A First

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from sarah the sewist

Since Josh is working on a pretty complicated, involved project at the moment (more on that when he's done), I decided to start (and finish) a simple project... You know, to create some balance in the sewer-sewist sewing world. During the Fabric Depot 30% off sale (which seems to have been running perpetually lately), I picked up the Amy Butler pattern for the Gum Drop Pillows. These things are basically HUGE octagonal puffs.

Oddly, this is the first home decorator item I've made in twenty-odd years of sewing. I've racked my brain and I don't think that I've ever made a curtain, pillowcase, pot holder and certainly not a quilt. It just never occurred to me. I learned to sew clothes years ago, and that's what I've stuck with. But, Josh and I have been complaining about our profound lack of "stuff" in our house, and I saw this pattern, and figured it'd be pretty simple and low commitment.

I used some lovely, typically fun Free Spirit 100% cotton poplin from Heather Ross' "Lightning Bugs" collection. I sewed the smaller puff, with alternating yellow and brown panels, with white in the same fabric as the top panel. The instructions have you cut out what is half the pattern pieces, trace them and then flip the piece over and trace the other side. That was way too fussy for me, so I just cut out each side with my rotary cutter, flipping the piece over to make the whole panel.



Then I just sewed the entire thing together. It was that easy. That part took literally less than an hour.

Then the real fun began...

Since I'm sort of cheap (both of us are, actually), I really didn't want to spent $20+ on stuffing. We have quite a few old pillows laying around the house, so I simply de-stuffed a couple and used that filling to stuff the new puff. Our dog took quite the interest in this part of the process (maybe sewing can really be a family affair?) and decided to "help" by sitting right next to me, staring as I de-stuffed and re-stuffed. I think it blew her mind---it was just too much like her de-stuffing her toys. (She may have been thinking, "Mom's really a DOG?!") All-in-all, it took one and a half old king-sized pillows to stuff the puff. I'm not sure if that's equivalent to the recommended 10-twelve ounce bags of filling called for in the pattern.

Finally, because I really couldn't think of a way to strong-arm the puff (it's really BIG) into the sewing machine to close the hole left for stuff, I was forced to hand sew. I hate hand sewing, and truly cannot remember the last time I hand sewed anything. Despite that it took me forever, the finished product turned out pretty great...

Except one little thing... Can you spot it?

Yeah, I forgot this was a directional fabric. For about five seconds I considered re-doing the entire thing. Then I realized that would be insane. So it is, how it is.

I actually really like this puff, and I think I'll make the larger version soon, so we can have an ottomans. They're that big.

Oh, and the dog loves it.