Pillow Talk

Last week's addition of the new couch has officially kicked my living room re-do into high gear! Living in an apartment puts some limits on what I can do when it comes to redesign, so there will be no painting or moving of walls.  I can however, change the decor.  The couch alone has already given the start of my face lift some real brightness.  The boyfriend even have it his seal of approval last night, as we BOTH were able to sit comfortably while watching our inaugural movie together. (It was Indiana Jones in case you were wondering.) There are no real complaints as far as the couch goes, but I was slightly less than thrilled with the pillows that it came with.  Sure, they go well enough with the couch but they weren't really pulling together the colors that I wanted to go with.  So, of course, I decided I needed to (you guessed it) make my own pillow cases!

I knew that I wanted beige, aqua and grey to be my colors for this room and so I began looking at  a bunch of pillow ideas where I could incorporate those colors.  I found plenty of beautiful ideas, but none of them were really calling to me.  Finally, I remembered a bag I had pinned on Pinterest a while back. I absolutely loved the look of this bag and it suddenly hit me that I could incorporate the concept here into my very own color coordinated pillow covers! I gathered the fabrics that I wanted to use and set to work.

First, I took the main fabric and cut four 20 inch by 20 inch panels from it, (the measurements of the existing pillows) and set them aside.

 

Then, I took another section of my main fabric ironed an equal sized piece of fusible interfacing to the back of it to provide some stiffness to this piece.  The next step got into some of the more tedious work of this project.  Taking the interfaced section of my main fabric as well as a section of each of my accent fabrics, I traced circles onto the fabric.

 

 

I used a large spool of Gutermann's thread, but any smaller circular object will work.  Once all the tracing was done, I cut out all the circles (Whew! There were a LOT of circles!)

 

 

I then took two of my 20x20 panels and placed them on my cutting mat.  I drew a line across them, with pencil, at 7-1/2 inches from the top and from the bottom to make a middle section where my detail pieces would lay. 

 

 

Now, it was time to add my embellishments.  For each of the embellishments, I took one circle of the main color and one circle of my contrasting colors.  With wrong sides together, I lined up the two circles and folded in each side to form a cone shape.

 

 

Next I pinned each cone along bottom line of my allotted rectangle space.  I chose to alternate my cones between aqua and grey. 

 

 

Once an entire row was pinned in place, I sewed down each cone from the joining point of the folds up to the tip of the cone.

 

 

I continued adding layers, laying the next layer above the previous row, being sure to place them between the other cones so that the bottom partially covers the tips of the previous layers. (much like bricks or subway tiles) I continued this layering and sewing process row by row until I filled my designated space from the bottom up.  The tips of the last row sat just above my top pencil line. 

 

To give my pillow a nice, finished look, I took two 7-1/2 inch by 20 inch pieces and ironed down a quarter inch on the long edge of both pieces.  I pinned and sewed the first of these pieces along the upper pencil line right over the tops of the cones to hide them.

 



 

To keep the pillow looking even, I took my second 7-1/2 inch piece and ironed a 1/4 inch edge.  I folded back the very bottom layer of my cones so I could see my bottom pencil line. Then, I pinned and sewed that piece over my bottom pencil line.  The face of the pillow is now complete!

 

For the back of my pillow, I took another 20x20 square and cut it in half.

 

 

 

Then, I cut two 20x2inch strips from the extra fabric.  With right sides together, I sewed one of the 2 inch strips along the edge of one of my halves.

 

 

I ironed my seam flat and  then pinned the unfinished end of the 2 inch strip back and to the center of your seam.

 

 

Next, I sewed down the unfinished edge and then flipped it back over to the right side.  I sewed a top stitch along the folded edge to give it a nicer, more finished look.

 



 

I then pinned and sewed 5 pieces of Velcro onto the newly made edge piece. I then repeated those steps to complete the second half of my back panel.

 

 

Once my Velcro was sewn on, I pressed the Velcro pieces together to complete my back panel.  I lined up my front and back panels with right sides together, pinned them and sewed them together.

 

 

Once that was done, I undid the Velcro and flipped the entire pillow right side out.  I stuffed the old pillow inside and VOILA!!

 

 

I love the look of my new pillows and its only further motivating me to get the rest of my living room going.  I may even take the backing material from the old pillows and make some smaller accent pillows, who knows.  I have a rug on order that should be arriving this week as well.  I have an extra day off  of work and, per the news, a GINORMOUS storm is hitting So-Cal today.  Its raining pretty consistantly right now but we will see how big it really gets.  The news seems to be acting like we all need to be heading to Noah's ark right about now.  I enjoy the rain and will be spending my day indoors, watching chick flicks and getting some serious progress made on some brand new Etsy shop items! Stay dry and craft on everyone!