Pillow Talk

Oh my. It's been almost a week since I last made an entry. Poop on me. Yet, I have a good excuse. I've been hard at work at coordinating a couch drop off, yanking a ton of weeds, drinking beers while watching "The Wrestler" in a movie theater (Yes, drinking beers in an actual theater) with the hubs and friends, making new curtains for the little bro's room, re-decorating the hubby's office (work in progress, pics later) lots of work at work, and....making plus pillows!

I've also decided to paint the retrofab chair. I was initially hoping to go with a RL color, but couldn't find what I was imagining. I ended finding up my match with Behr "Leisure." Yup, I'll be sittin' in my retrofab chair gettin' my leisure on. Perhaps wearing a leisure suit??

Oh crappers. You can't see the leisure. It's basically a yummy dijon color.

Anyhoo, back to the pillow talk. I was at Michael's crafts a while back and one of the books on their shelf caught my eye; a pillow making book. Fun! I flipped through the pages and suddenly, love. Why don't I just share the result of my book lovin'.

I apologize for the crappy lighting. I made two like the one in the back too.

The dumb flash makes the details of my fishy-like pillow disappear. No bueno! The fabric is this luxurious velvety thing that has a bubble design in the fabric grain. LOVE! The brown one in the back is a lovely linen. Yeah, so count this...1 yellow fishy pillow + 2 brown lovely linen pillows + 1 more striped pillow to create symmetry = lots of sewing, cutting, measuring, and 4 fab pillows!

ooohhh, ahhh.

Here's the so-so how too. My initial plan was to photo every step, but that wasn't very successful because I always end up getting way too into the whole process and forget to actually take pics. Oh well. Here's what I got. Take it or leave it.

Step one: Select a fabric that won't fray when cut with scissors and not sewn. Suede and this velvety one do the trick. 

Step two: Create an outline pattern on the back part of your fabric using a pencil or fabric pencil. I used a carpet cleaner spray bottle for the shape.

Step three: Cut out what seems like a gazillion scallops.

Step four: align the cut out scallops so they overlap and then pin them into place on a separate piece of the same fabric. 

Step five: sew each layer onto the fabric. Make sure to sew each layer so that the layer on top will cover the thread line. 

Step six: Cut the fabric out depending on the pillow size you want. Mine is 12 x 18. 

Step seven: Cut out the fabric for the back part and then sew it into place. I overlap mine so that I have an easy way of taking out the pillow. 

Here's some images to help.

Get this: total for 4 fab pillows = about $20 buckaroos in fabric. Not bad when you think about how one good pillow costs about $24 on its own. Oh, the pillow inserts; I scored big time. The hubby and I found this amazing store where almost everything costs $5! I'm not even kidding. The pillows had this great silk dupioni striped fabric as a cover. Alas, the color did not work with our whole scheme going on here. Zipper open,  super soft down pillow insert out-time for a new cover. Yay! 

Speaking of sewing. If you think you can't do it, you can. It's just a little practice. I've been doing it for a long time, so it's a breeze for me, but I am dealing with an antique of a sewing machine. Seriously, I'll have to take pictures. It's ancient and it weighs a ton! I think a new sewing machine may be in the horizon (hint for hubby: just because you love me gift??).