Warm fall touches

HELLO! First up, thanks to those of you who emailed about my header missing. I noticed it Friday but thought it was just a glitch…but it’s still down. I’m checking in with the designer to see what needs to happen. I have a new design coming soon (finally!!) but it would be nice to have something up there till then. ;)

So a few weeks ago I was itching to bring some warmer colors into the family room. This time of year has me wanting to use more reds, browns and oranges – which I used to use EVERYWHERE but don’t anymore. In the warmer months I don’t mind our more neutral pallet but fall calls for some color!

I picked up these pretty napkins at World Market to make some pillows:

I’ve told you of my obsession with using table linens for pillows many times…the love runs deep my friends. So cheap and easy! But then I noticed I already had a piece of this pretty fabric in my stash:

It’s called Kalita Spice and I picked up some from Calico Corners over a year ago. I think it must have been a remnant because I had less than a yard – only enough to make one pillow. I fell in love with it all over again and knew I wanted to use this instead!

I checked in with CC but they didn’t have anymore so I ended up ordering a yard through Amazon (from Fabric.com) -- with our prime membership I avoided the shipping fee from Fabric.com. Whoot!

I dusted off the sewing machine and got to work. Here's the thing – I used to be so intimidated by my sewing machine but I PROMISE you it’s not that hard. I think the hardest part of using one is getting it set up with the thread and bobbin and all that jazz – after that all you do is plug it in and do your best to sew a straight line.

I measured the size I needed (my pillow inserts are 20 inches square but I make my pillows a little less than that) and started cutting – if you are going to do any sewing or working with fabric a decent pair of fabric scissors will save you a lot of frustration:

My cutting is never perfect, so after I lay the two pieces of fabric (face to face) together I do my best to get the edges to match up. Because my cut lines aren’t always perfect I use chalk and mark a line down the fabric:

It gives me a line to try to follow as I sew which I need. ;) And if your edges don’t match up this helps to ensure that you don’t end up with any holes in your seam as well.

A few minutes and four (somewhat) straight lines later and you have a pillow. Don’t close that last side up all the way though. You’ll need to be able to reach in and turn it right side out:

I use a marker – anything that’s skinny – to push my corners out. You’ll want to only sew up maybe half of that last side so you can get your insert in too. When you’re done stuffing it you’ll need to hand stitch it closed. My stitching never looks pretty but I promise you no one ever notices. As you know those who do get a cookie…and no cookies have ever been given:

The day that I found that fabric and decided to use it I went to HomeGoods hoping I’d find some other pillows that might work with it…and I did. That day. That never happens. I LOVE their pillows because most of them already have the feather inserts that I like to use.

The brick colored pillows go so beautifully with the new fabric – and the new pillows go together well with the blue/gray pillows I’ve had for a while:

I would never have put the blue and the brick pillows together but they all tie together nicely – I quite love it actually:

I’m still trying to figure out a color for that mirror behind the sofa – a few of you suggested an orange tone and I love that idea – I almost did it but now I’m thinking more of a brick color? And I just a couple months ago I wasn’t using reds in this room anymore. :)

I made another pillow for my “office” chair as well:

The comfiest office around, I’ll tell you what. :)

I know many of you have wanted to see more of the family room so I wanted to share this view:

The kitchen table is now behind the sectional – we were able to move that over because of all the space we now have in here.

The sectional now floats in the middle of the room:

The fireplace is to the left. This area really isn’t any bigger that it was before – we actually have less space between the sofa and the TV. It’s a long and skinny room but overall there’s SO MUCH more space now. We love it!

Now I just want to find one more of those brick colored pillows – not sure that will happen. ;) But I’m loving the warmer tones and this gets me excited to finally get some fall decor going!

Do you sew? If you're intimidated by it please don’t be! Each one of these pillows took me about 15 minutes to make and only three of those minutes were actually sewing. :)