The holidays are all about traditions, so here's a fun idea for a new one to start this year. Whip up a special pair of Christmas pillowcases for each of the kids on Santa's list at your house. This project is super fast and easy, and it uses just 1½ yards of main fabric and ½ yard of contrasting trim fabric. It will be a special day each year when the holiday pillowcases make their appearance on all the beds in the house. Your kids will also love helping to pick out their own special fabrics.

The beautiful, billowy bed curtains we associate with elegance and style, actually have a rather ordinary and functional history. In those drafty old European castles of old, the lord and his family slept in the great hall along with all their servants, because this hall was one of the few areas of the castle where the fires were kept stoked for warmth and light. The noble family's sleeping area was separated from the rest of the riffraff by curtains. Originally, the curtains were hung from the ceiling, but as the bed evolved, a frame was added to support a canopy from which the curtains hung.

Well ... there's nobility involved in that story, which qualifies as 'princessy', which makes them perfect for our teen room makeover. They also add a strong vertical element to counteract the many horizontal surfaces in the room.

Do you have family and friends staying at your home for the holidays? Yes! Do you have time and money to make all new holiday bed linens for your guest room? No! Then just change up the pillowcases. It's a super fast, easy and inexpensive way to add a little holiday cheer. Our instructions show you how to make two standard size pillowcases (for standard 20" x 26" pillows) using just 1½ yards of main fabric and ½ yard of contrasting trim fabric.

Pillow shams are a pretty way to keep things tidy up top. Bigger than a toss pillow, they not only contain a regular size bed pillow inside, they're large enough to cover up other pillows in regular pillowcases underneath. Our four-patch shams mirror the design of the Pretty Prints Please Butterfly Duvet. But of course, you can create your own design to match your room, someone's favorite colors, or even to celebrate a favorite hobby or animal or school: patchwork ponies or volleyballs or team mascots.

The biggest item in most bedrooms in the bed, therefore, it ranks as star-of-the-show in our teen room makeover. Plus, as anyone who knows a teen understands (or anyone who remembers being a teen); many, many hours are spent in said bed. In fact, I think most of the day would be spent there given Mom's permission and a nearby bag of Doritos® for sustenance. Our patchwork duvet is made from a dozen different fabric cuts, but they're cleverly sized into just three simple panels.

Once upon a time there was a beautiful baby with golden curls. Admirers came from far and wide with gifts of soft, cozy blankets; each visitor trying to out-do the one who came before. The beautiful baby smiled and laughed and shook her golden curls. She loved all the blankets, declaring each one to be, "Just Right!" We offer you the Goldilocks of receiving blanket options: Easy Baby Bear Decorative Stitch Blanket, Harder Mama Bear Ric Rac Blanket, and Hardest Papa Bear Bound Edge Blanket.

Having a small bed in the nursery is a luxury during the months when your baby doesn't sleep through the night. For our Stylish Baby Nursery, the Sunny Horizons duvet uses bold stripes of several Andalucia fabrics to make a colorful covering with simple ties finishing off the bottom. When you collapse on it in exhaustion, you'll feel so much better knowing it's such a beautiful match to all the other items in the nursery.

If you want to ease into trying your hand at quilting, this project is for you. It introduces the technique of joining together small strips to create a single large piece. We originally designed this tutorial as a little crib quilt, but decided we liked it better as a dresser cloth for our changing table. So, we omitted the batting and quilting through all the layers. So, the purists out there are hurling quilt pins at me, because without out those things it's not really quilting. I know, I know ... it'll be our little secret.

With most sewing projects, you spend a lot of time hiding seams and finishing all the raw edges. Well toss that worry out the window for this one! A rag quilt is sewn together so the seams show on the outside. After washing and drying, the seams gently fray or "rag," producing a very soft and cuddly feel. If you can sew a straight line, you can make this quilt. And, you can easily put it together in a single day.

A dust ruffle catches the eye and brings top-to-bottom cohesion to your nursery décor. It's as functional as it is decorative - especially when it hangs all the way to the floor. It does really help keep dust from beneath the crib, but it also allows for secret storage space. My daughter's crib came with a rolling storage trundle, and the dust ruffle keeps it stylishly hidden from view. Dust ruffles look especially cute with a softly gathered edge.

A new duvet is a single-project solution that can create a big change in your bedroom decor. One side of our duvet is a solid color, which complements the pretty print on the other side. With a quick flip of the bedding, you have two completely different looks. Find out how easy it is to sew your own duvet cover, then head to the fabric store to play with some complementary colors and prints. I found my fabric while shopping in the Garment District in New York City. The fabric isn't traditional home dec fabric - it has a slight stretch as well as a sateen finish. I thought it looked quite luxurious for bedding, and it's wonderfully soft. The lesson learned from that trip is this: Don't limit your shopping to the home decor section - sometimes the greatest ideas strike you while browsing in the 'wrong' place!

Some simple lines of fanciful decorative stitching alternating with thin satin ribbon is an easy way to embellish a purchased sheet set. We added an extra elegant detail by scalloping all the edges.

Add rows and rows of fun decorative stitching and bright novelty ribbon to store-bought sheets and you have custom bed linens that are simple yet sassy. We chose a nautical theme in bright blues and greens – a perfect contrast to the pale yellow of the sheets. Why count sheep when your little sailor can nod off counting tiny sail boats?!

Our guest bedroom comforter looked great – until my sloppy cousin, Alfred stayed over and left a felt pen sitting on it with the cap off. A giant black ink blot on a white comforter was a problem. But I discovered an easy way to make a designer-look duvet cover using a couple of sheets from a discount store.

Take an off-the-shelf sheet set, stitch a series of vertical buttonholes along the top of the sheet and the open edge of the pillowcase(s), then weave designer ribbon through the buttonholes. Easy yet elegant.

A set of beautiful pillowcases is one of life's little luxuries, but they can be so expensive to buy and often the colors available are just not quite right for your decor. So – make your own designer cases!