Craft Tutorial: DIY Customised Felt Pillowcase

If you are looking for a fun craft project for yourself, a gift or the school holidays, why not try making a custom felt pillowcase?! So easy, so fun and they make a great personalised gift. In place of a pillowcase you could use a tea towel, T-shirt, a piece of fabric (then frame or use as part of a quilt) - so many options! I made a few of them recently and here are my very basic instructions.

CRAFT TUTORIAL: DIY FELT PILLOWCASE

TIME:

1-2 hours

TOOLS:

  • Paper and coloured pencils

  • Sewing machine

  • Iron

  • Sharp scissors

  • Pins

  • Blank pillowcase (or T-shirt/ tea towel/ fabric piece)

  • Various pieces of coloured felt

  • Coloured thread to match the felt (or use a contrasting colour!)

  • Iron-on interfacing

METHOD:

  1. Take your paper and pencil and sketch out a little version of your pillowcase, and mark up the shapes and letters you’d like to include on it. Think about the scale of the different objects, and what colour you’d like them to be, and mark/colour in any of this detail.

  2. Once you’ve finalised your design, sketch out to-scale versions of the shapes and letters onto another piece of paper. Cut the paper shapes out.

  3. Iron the interfacing onto the reverse of the felt pieces, using a low heat (so you don’t burn the felt!) This will give it a bit of reinforcement, and will also make it easier to sew.

  4. Pin the paper shapes onto the front of the felt, and cut them out with sharp scissors.

  5. Arrange the felt pieces onto the pillowcase, and pin them in place.

  6. Topstich the felt pieces onto the pillowcase, about 3mm from the edge of the felt, backstitching at the start and end. I use a wide stitch and set my machine to its lowest speed. Don’t worry if some of them end up a bit wonky - this adds to the charm.

  7. Admire your handiwork!

If you make one, I'd love to see it so remember to share (tag me on Instagram @hellospinspin) :)

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Stockist: Perfect Splash (Paradise Structures)

Just a little heads up for local Melbourne folk that Spin Spin goods are now stocked in the amazing Perfect Splash (was Paradise Structures) in Footscray. The shop is run by sisters Alana and Annabelle, with help from their trusty tiny pooches Harvey and Charlie and features jewellery, clothing and records and tapes from local makers and musicians. Yay! When I dropped the goodies off I couldn't help but also take a couple of snaps of the space, which is so sweet AND has the best afternoon light. I usually don't have much time for wholesaling my products but it's nice to be able to work on this recently. More shop reveals soon!

If you're in the area tomorrow, Saturday 19 August 2017, Paradise Structures will be hosting a live recording of the fab Wowee Podcast (by Esther Sandler of Togetherness Design and Penny Min Ferguson from Min Pin, from 2:00-5:00pm. 61 Victoria St, Footscray.

Oh, and check out this amazing drawing by Alana and Annabelle, which appeared in Esther's Bloomin' Beauties exhibition at BSIDE Gallery in Fitzroy earlier this month.

Mid-winter cooking

I've been doing lots of cooking lately, because it's mid-winter here in Melbourne and I'm in dire need of warming foodstuffs (and the occasional scoop of icecream). I've mainly been into making hearty winter vegetable dishes and some 'healthy' sweet snacks and I thought I'd share links to some of the recipes, in case you need some foodspiration.

Lunch Lady's quinoa brittle is a pretty great sweet treat. Photo by Susan Fitzgerald.

Lunch Lady's quinoa brittle is a pretty great sweet treat. Photo by Susan Fitzgerald.

It might be winter but that doesn't stop me making matcha ice-cream. Photo by Susan Fitzgerald.

It might be winter but that doesn't stop me making matcha ice-cream. Photo by Susan Fitzgerald.

Lunch Lady's Walnut, Oat and Beetroot Tart. The one recipe I can't find online, sorry! But it's in Issue 6, which is a great read. Photo by Susan Fitzgerald.

Lunch Lady's Walnut, Oat and Beetroot Tart. The one recipe I can't find online, sorry! But it's in Issue 6, which is a great read. Photo by Susan Fitzgerald.

Lunch Lady's quinoa brittle, just out of the oven. I'm looking forward to trying some other recipes next - this quinoa crunch, these quinoa snack bars and peanut butter quinoa crunch. Photo by Susan Fitzgerald.

Lunch Lady's quinoa brittle, just out of the oven. I'm looking forward to trying some other recipes next - this quinoa crunch, these quinoa snack bars and peanut butter quinoa crunch. Photo by Susan Fitzgerald.

This pumpkin, lentil and kale bake with cauliflower cheese from My Darling Lemon Thyme is sooo delicious.

This rich carrot soup recipe from The Guardian is simple and so amazingly vibrant in colour.

This roasted pumpkin soup with chickpea migas, also from My Darling Lemon Thyme, is hearty and filling and you'll have to stop yourself from eating all the crouton-like migas in one sitting.

This Persian red lentil soup with tahini, beetroot and fried mint from Gourmet Traveller is flavoursome, hearty and tastes even better the next day.

Cauliflower rice - is it the best thing ever!? It's so easy to cook and is tasty, healthy and filling. You just grate or food process raw cauliflower and fry up with whatever you've got on hand -  some spices, olive oil, salt and pepper. 

Now I'm off to pretend I'm warm and on holidays in the sun.

Hand Painted Pillowcase

I've been working on lots of new ideas lately, but was getting frustrated with having nothing to show for it. What I needed was a quick crafty project that produced a real-life thing that day, not next week or next month. So I dug up a blank pillowcase from the pile I've got in my studio, pulled out all my favourite custom-mixed screenprinting inks and painted directly onto the pillowcase and here's what I came up with. It's kind of full-on in terms of pattern/colour craziness but was so so fun and took no time at all. And I kind of like the fact that some of the ink colours bled a bit at the edges, to give a gradient of colour. 

Happy Monday to you.