Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Pillow Talk: Part 2

In case you haven't noticed; I love pillows. Give me some fabric, I'll whip you up a puffy one in about 5 minutes. Accent or large euro size pre-made pillows are way too expensive for my taste. I rather buy myself some nice affordably priced down pillow inserts (they have great ones at IKEA) and them make a cover. My tastes are always changing and I like being able to change the color scheme quickly and without having to spend too much money. If you head over to your local home store, an accent pillow will cost you. How about at least $20 for a small 20 x 20? Poop on that.

I have a quick technique of making pillow covers. I take a piece of fabric large enough for my pillow insert, fold one end down a bit and sew across. Then, I fold the whole piece of fabric into thirds, making sure that the nice sewed end is under the un-sewn end. You want to make sure that when folded it is still the size you need to fit your pillow insert. Also, you're folding it so it's inside out. Finally, sew across the two open un-sewn ends. Flip it inside out and you've got a cover. You can slip your insert in easily and remove it whenever you like. Confusing? I wish I had pictures. Next time I'll try and remember.

On Sunday I decided to tackle something slightly different; a tufted pillow. I started with an plain old insert (not down), a LARGE needle, a button covering kit from Joanns, fabric, and elastic.

What I came up with was this:

Front 

Back

I threaded the flat elastic ribbon through the large needle, added a large button to the end before I tied it off and then ran it through the entire pillow. It was sorta hard work because I had to have enough strength to hold the needle and push it through to the other side in the premarked and measured dot I had on the other side. Then, I had to add the other button and get the elastic as stretched as possible while holding the button and tying a knot at the same time in order to create the tuft. But, it worked and I love it. I can't wait to get my new fabric and the crewell fabric pillows made in order to complete the new bed look.

1 comment:

Kate Riley said...

Oh, I am going to try that technique to make my own pillow. Great tips !

The pillows in my blog post are from Marshalls.... they were on clearance at $10 for a set of two. Total steal !