Monday Made It! and a freebie

This will be the first time I am doing a Monday made it. If you are interested in this linky party click {HERE} to go to 4th grade Frolics. I am always making things, I just am too tired to post about it. However, It's Monday and I've had my coffee so here goes!
My Co-worker Kim used to be a decorator in Life before she was a teacher. She convinced me it was not hard to make pillows for my classroom. She came with me to the store and helped my pick out my first sewing machine!  She gave me some instructions and ideas for putting the pillows together.  And here we go...
 

 Here is a shot of the bottom of my sewing machine and the edge of the pillow. I sewed on velcro (loop and sew, not sticky) to the edges and made a flap, so the covers could be taken off and washed.

 Here are 2 of the pillows, I used square foam inserts that I found at Walmart. I am not going to tell you I did this very professionally. I laid the fabric out on the floor and laid the pillow on top. I left space on either side for the seam. As you can see above the blue polka dot is slightly big. I went back after and made it smaller.
You lay the fabric nice side to nice side. (so when you are sewing you will see the back side of the fabric) I sewed three sides then flipped it right side out. That is when I sewed on the velcro. I used straight pins to hold it in place. The edge over laps, one over the other.

Teacher Apron

 I have desperately wanted a teacher apron for a while now. I scoured ETSY to see if I could somehow manage to make one.
Again, I didn't really measure, except to hold the fabric up to me. (ahh, bad idea) First I sewed 3 sides of the chevron fabric and turned it right side out. I did the same on polka-dot pocket. Then I ironed the fabric so it would be flat and you could see the seems and edges are crisp and neat. I folded and ironed down the top of the fabric, then sewed and closed the seem. Next, I pinned dow the pocket and sewed around the sides and bottom. AFter I sewed down to create 3 separate pockets. Finally, I made the straps. I fold the fabric over on itself and sewed the end and all the way down 1 seem. I then had to very carefully pull it out to see the fabric correctly. Lastly I attached these to the back of the apron, sewing a good 1 1/2 inches of the strap to the apron. Now I have an apron to protect me form glue and who knows what else, and it can hold, expo markers, post=its and whatever else I may need :0)



 

Here is my daughter's room before. She just turned 11 and has had this room since she was 2. She asked for a blue room. Originally, there was a floral wall paper border going around the entire room, and she had a Garden theme. Alas, she is getting older and wanted some new decor.

 While she still has some purging to do, I think the transformation is astounding. Her room seems much larger using 1 color on the wall. Her white furniture really pops against the soothing blue color.

 As you can see the baskets in the tower and bookshelf need changing out. After this picture was taken I found blue baskets at target to replace the pink and polka dots. The basket liners will have to wait for another day.

Last but not least is a little freebie. I am making all these pillows, so when My kiddos are doing Daily 5 they can have a comfy spot to sit in the room. Here is the pacing guide I have used the last few years. I have taken the 2 sisters launch and typed it up in a user-friendly format for lesson plans and teaching. You can download the Daily 5 Pacing Guide in my store on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Summer DIY's

This year I am re-doing my classroom.  I took down all my boards, boarders etc... and I did a little shopping.  I have a whole new color scheme planned--I can't wait to start re-decorating.  But, since we can't get into our rooms until August I needed to do some other things so spruce up my room. So I decided to get crazy and sew up some new pillows for my classroom.  Last year, I bought some mats for the kids to sit on from Wal-Mart.  You know the red and blue ones that fold out into 4 sections. Anyway, with 18 students, kids were always wanting a turn, and I didn't have enough.  
     
So I decided to give my sewing skills some practice.  I bought 3 yards of inexpensive fabric from, you guessed it--Wal-Mart.  I also got a package of 4 foam inserts (16x16x1).  The 3 yards perfectly fit the four cushions!  Yeah!  So I cut, and ironed and sewed, and sewed and sewed some more. I have one of those mini-hand-held sewing thing-a-ma-jigs.  Well, either mine is defective or they all work rather poorly. For some reason the battery compartment doesn't connect correctly. So I had to squeeze it with all my hand-strength (which is not that much) in order for it to go.  Then, my hands would give out and I had to stop. Needless to say  I started pricing sewing machines, as my fingers were getting tired. In the long run, a needle and thread is just as effective. I am pretty proud of myself though.  They came out super cute and I only spent about $10.00 for the whole project.  Plus I sewed them so I can take them off like pillow cases and wash them every now and again.

First Iron it, then fold in half and leave a little extra at the top for the flap. The pretty side of the fabric is not showing so afterwards you will have a nice seam on the outside of your pillow.

After you sew each side, turn it inside out and Iron the hems  of the flap to make it easier to keep it straight.

I cut fabric off from the top flap to add ties.  I cut it into four thin strips and sewed them to the flap and mid-pillow.

See how it flaps over and ties on each side.  You can untie it and remove the insert to wash it.

Here's a close-up.

Hope you can use these ideas. Let me know if you get a chance to try it out.
Jessica j