I was out in the yard clipping back some overgrown hedges last weekend and some of the shrubs that required trimming were my lavender varieties. Then I remembered that I forgot to share this sweet and simple sewing project that I made last year for Souvenir Magazine.

Lavender is my favorite botanical scent, and I’m lucky to have a few dozen plants that thrive and produce dried lavender every year, but you can also find dried lavender buds online -  check Etsy! I gave a few of these to my sister in law, and I use them in my dresser drawers. The scent of lavender is therapeutic and these are easy enough to make as a gift for moms, sisters, friends, and teachers too.

Supplies you’ll need to make them: 5-6 oz. dried lavender, 3 cups rice; simple cotton or linen cloth (4 layers cut into 6″ x 6″ squares for each); pale purple and green embroidery thread, embroidery needle, small embroidery hoop, sewing machine.

Mix the dried lavender with a few cups of rice. You can also add a few drops of lavender essential oil to intensify the scent.

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My children have the day off from public school today (Happy Martin Luther King, Jr day!) and one of their favorite things to do is to make forts – what kid doesn’t?

Knowing how much they love them, I made them a play tent in our dining room in the shape of a white tablecloth, complete with delightfully sweet curtained windows and a door for access too.

Who says dining rooms are just for eating?  Not so at our house!

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Hello everyone and happy Monday!  Hope you all had a great weekend!  I ventured out into the stores on Saturday and it was complete madness so I quickly retreated back home to pull out some Christmas decor and also continue working on my daughter’s room which is a slow makeover in progress.

In this space, we’re taking it one wall at a time.  This past weekend I stitched up some simple ring top window panels for her and also reupholstered the windows seat bench.

The geometric fabrics on the window panels and on the reupholstered bench I designed.  I colorized them with her chosen shade of lavender and printed them at Spoonflower.  The cool brushstrokes pattern in lavender and green is a Waverly print I used to make into an accent pillow.

The scene is more colorful in person – the afternoon light doesn’t show the colors like in the image above, but they all play so well together.

Sewing ring top panels is pretty simple.  If you can sew a straight line you can make these!

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A few months ago I imagined for the window seat project a piped cushion cover with a zipper enclosure.  When I finally took the time to tackle this project, I realized I just didn’t have the desire (or maybe the energy?) to make something fancy when something simpler would do just fine.

The only thing I really cared about for this window seat cushion was 1) straight clean seams in the front and 2) a cover that could be removed for washing since this study is a kid space.  I settled on a simple knife edge box cushion cover, one without any piping or even a zipper.   This one’s stitched in just a few obvious places, and kept together with velcro in the back!

Since I wasn’t doing piping and just a straight edge in the front, I was able to save money by not having to buy extra fabric for the piping (welt cord requires extra fabric cut on the bias so it curves around corners easily).

Instead I bought 3 ½ yards of green outdoor canvas fabric for $9 a yard to cover the length of the window seat and a piece of 24” x 2” foam as long as my window seat to fill the cover.  And a package of velcro strip.

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