Arrowheart Love Notes Pillow

My son always wants me to sew him something. As anyone who sews for kids knows,  just like trying to buy cool boys’ clothes in a store, it is often an exercise in frustration. The selection in stores is usually downright sad compared with the real estate given over to all the delightful styles for girls. When it comes to sewing patterns, the choice isn’t much better, and to top it off, it’s just plain hard to sew the kinds of clothes they want to wear once they’re past the baby/toddler stage. So it’s often a challenge to find projects to make for The Boy (who is very, very big now, he’d be the first to tell you), because I’m sure not sewing him jeans! That is way out of my comfort zone. I fare much better with non-clothing items. In that spirit, I recently made him this Arrowheart hand-embroidered pillow. It has a wee pocket on the back to tuck in sweet little messages and other goodies:

Because, fortunately, although he is very, very big, The Boy is not too old to still want love notes from his mommy.

(I don’t know how R2D2 got in there. He’s wily, that one.)

The best part about this pillow is that it started life as a very well made linen shirt, which had become a bit stained and just generally wasn’t my style. It sat in my closet for years, until a recent purge unearthed it. It made its way to my to-be-repurposed sewing basket, and with a little creative cutting, it’s got new life. I think it’s more beautiful than ever.

If you feel like doing a little upcycling yourself, or you’ve got some other fabric that’s in dire need of decoration, download my free embroidery template and get to it.

I find that I’m ruthless these days about culling my closet. Anything made of quality fabric is in jeopardy of becoming source material. I’d much rather put that stuff to good use in a sewing project than let it languish in “what if” land in my closet. As in, “What if someday I do want to wear it?” Because more often than not, someday never comes.

How about you? Have to take the scissors to your closet yet? Once you start, it’s hard to stop!

Arrowheart Embroidery Design Download

Get Some Zakka Style | Come On, You Know You Want To

Just finished a new bag, and I’m so in love with it. It’s a Zakka-style linen patchwork shoulder bag with hand-embroidered detailing on the flap, inspired by a Zakka-style patchwork makeup pouch by Rashida Coleman-Hale. (My small zippered pouch somehow grew up to be a shoulder bag with rainbow embroidery on the flap, a magnetic snap closure, and a leather strap I’d sewed for another bag. Not sure how that happened.)

Have you visited her blog, I Heart Linen? It’s amazing. If you’ve never seen her work, check it out for some gorgeous, simple projects that usually, as you might have guessed, feature linen. If you’re not familiar with Zakka, it’s a Japanese style focused on beautiful, useful, simple handmade items created with natural materials. It’s thoroughly charming and I’m a bit obsessed. Zakka items somehow manage to be rustic and sophisticated all at the same time. I Heart Linen has some great examples of this style of sewing. Also, I’m completely in love with her new fabric line. It’s high up on my wish list.

Have you sewn with linen? Honestly, once I started, I found it hard to stop. I raided my closet for old linen shirts and dresses that I never wore anymore. Now every time I go into my closet, I’m likely to come out with something to deconstruct for another project. That linen seems wasted on rarely worn shirts, when it could become a bunch of adorable new Zakka coin purses!

So, what do you think of Zakka style?