Cute Sewing Projects and Helpful Hints

I've had several sewing projects on the back burner, just waiting for summer to arrive. Yesterday, I made this fun flower pillow using a fabulous tutorial I found. It was so easy! I used less than $2.00 of material, and I was finished with it in under an hour. 

 It's a pillow slip cover, so if you have an old throw pillow hanging around that needs a new look, this would be great to make! 

The flower is made of felt petals and unfortunately, our Walmart only carries Christmas red and green felt. I went ahead and made the red flower even though it doesn't match a single thing in my house! I think I'll give this one away. The next time I'm in a big city with a fabric store, I'll pick up some other colors of felt to make some throw pillows for the girls' beds.  

Here's the link to the tutorial if anyone else wants to make one:

Petal Pillow Tutorial

Here's another fast and easy sewing project:

 I whipped out these cute camera strap covers on my sewing machine in less than an hour.  They're so fun and bright for summer! I like to switch up my camera straps every now and then for variety.  Because I'm a dedicated blogger, I'm never without my camera. Why not make it look cute!?!

They also make great gifts. Next week, I'm flying to Texas with my friend Dawn so we can visit our other friend Gina and see her new baby girl.  I made these two straps to take for Gina because she's a fabulous photographer, and green is her color!!!

Here's the camera strap tutorial I used over at Cluck, Cluck, Sew:

Camera strap cover tutorial

Also, I thought I'd share with you a few tips that have been making my life easier lately.  You are such smart readers that you're probably already doing these things, but I'm here to share them with you if you aren't. 

I love the new re-usable cups with lids that all the stores are carrying right now, but I did not love cleaning the straws out. Even in the dishwasher, they didn't seem to come clean.  So I bought a package of pipe cleaners from the craft department of Walmart. I put a little soap on the tip and run it through the straw. Voila'...clean as a whistle!

Also, I've been starting to use my iPhone to take pictures of recipes I'd like to try in magazines around the house. It's so much easier than writing them down! If you're at the dentist office and don't want to rip a page out of an old magazine, just snap a picture of it! Then the next time you're at the grocery store,  just look at the photo on your phone, and you can pick up all of the ingredients you need for the recipe.

Enjoy the day!

Nell