Mini Vacation- OTown Bound

We'll get back to a somewhat regular blog next week as I took a mini vacation this week. I will leave you with some pictures from Orlando until then (no I did not go to Mega*Con this time).

 

Downtown Street view

Leu Gardens Flower

Leu Gardens Flower

Creative use of promoting healthy eating!

 

What have you been up to this week?!

Fun (?) With Sewing

Fun is the operative word- it has yet to be determined if this is considered a fun activity. My first REAL project on the sewing machine was a relatively easy one (one I got the machine working- user error people. Gets me every time). T-shirt pillows are a GREAT starter project if you don't have a lot of sewing experience. This is more advanced than my previous t-shirt pillow project- Got Blood? I've done a few before, by hand, and that just takes a looooong time.
 

 Here's what you need:

-Sewing machine and needle/thread of appropriate color to your shirt

-An old Tshirt you just cant bring yourself to throw away

-Scissors

-Pillow insert of approximate size to your tshirt (Ikea has them for pretty cheap)

 

The t-shirt I chose was a Star Trek shirt that just fit weird and was a weird material (probably not the greatest for sewing).
Lets make it so!
I cut the sleeves off on either side along the seam. If you're shirt is a V-neck like mine you want to save those scraps! And before you do anything else you will need to hand sew a scrap into the v-neck so you don't have a weird hole in your pillow:

(inside out and finished with the hand sewing)

 

 

Keeping your tshirt turned inside out (or if you need to feel good about your progress- turn it right-side out and have a look- GOOD JOB YOU!), lay it on top of the pillow insert and use pins to mark the width. If your pillow insert is exactly as wide as your shirt, good for you. Now you just need to sew a straight line along either side of the pillow, like so:

(I didn't go alll the way down the sides of my shirt as my inset was not that long, I went just a little farther than the length of my pillow) 

 

On the bottom edge you DO NOT want to stitch all the way across with the machine otherwise you'll have an inside out non-tshirt-pillow pillow. No fun. Depending on how squishy your pillow insert is, sew far enough in on both sides to where you have a hole in the middle to stuff the sucker in. Once you think you've sewn far enough, carefully turn your shirt right side out again. Insert pillow and hand stitch closed.

 



TA DA- not the prettiest, but it works for me.

 

My t-shirt pillow is incredibly soft and squishy. It sits proudly on my sofa and I enjoy lounging on it often.

 

Tell me- have you made a tshirt pillow before? Any cool ideas or tips and tricks?

 

Harry Potter Display

 

In case you don't know- I love the Harry Potter series! I have all the books and movies (blu-ray and digital copies). And I have two 'shrines' in the apartment. (this makes me sound a bit like a crazy stalker- not true). I had the good fortune of working at a movie theatre when the last 2 movies were released, so I snagged myself some goodies ;)

 

Somewhat recently, I made a Sorcerer's Stone shadow box. Target had these awesome Christmas ornaments that once I saw it in the after Christmas clearance, I knew immediately I wanted to make something with it- it was just too perfect! So to make your own here's what you need and how to make this super easy shadow box (I'm sure you can apply the idea to many other things!):

 

-One ornament/item you want to display

-One shadow box (deep enough to hold said ornament- I purchased mine at Michael's either on sale or with a coupon for less than $5!)

-Pliers (to aid in removing the top of the ornament)

-Double sided tape/Velcro/strong glue dots

-scrap scrap booking paper

-pen

 

Here it is:

 

 I popped the top right off, it was only plastic:

 

I removed the glass from the shadow box frame, with the glass in, the 'stone' wouldn't fit

 

Originally I thought I might want to put some scrapbook paper in the background, but it was a nice flocked material in the back so I decided it was good without. The shadow box actually came with Velcro! So I placed one side of the strip where I wanted the stone to sit inside the box, and the other piece on the back side of the stone (I added glue dots because the sticky side of the Velcro wasn't enough to hold it in place). The great thing about the shadow box is that you can't see the top of the ornament, so that extra plastic bit on top is well hidden! I then cut a small piece of scrapbook paper and labeled my artifact. =) 

Here, you can see it on the wall with my other Harry Potter things- including an artist rendition of Hogwarts I got at Mega*Con, a Make Love not Horcruxes pottery piece I made, and my friend Kate's drawing of Dumbledore (hes so adorable!!! and SHE will be at Mega*Con in Orlando this month). Below is my theatre swag (including HP 3D glasses still in the bag), my Sirius Black wand from IoA, and Keep Calm and Harry On reminder ;)

 

 

 

Well, I hope you all enjoyed today's tutorial! Coming soon- I tell you about my adventures in sewing!

In the meantime- tell me in the comments if you have a crafty nerdy thing you've done recently!