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Pattern Remix Guest: Ashley from the Handmade Home



I need to officially thank Pinterest for introducing me to today’s final Pattern Remix guest – Ashley from The Handmade Home! Thanks to my addiction for sites full of eye candy, the Handmade Home lured me in immediately…and once I realized how funny this lady is, I never turned back.

Let’s start with her Confessions page, shall we? It has got to be my favorite…after all, I totally relate to everything in it! Lol…having kids isn’t easy, in fact it can be down right hilarious at times. And I love that she shares her hilarious moments with all of us, because I have been there! I know what it means to have little Miss Diva in the backseat at a McDonalds Drive-thru, to have the Emerson battle, and to have the minivan dilemma.

Now mix her humor with her photographic eye candy (and I am convinced Ashley has a side gig with Country Living), and you have a blogsplosion of goodness. I pretty much want to live in every room she posts pictures of in her Bungaloo Revamp Series.

But wait, it gets better…she has DIY projects too! Its the perfect trifecta…



You have absolutely GOT to check out her chalkboard fridge…so freaking cool.

Seriously, this woman is amazing! And I am so honored that she would be here with us today to finish off our Pattern Remix Series.

Without further ado, I give you Ashley from the Handmade Home…

——————————————————————————————————

Hello all you fabulous Me Sew Crazy readers! I’m totally stoked to be one of Jessica’s guests in this awesome fun series, so thanks for having me!

For my project, I wanted to infuse a few shots of color into my bedroom for the summer months, and decided what better way to do that, than with a lumbar pillow?

Not only a lumbar pillow, I thought to myself, but a patchwork lumbar pillow.

‘Seamstress, I am not’ is a constant disclaimer that I mention on my blog. I don’t really ‘do’ patterns. But I guess if I can figure it out, then anyone can. I find myself constantly making up my own little system to see what works best for our home, and I roll with it. But for my official remix, I took the basic pattern of a simple pillow, and expanded it from there.

I wanted to challenge myself by only using other pillows: literally tearing them down, and building them back up into something large and in charge for our bed. So this project was composed solely of older pillows + our dining room table cloth, with my only purchase a body pillow at its center for a nice, fluffy filling.

First things first: I cut them up into varying widths of little slivers, once I had a basic idea of what would look good, where. Here it is in the middle of that process. I usually play on the floor to figure out what I’m doing. My oldest walked in while I was working away, quite traumatized that I messed up all the pillows I always ask him to treat nicely. {read: stop from tackling from second story heights}. He really wanted to know what I was doing with “all my nice pillows.” It was funny to me that my five year old was so disturbed by such a sight.

I attached each piece of fabric, one by one, as anyone would a pillow. It varied, depending on what I was attaching, but it basically included putting each piece of fabric, right sides together {or facing each other with the wrong or plain sides, out} sewing on the appropriate side, and then flipping the new piece back over to join the ‘design crew.’ The photo above is an example of what I mean by right sides together. I’d hemmed the edges first, so please dismiss my temporary insanity. I then caught on to the fact that I could be lazy, so I stopped bothering, and simply attached, one by one with the raw edges.

Here’s a photo of it on the reversed side. As always, iron that back side, to give it a smoother finish.

For the extra, frayed strips, I simply pinned them down (as seen in the far right) {prevented my two year old from stepping on them} and did a top stitch to attach it.

I then continued with my little system, to cover the exposed, attached edge by once again, putting the next piece of fabric (right side in, face to face, wrong side out) + sewing the correct edge. I flipped it back over again, and that step, over and over again, is how I created my patchwork pillow.

Once they were all attached, I realized that each piece would need to be leveled out (I was kind of rolling with it since these were created from salvaged pieces.) I evened it up with a piece of scissors. So I placed my pillow in the middle, and leaving plenty of space for hems, trimmed around.

After doing the same with my back piece, I hemmed each end of each side. This was four hems, total.

Next, it was time to make the ties that would go at each end of the pillow. When I decided on the width I wanted it to be, I made a small cut in the linen-like material I was working with and simply tore it off in generously thick strips. I liked the frayed edge approach, so I left them as-is. With two per side, per hem, I had eight ties total.

I then took the sides that were not hemmed without ties: the top and bottom of the pillow, and sewed them together. This included taking the top layer with all the patchwork, and the bottom, solid rectangle (linen-like material layer) facing them inward, with their right sides together. Just like your regular ‘ol basic pillow.

I sewed both top and bottom sides together, and turned it right side out. Stuffing my body pillow on the inside for a secure fit…

TADA! My remix: a patchwork lumbar pillow was complete.

It’s not perfect. Nothing I ever do, is…but I do love it. I think that the beauty is in the imperfections. A touch of color for our summer bedding.

Hurray for pattern remixes!

——————————————————————————————————

Ohhhhhhhhhh Ashley – I cannot tell you how much I love this!!! I love the frayed ties at the end, and the fact that you incorporated them within the patchwork as well! And can I just say, being as pregnant as I am, what I wouldn’t do for that pillow on my bed right about now!! Lol.

This is truly beautiful, thank you so much for being here to finish off our Pattern Remix Series! You rock!

Be sure to stop by The Handmade Home, you will be hooked 🙂

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About Jess

When I was a young girl, my nickname was Jessica Rabbit. Fast forward 20 years, and I am married to the love of my life who, as fate would have it, has the last name Abbott. That's me! Jessica R. Abbott - aka, Jess Rabbit. Simply living a happy, yet crazy, love-filled life in Virginia Beach with 3 kids and 1 puppy in tow. Read More…

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Comments

  1. Ashley @ pure and lovely says

    June 10, 2011 at 11:13 am

    Oh my word! there are no words to what a sweet introduction that was. seriously. I’m floored! 😉 Loved writing for this series-thank you so much for having me! Sending well wishes of cool days and a plethora of wonderful nights’ sleep before your new little one arrives!

    Reply
  2. Fancy Fonts says

    June 14, 2011 at 11:12 am

    This is gorgeous! What a great way to add some color.

    Reply
  3. BluBabesCreate says

    July 18, 2011 at 4:10 am

    Oh love it! Come see my Union Jack tutorial.

    Reply
  4. Susan says

    March 26, 2014 at 4:24 pm

    Attempting this project!!!! Eeeek!

    Reply
  5. Caroline says

    June 12, 2014 at 5:04 am

    Great intro and fabulous cushion! thanks for sharing 🙂

    Reply
  6. Terri says

    January 18, 2018 at 9:54 am

    The huge bolster pillow is a great idea! I’m not going to make it exactly like you did, but instead try and add scalloped open ends with ties. But seeing this helped me figure out what I was going to do with fabric pieces I received from a friend, whose grandmother had started quilt pieces but passed away before getting the chance to put them together. My friend doesn’t sew and I barely do, but I wanted to turn these heirloom pieces into something she could enjoy of her grandmother and I think I found my project with this big bed bolster. Many thanks for the inspiration!

    Reply

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Hello, it’s me.

When I was a young girl, my nickname was Jessica Rabbit. Fast forward 20 years, and I am married to the love of my life who, as fate would have it, has the last name Abbott. That's me! Jessica R Abbott - aka, Jess Rabbit. Read More…

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