Monogrammed Pillow

So now that I have curtains up in the family room, I needed some matching pillows for the couch, right? I thought so, too.

I wanted a monogrammed pillow, so we picked up some white fabric from Joann's and started with this:

We just used thread that coordinated with the green fabric from the curtains and Mom put it through her fancy sewing machine.

Then we added some Wonder Under to the back of leftover green fabric and cut out an H.

Here is where the pictures stopped happening. Between Zaxby's, recorded episodes of The Glee Project, and someone bleeding massively due to a sharp needle, no more action shots were taken. The gist of it is that we ironed the H in place on the front of the pillow, then did a satin stitch around its perimeter to ensure that it lasts a long time. After that, we added cording and then attached it to another piece of white fabric to complete the pillow.

Isn't it lovely? It feels so Pottery Barn-ish to me.

Non-Shower Curtains

When I was growing up, my mom made sure that my sisters and I knew how to run a household. She taught us how to cook and the basics of sewing. Luckily for the hubs, I retained all of my cooking knowledge. But sewing? Not so much.

I needed some curtains ASAP for the family room to add some color to the otherwise bland room. We have an open floor plan and it's all painted builder's neutral.

Nice blinds, huh?

I found these shower curtains from Target and fell in love with the pattern. I thought maybe I could cheat the system and manipulate the curtains so that they could fit without me having to sew.

Sadly, that didn't happen. Windows are a lot longer than showers.

Duh.

I bought three curtains and some coordinating fabric and headed over to my parents' for a refresher course on sewing. I ended up ripping out the seams of the curtains and sewing all three of them together. We then added a two foot strip of the green fabric to the bottom. Hemming 18 feet of fabric was a chore! However, I must publicly admit that it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it might be and I'm glad I didn't try to just staple the fabric together or anything.

Thanks, Mom.