house planning

Spreading out on the floor is the only way to get anything done.

daybed pillow covers

MATERIALS 
Makes three 26x28" Pillow Covers - Twin Flat Vintage Sheet

PATTERN NOTES  
Measure Pillow (26x28") and add 1" for seam allowance for Front Piece (27x29"), cut 3. 

Envelope Back: 2/3 pillow height (28 x .666 = 18.5") for Back Pieces (27x18.5"), cut 6.

• Use hem of sheet for backs, so no seam allowance is needed on 18.5"
• I had to use scrap pieces to make one back, and added seam allowance to it.

STITCHING NOTES  
If needed, stitch scraps together to make additional back piece, press seam flat.  Use roll-hem foot to quickly hem one 27" edge.  

Place one Front Piece RSU*, and outer Back Piece RSD* on top, aligning top 27" edge and sides. This back piece will show, so pick the nicest finished edge.  My sheet had a large white hem at top, so I used that to give the pillow a polished finish. 

Place second Back Piece (this one will be underneath) on top RSD*, aligning bottom 27" edge and sides.  (Use the pieced together Back Piece for this side).

• Pin all around pillow, especially through all layers at sides.
• Stitch around pillow, pivoting at corners and using a 1/2" seam allowance.
• Clip corners and turn pillow cover right side out through envelope back.
• Press if needed and insert pillows inside! 

*Glossary:  RSU = right side up, RSD = right side down, RDT = right sides together

petal pillow {fabric-by-fabric one-yard wonders}

Materials:

• 1 yd 54" Corduroy or 45" Essex Linen
• Pillow Stuffing and Buttons 

 Pattern Notes: 

• Cut two 4.5" strips from folded 54" edge to make four Side Pieces (4.5"x23").
• Fit two Top/Bottom Pieces in remaining folded fabric, makes four.  
• Cut 3" strips from remaining fabric and alternate Petal Pattern to cut as many as possible.

 Stitching Notes:

• After stitching petals to pillow + checking fullness, topstitch petal bases in place to hold petals flat.
• Stitch one end of Side Piece making one long piece. 
• Stitch to Top Piece (fold petals back), fold edge of Side Piece at beginning and overlap end.
• Stitch Bottom Piece to Side Piece, fold edge of Side Piece at beginning and overlap end.

• Stuff Pillow through folded opening in Side Piece and hand-stitch shut.

the eco dream-house

Biking back from the Farmer's Market Saturday mornings always brings random SF adventures. Today we passed by this house that we've biked by before and admired the quirky, eco architeture of, and it had an open house sign outside. So we stopped and said hi to the realitor in the doorway, who was nice enough to let us inside to check out the place. He even watched our bikes for us.

Among a million clever and sustainable design details was this amazing mural in the master suite (the lamps are for reading in bed). The roofdeck had living plant walls and there was a windmill in the yard that produces power for the house (there is second larger unit in the building that the owner lives in). The banister for the stairs was filled with circles cut from different sizes of metal pipes, and the entire upstairs was a kitchen-dining-living area, that screamed "host chic cocktail-dinner parties in me!" The shower in the master suite was covered in round pebbles so it felt like you were bathing in a mountain stream. There were bamboo plants outside the clouded first floor windows, providing privacy from the street and the coolest shadows on the glass from the inside (you could watch the bamboo stalks sway in the breeze). Check out more pictures at 1303 Alabama.