Prototype Coffee Sleeve, originally uploaded by Mindless Pursuits.

OK. I have this idea for making reversible coffee sleeves that have the same look as my pillows. I made this double-sided prototype, but I HATE it.

This side looks moderately OK, but the other side, which as the same asymmetrical pattern as my brocade pillows, looks HORRIBLE due to the bias tape.

So I’ve already figured out how I’m going to redo these. Unfortunately, it means a lot more work, but it’ll be worth it, and there won’t be any need for bias tape AND they’ll be adjustable to fit many different size cups - this one was made for a taller and thinner cup size like a Starbucks Venti (which is what I used to test my paper pattern).

Prototype Coffee Sleeve 2, originally uploaded by Mindless Pursuits.

This is an ultra-quick mock-up of what I would prefer the sleeve look like. I just ripped the bias tape off quickly and re-sewed this to be able to demonstrate what it looks like without the bias tape. To really do this, I’m going to have to redo my seam allowances and sewing approach so that the edges are neater and so that the stitching for the accent stripe isn’t showing. But for a really quick mock-up, I prefer this already to the last one!

Well, I actually did this a week ago, but I now have new product in my shop. Lately I’ve become obsessed with pillows. It started with needing to replace two of my own decorator pillows. Looking at what I wanted to do to replace those, I decided to go with a japanese motif. Then I thought about embroidering sakura (cherry blossoms) onto the fabric but knew it’d take me a long time to get the embroidery pattern completed so I decided to finally try fabric painting. The pillows turned out so well that I decided to make more!

From there, I thought of more designs, both painted and pieced, that I wanted to try, so played with different designs and fabrics before coming up with these:

These are brocade, satin and white velveteen and are very nice. I have more that I will be listing soon with other colors and designs. I’m really enjoying it. Who knew pillows could be so much fun!

Yep. Worked on more pillows over the weekend, but this time they aren’t of the hand-painted variety.  I decided I wanted to try something different and asymmetrical. These are the results (neither has been stuffed yet):

I like this one, but something about it bothers me. Someone suggested last night that maybe I need to change it so that I have more space devoted to a primary fabric with the other as an accent. I think I’ll try that this week.

I really like this one, but once I started stuffing it, I found the flaw: my gold accent trim ‘pops’ away from the pillow and looks bad. So I’m going ot re-do the design so that the gold accent is actually stitched flat invisibly and it will look better.

I’m really enjoying working on pillows at the moment, but know I need to get back to my bears. Hopefully all of this will get listed in my shop soon!

Cord-Trimmed Pillow

So I decided to try something different for me and following the suggestion from a friend on Facebook, I tried fabric painting. I think I’ve fallen in love with it! For my first project, I decided to paint my trademark cherry blossoms onto a couple of pillows. Pretty straightforward. But then I decided to make them patchwork, just like my paintings. I’m very happy with the results.  The first pillow I made I put a gold and red braided trim on. It looks nice, but was a Pain to do.

Knife-Edged Pillow

The second pillow, I left the trim off and went for a plain knife-edged pillow. I like both of these pillows, but think I prefer the crisp, clean look of the knife-edged pillow. Next I’m going to work on making some pillows that don’t have the patchwork background!

A new, fun direction has been opened for me! Yay! Let me know which type of pillow you prefer: trimmed or not!