Sewing pillows and some other stuff

It's been a weird week. Fast and slow at the same time.
Both girls had a 24hr bug, not on the same day, luckily. Both are fine now.
And then, I woke up with swollen and numb lips. They felt as if I had just been given an anesthetic - an allergic reaction to a new tooth paste I bought, it turns out. And I'm not the only one, apparently. Although from a good brand, this particular tooth paste has a pretty bad reputation when it comes to allergic reactions. Anyway, for a day or two I looked like someone with 'a Botox treatment gone totally wrong'. My lips are almost back to normal now, thank goodness, and I threw out the paste.

There was some sewing this week as well. I started making pillows. Lots of them. For the girls. For the living room. In an attempt to make our place a bit more colorful and cozy. As pillows are considered cozy here. We like to hang in the couch, bundled up with pillows and a blanket.



For the pillows I followed these instructions (in Dutch, but the pictures speak for themselves). I even made my own piping and got pretty good at it. After buying a special piping presser foot, that is. The invisible zipper foot didn't do the trick for me, the result being too irregular. But with the right foot it just looks perfect.



Did you actually know you can use old T-shirts or knit fabric to make piping? When I was about to start a pillow in my favorite Japanese fabric I realized I didn't have the right shade of fabric anymore to make the piping. Except for an old T-shirt of K. which was a perfect color match. So I decided to give it a try. I cut some strips - in bias, which strictly speaking is not necessary for knits - sewed them together and then made the piping.



It's hard to tell from the pictures, but I actually chose the wrong side of the fabric to be on the good side for the piping as the aspect of that came pretty close to the weave of the fabric I was using for the pillows. It worked like a charm. Thanks to the stretch of the knit, I got perfectly rounded corners at much less of an effort. Not only did this pillow turn out to be the best one I made so far, but I especially like it because it incorporates my favorite Japanese fabric and a recycled favorite shirt. Old and new, perfectly married.

I have a couple more pillows to go and maybe after that I could start on some curtains... or maybe not...
Oh, I so do not like making curtains...

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

xo, P.