hooks….find them and use them! 

They are awesome and I use them throughout my house for various things…to hang keys, decorations, etc. And if you find the plain white is too boring for you….spray paint them so they match your décor! They are easy to remove and are reusable (you just need another sticky strip).  Anyway, I just placed one on my wooden cabinet in the bathroom and using the ribbon loop…hang the washcloth there to dry.  Simple. No more washcloths on the floor! 

If you are interested, I have some sets of face/body washcloths in my Nummy Shop.  They’re a nice baby shower gift or something wonderful to use on your own little one.  You can even use it on yourself!

Now bibs! Lydia was not a drooler or a spit upper *knock on wood for baby #2*.  However, I’m a stickler for food on Lydia’s face or her clothes.  Lol.  If you’ve meet Lydia, I’ve somehow instilled this habit in her to always wipe her mouth clean after messy bites.  Not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing, but because I’m so ‘clean’ about it, I thought, I should make baby #2 some nice, cute ones.  I always hated the ones I found at the store too.  Plain, thin, ugly, small, rough…you name it.  I mean some of them served their purpose, but I wanted something to fit all my needs.  When Lydia was a newborn we just propped the bib under her chin for feedings without putting the velcro together, but because both the straps met in the back, we always had to tuck both straps down.  Or if it was velcro together, it was in the back so taking it off was a pain because it woke her up.  I could have just left it on, but then she’d be sleeping on a small lump from the straps coming together.  Hence, I made bibs with a side snap.  I can just fold one side under for infant feedings.  It’s soft on the skin and thick enough to absorb dribbles and since the snap is on the side, I can just unsnap and slide off.  I think these bibs are so cute!  I can’t wait to use them on my baby!

I also have some of these (they match my washcloths) in my Nummy Shop! 

What's been happening?

Since the start of this blog, I've been trying to figure out how to work everything and how to make my little online world a little more homey.  Obviously, it's still a work in progress, but I figured out how to make a banner!! Lol.  I have to say, I'm quite impressed! So simple! Not...okay kind of, but it still took me a while to research before I hit that simple part.

Other than that, the hubby took Lydia and I on a surprise trip to MN this past weekend for my birthday.  I was a bit of a crank because I was not prepared and I hate being rushed and unprepared, but overall it was a great trip just being with the little family.  Thank you hubby!

Because of all the things going on lately and me trying to work this whole blog thing, I haven't had much time to sew anything, but I did manage to refine my bib pattern and make some bibs and washcloths.  More stories on those cute things on another post, but I just wanted to post up some pictures of my latest OMG Oh so Nummy productions.  I love! Enjoy!

Newbie

I've been contemplating lately if I wanted to start a blog....so here I am! 

I'm not sure how to blog, but I suppose if you're a person who has something to say about something (and who doesn't)....you can blog.  How hard can it be right?  Just don't hold it against me if I'm odd at it.  As the title of this post states, I am a Newbie. 

It's because of my crafts and life in general, but mainly because of my crafts that I wanted to start a separate blog other than posting things on Facebook or whatnot.  I'm not an amazing crafter (and by crafter I mean random projects in my head that I make), but I always feel a sense of accomplishment when done.  This is just a way for me to show the rest of the random world my random projects.  :)

It's still early in the morning on a Saturday (I've been up since 6 am).  I have no kid at home to wake me up because she spent the night at grandmas, the hubby is still sleeping, but I'm wide awake on a Saturday when normally on the weekdays I just wish I could get an extra hour of sleep in before work.  Yea, I don't know how this all works, but I'm here instead...on a Saturday.  Did I forget to mention it's Saturday!?

I-ya.  Well, I suppose I should get to my current sewing project since that's one of the itches that got me up so early today.  Stay tuned and 'til next time!