Sunny Side Up Pillow

Tam from Sew Dang Cute Crafts here today to share with you this bright and cheerful pillow. Thanks to my Facebook fans, the name of this pillow is Sunny Side Up.

• 1/2 yd fabric
• 1 jelly roll (I used Sweetwater’s Sunkissed)
• (1) 16” pillow form
• Starch or fusible interfacing
• 3” circle template {included in the Printer Friendly Version at the bottom of the post}

1. Cut (2) 15” x 15” squares from the 1/2 yd fabric. If you have a pillow form that is a different size than the 16” I used, just cut your fabric 1” smaller than your pillow.

2. Select several strips from your jelly roll. Cut them different widths ranging from 1” – 2”.

3. Sew your strips RST (right sides together) using a 1/4” seam allowance. Press the seams open.

4. We are going to use these sewn strips to cut our 3” circles from.

5. You have two different options at this point – 1) you can use starch or 2) you can use fusible interfacing. If you choose to use starch, go ahead and starch and iron about 4 times so your fabric is really stiff and easy to cut. If you choose to use fusible interfacing, go ahead and apply that to the wrong side of your sewn strips.

6. Take your 3” circle template and trace 9 different circles on either the fusible interfacing or the back side of the fabric, then cut those out. I have an Accuquilt GO! Baby fabric cutter, so I used my 3” circle die cut to quickly cut my 9 circles.

7. Arrange your circles on top of one of the 15” x 15” squares. If you starched, pin in place. If you used fusible interfacing, iron them on. All my circles were 1” away from each other and 1 3/4” away from the edges.

8. Stitch appliques in place using a straight stitch, zigzag, blanket stitch, etc. I used a very tight zigzag.

9. Pin your two 15”x 15” squares RST. We need to leave about an 8” opening to stuff the pillow form in. I marked mine with red pins so I knew where to start and stop sewing. Sew the two squares together with a 1/4” seam allowance. Clip the corners and turn right side out through your opening.

10. Stuff the pillow form in the opening and use a blind stitch (hand stitch) to sew the opening shut. Then you are done! You now have a beautiful pillow!

I hope you’ll come visit me at Sew Dang Cute Crafts for more tutorials, including the rest of the bedding and room décor that matches this pillow!

One 16″ x 16″ pillow.

Tamarynn Bennett
{Sew Dang Cute Crafts}

Shabby Spring Quilt

Hey Moda Bake Shop readers! It’s Tam from Sew Dang Cute Crafts back again to share with you this fun, “Shabby Spring” quilt. Rag quilts are so great because you can do so many things with them and finish them without actually “quilting”.

* 1 Layer Cake (I used Chez Moi’s beautiful Hunky Dory line)

* 1 Jelly Roll * 1/4 yard coordinating fabric (my blue)

* 1/2 yard coordinating fabric (my cream)

* Warm and natural batting

* Coordinating thread(s)

* Ruffle foot (not necessary, but definitely makes things easier)

Any desired appliques.

1. The first thing we need to do is cut our fabric. To make things a little easier to understand, I’ve included a diagram of our pattern.

– Select 12 layer cakes and cut into 1/4’s to make (48) 5″x5″ squares – (B) in the pattern.

– Select 10 layer cakes for your big squares (A) and several others for appliques if doing any.

– Cut jelly roll strips into (16) 10″ pieces – (E) in the pattern, except the center square. (I used 2 jelly roll and 2 layer cakes: pink and blue).

– Cut (7) 2 1/2″ strips from the 1/2 yard coordinating fabric (my cream). From those strips, cut (16) 13″ pieces and (4) 10″ pieces – (D) in the pattern, except the center square, and (E) of the center square.

– Cut (2) 2 1/2″ strips from the 1/4 yard coordinating fabric (my blue). From those strips, cut (2) 13″ pieces – (D) of the center square.

– Select 8 different jelly roll strips and cut (64) 5″ pieces from those – (C) in the pattern.

Now that you are done cutting, you should have something similar to this. Remember you are making both the top and back of the quilt, so you’ll need to arrange your pattern with this in mind. Here’s how mine looks (top shown).

2. Let’s start with (B). Cut (24) 3 3/4″ x 3 3/4″ squares of warm and natural batting. Layer one (B) wrong side down, then one piece of warm and natural, followed by one (B) right side up. Stitch from corner to corner as seen in the photo below to form an “X” and create your fabric sandwich. You don’t need to worry about backstitching when doing these. Repeat to form 24 (B) squares. I have found the fastest way to do this is by doing a chainstitch. Line all your squares up diagonally and stitch corner to corner in one direction. Then simply clip between each sandwich and line them all up again to stitch from the other corner to corner. 3. Let’s move on to (A). Cut (5) 8 3/4″ x 8 3/4″ squares of warm and natural batting. Layer the fabric and batting as you did in step 2. If you are using appliques, apply those to your top square piece. I used my Silhouette and their fabric interfacing, which was fabulous. Stitch down your appliques through the entire sandwich, or stitch an “X” as you did in step 2 if you aren’t using appliques. I used invisible thread to make it easier for me, rather than changing my thread multiple times. And this is how it looks from the back side. Repeat to form the (5) A pieces. 4. Cut (32) 3 3/4″ x 1 1/4″ strips of warm and natural batting for your (C) pieces. Sandwich in the same manner. Instead of forming an “X”, I chose to simply stitch one line down the middle of the strip to create my sandwich. Repeat to make 32 (C) strips. Again, don’t backstitch and I highly recommend doing a chainstitch to make things faster. 5. Cut (10) 11 3/4″ x 1 1/4″ strips of warm and natural batting for your (D) pieces. Sandwich and stitch together as you did the strips in step 4, with a single stitchline down the center. Repeat to create your 10 (D) strips.

6. Cut (10) 8 3/4″ x 1 1/4″ strips of warm and natural batting for your (E) pieces. Sandwich and stitch together, again just like in step 4, with a single stitch line down the center. Repeat to create your 10 (E) strips.

7. Now we get to sew all our sandwiches together. This is where you want to grab your walking foot if you have one.

The walking foot makes it so the fabric is fed through evenly and you avoid bunching – great for when you are working with numerous layers of fabric! Grab three of your (B) squares. *Note: You can do a larger or smaller seam, depending how much fringe you want. I chose to do a 1/2″ seam for this rag quilt. Using 1/2″ seams, sew the back sides of the quilt together, so the seam is sticking out on the top side of the quilt. Using the same method of sewing back sides together, sew another three (B) squares together and eight (C) strips to create three rows. Then sew those three rows together to form one big block. Repeat with the other 3 blocks that are this style. For the other five blocks, we are going to sew two (E) strips to one (A) square first, then two (D) strips to create one big block. Repeat for the other four of this style. Sew three of the big blocks together to form a row. Repeat to create three big rows. Then sew those three big rows together and stitch around the entire perimeter of the quilt. You are done sewing! 8. Grab a good pair of scissors and a great movie and begin clipping all of those seams that are sticking up. Just keep clipping away until every seam has been clipped. 9. Toss the blanket in the washer, then dryer and be sure to clean out your filters afterwards. You are now done and have a beautiful rag quilt!!! Here’s how it looks from the back.

One rag quilt 36″ x 36″.

I hope you will all come visit me over at Sew Dang Cute Crafts! Thanks for letting me be here today!!

Tamarynn Bennett
{Sew Dang Cute Crafts}

Make Life Shower Curtain

Hey everybody! I’m Tam from Sew Dang Cute, and I’m excited to be back here on the Moda Bake Shop to share another project with you – a shower curtain!

If you like free fabric, hurry over to my blog to enter a HUGE giveaway I’m having right now. Let’s get started on that shower curtain, shall we?

*All seams 1/4″ unless otherwise noted.

– 1 honey bun
– 1/2 yd fabric
– 3 yds fabric
– Coordinating thread

1. We are going to start with our diagonal stripwork. Randomly cut some pieces from your honey bun strips. Go ahead, just cut whatever sizes makes you happy. You’ll end up using the entire honey bun. I laid mine out on my cutting board and started in the corner. Once you’ve determined your angle, start laying pieces down like so, until you’ve reached 17″, which is as tall as we will go. Sew your cut pieces RST (right sides together) along the 1 1/2″ sides to form a strip. Finish the seams by either serging or zig-zag stitching. From here you just keep cutting pieces to form strips, then we need to sew all the strips together. As you sew the strips together, start the next strip about a 1/4″ down like so. They should look something like this. Finish the seams. Continue until your you have one big piece that is 74″ long. Press the seams all in one direction. Topstitch all the seams down. Trim the piece so you have one big rectangle measuring 17″ x 74″, then cut it into two pieces – 4 1/2″ x 74″ and 12 1/2″ x 74″.

2. From here I thought a pattern/diagram would be easiest to refer to instead of pictures. If needed, click on image to enlarge.
*Note: We are going to assume the width of the fabric is 42″.

Take your 1/2 yd of fabric (green), and cut (2) 5″ pieces and (2) 2″ pieces. From those cut them so you have the following pieces:

– (2) 18″ x 5″
– (1) 42″ x 5″
– (2) 18″ x 2″
– (1) 42″ x 2″

Sew the three 5″ pieces together to along the 5″ edge to form a row with the 42″ piece in the middle. (Refer to the diagram above). Finish seams and press. Repeat with the 2″ pieces.

3. Take your 3 yds of fabric (blue), and cut (2) 50″ pieces and (1) 7″ piece. From those cut the following:

– (2) 18″ x 50″ (You will need to get this first, then unfold to get the 18″ x 7″ pieces below)
– (1) 42″ x 50″
– (2) 18″ x 7″
– (1) 42″ x 7″

Sew the 7″ pieces together the same way as used in step 3. Finish seams and press. Repeat on the 50″ pieces. After pressing the 50″ seams, topstitch the seams down. (The other rows are so short that I didn’t bother topstitching them, however if you would like to, feel free to do so).

4. As a reminder, here’s the pattern again. 5. Now we are going to sew all our rows together as follows:

1. 7″ blue
2. 4 1/2″ diagonal strips
3. 2″ green
4. 50″ blue
5. 5″ green
6. 12 1/2″ diagonal strips

Finish seams. Press and topstitch. Trim all your sides up if necessary.

6. Let’s hem those sides and bottom edge. Fold a side edge 1/2″ towards the wrong side of the fabric. Press. Fold another 1/2″ and press. Stitch down. Repeat on the other side and the bottom.

7. Now for the top edge. I serged the top raw edge and folded it down 3″ and pressed. If you don’t have a serger, fold 1/4″ down and press, then fold another 2 3/4″ down and press. Stitch that hem down. You should now have something that looks like this. 8. The last thing we need to do is make some buttonholes for our curtain rings to go through. Lay your curtain out flat on the ground and mark where you want your buttonholes. I grabbed a shower curtain and laid it on top to mark mine. You should have 12 marks now, each about 1″ long and 6″ apart. Set your sewing machine to its buttonhole settings. Attach your buttonhole foot. **Check your machine’s manual for specific sewing instructions, because each machine can be different. My machine won’t sew buttonholes. In theory, you are supposed to be able to place a button of the desired size in the foot, then push down on the pedal and it should sew the buttonhole. I have yet to get my machine to do this. I used my mom’s. On hers you sew down as far as you need to go, then push the buttonhole button located by the stitch selection buttons and it sews the rest. You’ll end up with 12 marks that look like this. Grab your seam ripper and place it between the stitchings and rip about halfway up. Then switch to the other end and rip the rest of the way. You can just rip all the way with that first rip, but I like to switch so you can prevent accidentally ripping too much and going through the stitching. Repeat on all 12 buttonholes and it’s all done! Place your curtain rings through those buttonholes and hang up your new shower curtain!
One shower curtain measuring 72″ x 72″.

Tamarynn Bennet
Sew Dang Cute

Spring/Easter Dress

Hi! Tam here from Sew Dang Cute. I’ve got a fun Easter/Spring dress for you today using the bright, lovely colors from Lauren and Jessi Jung’s latest line, Botany. Love it!!

– 1 Botany Jelly Roll by Lauren and Jessi Jung
– 1/4 yd five different coordinating fabrics
– Coordinating thread(s)
– Elastic thread

*All seams are 1/4″ unless otherwise noted.

Note: I made two different dresses at the same time, so pictures are from both dresses.

1. First we need to get some measurements. Measure child’s chest/waist. Use whichever measurement is bigger and add 6″. My daughter’s was 22″, so my measurement is 28″. Next decide the desired length of the dress. For my 4T dress, I wanted it 27″ long. Select 5 strips from the jelly roll. Next we need to do a little math.

Here’s the formula: Desired length – 10″ + 3.5″ / 6.

Explanation:Each jelly roll strip is 2.5″, so with seam allowances and five strips, we will get 10″ of our desired length (27″), leaving 17″ we need to get from our five coordinating fabrics. We need to add in hem and seam allowances of the coordinating strips, so add another 3.5″. I used my top color twice, so divide by 6. ex: 27 – 10 + 3.5 /6 = 3.416. I rounded to 3.5″. Did you make it? Now we are ready to cut.

2. Cut your top piece 3.5″” x 28″”. (28 from chest/waist measurement, 3.5″ from above formula). Cut your first jelly roll strip so it is 28″ long. Cut 3.5″ strips from all 5 coordinating fabrics. Cut two strap pieces 2.5″ x 10″. Lay out all your pieces in the desired pattern.
3. Take the two top pieces (the shorter ones: 28″). Sew right sides together (RST). Finish seam with either a zig-zag stitch or serger. Press, making sure to press the bulk of the seam towards the topmost piece. Topstitch.
4. Fold in half RST, lining up the two short raw end sides. Mark in 1/4″ from the raw edges where your seam will be with pins, then line the pins up at 0″ on a ruler. Find halfway and mark with pin. Mine was 13.5″, so I marked 6.75″ with a red pin. Go left 1/2″ mark with a pin (mine is white), then add 3″ from there and mark with pin (mine is another white pin). Draw a scoop between the white pins. Click on image to enlarge. Cut out the scoop. Unfold and you should have two cut-outs. These are for the arms. Now we need to hem the top. Make a few small clips in the arm holes (this will make it easier to fold for the hem).Fold the top raw edge (the one with the scoops), down 1/4″ towards the wrong side of the fabric and press. Fold down another 1/4″ and press. Stitch down. Set top piece aside.

5. Grab your very bottom piece and hem it with a 1/4″ hem like we used above.
6. Stitch remaining pieces (all the 44″ length jelly roll strips and coordinating fabrics) together in desired order. Finish seams. Press and topstitch, switching threads as necessary if doing multiple colors. You should now have a top and bottom piece.
7. Fold bottom piece in half RST, lining up the seams and pinning in place. Stitch. Finish seam. Do the same with the top piece.

8. Sew a gathering stitch along the raw edge of your bottom piece. Divide both the top and bottom pieces into 1/4’s and mark with pins. Place the top piece inside the bottom piece RST, and raw edges lining up, and match up the pins. Pulling on the bobbin thread, gather the fabric between pins and pin frequently to hold the gathers in place. Make sure to change your stitchlength back to a regular stitch and stitch. Finish seam. Press and topstitch.

9. Next we are going to do some shirring. Lay your dress facedown. Mark about 1 1/2″ in from each side with pins. Handwind a bobbin with elastic thread. You don’t want to stretch it as you are winding or it will be too tight. Load the elastic thread in your bobbin and keep regular thread in the top. Starting 1/4″ down from the hem stitching, sew between the two pins, making sure to backstitch really well at the start and stop. Continue the next row 1/4″ down from the row you just made. Sew about 10 rows or so, just enough that you have sewn down the top two strips of the dress. Press those rows and watch the fabric shrink up to create the smocking.
10. Let’s get those straps done. Fold in half lengthwise and sew RST. Turn inside out and press with the seam in the middle of the strap. Topstitch the long sides of the straps. To figure out where to attach the straps, I grabbed my daughters and slipped the dresses on them, then pinned the straps in place. Stitch the straps in place by going right over the hem stitching. Trim excess fabric on straps, if necessary, and finish the raw edges. Guess what?! You are ALL DONE!!! Back view: Add a cute matching fabric flower using this tutorial and you have one springy, happy, little lady (or in my case two)!

One jelly roll will be enough for multiple dresses, you will just need to buy extra yardage of the solid coordinating fabrics. I was able to make two dresses with the amounts listed.

Valentine’s Bubble Skirt

Hi! My name is Tamarynn Bennett a.k.a. Tam from Sew Dang Cute. Come check it out! I’m having a giveaway right now, so make sure to stop by and enter. My loves in life are my wonderful husband and three beautiful children. They take up the majority of my time, however, I try to sneak in time for sewing, leisurely cooking, and triathlons. I am so excited to be part of the Moda Bake Shop crew, and introduce you to my first project – The Valentine’s Bubble Skirt with Heart-Shaped Pockets. Hope you enjoy it!!!

– 1 L’Amour Jelly Roll by Sandy Gervais
-1/2 yd coordinating fabric (for waistband, hem, and pockets)
-3/8 yd jersey knit fabric (optional for underskirt)
-coordinating thread
-1 yd 1″ elastic
-1 yd 1/4″ elastic

–Heart Pattern Pocket Piece (click to download)

*All seams are 1/4″ unless otherwise noted.

1. Measure child’s waist.For every inch, you will need 1 strip of fabric from your jelly roll. Ex: my daughter’s waist is 20″, so I will need 20 strips. Narrowing it down was really difficult. I couldn’t decide so I ended up using 11 pieces, two times each, to get 22 strips. It’s okay because this will just be gathered so one or two extra strips won’t hurt. Lay out your design. Cut your strips to length. I’m making a 4T, so I cut mine 9 1/2″. Add or subtract 1/2″ per size. Ex: 3T – 9″, 5 – 10″.
2. Sew strips together RST (right sides together) along long edge. Finish seam by serging or using a zig–zag stitch. Press open seams. If serged, make sure your seams are all laying the same direction. Topstitch. You should have one long piece now. 3. Measure the long piece. Mine measures 41″ x 9 1/2″. Cut a piece of jersey knit this measurement. This will be the underskirt and is optional. I like it so all those seams aren’t rubbing up against my child’s legs. We are also going to cut a hem piece at this time out of our coordinating fabric. For sizes 6m-2T, cut the length of strip piece x 6″. For sizes 3T-10, cut the length of the strip piece x 8″. Remember I’m making size 4T, so I cut 41″ x 8″.
4. Layer hem piece right side up, then strip piece right side down, and lastly, knit piece on top, with all three pieces’ long edges lining up along the top. I recommend pinning all three together along this top edge to hold the jersey knit in place while we are sewing. *Note: my hem piece (red), is actually shorter than the strip piece and underskirt, so with the top edges all lined up you wouldn’t be able to see it. It is showing in the picture just to help show the layering order.
Stitch along pinned edge. Serge or zig–zag stitch to finish seam. Press seam towards underskirt. Topstitch. (You should be stitching along the strip piece).
5. We are going to get our lower casing of the hem piece ready now to create the bubble part of the skirt. I think it is easier to press now before we sew the sides up. So go ahead and fold the long raw edge of the hem piece 1/4″ down towards the wrong side of the fabric. Press. Fold another 1/2″ and press. Fold entire skirt in half RST, ling up short sides.Be sure to unfold the pressings near the seam before stitching or you won’t be able to get your elastic through later. Also, I like to pin where the seams meet to ensure they line up when sewn. Stitch short sides together. Serge or zig–zag stitch to finish seam. Press seam so it’s going in the same direction as the seams on the strip piece. Topstitch. (Notice by pressing as directed above, I am able to topstitch on the same side of the seam as the topstitching on all the strip pieces). 6. Repress unfolded part if necessary. Stitch around casing leaving a 1″ gap. Measure around child’s legs just above the knee. Add 2″, then cut a 1/4″ piece of elastic that length. Ex: my daughter’s measurement was 15″, so I’m going to cut a 17″ piece of 1/4″ elastic. Attach a safety pin to one end of the piece of elastic, then feed through gap. Once all the way through, overlap both ends of the elastic and securely stitch together. Release the elastic into the casing and stitch that 1″ gap closed.
7. Sew a gathering stitch along top, raw edge of the strip/underskirt piece. Set aside.
8. Grab your coordinating fabric again and let’s cut a waistband piece. Your piece will be your child’s waist measurement + 5″ x (6m-24m: 5″, 2T-5: 5 1/2″, 6-7: 6″, 8-10: 6 1/2″). Ex: my daughter’s waist measurement is 20″ and I’m making a 4T, so I will cut a piece that is 25″ x 5 1/2″. Fold RST, lining up short sides. Stitch. Serge or zig–zag. Press. Topstitch.
9. Divide waistband into fourth’s and pin, using seam as one pin location. Do the same with the skirt. Match pins up (making sure seams line up and the topstitching is on the same side). Pin RST. I like to have my waistband on the inside, and the skirt on the outside. Gather evenly between pins and pin frequently to hold gathers in place. Stitch together. Serge or zig–zag. Press seam towards waistband. Topstitch. (Stitching on waistband).
10. Let’s make the casing on the waistband. Fold raw edge towards wrong side of fabric 1/4″ and press. Fold another 1 1/2″ and press. Stitch casing leaving a 2″ gap. Cut 1″ elastic 1″ smaller than child’s waist measurement. Ex: 20″ waist =19″ piece of 1″ elastic. Feed elastic through with safety pin the same way as in step 6 above. Overlap elastic ends and securely stitch together. Release elastic into casing. Stitch the 2″ gap closed. You now have your skirt and should be to this point. 11. Time for pockets! If you haven’t already, download and print off heart pattern piece. Pin piece to fabric and cut out 2 hearts. Mark on the top of your hearts with pins the opening for the pockets. Stitch between pins along the top. I used a simple straight stitch. If my sewing machine had a blanket stitch, I would have used that. A tight zig–zag would also look really good. Place pockets on skirt where desired and pin in place. Stitch to skirt ONLY where not already stitched. LEAVE THE TOP OF THE POCKETS OPEN!!! Guess what?! You are all done! You now have one adorable Valentine’s Day bubble skirt and one happy little girl!Any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask! Remember to stop by my blog to enter the giveaway and to check out other sewing/craft/cooking projects!!!

-1 Jelly Roll can make several skirts. Other materials listed make 1 skirt, sizes 6m-10.