Thinking of Things as Fabric

 When you look at a shirt is that what you see? Or how about a curtain? Are they just a shirt or curtain?

Sometimes I have to remind myself to look beyond the stitched shape of an item and observe the fabric, stitching & texture because sometimes you will find something you just love the print of but it's not in the right garment or household furnishing.

Creating new stitched projects do not have to be all about buying a flat piece of fabric from Joann's; it can be, but not always. I challenge you to look at an item for use-able fabric whether it be a garment in a store or an item from your closet that has lost it's appeal for whatever reason.

This morning I decided to make a pillow case for my son's pillow "lovey". (I do have to admit it is more me that wanted this cute case since his pillow looks worse for the wear with it's recent tears & repairs.) I had leftover blue fabric from another project as well as these Pottery Barn changing table panels that I thought would make a very cute pillow case.

I really like the checked pattern on the PB panels, but we didn't own the changing table and they would not work for mine. I could see using them with some other type of embellishment (to join & disguise the seam to join the panels) to make a window valance. Sure, PB makes a valance in this print, but that wasn't clearanced out at such a deep discount.

From just one panel I was able to make one side of the pillowcase and will be making embellishment for puppet theater curtains, which I will also use the leftover fabric for. I will be using some of the leftover blue fabric to make a book sling to be next to my son's bed (which is why I wanted the fabric in the pillowcase.) I will be featuring tutorials on both of those projects, one on this blog and one on Northern Cheapskate.

But while you wait for those tutorials, please go check out how I used 2 sweaters as fabric to make Monster Stuffies for Christmas Presents for my kids.

Other things that you will have to look forward to will include my constructing the valance from this fabric, as well as other homemade Christmas presents for my kids, friends, family & teachers.

If you were hoping for a tutorial on how to make a pillowcase, you can find one here on eHow. A pillowcase is an easy sewing project with only a handful of straight stitches. But creating a new pillowcase out of some special fabric can really change how a room or piece of furniture looks.