Ahhhhh, Easter. I love all that Easter stands for.

I love being able to celebrate the resurrection of my savior Jesus Christ with my family and put my daughters in bright colored dresses and lavish my oldest with yummy candy. Yea.

Speaking of candy- we all know that one of the most iconic Easter candies is Peeps. I am not a huge fan of the sugar covered sugar fluff stuff, but my daughter loves them!

Her love for Peeps gave me the inspiration for my next sewing project, and here it is.

Peeps pillows! Aren’t they adorable? These were so easy to make! I really had a great time whipping these things out. I even got big V to help me with the process! So here’s how you do it. Gather the following supplies:

• A yard of cotton fabric. Make sure this compliments one of the Peeps colors! I got two pillows out of one yard.
• Brown fabric pen.
• Complimentary thread. I just used white since I was sewing 3 different colors and am too lazy to switch out the thread on my machine.
• Polyfill, for stuffing your pillows
• Heavy duty scissors
• PenciL
• Poster board or a heavy paper to make your Peeps pattern
• Iron
• And the sugary goodness for a snack. Or just a reference. Or both. You choose.

First, wash, dry and iron fabric. Fold fabric into forths, ironing as you go.

Next, take your pattern material and draw out your Peeps bunny or chick. I drew both. I used old posters and drew my patterns on them since they were sturdy and would hold as I traced around them.

Here they are. they are approximately 1.5 feet x 2.5 feet in size. I think they turned out pretty darn close to the real thing, if you ask me!

Take your patterns, lay them on the fabric and make sure they fit on your folded fabric. Then, take your pencil and trace your pattern on your fabric. This is what you should come up with.

Take your heavy duty scissors and cut your fabric on the traced pencil line. You will want good scissors since you will be cutting through 4 layers of fabric. I used dressmaker shears.

Once you cut out all your fabric, SEPARATE THE LAYERS BY TWOS. Do not separate them singly! This will only help you when you start sewing so you don’t have to pin them together. Trust me.

 

Start sewing at the bottom of your pillow using a straight stitch and a 1/4″ seam allowance.

Sew almost all the way around. Leave about 3-4 inches open at the bottom so you can turn and stuff your pillow.

There are a few sharp corners that you’ll have to sew with each pattern, so when you get to them, turn those corners by lifting your sewing foot while the needle is still in the fabric. If you turn your fabric while the needle is up, your fabric will not stay in place. And that’s just a pain in the booty.

After your fabric is sewn, turn your fabric right side out. Take the end of your pencil or a closed marker and push out the seams and the hard-to-reach places.

This is all my turned fabric that’s now ready to be ironed again.

Stuff your fabric with the polyfill. You can find this at just about any craft or fabric store. Make sure you stuff the ears really well so they stand up on their own.

Once you’re done stuffing, sew the rest of the pillow shut or close it with fabric glue. I’m terrible at hand sewing, so I only did a basic stitch. I know there’s a way to hide your stitch, but I have no clue how you do that so I just winged it.

I don’t think it turned out that bad. I’m happy! Besides, it’s on the bottom… It’s not going to be THAT noticeable, right?

Once your Peeps are all sewed up, smooth out any lumps and iron your pillow one last time.

Take your pencil and draw the Peeps’ eyes and noses. I used real Peeps as a reference to make sure I drew them correctly and in the right spot.

Go over your pencil lines with the fabric pen and fill in the rest. Let dry. Easy as pie!

And there you have it! Super cute Peeps pillows, just in time for Easter. My daughter was so excited about these that she grabbed her Easter dress, put it on and we celebrated by having a fun little Peeps photo shoot.

I just love my cute girl. She loves her new Peeps pillows, especially the pink one.

I hope you enjoyed ths tutorial as much as we did. Happy Easter!

My next little sewing project will have the following delicious, yummy, little cute things involved:

Aren’t you sooooo excited? Are you curious to know what I’ll be doing with these Easter candy favorites?

Guess you’ll have to wait to find out!

But in the mean time, leave a comment below and let me know what you think I’ll be creating.

I can’t wait to show you what I’ve come up with.

Happy Crafting!

 

Ahh, Spring is in the air! The birds are chirping, the rain is falling (like, alot), and Easter is just around the corner.

What better way to celebrate this awesome season then sewing a new simple Spring craft?I can’t think of anything better!

So today, I’ve whipped together a fun and super easy Easter craft that involves some paper, scissors and of course, the sewing machine.

What You’ll Need:

• Various Colors of Coordinating Spring-Themed Scrapbook Paper- 12″x12″
• Coordating Sewing Thread
• Paper for your Egg Stencil
• Pencil
• Scissors

First, create your egg stencil.  I just Googled “Easter egg” and found the image I wanted super fast. I made my eggs about 4″ tall. If this is the size you prefer,you’ll get about 4 per scrapbook page.

Trace your eggs onto the back of your scrapbook paper with a pencil and cut out your eggs with your scissors.  Easy peasy.Make sure your sewing machine is threaded properly with the color of thread you want, then pull about a foot of thread out of the machine before you start sewing. You can use this extra thread to hang your garland wherever your heart desires!

Set your machine to the widest straight stitch possible. Then, take your first paper egg and stick it under your sewing foot, making sure it’s centered. Sew it completely down the middle.

Once you have it sewn, pull the egg out, and make some slack before you sew the next egg. Pretty soon, you’ll have an egg train. Ha!

See? Choo choo!

Repeat this until you have reached your desired garland length, snip the end of your thread, then hang your new Easter decor for all to see! My garland ended up being a little too long, so I just snipped off the last egg with my scissors. Love it!

I thought this was easy and turned out so cute! After I made these, I wanted to sew some using paper Easter bunnies, so I might just do that soon. Wouldn’t that be cute?

Give this craft a try and let me know what you think? Happy Spring and Happy Sewing!

 

 

One of the next things on my list to share with you all is just as important as getting to know your machine. Familiarizing yourself these four basic stitch types is a necessity in the world of sewing, so I thought I would give you all a short lesson, complete with awesome pictures, of course.

•  The Backstitch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The backstitch is just a basic “going-over” of the stitch you sewed at the beginning and the end. This acts as a reinforcement to your seam so it won’t separate easily. And it makes you feel more professional. And cool. Ok, maybe that’s just me.

When you begin and end your stitch, you will use your reverse lever to go over what you’ve already stitched. That’s why it’s called a backstitch- you’re backing over the stitch you already made. Make sense?

Also, the backstitch can be used on any type of stitch you choose. It doesn’t just have to be used on a straight stitch.

• The Straight Stitch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The straight stitch. It’s exactly how it sounds. It’s the simplest and the most common stitch you will use when you’re sewing. It’s my favorite. But I like things easy. It will probably be the first stitch setting found on your machine.

Forgive the picture, the tension on my machine is WAY off. It looks like I did connect the dots (La, La, La, La, La!) on a piece of paper. But you get the jist. (Did you catch that Peewee Herman pun? HA!)

 

The Zig Zag Stitch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The zig zag stitch is probably going to be the second stitch setting found on your machine as it is probably the second most common stitch. I have found that I use this stitch to attach borders and binding to my projects. It covers more surface area than a straight stitch and reinforces your fabrics a little bit better than the straight stitch.

It’s also really cool looking. They look like little mountains.

 

The Basting Stitch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ahh, the basting stitch.I have a love/hate relationship with this stitch. I love it because it helps you make easy pretty ruffles. I hate it because my machine does not make the best basting stitches. They aren’t wide enough, in my opinion.

So what’s a basting stitch, you ask? I’ll hop right to it.

A basting stitch is simply a really long straight stitch. When you’re wanting a basting stitch, you’ll want to set the stitch length on your machine to the widest setting possible.

Basting stitches are great for ruffling, like I mentioned before. They are also great for when you temporarily need to sew something together for whatever reason. Basting stitches are super-easy to remove with a seam ripper. Well, most basting stitches are. My machine-made basting stitches are a pain in the rear.

Guess I’ll need to do it by hand to get the results I need. Drat.

 

Well, there you have it folks, here is what I think are the four most basic stitches. Test them out on some scrap fabric and let me know what you think.

Are there any stitches that are your favorite or that you want to see featured to learn more about? Comment below and let me know!

Here she is- my Pink Beauty! She is very special to me, as my mom gave her to me. She has been the inspiration of many projects that I have done and want to do. She is awesome!

When I first started using my sewing machine, I thought I could figure it out on my own. How to thread the machine, how set it to a strait stitch, etc… no problem!

Boy, was I wrong. I was so confused! I realized there’s a lot more to working a sewing machine than just plugging it in and pushing the foot pedal. So, I thought I would write a post on how to get to know your machine so you can run it with ease and to be in tune with it’s every sound, hum and action.

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