Well, I put my nose to the grindstone and made made my pillows over the weekend.
And the upholsterers came and took away the two Queen Ann's chair for recovering and refurbishing. They are 20 years old and need new springs and new foam. I am so looking forward to when they come back. They will be better than they were when new.
So, let me show you how I made these pillows. I started with the one in the middle.
I only bought a half yard of this fabric. I knew I wanted a rectangular pillow. When I started to make it, I looked at the pattern on the fabric and let that determine the size the pillow would be. I made is as large as possible while still keeping the diamonds and dots centered. The measurement ended up being 18 1/2" x 12 1/8". Good thing I am making my own pillow forms with muslin and loose stuffing. That is most definitely NOT a standard size. I added 1" in each direction for a 1/2" seam allowance all around and cut 2 pieces of muslin and 2 pieces of my pillow fabric 19 1/2" x 13 1/8".
I stuff my finished pillow form into my finished pillow ... Now had I been smart, I would have put the unstuffed muslin pillow form inside the pillow THEN put the stuffing in. It would have been easier.
and carefully hand sew up the opening. I used to always put in zippers, but considering how many times I actually take the covers off to clean them, I think I save time this way.
Plus, if you do a good job, it can almost look like a machine sewn seam.
Then other two pillows will be a little more work, because they have fringe in the seams and the two pillows need to look the same.
First, I recommend using the muslin that will be the pillow form as a pattern for the actual pillow fabric.
Then, if you are making 2 or more pillows that should be the same size ... weigh them. That is really the only way to be sure there is the same amount of stuffing in each one.
Read last Thursday's blog for the explanation of how I decided on the size for these two pillows.
Apply the fringe to one side of the pillow.
Butt the ends when they meet and zig zag across to secure them.
Again, do not expect really sharp corners. It is just not possible.
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It is impossible to make really square corners with fringe like this. In no circumstance clip into the trim. It will start to come apart.
When sewing the two pieces together, have the side with the fringe sewn to it on top so you can follow the first stitch line.
Now take off the chain stitch that has kept the fringe tidy.
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After stuffing in the pillow form, I hand sew the opening. This one is hard to do. Sewing through the stiff upholstery fabric AND fringe is very thick ... a thimble helps.
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