a vintage deer pillow cover tutorial

Today I am excited to have a sweet little tutorial on how to make a vintage deer pillow top cover using the Oh Deer vintage digital image made by the sweetest Keren of Free Pretty Things For You. Just a little note that this tutorial is for a 16x16 inch pillow cover top, and not a complete pillow tutorial. Shall we get started? ;)

::Lovely Supplies::

:: Oh Deer vintage digital image that you can buy here. 

::Avery Light Fabric Transfer paper sheet which you can get here.

:: Thermoweb Heat'n Bond Ultra Hold which you can get here. 

::Pretty fabric for the top cover that measures 16.5x16.5 inches. Note: if you don't crochet an edging you can cut your fabric to measure 16x16 inches.

:: a vintage doily

::100% cotton batting that measures 16.5x16.5 inches

:: two 8.5 x11 inch pieces of white or cream colored muslin. White cotton fabric works just great, too. I just like muslin. ;)

::Follow the directions on the transfer paper and print out your vintage deer image. Make sure you print the image flipped! Cut around your deer.

::Now place your image on your white or cream colored fabric, and follow the directions for your transfer sheets on how to iron the image on. 

::Once your done, you should have a cute vintage deer on your fabric!!

::Now trim a little around the deer, so there is not a lot of excess fabric around the border.

::We are now going to put some Heat'n Bond Ultra Hold adhesive on the back of the image.  Cut a piece that is the same measurement as your whole deer piece. Make sure you do not have any excess of the Heat'n Bond hanging out because it will stick to your ironing board. 

::A little note before we start. Please turn your iron down to a low setting with no steam. I have mine on 4-blend, no steam. It is very important that you do these next steps with low heat, otherwise you will melt your image and it won't be pretty. Trust me, I have done it more than once! ;) 

::Take your second 8.5 x 11 piece of white cotton or muslin and lay it down on your ironing board. 

::Lay your deer face down on the fabric, and then the Heat'n Bond. With your low heat, no-steam setting carefully and lightly, without too much pressure go over the Heat'n Bond to adhere it to the deer image. 

::Carefully lift up your image, and it should look like this!! Hope everything is going great so far!! ;)

::Next, take some scissors and cut neatly around your deer. 

::Peel off the backing.

::Take your pretty fabric, sweet vintage deer and your doily, and practice where you would like everything to be place. I made sure there was at least 2.5 to 3 inches from the edge.

::Okay, now here is the next very important step that needs some patience and I know that this is breaking the rule of not ironing a transferred image.

 Make sure that your iron is still on a low heat setting with no steam. Carefully place the plain muslin on top of your image. 

Now, with very light pressure run your iron over the image. Let it cool. Carefully, lift up the fabric and check to see if the image is adhered to the floral fabric. If not, place back the muslin, and repeat. 

::You should end up with this prettiness! How are you doing so far?

::Next, sew on your doily.

::The last step!! Take your fabric and place it on top of the cotton batting. Pin and sew 1/8 of an inch around the edge. 

::Once your done you should have a pretty vintage deer pillow cover top!!

 ::Now, I am going to leave it from here for your beautiful and creative minds to make this your own pillow. You could crocheted an edging like I did, you could put some pretty lace or pom-poms for the edging, or even sweet ruffles would be most lovely. If you know how to crochet and want some help doing the scalloped edging, please feel free to email me, and I can tell you how I did it! ;)

::For the back I did a simple envelope cover. I hope you all enjoyed this tutorial and if you make one please make sure you link back, and let me know so I can come see your pretty pillow!! 

And, this pretty vintage deer pillow cover is in my shoppe!! 

Wishing you all a crafty and creative day!!

chicken wire and a garland

Happy Friday! Hope you have had a wonderful week!

It has been such a busy one for me with getting ready for the boutique, and I can't believe it is one week away! I am so excited, but nervous. ;) I am almost done sewing my goodies and building my display. 

 I finished a frame that I am proud to say I built!! I painted it with a light grey and added some chicken wire. I was worried that it wouldn't stand, since this is the first time I have ever built something, but it does!! It is not perfect, but it works! ;)

 Now, it is ready to hang some sweet crocheted hangers, and other pretties.

While I had the chicken wire out, I thought it would be fun to put some on these vintage frames. I have always loved frames with chicken wire, so I am happy to finally have some!

I am going to use the red one to display some of my vintage brooches at the boutique.

And for the pretty green one, a lovely doily to hang on my wall in my living room. Do you have any frames with chicken wire that you like to display things on?

I wanted to add a little color and prettiness to the top of the grey frames, so I made this cute circle garland. I thought I would show you how I made it! I love sewing paper, and there are so many possibilities with different papers and shapes that you can do. 

 :: First, I used a circle punch, and cut out about 30 pieces using scrapbook paper. These sweet papers are by Crate Paper called Pretty Party. 

 ::Then, pull about 8-10 inches of string out, so you have enough to hang up your garland.

 ::Next, place the circle piece underneath the foot, and start sewing a straight line down the middle. 

 ::Line up the next circle, and continue this was until your garland is as long as you would like it to be!

 ::When you are done sewing, you should have a pretty garland!

 ::That's it! Take some floral Washi tape, and hang to add some prettiness wherever you choose!

Wishing you all a beautiful and crafty fall weekend!! 

patriotic flag tutorial

Thank you all for your sweet comments and support on my new batch of goodies. You truly made my day!

Today is the day for the patriotic flag quilt block tutorial. This is my first quilt block tutorial, and it is simple one to sew together. I am not a professional quilter, so I apologize ahead of time if there are any mistakes. ;)

 It can be made into any size, but for today we are going to make a 12 1/4 in. by 7 1/4 in. block. Let's get started!

Lovely Materials:

(length by width)

*blue and white fabric for the stars-  one piece, 5 3/4 in. by 3 1/2 in.

*white floral or polka dots fabric- 1 strip measuring 7 1/4 in. by 1 1/2 in. 

2 strips measuring 12 1/2 in. by 1 1/2 in.

*red floral fabric- 2 strips measuring 7 1/4 in. by 1 1/2 in.

2 strips measuring 12 1/2 in. by 1 1/2 in.

*All piece are sewn together with a 1/4 seam allowance. 

*Cut all your pieces of your sweet fabrics, and let's get sewing!

*First, sew one small red strip, with your one small white strip together. Press the seams open or to one side, however you prefer to do it. I always press to one side. 

*Next, sew the last small red strip to the other side of the small white strip. Press seams with your iron, and your piece should look like this. 

*Take the blue and white piece of fabric and sew it to the left side of your three strips.

*Open and press the seam. 

*This is what is should look like when you're done! Hopefully, this is all making sense! ;) 
*Next, take one of your long white strips, and you will be sewing it to the bottom of your piece.

*Here is what it looks like upside down. You can pin the two pieces and then, sew them together.

*Open and press seams. It is almost done! 

*Continuing sewing your last three strips together in the pattern, red, white, and red. Make sure to press your seams when your done sewing each strip.

*I love my 1/4 seam foot for my machine!

*When you are finished with your last piece, iron, and you might have to trim the edges a little bit, to make the sides all even. And, that is it! You should have a vintagey patriotic flag! 

This block can be made into a pillow, a mini quilt, or used as an appliqué! Please kindly only use this pattern for personal use! Thanks!

Hope you enjoyed the tutorial! I added these patriotic mini quilts to my shoppe yesterday, ready for the 4th of July! Wishing you a lovely and creative day!