Pillow Love

I finished making the decorative pillows for our master bedroom last week. In general, I like how they turned out, although the felt on the front pillow is a bit bluer than the other two pillows. I guess that is what I get for using stuff I have around the house to make pillows.

Sewing covers for decorative or throw pillows is quite easy. I begin with a pillow form (the big striped pillow above uses a 16"x16" pillow form - bought at JoAnne's with a 50% off coupon). I cut the front piece to be 1/2" bigger in length and width than the pillow form (in this case 16 1/2" x 16 1/2". Next I cut two pieces for the back, each 1/2" bigger in width and 3 1/2" bigger in height. I then fold the two back pieces in half, wrong sides together. I then pin the raw edges of the back pieces to the right side of the front, the folds overlapping in the center. I sew all the way around the pillow cover with a 1/4" seam. I turn the pillow cover right side out and am left with two overlapping flaps in the back. I'm not sure if those directions make sense....I don't have the patience for writing tutorials!

I generally apply my decorations to the front before sewing the cover together, although on occasion I have done it afterwards. I'll provide a little info about the embellishments I selected for each of the individual pillows below.

I used frayed rolled rosettes to make this pillow using a tutorial from Made by Mama Monster. The fabric I used? It was left-over from the sheet set I bought to get a flat sheet to cover our box spring (Ross Dress for less has great cheap sheet sets if you don't actually have to sleep on the sheets!). The sheet fabric frayed nicely!

I used white felt and followed another Made by Mama Monster tutorial to make these hydrangea flowers. I think I cut 30+ out and sewed them with a simple cross stitch in the center to a felt circle. Once they were all attached I sewed the felt circle onto the pillow cover front using a blanket stitch. The fabric for this cover was made using the same Ross Dress For Less sheet set used to make the rolled rosettes.

This pillow cover was made using the left-over linen fabric from our headboard project. I used a decorative leaf stitch on my sewing machine to apply three rows of vines in a basic green thread color. It then stitched rolled felt roses onto the vines.

And that wraps up my decorative pillow creations for the time being. Although I do have an Alaskan friend who mentioned awhile back she could use some pillows for her couch....I'm going to see what sort of scraps I can scrounge up to meet that 'need'.....