Here It Is... Finally Done!

 Okay guys, this is what I have been working toward for the past month, and I can now say I am done! My ordinary fireplace has now been transformed for Halloween!

I carried the theme over with window treatments with tutorial and I found the netting at Dollar General for a buck!!

I had felt leftover so I made some chains to go in my yard. 

I painted some stakes that I had bought from Home Depot over the summer. They were about $6 for 24 stakes. I made chains from felt and used a staple gun to attach them to the stakes. At the Halloween stores you can buy chains, they are $6-9 for a 4 ft section. This was much cheaper, and you get the same look.

Fantastic Freebie Before and After

During one of my recent trips to the local resale shop, the clerk gave me this vase for free!! Not exactly my style, but I am never one to turn down anything free. I took it home and pondered what to do with it. Then I saw this... well I was going to put the link here of the pic I saw that inspired me, but I can't find it! I think it was Better Homes and Gardens, or Martha Stewart. (if you know, please post a link in my comments =)) 

Anyway, I was inspired, so away I went.

After I sanded i,t I painted it just like my glassware here. 

I added a bow of yarn with many loops.

Used more of the 30 cent flowers I found for my Unearthly Blooms Tutorial

Glued on some rats and spiders I got the Dollar Store, and done!!

Snug As A Bug Pillow Tutorial

I saw this cute pillow (below) in a JoAnn fabric store ad, and couldn't believe they actually sell a pattern for something so simple. I decided to tackle this project with no pattern, just a picture. I think mine came out quite well.

 I used remnants, so I will give you the dimensions of my cuts, not what I bought.I will also refer to them my color as opposed to A, B, or upper and lower etc. I think it will be easier to follow. 

Note: I used fleece, but flannel could be used also.

Here is what I used to make the pillow.

Purple fleece 6 3/4 x 14 3/4 inches (cut 2)

Green fleece 8 3/4 x 14 3/4 inches (cut 2)

Orange fleece 3 x 6 inches (cut 2)

                       3 x 8 inches (cut 6)

Coordinating fat quarter

Fusible interfacing 8 3/4 x 14 3/4 (cut 1) You could also use stabilizer, but this is what I had.

Heat and Bond (double sided iron on bonding for the fabric circles)

White scrap for eyes

Black scrap for eyes

Black rickrack (optional; I used a decorative stitch)

First you will make all of your fabric cuts.

Use a small bowl to round 2 corners on the green and purple cuts.

Do the same for your iron on interfacing.

Iron the interfacing onto your one of your green cuts. This will be the front of the pillow where the appliques will go.

Now go on a hunt for circular objects for the dots. You will need 3 different sizes for the spots. You will also need a smaller circle for the iris of the eye.

 The puffy paint bottle is what I used for the x-small eye. I used the vitamins above for the white of the eye.

Okay. Stay with me here, there are two ways to do this. 

1. You can use webbing (if you do it this way, you will need to do the eyes separately)

• iron it onto your fat quarter
• trace the circles onto the webbing side 
• 3 large
• 3 medium
• 3 small
• cut them out 
• iron them on the interfaced green cut

Eyes

• follow the steps above
• trace 2 small on white
• 2 x-small on black

Follow package instructions for ironing you bonding on. I covered the green fleece with a pillow case because I didn't want to burn it.

Okay, here is the second way. 

• use Heat n Bond
• trace all of your circles (including the eyes)
• 3 large
• 3 medium
• 5 small- 3 for the body and 2 for the eyes
• 2 x-small
• cut them out
• iron them to your fat quarter
• peel the paper off and iron them to your interfaced green fabric

Now you should have your circles in place, so set your sewing machine to the zig-zag stitch and adjust the stitch length and width to something you are happy with. I tested a few stitch lengths and widths on a scrap of fabric. The trick to sewing on appliques is to make sure that the little line on your foot is lined up with the edge of the circle. This will keep your zig-zag equal between the applique and the green fleece.

This isn't the greatest picture, but you can see the little line on the clear part of the foot in the middle. That should be on the edge of the circle.

My zig-zag stitch was skipping a bit. This is easy to go back and fix. Just line up the needle where the stitch is missing and do a few forward and backward stitches to fill it in. I think my tension needed tweaking.

Now for the purple face. You will need to center the eyes onto your purple fabric. This will be different for everyone, because the size of your eyes are likely different. Sew them on the same way you did the circles.

In the picture in the ad, they used rick rack for the mouth. I didn't have any, but I have a decorative stitch on my machine that is similar. 

To make the smile, I used a plate and pressed it into the purple to make a "crease" in the fabric. I did this until I was happy with the placement of the smile.

Then I traced the "crease" with a fabric marker.

 Again, keep your foot centered on the line, no matter what the stitch is doing, especially with this stitch because of the way it scallops.

It's a little crooked, but I am okay with it. Gives him character, and in the end, you will never see it.

Antennae and legs

Fold them all in half and sew down the side, and one end. Turn them inside out and turn out the corners.

I like to use a chop stick to turn them and push out the corners.

  

Tye a knot in the ends of all of them.

Sew the front purple and green cuts together using a 1/8 seam allowance. Sew the two back pieces together also.

 

Position the two antennae above the eyes and three legs on each side of the lower body. Pin them in place. Make sure your pins are at least 1/2 inch in so they don't get caught in the seam allowance.

Now with right sides of fabric together, sew the front and back of the pillow together leaving a 2-3 inch opening in the bottom of the pillow. Make sure the legs are all in place and don't get caught in your seam.

 

 

Now turn your pillow out. It will look a bit crazy, just keep working with it until it is all turned out.

Time to stuff!!

Use baseball sized puffs of stuffing and make sure you fill the corners. 

Hand stitch your opening shut and you are done!

Spooky Felt Silhouettes

My fireplace is really coming together this week. 

As you can see I have all of my items from previous posts 

Everyday Items Post

The Spider Frame 

Unearthly Blooms 

Painted Pumpkins 

Today I added my Spooky Silhouettes. I really needed something to hang on the wall above the fireplace. (It is a 16 foot wall) While shopping around at the local stores, I found nothing that would work. Everything was too colorful or too gory, so I did what I do best, and made my own wall decor. I used a sewing pattern for my silhouettes, (because I already had it) but really a printed computer image would work for most of the critters.

 Here is the pattern I used.

McCall's M6623

Here is what you will need.

1/2 yard of black felt (more or less, depending on how many you want to make)

1/2 yard of heavy weight fusible interfacing (for the individual silhouettes)

Scrap yellow fabric

1 package of double sided fusible webbing (for the framed cat)

Command frame stabilizer strips or Command small hooks.

Poster sized frame. I borrowed one from my bedroom decor, hey, it's only a month!

This project has a ton of cutting, so it may take you a few days. It could be completed in 1 day, but I got sick of cutting, so it took me 2.

Silhouettes:

Trace your pattern/ print-outs onto the interfacing. Remember that your silhouette will be backward from what you trace, so if it is letters, or anything that is side specific, trace it on with the wrong side of the image up.

Once you get all of your images copied onto your interfacing, cut them out. I cut on the lines for everything except the tricky areas like the cat tail and bat feet. Once you adhere them to the felt, you will cut them out again, so you mainly want to get your interfacing as small as possible as to not waste fabric.

 Squeeze as many on as you can, and then iron them on according to your interfacing directions. Once they are all stuck securely, start cutting again!

I used these frame stabilizer strips to hang most of mine. They are similar to Velcro. I did run out of them, and then used the Command hooks. If you use the hooks, you will have to hot glue a strip of felt to the back of your silhouette to hook it to.

For the framed cat-

I had some yellow fabric left over from a previous project, and I thought it would make a great backdrop for this cat. Another option would be to cut the yellow in a large circle, to make it look like a moon, and add black fabric for a background. 

I stole the frame from my bedroom =)

 For this silhouette, you will use the same technique as before, but you will need double sided fusible webbing. This is the same stuff used when applying appliques.

Trace and cut out your image on the webbing.
Iron it to your black felt fabric.
Peel off the paper, and iron it to the yellow fabric. Make sure it is centered.

The rest is quite simple.

Trim the excess fabric and you are good to go.

I have one more project to add, and then I will be done. Well... maybe not done, I am truly a piddler. I will mess with this all month long, rearranging, adding, taking away. You should see me at Christmas with my tree! I can't stop!!

Check back tomorrow for my last mantel project and some better pictures!