Mother’s Day Gift Idea

As Mother’s Day approaches, I’m always looking for new ways to give unique gifts.  One of my favorites lately, is to wrap the gift in on our beautiful floursack towels. 

With the cost of gift wrap rising, I would much rather spend my money on something that can be re-used once the package is opened.

Our towels are also perfect for making pillows.  You can check out our tutorial here to see how to do it.

Let us know, what would you do with our beautiful towels?

How to Turn Kitchen Towels into Curtains

We had a lovely customer write us the other day and asked if we could make her a valance using our Retro Stamped Towels.  Karen came up with this super cute, super simple way to make them…

We started with the Stamped Towel Pack…

And a package of Medium Rick Rack–Delft

Trim the towel to the length you need.  She wanted hers to be finished 12″ with a 2″ pocket to slide a curtain rod in.  We trimmed the towel to 15″ to allow for a hem and room on the top to add a seam.

Next, we took a heavy twine and ran it up each of the long sides of the towels.  Karen said that she wanted to give our customer another option on how to hang her curtains.  I have a pic at the end of the tutorial to show you what it does. Secure knots on either end of the twine.

On the top edge…fold down the end half an inch and press. Then fold the towel down until you reach the desired length…again, we made ours 12″ long.  Stitch your folded edge down.  You should not have any unfinished edges now.

On the very top of the towel mark a line about a quarter inch below the edge.  This will create a pocket for the curtain rod to fit into.

Sew on rick rack.  I just followed the 2 lines of stitching and attached them right on top of those rows.

You are finished.  Pull the strings on the sides of the towels and it gives you a completely different look.  Almost a balloon valance look.
Literally…this is one of the easiest things ever.  If i had not had a little one running around asking me to sing Jake and Never Land Pirates…and check her nose for boogies…I seriously could have finished this project in 30 mins.  With the added “Mommy” time…it took me about an hour and a half.

Remember use my discount code KRISTIN5 to get an extra 5% off, if you order these towels or anything else on our website.  We have over 2000 products for you now… check it out!  We do retro, vintage, fabrics and a whole lot more.

I want to slow down a little…

WOW!  Is it really Friday already?  I really think this week went from Monday to Friday in 2 days.  My little one and I just got back from taking son #1 to school.  I still can’t believe school has already started.  Time seriously needs to slow down.  Our kiddos are growing up so fast.  

I have been thinking about time a lot lately.  We are all rushing around like madmen and not really enjoying our families.  I have decided that I am going to host a “party” for my family once a month.  Nothing big, just a chance for us all to sit down…turn of the TV…put down the electronic games…put the cell phones on silent.  Just plain enjoy being a family and sit and talk to each other.  

The tablecloths that we have at Home a la mode have given me the idea to make each party a theme.  Here is what I was thinking…

August

Chef’s Surprise

Son #1 and I love to cook together.  I think we are going to use this cutie…make up menus…take reservations…make it like a real restaurant. 

September

Lake House

We live by the lake.  Daughter #2 is going to be coming home from college for the first time around the middle of the month.  I want to make this a carefree “party”.  Maybe some finger foods.  Grilled hot dogs and hamburgers.  Just a laid back time at the lake and listen to all of her stories.

October

Bone Appetit

HALLOWEEN!!!!  Enough said.

November

Harvest

We have a family tradition that we rotate houses for Thanksgiving.  This year we are hosting.  I think this is going to be the one that I use.

December

Candycane

I love the traditional colors of  Christmas.  I think i am going to do a “party” that is all Red, White, and Green.  Make desserts to match…maybe some breads…eggnog…YUMMY!

Well these are just a few thoughts that I had.  What do you think?  I would love to hear what ideas you have.  Head over and check out all of the tablecloths and tell me what you would like to do and with which one.  We have 55 different ones.  Which are your favorites?

I hope you all have a GREAT Friday, and a FANTASTIC weekend!

Sometimes you just mess up!

Well, you know when you have a really great idea, and then half way through it, things go south?  I am going to show you one of those ideas.  I wanted to start showing you some of the recipes that I make for my family.  The first one is how to make simple calzones.  

 I started by gathering all my supplies and taking pictures.  

After I had followed the directions on the hot roll mix box and let the dough rest….I was ready to section it and put it in the oven to rise…here is where the problem came in…

See how those balls don’t really look like balls?  How they just look mushed together with no conformity…After taking this pic I noticed this.  I knew the dough didn’t really “feel” right but wasn’t sure what had happened.  I looked back up at my supplies and saw that I had not added the egg and butter to the dough…UUUGGGHHH!  I freaked!  I had to feed my family…and I had completely messed up the dough…So, in my panic I pulled out a can of pizza dough (BTW…yuck!) and finished the calzones.  I was too embarrassed that I had messed up to take pictures of it.  So, long story short, first recipe post = failure!  I will try again next week.

I did want to show you these cute Kitchen Dishcloths.  I like how lightweight they are.  I also like how bright and cheery they are…trust me, after my cooking disaster, I needed bright and cheery.  I hope this made you smile and maybe make you see that everything isn’t perfect in the blog world.

From Towels to Pillows Tutorial

Hey everyone!  I hope you have recovered from all of the 4th of July festivities.  I wanted to show you a quick little tutorial on how to make kitchen towels into pillows.  This is a super easy way to add a little something different to your decor for minimal cost.

We have these super cute Bait and Tackle Kitchen Towels.  They come packaged in this little envelope.  You get 4 to a set.  Don’t you love the vintage look of these?  To me, they are too cute to be folded up and just hung over the handle on the fridge, they were begging to be made into something else…

 Let’s get started!!!  


Supplies
1 pack of Bait and Tackle Kitchen Towels
1 1/2 yards of Countdown to Christmas–Frost Rudolph
3 yards of Pellon Fusible Fleece
2 bags of Polyester FiberFill

Cut your backing fabric and fusible batting so it is 1 inch larger than your towel.  I have noticed the towels aren’t all the exact same measurement.  So you will just have to measure each to get the exact measurement.  I wound up cutting my 19″ x 26″. You will need 4 pieces of the backing fabric and 8 pieces of the fleece.

Fuse your fleece to the back side of the towel and your backing fabric.  Take your time and make sure you get a good bond.   

Quilt the towel however you like.  I chose to go very simple with my quilting.  Just outlining certain parts of the design that I wanted to stand out.

A close up of the quilting that I did.

Pin the towel and backing fabric together with right sides facing each other.  Leave a 6″ opening at the bottom to allow you to stuff the pillow.  I always like to pin my openings with different color pins because I have a tendency to think about other things while I am sewing and forget what I am doing :o) 

**See that cutie pie of a pin cushion? You can find it here.

Sew the 2 pieces together.  I used a 1/8″ seam.  When you have sewn them together, trim your excess fabric and cut your corners at an angle.  

Turn your pillow right side out.

Here it is turned right side out.  You will want to press your seams.  

I love how pretty and clean this is coming out.  

How you finish this up is completely up to you.  I wanted an “edge” on my pillow so I pinned around the red square on both sides.  Then sewed along the inside and outside of the square.  **Remember to keep your opening for stuffing.  You can see where I have pinned my starting and ending points.

A close up of how I stitched around the edge of the red square.

Start stuffing your pillow.  At this point, I stopped what I was doing and went and checked out our complete line of Kitchen Towels.  I called Karen and told her that I wanted one of each set.  I have visions of having a set for each holiday and any special occasion.  

Sorry, I was sidetracked there…I started by stuffing my corners first then filling in the middle.  As your pillow becomes fuller, make sure you aren’t getting lumps.  You just have to work with the stuffing and smooth as you go.

Fully stuffed!  How stinking cute is that?

Now you want to stitch closed your opening.  I started by pinning on either side of the red line then stitching it together. I am sorry I didn’t get a pic of that step, but you can see my stitching here.  Now, pin the bottom part of the open and stitch it closed.  I just used my machine and did a top stitch very close to the edge.

Here it is ready to be loved and enjoyed!

On a side note.  If you are looking for a craft that your husband will like this is it.  My manly man husband is not into my sewing at all.  When I was taking pictures, he came out and looked at what I had made.  He grabbed up one and said, “OK, these are really neat.”  In my world, that is like winning a Grammy.  Hehe,  I hope you all have a GREAT day!