Michelle has been a client of mine for the past 8-9 years. We have done many things for her house..couches, loveseats, ottomans, chairs, pillows, parson chairs, wingbacks, window seat cushions, and now a CHAISE LOUNGE for her bedroom! Her room before was red/tans. She decided she needed a change and decided to go with a Robins egg blue and brown.

Before…the chaise matched her old room. Sorry no cushions, I had already put the new covers on.

After…Cheetah print with a blue stripe. Originally she bought a solid brown velvet fabric and changed her mind…she wanted to make a statement and make it fun, so she went with the cheetah.

Another after. We did a 2″knife pleat around the bottom of the cover. We also did a 1″ pleat ruffle on the back cushion.

Of course I had to match up the stripes. Tip on doing this I usually choose which stripe I want to center..and then I put pins down the center of my furniture every so often, so I can feel them underneath and make sure my chosen stripe is centered over the pins. Then when it’s time to make the cushions you just need to center that stripe when cutting them out.

Here is a shot showing off her new bedding as well. I did all the pillows, and Michelle made the bedskirt.

We did 3-24″ pillows in the back with a 1″ ruffle. Then 2 standard shams with a topstitched flange (I always sew piping around the outside edge of the flange..it helps the flange to stand up better). Then we did two 20″ pillows out of paisley fabric with fat piping.

Then we pieced the front pillow (12×26) out of her scraps, which she had a neighbor embroider.

I love how it turned out! Michelle has a great eye for fabric, and I always love to see what fabrics she got.

Here is her whole room…she had Phil our curtain guy make her pinch pleat panels out of the same silk stripe as the bedskirt. I don’t do windows.

Today my baby sister is having her baby! I wanted to make her a baby blanket…so I grabbed my bag of my grandpa’s old shirts and found some old satin pillow cases and linen napkins of my grandmas and got to work.

I used this owl pattern that was for a pillow, but I just used the front side of it and appliqued it onto the blanket. Since the edge was curvy I cut out an owl shape out of muslin and sewed right sides together all the way around. Then I cut a horizontal 3-4″ slit in the middle of the muslin and flipped the whole thing right side out. That way there are clean edges all the way around and I didn’t have to struggle to get the edge to turn under. 

I cut open the two satin pillow cases that were grandma and pieced them together to make the back of the blanket. I decided to do a 1″ruffle around the edge out of some scrap fabric I had kicking around that I almost threw out.

The background plaid and eyes was from my grandpas flannel shirt. The bib part was made from one of grandmas old linen napkins that had a crocheted edge. The gray dot was from some pillows nik (baby sister) and I just made for her girls’ room.

I sewed the owl onto a piece of tan linen that I bought at a yard sale on our sisters trip in Manhattan Beach, CA.

The lace dickey was from my other sisters collection that she had gotten at an estate sale years ago. I finally had a good use for it!

My grandmas pillow cases had some light blue embroidery on the edges…so I kept it. I have been keeping this blanket a secret for weeks!  Now Nikki’s in the hospital today having her baby….so now I can show it off. I love that it’s going to be so sentimental for the new baby (Jane?). They are still deciding on the name. Our grandparents passed away about 6 years ago.

Side Note #1–
Last weekend we took the boys up to the cabin for the weekend…we had two beautiful days of 65-70 degree weather. We didn’t even have to start the fire when we got there. All 4 feet of snow had melted from the deck, since the last time we were there. There’s still of TON of snow there.

Here are the boys digging a tunnel.

Heber borrowed his buddies snow mobile and took the boys for rides. It was nice that we could drive to the top of the driveway! Usually we take the four wheeler up and have to park it at the bottom of the driveway and pull the sled full of our stuff up the hill.

– Side note #2– Sausha at Show and Tell showed off her new slipcovers that I made for her in December.

The winner of my slipcover DVD giveaway is “The Monsons”…please email me your address so I can get it shipped off to you. Thanks everyone for “liking” my crazy Ragnar pic on facebook!!!

My youngest broke into our “race bin” the other night and outfitted himself with a headlamp and flashing glasses. He says in 5 years when he’s 11, he’s going to run a race with us! Then me and all my kids competed on the treadmill to see who could run a mile the fastest. My ten yr. old beat me by 1 second!!!

OPened my email this morning and was happy to get such a NICE email and testimonial! It always makes my day!

Got my Slipcovers by Shelley DVD and have watched the entire video a couple times. I just have to say: Girl, you R-O-C-K rock!! I’m an intermediate-level sewer and have a sofa that needs a slipcover. I’ve been putting it off because it is a big project to tackle for my first slip cover, and I was looking for those tips of the trade that are so hard to find in how-to books. Well you certainly provided all the shortcuts and tips! I was able to easily follow your train of thought and understand the steps as you showed them. You make it look so easy! I can’t wait to jump in and start cutting and sewing. I’ve got some other projects in mind as well and I’m so excited about my new-found knowledge. I’m sure I’ll be slip covering everything that isn’t nailed down in no time! Thank you so much for making this video and for sharing your knowledge and talent with the rest of us!! It was worth every penny.

– Trish in Minneapolis