By Lisa Gutierrez on 08/29/2010 Inspired by the doily pillow tutorial on Smile and Wave, I started scouring thrift stores and craigslist for any little sets of doilies I could find. I HAD to make one. My couch NEEDED it!
One of the thrift stores close to our new house had some and I was SO excited! Until I saw the price tag. GAH! Them ladies knew how long and tedious doily making was and priced them accordingly. Unfortunately, doilies aren’t in the family budget, so I had to pass those up.
A week later, we headed back to our old stomping grounds in South Houston and hit up our old favorite thrift stores, including SeAM. I’m happy to say SeAM did not disappoint. I found a bunch of doilies for about two bucks. I used all the large ones, a medium one, and a few small ones to fill in open spaces. I still have a medium sized one and two little baby doilies left. I’m in LOVE!
I did this a little differently than the tutorial. After figuring out the configuration (most exciting craft-related puzzle!), I pinned the doilies to some yellow fabric, about 17.5″ square. I then hand-sewed them down, overlapping where necessary. I didn’t want to cut any and there wasn’t much overhang, so I didn’t. Most of the doilies were bright white and one was a lovely light brown, so I whipped up a pot of super strong tea and let the pillow top soak for about 10 minutes. I washed it with some dish soap and tossed it in my dryer for a bit. Tea staining for the win!
I used a vintage pillow case for the back. Again, i can’t stress enough how much I love reusing pillowcases like this. The hem is already there, so I don’t need to do any extra sewing! I cut out a piece about half the width of the pillow and one that was two thirds. I pinned it down and sewed it up. My 18″ pillow form makes it a little over-stuffed, but that’s how I like ’em.
If you have any doilies you don’t want (psssssh!), please do let me know.
By Lisa Gutierrez on 08/16/2010 
Look at what I finished up, today! I crocheted the front on Friday and it sat on my loveseat all weekend. I kept throwing ideas around about completing the pillow. They’d land on uninterested ears (my husband, my kids, etc) but it wasn’t until last night that I decided to use one of my favorite vintage pillow cases as the back.
I liked this idea because I could use the pillow’s natural hem as the envelope-back hem. Less sewing! I used a brown paper bag to cut a circle pattern. I marked off half the circle and two thirds of it. I cut out my pieces, pinned them to the crocheted circle and hand-sewed it together. The seam isn’t perfect and my [foam] pillow form is kind of hard, but I really like the end result!
This orange packs a punch and the flowered back is just lovely! It’s the same fabric I used to make my last camera strap cover.
 
I dig this fabric so much, I couldn’t just toss the scraps. Instead, I made more buttons:
  
If you love them, you could buy them from my Etsy shop, here. They would qualify for my BOGO 50% off sale!
By Lisa Gutierrez on 07/15/2010 
I sold the cross-stitch fabric and now have ZIPPERS up for sale! They’re pretty inexpensive, IMO, at 50 cents a pop. There’s also an option to buy all 36. If you do a lot of sewing with zippers, I think this would be a great deal! I have accumulated them from various places over the years. I had high hopes for my sewing skills, but alas they remain small and I really just want to declutter.
If you’re interested, take a look! The crafty garage sale…
I love the old packaging on some of these vintage ones.
By Lisa Gutierrez on 05/14/2010
I found two of these at a thrift store. I’m keeping the smaller one and would like to pass along the other (this one). It has 69 spaces for thread spools, minus one missing peg. It’s pretty sturdy (i.e. HEAVY), so keep that in mind if you aren’t in the greater Houston area. It would be great for someone who does a lot of sewing. Or someone who just likes to display their thread. Orrr someone looking for a place to hang jewelry (necklaces, bracelets, rings, etc). Contact me (lisa@goodknits.com), if you are interested. I didn’t pay much and will consider all reasonable offers through the weekend. Thanks so much for looking!
By Lisa Gutierrez on 05/12/2010
Yesterday, I made a big dent in sorting/packing/purging. The best part about it isn’t that I’m that much closer to being done. No. It’s that I’ve been able to unearth a few projects that just got lost in the shuffle. One of them was my English paper-piecing project. I originally intended this to be blanket-sized, but when I saw it yesterday, I thought it would look great on a canvas, as a wall decoration. When I picked it up this morning, though, I wanted a pillow. I wanted to be able to cuddle it. So, I got to work. I finished up the corner hexes and then I quilted it to a piece of cotton batting (with embroidery floss). I used some cloth napkins to make an envelope back and sewed it up, early this afternoon. It’s pretty.
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