Crochet Granny Square Pillow Covers Tutorial

This is a serious project.  It is not for the impatient or anyone seeking instant gratification.  This takes a lot of time and a lot of work but if you stay focused, you'll be very impressed with the results. If you already followed along with my Crochet Granny Square Coaster & Placemat Set Tutorial, you should have your crochet granny square making skills mastered by now.  Here's a fine opportunity to further test your crochet abilities, dust off that old sewing machine, flex some basic embroidery skills and cover up some otherwise unwanted and neglected pillows. 

I made 3 pillows but below are the instructions and materials necessary to make one pillow.  So without further ado, let the tutorial begin! 

What you'll need to make one pillow cover

• 1 400 yard skein of  100% Mercerized Cotton Giant Crochet Thread aka doily yarn
• Size O crochet hook
• Size 10 (1.30mm) crochet hook (this is optional but it's helpful for hiding your loose ends)
• At least a yard of cotton fabric (this is actually more than enough but you can buy multiple yards of many cotton fabrics from your local craft or sewing shop for only a few bucks)
• an old square shaped pillow
• Large embroidery needle
• Ruler or measuring tape
• Basic sewing machine
• Generic thread
• Pins
• a couple safety pins
• Scissors

 

 

 

Sewing the fabric pillow cover

 

 

Step 1

 

Take the fabric and fold it in half. Center the pillow on the fabric with the folded edge on top. Measure a 1" seam around the pillow and cut the fabric.

 

 

 

 

Step 2

 

 

Starting at either end of the folded edge, sew a 1/2" seam around 2 sides.  You're basically creating a pocket and leaving one side open for you to slip the pillow inside of.  Keep in mind that you're sewing on the "wrong side".

 



 

Step 3

 

Clip the edges, creating a fringe with about 1/4" between each clip.  Be careful not to cut into your seam by only clipping about 3/4" toward the seam.

 



 

Step 4

 

Turn the pocket right side out.  Insert your pillow.  Take the excess fabric on both sides of the edge and turn it in on itself.  Once the edges are matched up and smoothed out, pin them together.  Now you're going to stitch the final edge of the pillow together.  For this final edge, stitch a 1/4" seam, or less.  You're basically trying to get as close to the edge as possible while keeping in mind that the visable seam doesn't really matter as it will eventually be covered up with crochet work.

 

 

Now your fabric cover is finished and it's time to get down to the real business.

 

Crocheting the granny square doily

 

Step 1

 

Begin crocheting a basic granny square (following the tutorial from the link I posted at the beginning of this tutorial) with your size O hook.  Use your size 10 hook to hide all of the loose ends.

 

Step 2

 

Continue measuring the size of your square against the size of your pillow.  For example, a 25 row square (including the basic circle) fit my 14" x 14" pillow.  When you're measuring against the pillow, make sure your square is pulled as flat as possible. 

 

 

Embroidering the crochet doily to the fabric pillow cover

Step 1

Safety pin the doily to the edges of the fabric pillow cover.  Cut about a yard of doily yarn and thread your embroidery needle. 

 

Step 2

 

Start at one corner of the edge of the pillow cover and the middle of the corner scallop on the doily edge and connect the two with the thread. Double knot the thread leaving 1-2" at the end of the knot. Hide the excess thread back through the doily.

 

Step 3

 

Embroider the doily to the fabric edge using the threaded running stitch.  Insert the needle through the chain of each DC (double crochet). 

 

 

As you continue along, you'll thread the needle through 3 DCs and then under the chain that separates the next block of DCs and so on. 

 

 

This is what the underside of the finished edge looks like.

 

 

 

Step 4

 

Continue embroidering around the pillow cover.  When you get to the end, tie off and hide your loose ends underneath your embroidery work.

 

Now your beautiful pillow is complete and if you've made it this far, pat yourself on the back.  You deserve it!

 

 



Things I Tell My Sister

One of my customers, from thingsitellmysister.com, just created a truly extraordinary collage with stamps purchased from my shop. You can read more about the incredible effort that went into her project HERE.

If you take a moment to read her blog, you will see that she's an incredibly thoughtful and talented woman. 

Octagonal Origami Boxes

Today was a beautiful and extremely productive day.  The sun was bursting through our windows all day.  We just got a new chair for our record room and I spent the entire morning reorganizing our little cottage to make enough space for it.  The result is that many of my owls have relocated to our living room.

After all of my new space making, I decided to sit down and relax with some origami.

With Mother's Day fast approaching, I often think of my mom, how much she loves holidays and how she's always inspired me to create my own unique packaging and greeting cards for any special occasion.  Over the years I've presented her with any number of origami creations.  Unfortunately, many of these nimbly folded objects don't hold much utility.  One can only do so much with paper shrimp, the complete metamorphasis of a tadpole to frog (in origami) or 1,000 paper cranes (although they might bring you some good luck).

However, origami can be used for more than just folding cute little creatures.  One of the finest, most personal gifts can often be in the packaging in itself.  These octagonal origami boxes are a gift in themselves.  They can be reused and treasured as keepers of special keepsakes.  They are so simple and fun to create.  Once you get going, you won't be able to stop.  You can make them in a variety of sizes and color or pattern combos.  You don't even have to use origami paper to make them; you can use anything, used magazines, newspapers, etc.

There's a quick and easy to follow tutorial HERE.

May your days been filled with many happy folds!

Chantal's Travelling Notebook

I loathe the obvious fact that I've started to establish the reputation of being perpetually behind on craft projects.  This is very contrary to my actual personality as I'm generally extremely punctual IRL.  I pride myself for being right on time for pretty much everything.  However, since I opened my shop nearly 3 years ago, back in May 2010, procastinating on little things for hours has turned into days, which morphed into weeks, following months and so on.  Since I began to pursue a fulltime crafty career in addition to DJ-ing and buying/selling/trading records worldwide, I have to admit, that I've really struggled to manage my personal time.  I tend to have less and less of it everyday.  At first I thought it was a phase, but lately it feels more like a chronic affliction.  I find myself racing around nonstop, unable to manage everything I've previously committed to, EVERYDAY!  At present, I am totally overextended.  This Travelling Notebook project is a perfect example.  I committed to it back in the Fall of 2012, although I didn't actually receive the book in my mailbox until Jan 2013.  By that time it was only a vague recollection to me.  Now, nearly 2 months later, I finally completely my page.  The old me would've had this done the day I received it in the mail, most likely because I would've been working on it in the corporate confines of my dull cubicle at Fisher-Price Toy Company (where I worked for 5+ years prior to my current vocation). 

Nevertheless, my page is finally completed.  For the deco/penpal people reading this, Chantal's Travelling Notebook is similar to a large textured deco.  The only difference is that it's managed more like a Round Robin (where the maker, Chantal, tells you who to send it to next) and it's circulated worldwide to any variety of crafters, not necessarily just specific penpals within a specific community.  The guidelines are simple and limitless.  Each participant decorates a page with whatever they like - doodles, writing, painting, stickers, scrapbooking, information about themselves, the things they love, favorite quotes & places, etc.  Once the entire book is full of entries and returned home to Chantal, she is going to auction the book off and donate the proceeds to UNICEF.  I think this project is a great idea and would love the opportunity to participate in more charity based projects. 

I regret that it took me so long to complete my page but hopefully, by the next time I volunteer for another crafty project, I'll have figured out a way to manage my "free time" more wisely.  The irony of this experience is that it only took me a total of about 2 hours to complete my page from start to finish, and they were 2 of the most luxurious and relaxing hours I've spanned in ages.

The book itself is a chunky piece of work.  It measures 8 1/4" x 5 3/4". 

I wanted to make my page as colorful as possible with a variety of textures and themes representating my skills and interests.

So I created a rainbow collage with the color themed stamp sets that I sell in my shop.  In traditional deco fashion, I sprinkled pearly holographic glitter on the stamps and Mod Podged the entire collage.  I combined a varigated crochet chain woven through metallic rainbow rivets and plastic rainbow beads to create the border.  I mounted fabric on cardboard to create my pocket.  I machine stitched my business card to the pocket, machine stitched the pocket to the collage and stuffed my business cards (larger versions of the stamps in the collage) into the pocket. 

Below are some detailed close ups of my work.

 

 

 

I hope this notebook enjoys a beautiful journey on its way home!

Erin Lynn at Belladonna's Ragdoll

Greetings all.  As per usual, I've been away from my virtual desk for far too long.  For the past month plus, I've been on the road, travelling pretty much non-stop.  Now I'm finally back home and getting into my usual groove with no shortage of new stock to process.  So keep your eyes peeled on my shop, brand new items are being listed daily.

In the meantime, I would like to bring a new Etsian to your crafty-eyed attention.  She's one of my most enthusiastic customers and a real sweetheart with a lust for life and passion for crafting.  A young mom herself, Erin Lynn, was inspired to create by her mother, an elementary school teacher.  She's based down in Tallahassee, FL and with the loving assistance of her brother and fiance, she's been adding a fantastic combination of philatelic inspired and beaded creations to her shop on a regular basis.  I really admire her versatility and use of different shapes and textures, especially when using stamps. 

Not only does Erin create finished products ready to wear and ultilize but she also makes and sells her own supplies like handmade stamp beads.

Best of luck to Erin!  Keep up the good work!

To view more items from Erin's shop, click here !

Origami Time!

I've been focusing so intensely on philately lately that sometimes the other sections of my crafty world tend to get neglected.  Yesterday I decided to put my stamps aside for a few hours to fold some new origami inventory for my Asian Inspiration kits.  I try to make the kits as bright and colorful as possible. 

I've been doing origami since I was 7 or 8 years old.  I have the folds for over 100 different patterns memorized so when working on a project like yesterday, it's a soothing, repetitive process for me, similar to washing dishes or chopping vegetables. 

On the contrary, I also like folding really complex creations that consist of 100-300 folds and assembling multiple folded pieces like this 6 sided Sputnik kusadama folded with double pieces of paper.  A piece of this nature may take a few hours from start to finish but it's really satisfying once it's done. 

Below are a few photos of my "folding station" - desk area.

If you're feeling stressed out and your mind needs a little excersize, why not try some origami?

For the love of NORGE

Happy New Year!  Welcome to 2013!  Sorry I haven't updated more frequently.  I've been overwhelmed with work and life in general.  This is a craft blog and not a personal blog but one very personal thing that I am going to speak about is directly related to what I am posting about today. 

Just before Christmas-time, my bestfriend from childhood passed away.  He was 34 years old (same age as me).  We grew up down the street from one another.  We influenced each other in so many ways.  We made a game out of everything.  We perpetually challenged and inspired one another.  We just had an awesome friendship.  We played together almost everyday until our mid-teens when his family moved out of state.  But even after that our families still spent all of our holidays together.  We went on so many amazing trips and had so many good times.  This is the closest person to me who has ever passed during my lifetime.  Needless to say, I've had a lot of trouble dealing with it.  My emotions are so out of control.  Weeks, nearly a month later, I still just don't feel like myself.  I have an incredible base of friends who have been supporting me through this crazy period and I am so thankful for that, but there is only so much they can do for me.  I know the rest of this on me and I just need to get through it in my own way, on my own time. 

Mainly, I've just been trying to focus on the one thing I know I am absolutely positively good at - WORK.  However, when I woke up this morning, I was honestly wondering why I even bother.  Why do I do this?  Why do I care so much about philately?  Why or who even cares about postage stamps in 2013...and so on?  And then I checked my e-mail and received this most extraordinary message from one of my etsy customers.

It went as follows, "My daughter's name is E.... W... C..., and ever since she was in utero we've called her the Norge. so when I saw these stamps, I was delighted. I made this collage for my husband last spring and gave it to him for his birthday. He was stunned and immediately tweaked a rule our house: in case of a fire, I'll grab the children and he'll grab the collage. Little bit amazing.

The stamps are stuck with double-sided tape to a piece of accounting paper from Goodwill.  Very simple, though I was sweating bullets when assembling it.  It hangs above our bed. 

So glad you had these stamps.  Your shop is wonderful."

 Below are images of the framed collage made by my customer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now I know exactly why I do what I do and I won't stop.