Quick Mini Wallet

I was loving the fabric that I picked out for the clutches, and I wanted to make something quick for myself out of it. I scoured my pinterest boards and came across this tutorial. I had the fabric I needed and I dug through the sewing supplies and managed to find a snap to use for the closure. 

I originally was going to use the elastic and button for the closure but the elastic was too large so I switched to the snap.

Here are some photos of the finished product, I think it turned out pretty cute. As usual if I would take my time it would look better but I get too excited to see how it is going to turn out (which is also why there are so many disasters in my projects). 

The best part of this project? No hand sewing!!! I am pretty excited to experiment with some different variations of this soon, I would love to add additional pockets. I think it would make a nice addition to the cute clutch from last week's post. 


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Cute Clutch!

Last week during spring break I was able to complete these cute clutches to give to my old roommates. 

There was an easy to follow tutorial found on my pinterest page. When I went shopping for fabric I was loving the color gray (which I always am, I currently own 5 gray cardigans and 2 gray sweaters). 

There is a pattern to print out to use, but I think it is easier just to cut the fabric in a 11" x 15 " rectangle.

The only frustration happened when I read the directions wrong and sewed the right side of the fabric to the wrong side of the lining and ended up spending 30 minutes ripping out stitches. The first clutch took me about and hour and a half to get done, but the second one I whipped up in 30 minutes. 


 I think they turned out pretty cute! 

I want one for myself. Check back next week for one more craft I was able to sneak in before heading back to school. I was hoping to get more completed but I got sick instead. :( The good news is, only 58 days until graduation and a summer full of crafting disasters!! 

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The Bow Pillow Tutorial

The Bow Pillow which won the poll last week, was the only option that did not have a tutorial. I didn't remember this until after it won, and I went to look at the instructions to make it. After staring at the pictures online for a while, I decided it was best just to give a whirl and see what happens. It wasn't that much of disaster and I actually finished it in about 4 hours (experienced sewers could probably whip this out in an hour or two). 

So now I am going to attempt to write my first tutorial. 

Supplies: 

- 1 yard of 60" wide fabric (you could probably get away with 3/4 of a yard if you cut carefully, but I always like to have a little extra).

- Coordinating thread

- Pillow form (I used a 16"x16") or polyfill 
- Scissors, rulers, sewing machine, etc. 

Directions: 

1. First, my least favorite task. Cutting the fabric. 

Main part of the pillow- 2 pieces 16.5"x16.5" (or a half inch larger than your pillow form)

Top of the bow- 1 piece 10.5"x 20"

'Legs' of the bow- 1 piece 10"x 26" 

Center of the bow- 1 piece 3.5"x5"

I will not give any suggestions on how to correctly measure etc. because I have no clue, I just wing it (Any by wing it, I do measure at least 3 times before cutting). 

2. Sewing...my favorite part (and at times the most painful part). 

- First begin with the center of the bow. Fold the right sides of the fabric together, so it is in half the long way (see picture below). Sew the 5" edge closed and turn it right side out. Now iron it so that the seam you just made is in the center of the back. Finally top stitch down both of the 5" sides, don't worry about the other edges, they should still be open. 

Fold fabric in half and sew along the long edge.

When you iron it flat, place the seam in the center of the back.

Top stitch around the long edges, here are two samples. I did the one on  the left while I was talking on the phone, so I redid it and went with the one on the right. :) 

- Next sew the top of the bow, using the same process outlined above. 

- For the legs of the bow, i used a slightly different process. Fold the fabric in half (right sides together) the long way so you have a piece that is 5" wide by 26 inches long. Sew one of the 5" sides closed and the 26" side closed. Turn your fabric right side out. Hand stitch the last 5" side closed. Iron this piece flat (but don't put the seam in the back this time). Finally top stitch all the way around the edge of the bow 'legs' (I love this term, I made it up). 

Hand stitch the bow edge closed.

All of your bow pieces.

3. Next it is time to assemble. First take the front of your 16.5"x16.5" pillow fabric and place the 10" side of the bow fabric about 1/2" down from the front of your pillow (see the picture below). Make sure you are looking at the right side of both fabrics before you start sewing (I hate using the seam ripper). Sew both 10" sides to the front of the pillow. 

Pin the bow front 1/2" down from the top of the pillow (you need room to sew your pillow sides together)

Next pin your bow front tight so it will not interfere when sewing the pillow together. Pin the right sides of your pillow together and sew around the top, and 2 sides with about a 1/4" to 1/2" seam allowance. If you are using polyfill, you can sew half of the bottom of the pillow closed as well. If you are using a pillow form, leave the entire bottom of the pillow open. Turn the fabric the right way and insert your pillow. You can now sew the bottom closed however you would like. I ended up top stitching the bottom of my pillow closed because I absolutely HATE hand stitching but it is up to you. 

The front of the bow pinned tight so it doesn't get caught when sewing the rest of the pillow.

Sewing around 3 edges of the pillow

Next gather the bow front, and the add the bow legs, then place the bow middle around both of these pieces (see picture below). You are now going to hand sew the bow middle shut. You will want to sew this tightly closed so that the bow legs will not move easily. Rotate the seam to the back when you are done sewing.

Now you should have a lovely bow pillow. 

I know the instructions are somewhat hard to understand, hopefully the pictures help to make it clear. Let me know if you have questions.

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The Bow Pillow

Yesterday, I successfully made the Bow Pillow. Not to say there weren't disasters. 


The first disaster occurred when I discovered there was no tutorial to make the pillow. It was just a picture of a pillow sold on Etsy.com. Not super helpful. 


I guessed on the amount of fabric, created my own pattern out of tissue paper, and somehow came out with a pillow that looks pretty close to the original. :) 

My tissue paper creation!

Trying to figure out how many pieces I needed to cut out...

The only huge disaster was trying to sew the bottom of the pillow shut. First I didn't leave a big enough opening to put the pillow inside the pillow cover and I ripped a hole in my fabric (not pleased). I spent 10 minutes ripping out half of my sewing to get the pillow inside the cover, and then decided that I was not sewing the entire bottom of the pillow cover shut by hand. I opted for machine sewing, which could have been good, but it was a disaster. I needed about 6 hands to hold the fabric in place, feed it through the machine, etc. Eventually after about 6 tries and a mom-intervention, we got the pillow cover sewed shut and it looks pretty good! 

This may come as a shock, but you cannot shove a 16" pillow through a 3" opening. 

The terrible stitching on the bottom of the pillow, this was try number 3. 

The finished product!

I am going to post a tutorial (a first for craftingdisaster) tomorrow or Wednesday. Warning...I have never had sewing lessons, so my tutorial may not make any sense to you, but give it a whirl! 


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