Click on over to their blog to see more!

Pin It]]> https://artschooldropout.net/blog/pretty-in-pink-mini-quilt-for-sizzix/feed/ 0 https://artschooldropout.net/blog/half-moon-zipper-pouch-tutorial-for-sizzix/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=half-moon-zipper-pouch-tutorial-for-sizzix https://artschooldropout.net/blog/half-moon-zipper-pouch-tutorial-for-sizzix/#comments Thu, 16 Jul 2015 09:15:57 +0000 jesseesuem http://artschooldropout.net/blog/?p=3915 Continue reading →]]> Today on the Sizzix Blog, I share a super detailed and photo heavy tutorial on how to sew curved seams, install a zipper and assemble an entire pouch, This exact pouch! It’s chock full of skill building steps, so if you have ever been discouraged by any of those things, go check it out!

My first thought was “Ha, this is the perfect excuse to finally make some holiday decor EARLY” since I always mean to, but never do. It took me awhile to narrow down a die to use, since there are just so many that aligned with my taste. After much thought, and help from Sizzix, I ended up with this awesome Snowflake die. More specifically the Sizzix Bigz Die – Snowflake.

I knew right away how I would use it too! I wanted a piece that was great for Christmas, but could also work for a month or two afterwards. That way I could be lazy and keep it out for awhile. Also, we don’t decorate for the holidays until after my daughters birthday which is the second week of December,so holiday decor that can stay up longer is a big bonus.

I took a few photos while I was putting this together, which means I have a quick tutorial so you too can make this awesome pillow!!

Supplies Needed:

• Sizzix Bigz Die – Snowflake
• Various Solid Blue Fabrics. Mine are all leftover Kona Cotton from my Icosahedron Quilt. Each Block should be no smaller than 5″
• Various Solid White and Light Grey Fabric. I used Kona Cotton here too
• the Warm Company’s Steam-A-Seam 2 Lite
• Batting (I used Warm & Natural Cotton Batting)
• Coordinating thread
• slightly coordinating thread

First thing I did was cut out out 9″ squares from both the white or grey fabric and the Steam-A-Seam. The Steam-A-Seam is sticker adhesive, so I just removed one of the protective layers and stuck the fabric down. I smoothed it out and pressed firmly to make sure it was adhered properly.

Then I cut the 9″ squares into four 4.5″ squares and set them aside.

Next I cut one to two 5″ squares from each of my blue fabrics, I had an uneven number of blues I really wanted to use, so that’s why there were single squares.

I took the pile of white and grey pieces to my Sizzix Fabi and ran them through. The proper way to do this is called the Sizzix sandwich. You start with a cutting pad, then the die with the foam side up, then whatever you are cutting (here I had the interfacing side up) and then another cutting pad. I cut two pieces at a time when using the Steam-A-Seam. This prevents shifting and pieces getting stuck.

You can see here there isn’t much waste and the shape cut perfectly with the interfacing attached.

Now were all ready to start assembling…

First thing I do is layout my pieces to see where I want them. This usually takes me about five minutes, because I’m constantly changing my mind.

As you can see above, I am using a portable design wall I made out of leftover Homasote wrapped in extra batting that I stapled to the back. It’s great for this step because I can just carry the board over to my machine and pull off the pieces that need to be sewn in a specific order. The Homasote hardly weighs a thing. It’s awesome.

Ok, back to this tutorial…

After I was happy with the layout I stitched all of the blocks together using a 1/4″ seam allowance. Once they are all together, you ended up with a 20.5″ square piece.

Now were are ready to adhere some snowflakes!

This Steam-A-Seam2 is amazing because you hardly have to use an iron! I was able to sit on my couch for this step. All you do is peel off the other side of the protective layer and position it in the middle of a block and press firmly. How easy is that?!? Best part is, if you don’t like the way it looks, you can peel off the piece and re stick it somewhere else. It isn’t permanent until you use a dry iron and slowly iron over each piece. I love this stuff!

Once, you have all of the snowflakes permanently adhered you are ready to quilt the top. You have two options here. The first is you can top stitch around each snowflake so a look similar to these trivets I made, or you could use a method called matchstick quilting. I chose the second option.

Matchstick quilting is when you stitch a whole bunch of lines, sometimes in various colors, super close together. It isn’t recommended for all quilts as it makes them a little stiff, but for projects like this, it’s perfect. All those close lines help keep all these thin snowflake pieces in place!! I used a few different color threads to achieve a bit more depth.

It’s not too noticeable, but I used white, light gray and light blue thread. I started out in the middle with light gray thread and used one of the seam lines as a guide. I stitched 1/4″ away all the way across. Then the next line was 1/2″, then the next was 3/4″, and then 1/2″ again and so on and so on. I did this from the middle out, on both sides. Staggering the distance between the lines. I wasn’t super careful either, so some lines were a bit wonky. Afterwards I threaded my machine with the light blue thread and filled in some of the spots between the light gray lines. Lastly I went through with white thread and just did a few lines here and there. Especially where the snowflake tips needed to be tacked down.

To finish the pillow off I used some quilted dark gray Kona for the back, and a 20″ invisible zipper sewn into the bottom.

This was a very rewarding project because I am absolutely in love with the finished piece. It was so easy to put together and the end result looks like it was difficult. Those are always the best!

Oh, and you want to know the best part? This project totally kick started my need to make holiday decor!!! I already have a few other pillows in the works, along with a tree skirt. A TREE SKIRT! I’m hoping the flame doesn’t sizzle, and I actually finish them before December. I guess if I don’t I’ll have things to share NEXT July…

I also found that these can be turned into super cute hexagon bowls. Like the one I showed in the Alison Glass Mini Quilt Swap Post. I’ll share the way I made them, and then link to another way where there is less piecing involved soon enough. I promise.

Today I share with you another tutorial as part of my Sizzix Design Team series using their 1.5″ Bigz Alphabet Die Set. This project also is the first in my new “Jessee’s Playlist” series, where I create a project using either lyrics or images pertaining to songs in my playlist. I thought it would be neat to combine my two greatest loves, creating and music!

This project could easily be modified to use the type of products you prefer, I just have my preferences. I’ll point out where things can be changed around throughout the tutorial.

The first thing I did was pick out my quote. I spent hours just listening to music until I found one that fit. It was really hard work! Haha.

I chose an excerpt from a Brand New song titled Seventy Times 7. This song has been in almost every playlist I have put together for the past 14 years. 14 YEARS! It probably helps that I’ve seen the band more than a dozen times AND my name is in the song.

“Ignore the sun, the cover’s over my head.
I wrote a message on my pillow that says, “Jesse, stay asleep in bed.”"

Isn’t that a perfect quote for a pillow? A pillow for my workroom?!? Of course it is.

Once I had my quote, I needed to figure out how many of each letter I needed to cut out. I started with A and tallied all the A’s up, and then on to B and then C and so on and so on.

I chose to make my letters out of Marine Grade Vinyl. The kind they use to upholster car’s and boat’s. I just happen to have a lot of hand, and I like how clean the edges are since the back is a woven polyester. Plus it just has the right “look” for the quote in my opinion.

You could also use any weight fabric with an attached fusible interfacing instead.

I cut my vinyl in to 2.5″ long strips and then cut the strips up in to 2.5″ squares. This gave me wiggle room when it came to cutting out the letters.

I noticed the letters on the dies were backwards, so I made sure to place the vinyl right side facing down on top of each letter. I was able to stack three vinyl pieces at a time, but I would test out your vinyl first to see what the limit would be.

I used my Sizzix Fabi, along with two cutting pads and the 1.5″ Bigz Alphabet Die Set to cut these. The recommended way to crank these through is cutting pad, then die facing up, your fabric/paper and then another cutting pad on top. Then just crank it through! FYI: It you feel a lot of resistance, then that means you have overloaded your die.

You can see above what they look like once they come out. For the skinnier letters like the “I’, I was able to reuse the leftover vinyl on the sides.

I also cut out a few extra I’s that I manually could cut up into punctuation marks. Once I had all the letters and punctuation I needed I set them all aside for later.

For the background I could have very easily just cut out a solid piece of fabric, but I like my projects to have texture. In the case of this piece, the texture also doubles as a guide.

The letters I cut out were 1.5″ tall, so I needed a line guide that was 2″ tall so everything wasn’t all squished together. To start this guide, I cut ten 2.5″ strips out of black chambray that measured 20″ long each. Using a 1/4″ seam I stitched them all together along the 20″ side.

All ten strips sewn together equaled a 20″ square with 8 lines that were 2″ apart. As you can see above, the lines are very subtle. I believe that has to do with the chambray itself, some other fabrics may not blend as well.

I wanted to make the guide just a little more useful, so I marked the center of each line with a dressmakers pencil. Then I set up the background piece near a small cutting mat I had.

My mat is 18″x24″, so it was perfect to use as a mock up for all the letters. I started from the 9″ line and went out on either side on each line to center them.

It took some time to get it right the way I liked it. I added the punctuation later (thought I’d suggest adding it during this step)

Now it’s time for the actually assembly! Using a little Elmers Washable School Glue on the back of each letter, start attaching the letters in place on the seam lines. I only suggest doing one line at a time.

Once the entire line is placed, take it over to your ironing board and iron the BACK of the fabric square. This sets the glue and helps keep everything in place. Do not iron the front, that will just be messy and wont secure anything.

After the fabric cools down, take the entire piece over to your sewing machine. Using a Teflon Foot or something similar start top stitching around each letter. This took me a few hours, but it was worth it in the end because the top stitching looks so great and adds a lot of texture!

Another option is to just sew straight lines through all of the letters making sure to secure the tops and bottoms. If you used quilting weight cotton you could just leave it all as is, and just quilt over it all before assembling the pillow.

I thought I had taken photos of the next steps, but I can’t find them! So you will need to use your imagination…

Once all my letters were top stitched and all the loose threads were cut, I quickly spray basted the top to some cotton batting and straight line quilted them together. I only stitched right above each line so I didn’t sew through any of the letters. I did end up sewing through a few commas though.

For the back of the pillow I cut a piece of fabric 22″x20″ and quickly basted and quilted it using wavy lines. I always do this because I feel like it makes my pillows softer and more comfortable in the end.

Then I cut the piece into two parts, one measuring 9″x20″ and the other measuring 13″x20″. I folded down one of the 20″ sides of each 1/2″ down, ironed it and then folded it down again and ironed again. I top stitched each of these folds in place. I them installed plastic snaps in 2″ increments down the folds on each side. This basically made a pocket pillow back with a snap closure. My favorite way to finish a pillow these days.

The pillow finished at 19.5″x19.5″, so when it was stuffed with a 20″ pillow form it looked nice and full!

I absolutely love the finished piece and I’m already starting to dream about this process using cotton with a much longer quote as the top of a quilt!!! The sizzix really does speed along these types of projects.

Supplies Used:

• Sizzix Fabi Die Cutting Machine
• Sizzix Bigz Alphabet Set 9 Dies – Block 1 1/2″ Capital Letters & Numbers
• 1/4 yard Marine Grade Vinyl in Off White
• 3/4 yard Andover Black Chambray
• Elmer’s Washable School Glue
• Off White thread
• Cotton Batting
• KAM Snaps
• 20″ Pillow Form

It’s mostly made out of scrap fabric, only uses one Sizzix die and it a attractive way to protect your table. You should go check it out!

Pin It]]> https://artschooldropout.net/blog/trivet-table-runner-combo-tutorial-for-sizzix/feed/ 0 https://artschooldropout.net/blog/desk-job-patchwork-pillow-tutorial-for-sizzix/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=desk-job-patchwork-pillow-tutorial-for-sizzix https://artschooldropout.net/blog/desk-job-patchwork-pillow-tutorial-for-sizzix/#comments Thu, 30 Apr 2015 14:15:09 +0000 jesseesuem http://artschooldropout.net/blog/?p=3747 Continue reading →]]> Today on the Sizzix Blog you can check out a patwork pillow I made using their Mini Tumbler die and Windham Fabrics collection Desk Job by Fierce Mally.

Check out their blog to see the finished design along with a full, step by step, photo tutorial.