Pillow Stand For My Kindle

I made this for two reasons.  First, I've wanted one for years.  The Pinterest links have been on one of my boards for at least two years.  Second, I thought these might make good gifts.  I finally tried one!

The stripes were supposed to be going the the other direction!  That would have looked so much nicer.

The tutorial is from FactotumofArts.com.  Of the pillow-type stand tutorials I found, this one has the best directions and finishing.  I changed it--of course.  I think most people will want this for sitting pretty much upright and it does, no doubt, work quite well for that purpose.  I want it for reading in bed, and, apparently I slouch down a lot.

Not a great angle when lying down.

 I made changes to try to accommodate the fact that I want the Kindle to be more upright, but, as it turned out,  I still really need to play with the pillow section to make it hold the device further forward.  I had already cut the fabric before realizing it would not be large enough.  I am assuming a larger pillow will have more vertical lift, right??  Changes I made to try to fix my issue at that point:

• I shortened up the lip in the front.  My Kindle is thin enough not to need the large lip anyway.
• I also shortened up the flat area where the device sits.  Again, the kindle doesn't need that much space anyway, and it would seem to provide even further space for the kindle to angle down too far.  In fact, I might even eliminate this extra space altogether on the next one.  The Kindle is so thin it should fit nicely between the lip and pillow. 

Had I not shortened up those two area, the pillow section would have been much smaller which would seem to equate with it being less able to hold the Kindle as upright as I wanted.

One success was the use of poly pellets for stuffing on the pillow section.  I have put off using these because of the horror stories out there about how hard they are to work with.   They turned out to be  easier to use than the poly fill suggested for the lip section.  The tutorial suggests using rice for the pillow section with the addition of poly fiberfill for the very top because you would not be able to fill the pillow completely with rice due to spilling issues.  I am not sure why one could not just fill it with rice.  I had no problem at all.  I left a one inch opening in the pillow section which worked out perfectly for the funnel.  I filled the pillow almost completely with the pellets.  The needle was threaded and ready to go making closing the pillow quick and easy.  I might have had five or six pellets on the table that needed to be picked up at the end. 

I shall certainly try this pattern again!  I'm going to enlarge the pattern by 3 inches in each direction the next time.   I will also use a different fabric.  I thought the decorator weight fabric would be a good choice, but it turned into a wrinkled mess when turning it right-side out.  With the seams going in opposite directions on the top and bottom,  pressing was crazy hard.  I hate wrinkles.  Fortunately I love ironing.

Here is is without the Kindle.  A bit plain and, as I said, the stripes are going in the wrong direction.  It makes it look a tad roly-poly.  I think I might try embroidering something on it next time or using a busier print.

I used poly pellets to stuff it.

Now I just need to leave it out to see who expresses an interest for gifting. 

Sew4Home's Neck Pillow

I should say Relaxing Neck Pillow cuz that's what the Sew4Home people call it.  We shall see about the relaxing part later, but I am really pleased with how easily this thing went together. The free pattern and tutorial are available at their site.  Just click on the link above.  I wanted to see if this would be something I would want to make for gift-giving.  The answer is absolutely yes.

It's a quick project that looks like it took a lot more time and effort than it does.  The site says it can be done in a half hour.  I doubt I could do one that fast even if I used the twill for handles as they suggested rather than making them from fabric.  Some of you cracker jack sewers may well be able to turn it out in that half hour time frame though.   Off to try out my new pillow. 

Preparing for the end of the year by starting at the beginning...

Raise your had if you think I can reach my Christmas sewing goal by starting now?  Well, for all you doubters, I have started.

Can't believe I'm saying this, but I need to buy  more ribbon.  Need some wide silky or grosgrain red here.

One wrapping sack down, countless more to go.  I even boxed the corners.

I wish this fabric showed up as well in  photos as it does in person.  The color are vibrant and it's covered in shiny silver glitter.  If someone knows a camera trick, please share.  Here is close-up that kinda shows it.

Yay for Joann's remnant piles! 

A thank you to sewing muse Sandra for the challenge!

With all the busy-ness, I never showed you my Christmas tree.

Still love the tulle with lights for skirting.
  

OOOOHHHHHH, isn't that pretty?!!! Yes, but I'm glad it's all put away now. There is just so much fa la la I can take. 

Take care, y'all.

I Made Them Cookies

Sandra of Suddenly Sandra suggested that I join her Yahoo Christmas sewing group after I failed to remotely reach my Christmas sewing goals for the big day.  This is the response I got:  Your request to join was not approved.  Did I just get cut off like a tacky price tag on wrapping night by those sorority sisters?  Yup.  Sandra suggested I try again and offer cookies.  Well, I was desperate.  I haven't reached a Christmas sewing goal.....ever.  I made the cookies, but my passive-aggressiveness might be showing through.

 Fortunately they let me in before seeing the cookies.  I got some icing to make the white/black eyes and mouth like the emoji that did not work AT ALL!.  This is what I used.  The directions say to cut off the top.  That would have made for big old blobs.  The tops are flat, not pointy.  I tried poking a hole instead. 

The icing came out, just not quite the way I was hoping for.  It was impossible to smooth it out.  Okay, there may be some artistic issues at play here, too.

I ate my mistakes.  Yes, life is hard sometimes.  The icing may have been a pain to put on, but it tasted great.  Thanks for reconsidering, ladies!  Those rumors about me are only about three quarters true.

So THIS is How Reindeer Fly

This is from my favorite machinery embroidery design company, Embroidery Library.   They have a bunch of quick holiday designs on sale right now.  Check them out!  (No, not connected to the company in any way other than a happy paying customer!)                     

Caterpillar Stuffy Fail:-(

Stuffies should not be scary and, yes, those legs are centipede-scary, aren't they?

Problems?

• Obviously the black ribbon legs were a huge mistake. Nothing says centipede like a lot of blacks squiggly legs!

•  Also, while I like the fabric for the body, it needs segments.  Caterpillars must have segments.

 I do like my ribbon antennas, though.  I have got to use up some of my overwhelming ribbon collection.  Did I really just call it a collection?  That's not good.  Supply!  I meant supply!

This began with me trying to steal Sandra's Hungry-Caterpillar-book-with-stuffy gift idea.  I love both of her versions of the caterpillar.  You have to check hers out to see how good this might have been if I had just not decided to, once again, reinvent the wheel.

I can't even bring myself to donate this one.  It would be cruel.  Mine will terrify some poor child who happens upon it lying in the thrift store waiting for it's forever home. 

Until someone comes up with a kiddie book about a lovable centipede, this will will have to go the way of all centipedes--hidden in the far depths where they belong. 

Finally Got the Man Cave Pillows Finished!

The girly pillows have been finished for a few weeks,

but being as it's supposed to be an official man cave (I do let the guys use it on occasion), it needed this pillow to finish it off.

 

He fits right in.

One project down.  About a million more to go!

Update:  I wanted to add a little more about how I did this before posting it to Threading My Way's pillow page.  First, the pillow patterns I found on the web have those nice lines across like the actual emoji, but then the pillow is quite flat.  I wanted a fluffier pillow.  I ended up drawing a pattern by hand.  The downside to an overstuffed version is that you can't get sew in those lines.  After sewing that bit of a line at the top it was obvious lines further down would not work. 

To fix that first problem on the next pillow (because a half dozen people wanted one after seeing mine), I want to put together a sandwich with a little stuffing for the top piece. That will allow me to put in the lines.  Then I will sew on a back panel that can be fully stuffed.  I think that should give me both lines and fluff.  We shall see!  

Now that I think about it, everyone who wanted a pillow was way younger than me.  I may be having a Peter Pan moment--or life.  Too late to change now.