Vintage Hydrangeas: Sewing

I don't sew.

I tried once. And no matter how proud of those pillow I am (very proud), I still make sure that the zippered side of the pillows are facing the side of the room you don't see when you first walk in.

But then John & Sherry posted about their curtains that involved no sewing, and I almost peed my pants. After getting past the shock, I went to the fabric store and picked up a roll of Super Weight Stitch Witchery. This stuff is magical. Maybe I'm the only one who hadn't heard of the magical "fusible bonding web"? I think so. Either way, I've been scheming over my next thing to sew without sewing since then.

Just recently, I started seeing these pillows all over the place, and just had to have one in our bedroom.

Via YHL

Via Cluck Cluck Sew

However, it was this DIY Pillow from Bromeliad Living that won me over. Isn't it gorgeous?

She made that with a thrifted skirt.

So off to the thrift store I went, to find the perfect red skirt. I couldn't find a skirt, so instead I brought home a dress and a pair of pants. Sexy pants. Very. Sexy. Pants.

Don't lie. You know you want the pants.

So I got busy trying to follow her instructions with the pants. And realized she said you needed a skirt for a reason. Because a short dress and pair of pants (no matter how big the bum is) isn't big enough. So I had to improvise. I played around with the fabric for a while and eventually pulled out some other fabric I had, until I came up with this flower-ish thing on some blue fabric.

What do you think? I'm in love. And there was only a very small amount of sewing required. (Probably not as much as is needed..)

I ended up cutting out a few squares. There was probably 7-10 squares about 3-4inches each. They weren't all even. That's not how I roll.

I bunched them all together in 2 different sets (at the time held together with pins) until I liked how they looked. And here came the sewing. Much to my dismay, the bunch was too thick for my $10 Walmart hand sewing-thinger, so I had to do it by hand. To do that I needed a needle.

Think I was exaggerating when I said I don't sew? Think again. I didn't have one sewing needle in our casa. I only had the needles that came with my hand sewing thinga-ma-bobber and they had a head (is that what it's called?). I looked high and low and couldn't find a single one. Until I remembered the sewing kit I took from a hotel that one time. I took it, amused that the hotel had a "mending kit", not because I actually thought I would use it.

Then I sewed the fabric together on the bunched ends. I can't really explain how I did it, because I just kind did until I could hold it without it falling apart.

Then I sewed it to the pillow fabric. Just a few stitches every 3 or 4 bunches and then a few stitches in the center. And somehow.. magically.. it stayed on!

I cut out the fabric for the pillow. Two pieces for the sides, then I cut one of the pieces in 2 for the opening on the back (no zippers!). Then threw a damp rag on top and ironed away.