Making a Pillow!!!!

I have been meaning to make a pillow for one of my really good friends, and today was the day.

I make my own pillow forms because it is cheaper than buying the pre-made ones. A lot of people will just stuff the pillow but I like have my cases removable just in case it needs cleaning or fixing.

I got some plain white fabric for the form, and some stuffing. I wanted a pillow that was roughly 18X18 so I measured two squares that were 19X19 for the form.

Here is one of the squares

I pinned the two squares together and sewed them together making sure that I left about a 6-8 inch opening on one side so I could stuff it. I then stuffed it.

Form stuffed before sewing up the hole.

After stuffing I pinned the hole together, using about 5 pins just so it would stay together. I then used the sewing machine to close up the hole. Form completed now on to the hard stuff!

Pinned shut

Sewn shut.

Form completed.

My friend told me she wanted it to be purple so I use a cream colored background and 2 layers of purple organza on top of it for the from the pillow. I cut these to 20x20, I left myself some room because I knew that I would also be adding the back. I pinned the three later together and carefully sewed them together.

The three layers of the front.

I wanted to add something more to the front so I made flower petals. This was very easy because I just cut not perfect circles in a variety of sizes. I had to sew them on one layer at a time. I started in the corner pinned one sewed it at the bottom, I went backwards on the seam also just to reinforce it. The next row was 2 petals, then three, and so forth and so on until I was done.

Since I still had to the sew on the back I pinned the outside of the petals towards the center just so they wouldn't get stuck in the seam.

For the back I made what I call a sham opening. I measured a piece of the cream 20X28. I cut it slightly off centered. One edge I folded in 1/2 an inch and made a seam, the other one I folded in about 2 inches and made the seam (make sure you hold the two pieces up to the front to make sure they are the right size). Since the pillow is sewed inside out it is really important that it is pinned right. I wanted the thicker seam to be on the outside so I took extra care to pin it just right. Then I sewed all four sides together leaving about 1/4-1/2 inch all around. One trick to make the pillow square is to cut the corners diagonally after you sew it together right before the seam (make sure you do not cut the seam) this slanted corner helps create the crisp corner when you are done. And thats all folks!

The sham cover back

You can see the opening and how it is easily removable

All done!