The best-looking thing in most rooms is the thing somebody made. These 55 sewing projects for the home cover the soft parts of a house, the curtains and the pillows and the napkins and the table runners, and almost all of them are straight seams and a little patience. There are five minute cloth napkins cut from a layer cake, a pillowcase that assembles itself in a burrito roll, a floor pouf pieced from sixteen faux suede wedges, thermal blackout shades built around a sheet of Insul-Bright, and a tablecloth that fits a table like a fitted sheet. Some want a free afternoon. Some want ten minutes and a scrap bin. Start with whatever fabric is already in the house.
1. French Mattress Style Cushion
A French mattress cushion is the tufted, piped, striped pad you see on window seats and porch benches, and it reads as expensive because of the piped edge rather than because of anything difficult inside it. This one is built for outdoor chairs, with a video walking the cut and the seam order and step photos to check yourself against. Get the measuring right before you cut, because a cushion that is half an inch wide on each side will bulge rather than sit flat, and a half inch short will slide around all summer.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
2. DIY Reversible Fabric Storage Bin
Half a yard of outer fabric, half a yard of lining and a yard of Pellon Decor-Bond 809, which is the piece doing the structural work. Cut two 18 by 24 inch rectangles from each, fuse the interfacing to the wrong side of both, and stitch the sides with a half inch seam. Boxed corners come from measuring four inches up from the folded tip and stitching across. Nest the lining inside the outer, stitch around the top leaving a four inch gap, pull it through and edgestitch it shut. Finished size is 8.5 by 9 by 7 inches.
Get the full tutorial at Haberdashery Fun.
3. DIY Ribbon Trimmed Roman Shades
The look is a custom trimmed roman shade and the method is a bought plain shade plus four rolls of two and a half inch black grosgrain, applied with iron-on adhesive tape and a wet cloth. No stitching at all. The corners are folded over to meet at ninety degrees and held with the same adhesive, and the ribbon gets pinched under at each wooden slat so the shade still folds. Twenty five dollars for the shade, six for the ribbon, one for the tape. Seven years on, the originals are still hanging and still look new.
Get the full tutorial at Life Love Larson.
4. $12 DIY Roman Shade Made From A Mini Blind
The cheapest custom roman shade there is, and there is no sewing in it. Buy a cordless mini blind cut to your window, lay your fabric out under the extended blind to measure, and glue the fabric to the slats with Fabri-Tac. Two large buttons go in during assembly and they do not need to match anything, since nobody sees them. Pull out the slats you do not want and the remaining ones become the fold lines. Twelve dollars, one afternoon, and it works on a door as readily as a window.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
5. Cozy Pillow Bed
A pillow bed is a long fabric sleeve with four or five standard pillows slotted into it, so it rolls up for storage and unrolls into a floor bed. It is a beginner project and an honest one: straight seams, no zippers, no shaping. Count the pillows first and cut the sleeve to match, because adding a slot afterward means unpicking the whole length. These get used for sleepovers, camping trips and reading corners, and they wash better than a beanbag because the cover comes off the pillows.
Get the full tutorial at Dabbles and Babbles.
6. DIY Denim Jean Organizer
An old pair of jeans, cut apart and mounted as a wall organizer, with the original back pockets left intact to hold scissors, brushes and pens. Denim is the right fabric for this because it is already stiff enough to hang flat without interfacing and already has the pockets built in, which is most of the sewing done for you before you start. It hangs in a craft room, a sewing corner or a home office, and it puts the tools you reach for at eye level instead of at the bottom of a drawer.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
7. DIY Shower Curtain
A big dot print shower curtain in colors no shop stocks, which is the only real reason to sew one rather than buy one. The construction is a flat rectangle plus a top hem strong enough to carry buttonholes or grommets, and the top hem is where people get caught out: a shower curtain hangs from twelve points and drags its own wet weight, so double the fabric there and interface it. Measure your existing liner and match its width exactly so the two hang together on the same rings.
Get the full tutorial at Beckham and Belle.
8. DIY Thermal Insulated Blackout Shades
The working layer here is Insul-Bright, the reflective batting used inside potholders, and the whole shade behaves like a giant potholder for your window: it bounces heat back toward whichever side it came from. Sew the decorative fabric and the blackout fabric together on three sides, flip it right side out, slide the Insul-Bright in and close the fourth side. Skip the decorative layer if you want it faster, or use an old blackout curtain instead of buying new yardage. Hand sewing works, it just takes longer.
Get the full tutorial at By Brittany Goldwyn.
9. DIY 5 Minute Woven Pillow
The woven look does not come from weaving anything, it comes from a clearance accent rug folded envelope-style around a pillow form. Fold one side about three quarters of the way across the form, overlap the other side the same way, and stitch the two short seams with an upholstery needle, which is the one piece of kit this needs since a normal needle will not go through rug backing. Leave about an inch of slack when you cut. Five minutes is honest, assuming the rug is already in the house.
Get the full tutorial at Bigger Than the Three of Us.
10. Easy Colorblock Throw Pillows
Kona cotton solids, cut into blocks that add up to the pillow dimensions plus seam allowance, seamed together and pressed before the front ever meets the back. Pressing between every seam is what separates a crisp colorblock from a lumpy one. Front to back goes together with a one inch seam and an eight inch gap left open, then the form goes in and the gap is closed by hand. A paper bag makes a usable pattern template for the diagonal cuts, and seven yards of solids ran forty two dollars.
Get the full tutorial at Plaster and Disaster.
11. Simple Fabric Heart Coasters Tutorial
Everything is cut at four and a half inches square: three main squares, one accent square for the heart and one square of low-loft cotton batting. Trace the heart on the top layer, stitch around it at a stitch length of one or two, cut out the center leaving a seam allowance, clip the curves and turn the fabric through so the accent shows in the window. Stack top, batting and backing, stitch a half inch seam leaving two inches open, turn and whip stitch it closed. Pure scrap busting.
Get the full tutorial at Thirty Handmade Days.
12. Easy No-Sew Felt Fruit Coasters
Felt sheets, scissors and glue, and a full set comes out in under an hour with no thread anywhere. Lemons, watermelon slices, citrus rounds and kiwis all build the same way, a colored circle with a rind ring around it and thin wedge lines laid on top. Felt is the right material because the cut edge does not fray, so there is nothing to finish. It is a good project to hand a beginner or a kid with supervised scissors, and the offcuts go straight into the next one.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
13. Easy Acorn Coasters
Cut a ten by ten inch backing and a ten by ten inch piece of quilt batting, plus a four by five inch scrap for the oak leaf and a small piece of brown wool felt for the stem. The acorn top and bottom can be strip pieced, cut as separate pieces, or quilted as you go, whichever your scrap bin supports. Fuse the leaf appliqué, quilt the front, stitch front to back leaving an inch and a half open, turn, blind stitch it closed and topstitch at an eighth of an inch.
Get the full tutorial at The Seasoned Homemaker.
14. DIY 5 Minute Cloth Napkin Tutorial
The shortcut is a layer cake, the bundle of pre-cut ten inch squares quilt shops sell, which removes all the cutting. Pair two coordinating squares, sew around all four sides at three eighths of an inch leaving two or three inches open, clip the corners and turn. Poke the corners out with a chopstick rather than scissors, press all four sides flat, then topstitch at a quarter inch all the way round, which closes the gap and finishes the edge in the same pass. Ten napkins in under an hour.
Get the full tutorial at Viva Veltoro.
15. Ruffle Shower Curtain Tutorial
Row after row of gathered ruffles running from cream at the top through greens to deep teal at the bottom, on a shower curtain that hangs the full drop of a clawfoot tub. The work is all in the gathering, since every row has to be pulled to the same finished width before it gets stitched down, and the ombre only reads if the color steps are even. Plan on far more fabric than the finished size suggests, because a gathered row eats roughly twice its own length.
Get the full tutorial at Elle Apparel Blog.
16. Fabric Basket
Six pieces: two exterior at twelve by seventeen inches, two lining at seventeen by seventeen, two bottom panels at seventeen by six. The body is quarter inch foam interfacing with lightweight fusible behind it, which is what gives a fabric basket walls that stand up on their own instead of slumping. Cut a three by three inch square out of both bottom corners to box it. Drop the lining in, fold the top edges under half an inch, stitch around, then turn the rim down about an inch and a half. The pattern is free.
Get the full tutorial at Polka Dot Chair.
17. Sew a Quilted Tablet Cover With Zippered Pocket
Three quarters of a yard of reversible quilted fabric, a yard of coordinating fabric for binding, a nine inch zipper, one button and a hair elastic. The main rectangle is cut an inch and a half wider than your tablet and twice its length plus four inches, so a five by eight inch reader wants six and a half by twenty. Round one end for the flap, bind the edges, build the zippered pocket separately and stitch it on, then fold at the pocket seam and close the sides at an eighth of an inch.
Get the full tutorial at So Sew Easy.
18. Flannel and Sherpa Blanket
Two yards of sherpa-backed flannel, fifty five inches wide, at about thirty five dollars a yard before a coupon. Trim the edges, turn one and a half inches up on all four sides, miter the corners and straight stitch it down. A straight stitch beats a zigzag here, both for looks and for speed. Finished size lands around fifty by sixty four inches. Sew first and wash after, use a walking foot if you own one, and wash it cold with vinegar rather than fabric softener so the sherpa stays soft.
Get the full tutorial at It's Always Autumn.
19. How To Make Reversible Placemats
Two yards of home decor weight fabric, one yard of each of two contrasting prints, yields eight reversible placemats. Cut thirteen and a half inch strips with the fabric folded lengthwise, then halve each strip widthwise at roughly seventeen inches. Pair the contrasting pieces right sides together, pin properly, and sew a five eighths inch seam all the way round leaving two inches open. Clip the corners, turn, press, and topstitch the whole perimeter, which closes the gap and holds the edge flat. Line dry rather than tumble.
Get the full tutorial at Growing Up Gabel.
20. Make your Own Dinner Napkins for Cheap
Linen, cut at seventeen by twenty one inches, finished at sixteen by twenty. The hem is a double fold: press half an inch under, fold it again, then stitch a quarter inch in from the inner edge on all four sides. That is the entire project, straight lines only, and about eight napkins come out of a yard. Linen is the reason to bother, because it gets softer every wash in a way that polyester blends never do, and a mistake in the hem genuinely does read as character rather than error.
Get the full tutorial at Over the Big Moon.
21. Reusable Snack Bags
Six by six and a half inches finished, which holds a bit over a cup, and a fat quarter yields two or three depending on how the print runs. The liner is rip-stop nylon, chosen deliberately over vinyl-coated fabric and oilcloth because it resists moisture and grease without the coating questions, and it goes in the machine. Fully lined with no raw edges anywhere inside. Most of the time they do not even need washing, just turn them inside out and shake the crumbs into the sink.
Get the full tutorial at Yesterfood.
22. Hanging Dishtowels
A fabric topper sewn onto a cut dish towel, with a loop at the top and a tab that buttons closed around an oven handle or a drawer pull. One standard dish towel makes two hanging ones, which is the economy of it. The printable pattern does the shaping. Snaps or a strip of hook and loop work as well as a button and are easier for anyone who fights with buttonholes, and gathering the towel instead of pleating it is a legitimate shortcut with a softer result.
Get the full tutorial at AllFreeSewing.
23. Stay-Put Kitchen Towel
Three fabric strips and two yards of ribbon turn a plain kitchen towel into one that ties onto an oven handle and stays there. Fold the short raw edges of each strip under a quarter inch. The upper two strips get stitched only along their top and bottom edges so they form tubes; the bottom decorative strip is stitched on all four sides. Thread the ribbon through the tubes with a safety pin, gather the towel to the width of your handle, and stitch the ribbon ends to lock the gather.
Get the full tutorial at Pin Sew Press.
24. Easy to Make Back Tab Curtains
Natural linen, hung high, with twill tape tabs sewn to the back so the rod disappears and the panel hangs in soft folds off the wall. Measure from the ceiling to the floor with a little puddle allowed, then add six inches at the top so there is fabric standing above the tabs. Twill tape is used for the tabs regardless of what the curtain itself is made from, and the tabs want to be generous enough that the panel slides easily rather than binding on the rod.
Get the full tutorial at Lia Griffith.
25. Make Your Own Macrame Curtain
A macrame panel hung from a wooden dowel in a doorway, worked in natural cotton cord in a diamond lattice that opens out into a long loose fringe at the bottom. There is no sewing machine in this one at all. Cut every cord far longer than the finished drop, because knotting consumes length fast and a panel that runs short cannot be fixed. Mount the dowel first and knot in place if you can, since a half finished macrame panel is surprisingly heavy and awkward to move.
Get the full tutorial at A Beautiful Mess.
26. DIY Bay Window Curtain Rod & Back Tab Curtains
Bay window hardware is the expensive part, so the rod here is electrical conduit cut to fit each section and joined at the angles with flexible plastic tubing pushed inside, which stops the curtains falling through the joints. Fifteen yards of chevron fabric made the panels, and forty back tabs were cut as four inch strips, folded, sewn and attached at the top and bottom of each panel, eight tabs to a panel. The whole installation, rod and curtains together, came in just under a hundred dollars.
Get the full tutorial at Wildfire Interiors.
27. Quilted Floor Cushion Tutorial
Front, back and a gusset strip, which is the piece that gives these their squared-off box shape instead of a pillow’s pinched edge. Finished size is roughly seventeen by seventeen by three and a half inches and the pattern scales. Quilt the front and back before assembly, sew the gusset in, stuff with fiberfill, then tuft with a mattress needle and four strands of polyester thread, placing the tufts about an inch apart and an inch to an inch and a half in from the edges. Close the last seam with an invisible stitch.
Get the full tutorial at Doble Ufa.
28. How to Make a Chair Cushion
A boxed seat cushion for a metal deck chair, the kind with a foam core and a welted edge that sits flat rather than rolling at the front. This is the project that makes cast-off patio furniture usable again, and it is worth cutting a paper template of the seat first, including the notches around the back uprights, because tracing a chair seat directly onto fabric never accounts for the curve at the front lip. Outdoor foam and outdoor fabric, or it will hold water all season.
Get the full tutorial at Miss Mustard Seed.
29. Ottoman Slipcover
Two and a half yards of decorator weight fabric at fifty four to fifty six inches wide, two yards of a patterned accent at forty four to forty five, and six and a half yards of quarter inch cord for the piping. The sample ottoman is thirty and a half by twenty five by sixteen inches. Piping strips are cut at one and three quarter inches. Four corner panels at thirteen by eleven and a half inches form the pleats. It pulls on over a double turn hem with no zipper or fasteners at all. Intermediate, and it needs a piping foot.
Get the full tutorial at Sew4Home.
30. DIY Floor Cushion
Built around a twenty seven inch floor pillow insert, with twenty eight inch fabric squares cut from two yards of snuggle flannel, or three yards if you want to quilt it first. A twenty to twenty two inch invisible zipper makes the cover washable, which matters more than anything else on something that lives on a floor. The leather carry handle is cut at one and an eighth inches by seven and secured with an x-box stitch. Half inch seams. Prewash the flannel, because cotton flannel shrinks.
Get the full tutorial at Swoodson Says.
31. Re-Purposed Sweater Pillows
Thrifted cable knit sweaters cut down into pillow covers, which is the single best use for a wool sweater that has shrunk or lost its shape. Cut with the ribbing running where you want it, usually along one edge as a built in finished border, and zigzag or serge every cut edge immediately because knit unravels the moment it is cut. Felt the sweater first by washing it hot and drying it hot, and it stops unravelling altogether and gains a dense, expensive looking surface.
Get the full tutorial at The Keeper of the Home.
32. DIY Vintage Style Pillow Cases
A yard of calico or cotton blend per pillowcase, plus about forty two inches of lace or ball fringe for the trim. Use an existing pillowcase as the template, allowing half an inch at the sides and an extra five inches at one end for the hem. Press half an inch under at the open edge, fold over four and a half inches, and stitch close to the bottom edge, which is what makes the wide vintage cuff. Pin the trim to that finished edge and sew it slowly. Choose soft fabric; anything textured is uncomfortable to sleep on.
Get the full tutorial at Town and Country Living.
33. How to Make a Pillowcase Burrito Style
Three cuts: body at twenty seven by forty inches, cuff at nine by forty, trim at two by forty. Pin the folded trim to the cuff edge, lay the body on top, then roll the body up from the bottom and wrap the cuff around the roll like a burrito before stitching. That one move encloses the cuff seam completely and is the reason this method exists. The remaining sides get French seams, sewn wrong sides together at a quarter inch, then right sides together at a half. Finished at thirty by nineteen inches.
Get the full tutorial at The Seasoned Homemaker.
34. How To Make An Envelope Pillow
The envelope back is the beginner’s pillow closure: two overlapping panels instead of a zipper, so there is no hardware, no zipper foot and nothing to break. The cover still comes off to wash, which is the only thing a closure has to do. Overlap the two back panels by at least four inches, hem both overlapping edges before assembly, and make the cover an inch smaller than the insert in both directions so the finished pillow looks plump rather than half empty.
Get the full tutorial at Newton Custom Interiors.
35. Travel Pillow
Finished at eighteen by twelve inches, which is a size you can also buy ready made if you would rather only sew the case. For the pillow, cut two nineteen by thirteen inch rectangles from a little under half a yard of forty five inch fabric, sew three sides with a half inch seam, clip the corners, press half an inch under on the open edge, turn, and stuff with about six ounces of polyester filling before edge stitching it closed. The case takes another half yard, cut thirteen and a half inches wide.
Get the full tutorial at Yesterfood.
36. Log Slice Pouf Tutorial for Birch Fabrics
A toddler sized round pouf printed to look like a cut log, with the tree ring detail either hand stitched or appliquéd on. Fusible fleece plus fabric scrap filling gives it structure without buying a form, and using scraps as stuffing is the kind of thing that empties a bin. Skip the fleece and the scrap filling and the same pattern makes a throw pillow instead. The hand stitching is simple enough for a beginner, and the free pattern lives on the fabric company’s site rather than the blog.
Get the full tutorial at Swoodson Says.
37. Round Floor Pouf
An upholstery grade pouf rather than a soft one: a form fitting cover over a high density foam core, cut circular from a twenty four by twenty four by four inch block and wrapped in a layer of high loft polyester batting. One and a half yards of fifty eight inch faux suede in décor weight covers it. Each face is pieced from sixteen shapes, eight diamonds and eight arcs, radiating into a star. Finished at about twenty four inches across by four deep, with covered buttons tufting the center. Watch the nap direction on every piece.
Get the full tutorial at Sew4Home.
38. How to Sew a Pillow Cover with Invisible Zipper
For an eighteen inch form, cut two squares at eighteen and a half inches and buy a twenty to twenty two inch invisible zipper, longer than the pillow on purpose. An invisible zipper foot is required, not optional, because the whole effect depends on stitching right up against the teeth in their groove. Pin the zipper with raw edges flush, stitch both sides, unzip it about three quarters of the way before trimming the excess, then close the remaining three sides at three eighths of an inch. Add half an inch to an inch for down filled forms.
Get the full tutorial at Polka Dot Chair.
39. DIY Gold Arrow Pillows
Plain white pillow covers with long gold arrows running corner to corner, done as a surface treatment rather than as piecing, so the sewing is only the cover itself. Gold on white is forgiving, and arrows are forgiving too, since a slightly wobbly shaft reads as hand drawn rather than wrong. Whatever medium you use, heat set it before the cover goes anywhere near a sofa. Two of these mixed with a patterned pillow and a solid is a complete sofa arrangement for the price of a yard of cotton.
Get the full tutorial at Simply Designing.
40. Bandana Pillows
Two bandanas, a couple of seams, and a pillow. That is the entire project, and it is the reason these turn up on porch swings and sofas all over the country. Bandanas come pre hemmed on all four sides at a standard size, so there is no cutting, no measuring and no edge finishing. Sew three sides, slide the form in, close the fourth. They cost next to nothing, they wash forever, and paisley in navy or red is one of the few prints that reads as country without reading as dated.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
41. How to Sew a Pillow with a Zipper
The basted seam method, which is easier than it sounds and needs no special foot. Cut the front and back an inch wider and longer than the finished pillow, pick a zipper about two inches shorter than the pillow width, and sew the bottom edge closed with a half inch seam before pressing it flat. Lay the zipper face down with its teeth centered over that seam, stitch both sides with a zipper foot, then unpick the basting between the two lines of stitching to open it up. Three sides to close and you are done.
Get the full tutorial at The Chronicles of Home.
42. Hammock Chair DIY
A hanging chair made from a fabric sling spread on a wooden dowel and suspended on rope from a single ceiling point. The hardware is the part to take seriously: this needs a swing hanger or an eye bolt driven into an actual joist, not a drywall anchor, and the rope and the seams both have to carry a person’s full weight plus the swing. Use heavy canvas or duck rather than quilting cotton, and stitch the sling’s casings double, because every seam here is structural.
Get the full tutorial at A Beautiful Mess.
43. Basic Pillow And Pillow Sham
The two things worth learning first, because everything else on this page is a variation on them. A basic pillow is the insert itself, cut, sewn on three sides, stuffed and closed. A sham is the cover with the flat flange border around it, the one that makes a bed look made rather than merely occupied. Get these two right and envelope backs, zippers, colorblocks and poufs are all just different ways of closing the same rectangle. Step by step photos and a video cover both.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
44. Fabric Bins
Three nested bins in woodland prints that stack inside one another when they are not holding anything, which is the reason to make a set of three rather than three of the same size. The free pattern lives on the fabric company’s site; the page here is the announcement that points to it. Use interfacing rated for bags rather than garment interfacing, and cut the largest bin first so that any fabric you misjudge gets used on the smaller ones instead of ruining the big one.
Get the full tutorial at Love to Stitch and Sew.
45. DIY Cornered Tablecloth Tutorial
A fitted tablecloth that grips the table like a fitted sheet, which is the only kind that survives a room full of children. Measure the tabletop and add twenty inches to both the length and the width, which leaves ten inches of drop all round. Pin a triangular wing at each corner, stitch it and trim to about half an inch. Flip it right side out, fit it, then set the hem about seven inches above the table surface so nobody’s legs catch it. About an hour by machine, two by hand.
Get the full tutorial at Happy Strong Home.
46. Jeans Pocket Placemats
Old jeans cut into placemats with the back pocket left intact, so the pocket holds the silverware at each setting. It is the rare upcycle where the original garment’s feature becomes the new object’s function rather than just its decoration. Denim is heavy enough to lie flat without interfacing and tough enough to wash hot forever. Cut so the pocket sits at the right hand side for a right handed table, and the topstitching already on the jeans does most of the decorative work for free.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
47. Easy DIY Table Runner Tutorial
Width should be about a third of the table’s width, so twelve inches on a standard thirty six inch table. Length is a decision rather than a rule: twelve to twenty four inches shorter than the table if you do not want it to drape, or twelve to twenty four longer if you do. Cut the main fabric wider than the backing so it wraps around to form the finished edges. Sew the long sides at a half inch, turn, press with the main fabric wrapping to the back, topstitch, then fold and close the short ends.
Get the full tutorial at Sew Much Ado.
48. Easy DIY Bandana Table Cloth
Fifteen bandanas, three across and five down, sewn together with quarter inch seams and nothing else. At around seventy six cents each in a bulk pack, that is a full tablecloth for about twelve dollars and under thirty minutes of sewing. Prewash and iron every bandana first, because they shrink and they bleed. A quarter inch seam foot earns its keep here since the seams all have to line up across three columns, and pinning each intersection properly is the difference between a grid and a mess.
Get the full tutorial at The Gracious Wife.
49. Mesh Laundry Bag
A zippered mesh bag that keeps delicates from being eaten by an agitator, and doubles as packing organization in a suitcase. It is a small, fast project and a genuinely useful one. Mesh is slippery to sew, so pin generously and go slowly, and bind the edges rather than trying to hem mesh, which will not press. A nylon zipper rather than a metal one means nothing snags the fabric inside and nothing rusts after a few hundred wash cycles.
Get the full tutorial at So Sew Easy.
50. DIY Slip Covered Ottoman
Measure all four sides of the ottoman, add half an inch of seam allowance per side plus two inches to tuck underneath, and cut the top panel an inch larger in both directions. Sew the four side panels together, matching the pattern at the seams if you are working with a stripe or a chevron, then attach the top. The bottom edge is folded and finished with the soft half of a hook and loop strip, with the hooked half hot glued to the ottoman base. It comes off and goes in the wash.
Get the full tutorial at Hey There Home.
51. DIY Citrus Print Tea Towel
Plain white tea towels stamped with cut fruit dipped in fabric paint, which is as close as printing gets to no equipment at all. Halved lemons, limes and oranges all give a different print: a full half stamps a whole round with the segments showing, a wedge gives a smaller crescent, and the flesh has to be blotted dry before it takes paint cleanly. Stamp one color for a modern minimal look or mix halves and wedges in several colors for a busier pattern. Heat set before the first wash.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
52. DIY Washable Reusable Bowl Covers
About half a yard per cover in a sturdy cotton or canvas, with iron-on vinyl applied to the side that will show, and one inch elastic to hold it on. Trace around the rim of the bowl and add two inches in every direction. Cut two contrasting circles so it is reversible. There are two builds: elastic sewn into a channel between the layers for the fully reversible version, or zigzagged around the edge with loosened tension for the easier one. Hand wash only, because heat will ruin the vinyl.
Get the full tutorial at The Gracious Wife.
53. Reversible Kitchenaid Mixer Cover
A quilted cover that slips over a stand mixer and flips to a second print when the first stops pleasing anyone, which is a smart answer to giving a handmade cover as a gift. The quilting here follows the birch trees printed in the fabric rather than a regular grid, which gives it an organic, asymmetrical line. The binding is handmade bias tape rather than packaged, made with a bias tape maker, and it comes out noticeably softer than the bought kind. Measure your own mixer; the models differ in height.
Get the full tutorial at Swoodson Says.
54. Hot Pan or Skillet Handle Cover
Three pieces, each five and a half by seven inches: outer fabric, lining, and an insulating layer which can be fleece, batting, a towel scrap or Insul-Bright. Stack the insulation, the outer face up and the lining face down, sew across one short end, fold the lining back and stitch again halfway into the seam allowance. Fold the whole thing lengthwise right sides together, stitch at half an inch leaving two inches open in the lining, turn and close. Ten minutes, and it is a genuine scrap buster.
Get the full tutorial at So Sew Easy.
55. Vintage Bandana Bowl Covers
Set an upturned bowl in the middle of a bandana, measure an inch and a half to two inches out from its rim, mark a dashed circle and cut. Many bandana prints carry a circular medallion in the center, which makes centering the bowl almost automatic. Press the circle, overedge stitch the raw edge so it cannot fray, then pin quarter inch knit elastic about three quarters of an inch in from the edge on the wrong side and zigzag it down while pulling it taut. That tension is what makes it gather.
Get the full tutorial at Sadie Seasongoods.
