I Need A Vacation!

I am so excited to share with you my first project as a Michael Miller Brand Ambassador! As an Ambassador, I have the honor of creating projects with their beautiful fabrics and sharing them here with you! Part of my role as an ambassador is also including a tutorial or link to a pattern so you can make some of these projects at home too! And I'm not the only one! You can follow along at the Michael Miller Making It Fun blog to see what all of the other brand ambassadors are up to as well.

For this first project, I chose the new fabric called "I Need a Vacation." I love the beach umbrellas and all of the sunbathers in these fun prints. I wanted to make some fun things for my boys to carry around with them this summer and to take with them on vacation. When my fabric arrived, I got to work and made some fun things to share with you!

The first project I made was a set of zipper pouches. My boys love to write and draw, so no road trip is complete without plenty of pencils and notebooks. Every time I clean out my car, I find tons of pencils, markers, and crayons on the floor, down in the seats, and in the pockets of the doors. Hopefully having these cut little popsicle zipper pouches will help them to keep their writing utensils organized and contained. Hopefully... And if you want to make one too, head on over to Homespun Magazine's Cosy Project blog for the pattern. I wrote it for their magazine in October 2017, but they also published it on their blog! You will need some fabric scraps, heavy weight fabric like linen (cotton would work too), a zipper, and some craft weight interfacing. I used HeatnBond Fusible Interfacing in the Craft Extra Firm weight. And for the fabrics, I used Michael Miller Hash Dot, a great line of blenders.

The second project I made was a set of drawstring pouches. I just kind of made them up as I went. If you have never made a drawstring pouch before, I recommend you start with Lori Holt's tutorial. It's how I learned the basics for making these. 

For these little bags, I knew I wanted them to be functional as well as cute. So, I lined them in fusible vinyl to make them water proof and easy to clean, making them perfect for sandy beach shoes or wet swimming trunks. I used HeatnBond Fusible Vinyl, and it was super easy to work with, and fun too!

My final project with this fun fabric was a pillow. What vacation would be complete without at least some rest and relaxation? And this pillow promotes both! Not only is it soft and fun, but it has a pillow on the front so you can slip in a book or a magazine to take with you for a lazy day at the beach! 

I tried something new with this pillow too. I made teeny tiny bias tape and appliqued "Life's A Beach" on the front. While more challenging than I thought, it was still a lot of fun. And isn't this tiny bias tape cute??

There are lots of tutorials out there. If you want to try this technique too, I recommend checking out this video by Fat Quarter Shop.

And that's a wrap on my first set of projects for Michael Miller fabrics! I hope you enjoyed them and are inspired to make your own!

Happy Sewing!