Projects. Pictures. Photography. Piles (not the laundry kind - the junk on the side of the road kind). People (most of the time...although there are some people I could do without). Pasta. Pearl earrings. Pepperoni. Paints (the more the merrier). Pens (Can you ever have enough?). Pillows!
Pillows
My husband is completely at a loss for why our bed needs so many pillows. I love pillows. My couch is covered in pillows every chair has at least 2. Even my kids beds are lush with pillows of all shapes and sizes. I think they create a comfy nest that calls to you to come in and relax. Who wouldn't want that?
Perhaps my husband!
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| For the record I don't think this seems like crazy pillow town. It seems pretty "just right".  |
In support of my pillow fetish I decided I'd whip up an Envelope Pillow Cover
for an accent cushion to go in my future re-do of my office.
I think it turned out pretty cute.
I started off with a great Amy Butler fabric
and a 20"x 20" down pillow insert that
I picked up at Ikea for about 7 bucks.
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| How gorgeous is this fabric? Oh, I love it so much! Love Love Love! |
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| I ordered this fabric from Fabric.com and they are awesome - I highly recommend them. A++ customer service! |
Here's how I did it!
First measure and cut your pre-washed fabric. I would encourage you to iron out any bumps prior to cutting and to remember the measure twice, cut once rule is a good idea to follow too. You'll want the top piece (the front of the pillow) to be 21"x 21" and you'll want the bottom piece (the one that will open up on the backside) to be 24"x 21". That extra 3" is to allow the sides to overlap around your insert. Take the larger piece and cut it down the middle at 12". Lay your pieces face to face double checking that everything lines up and overlaps as planned.
Next you'll want to press down and hem the two edges that will overlap to create the opening of the envelope (those are the pieces you cut at 12"). You can see in the photo above I already pressed and hemmed one side.
Along the way I got to thinking that this pillow cover may be even cuter if I added a grosgrain ribbon ruffle. So I chose my ribbon. I chose Pink to pick up the pink in the fabric -plus I had it my stash.
Then I ran it through the sewing machine on the longest stitch available.
Once you've done that pick out and hold onto your bobbin thread and then carefully start to cinch it together to make it ruffle.
For this project I used the neutral thread that will look good with the fabric as my top stitch, but I'm using black for my bobbin thread so that it will be easier for you to see.
Its my experience that doing several shorter pieces results in a better finished product than trying to do the entire length required for the whole pillow at once. Using a couple of shorter segments strains the thread less and it just looks better. You might try to do 2 lengths or 4 lengths one for each side of the pillow.
Once your ruffle is all done you can start pinning it in place on the solid piece of fabric (the front). I am not a great seamstress so I like to pin the trim down and run a quick stitch around the whole ribbon detail. Its so frustrating when you pin it and then stitch and there is a gap where something slipped. I just hate that. Stitching it in place is a step I need, but you may be fine without it.
Below is the front panel with the ribbon trim stitched in place. Just a little peak to see how its looking! I'm an instant gratification kind of girl - I can't not look. So far so good. I'm loving it.
The next step will be to pin into place the two pieces that assemble to make the back. I like to pin and stitch the long side separate and first so that I can double check that it looks okay before I pin the sides in place.
No straight seams here people! If you're looking for perfection you may need to find a different blog.
I like projects that allow room to mess up a bit. In the above picture you'll see I ended up with one little missed part when I was attaching the trim. Lucky for me I'll be able to fix it as I assemble the back side of the pillow cover.
Lookin' good so far. Stitch around all the sides to complete the pillow cover. Trim away any excess fabric along the sides and corners. Its much more important at the corners. Flip it right side out being sure to push the corners out all the way. I sometimes use a chop stick in smaller pieces. After that all that's left is to pop in the insert!
VOILA!
Oh! How I SO wish I could show you this pillow in the armchair where it will live lookin' fab, however I have to recover/slipcover that chair and I'm shakin' in ma boots about it. You can believe I'll show you how it goes - the good, the bad and the ugly!
Enjoy your day!
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