Custom Order of Pillows

Recently, a friend asked me to do a custom order of pillows for a wedding gift.  And because I can’t say no to anyone, I got out my laptop and started digitizing their invitation artwork and slapped it on some fabric and sewed a series of lovely pillowcases.

custom embroidered pillowcase

I was glad their artwork was line art as it made for an easy embroidery job.  Though, they did want gold thread, which is always a pain to work with.  Metallic threads constantly snap when you sew with them.

Once the job was finished and the pillows were delivered, I had some extra supplies left over and I hit up my home-girl, Jess, and asked if she wanted to learn how to sew pillowcases.

Jess learning to sew pillowcases

The hardest part was the cutting the fabric up for a very large pillow.   We worked through folding fabric to cut on a small mat and then sewed the pieces together.

I pretty quickly realized how spoiled I am with my monster sewing machine at home that threads itself and auto adjusts for different fabrics.  The fleece she picked out for her pillows was slipping and sliding all over, but with a few pointers she was sewing pillowcases like a pro!


jess' fabric painted pillow cases

After our little sewing session she went on to make more pillowcases and even did some fabric painting on them!  She painted them so well I thought she had bought precut iron-ons.

I actually taught someone something, so that was pretty cool.

Oh yes, more socks

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handmade size 16 socks

Are you sick of socks yet?   I kind of am!  I should say, I am kind of sick of writing about them.   I still find it enjoyable to make them.

I took a picture this morning of another custom order going out.  These monsters are another pair of size 16.   The last pair was reported to be slightly short and an additional inch was requested.

I also dyed these as well.  Dyeing seems to be a little hit and miss for me. These are brown, sort of.  They’re supposed to be chocolate brown but in person, they look almost purple.   I also dyed some yarn “true black” the other day and they came out almost navy – dark, but not black.  Maybe I’m not using enough dye.

But, aside from those issues, I seem to be getting better at some of the dyeing methods.   This is one of many skeins I did last weekend.

hand-dyed skein of sock yarn

You may see some strange out of place threads in there, but those are just extra ties I hadn’t cut off yet, so ignore those.    But pretty decent, right?   I was at least encouraged to keep trying, so you may see some more skeins pop up if there is anything worth showing.   At least it wouldn’t be socks, right?