Pillowcases for the Grands-In-Law

I wanted to bring something personalized to my grandparents-in-law when I visited them a couple weeks ago. I thought pillowcases would be something useful, and I think they're pretty.

To make them, I cut up a 100% cotton flat king sheet that I bought when it was on sale at Target. I even measured for this project (there's nothing worse than gifting shoddy work to people who speak languages I don't understand). I cut out a big rectangle, zig-zagged the edges, then sewed the case to form the bottom and side seam. Then I ironed on the pattern, selected some colors--two shades of purple and two shades of green--and embroidered away. After I embroidered, I made the big blind hem on the end to encase the back of the stitching. Voila.

Aprons

I made this apron for a friend.
It actually covers the parts that I get dirty!

Cheyenne wasn't very happy to model but she faked it well.

The friend liked it so much she ordered 6 more!

Light-blocking curtain

We have French door in our bedroom, out to the rug porch. If anyone knows why they call it a rug porch, please share. I tell Tucker that's where you go to shake your rugs, and that seems weak, even to a five-year-old.

The door is nice during the day, but at night, lots of light comes in from the apartment building next door, and the street lights in the alley. Also, Chris can't sleep as soon as the sun comes up. And that annoys me, because if he doesn't sleep in the morning, he sleeps through the kids in the night. So I made a curtain.

It's not perfect, because I used a cloth light-blocker as a liner, instead of vinyl that really works. But it does block a lot of the light.

Here's a close-up of the fabric. Upholstery-weight Thai elephants. It was on sale.

Bags. And more bags.

I recently downloaded my camera onto my computer, so I have months of pictures to post, as you may have noticed.


These are "Treasure Bags" I made for Tucker and Brinda. When we go on walks, they pick up so much crap that it makes me crazy. So much that the city of Minneapolis should give our family a stipend. And they want me to carry it all. They may be treasures to those two, but they look an awful lot like broken tail lights and bent bolts. So now they are in charge of carrying their own crap. And they think it's cool.



This is my new clothespin holder. I had an old one from the farm, which was shaped like a little girl's dress, and was very cute. But recently Matthew told me that he didn't like to help putting clothes on the line because he felt like he was sticking his hand down someone's shirt (we had another we used growing up, which looked like the shirt of a 60's teen who loves rickrack). And it kind of stuck with me. So I didn't make another dress or shirt. This is a kitchen handtowel I bought when Deirdre convinced me that I would embroider all the time because it's so easy. But I don't have Deirdre's talent. Chris made the hanger.




This is a little messenger bag I made for Brinda to take to nursery school. It turned out too small, which you can't see because I didn't include anything for scale. (All those earth science lessons, forgotten.) Also, the flap to close it is too small. But I fixed most of these problems when I made two more for a fundraiser. Now I want to go to the fundraiser and get one back for Brinda if they don't go for enough in the silent auction. Because I hate making the same thing multiple times, so there's no way I'm making her another.