I’ve recently accepted the fact that I’m not good at giving gifts. Well, if I have time to think and plan, I can actually come up with some pretty decent ideas. The problem is, I don’t make time. A few years ago for Christmas, I drew my whole family pictures of what I was planning to give them. Because, of course, I came up with the ideas too late to go buy them. For the last few years on special days, I’ve told my husband what I meant to get him. And then, as was the case last December, his gift (sunglasses) ended up getting to him in March. Or, was it May?

My husband, on the other hand, is really amazing at gift giving. When December gets close, he comes up with an online spreadsheet of names of people he wants to give gifts to. He thinks about it at random times throughout the week, fills in items, buys the gifts, and wraps them. All in time to actually give to people by Christmas day. Really, amazing.

Last Christmas, he got yours truly a sewing machine. It was perfect and I was so happy. For the last few years, there have been so many times when I’ve wanted to alter a shirt or sew together a quick project. It took me a while (as in, maybe 6 months) to actually use the sewing machine, but when I did, this is what I made. Pillow covers.

A few months after we moved into our house, we converted our garage into a utility room/office/man-cave. In it is a very uninviting wicker couch. Off to Ikea I went to pick up these inexpensive pillows  and I also had to buy some fabric.

Lucky for me, in the time I was thinking about how I would make the pillow covers, Maggie over at smashedpeasandcarrots wrote up a DIY pilllow covers tutorial. Perfect! I also had it in my head that I wanted huge ruffles going down a few of the pillows. After a quick google search, I landed on a ruffled pillow case post by Dixie DIY. I just had to alter the measurements to work with my much larger pillows.

I think they turned out pretty well for a first attempt, in a long while, at sewing! Finally people actually want to sit on this couch. That, I believe, counts as a win.