My New "Girly" Pillows

When I took a recent trip up to mom's, we headed to IKEA.  I just love that place.  Found all kinds of great stuff and fell in love with a couple fabrics.  This one being my favorite:

 

My son (he's 19) kept telling me how girly the fabric is but I just love it and am determined to use it, somehow, in my master bedroom.  We have lived in this house for eight years now and I've not really changed much.  It's time for a change.  This fabric is the jumping off point to redo our bedroom.  Granted, I don't want to spend very much so it's won't be a major overhaul, but I'm hoping to make a big impact, on a tight budget.  That's for next time though.  For now, let's take a look at the making of a couple pillows for the bed.

The first thing I did was go on a fabric search.  I am looking for trim for these pillows, a coordinating fabric for the back, and possibly something that catches my eye for the bathroom.  There's also a chance that I'll want to change out the window treatments.  Depending on what I find is where the wall color will go and if I need new window panels as well.  I have an idea but without the rest of the fabrics, not sure it'll work. 

So, here's a trim I found and adore.  Not buying it, it'd be pretty easy to make later if I want to, in whatever color or pattern I want.  Cute!

 Ooh La, La!  Found this great backing fabric.  I really, really want to paint the walls dark green.  What a perfect coordinate!  So exciting.  It'll work perfect and pull any shade of green I want into the space.  I already have light green two-tone striped panels for the windows.  Changing them out requires lots of fabric and even doing them myself, lots of money.  This is perfect.  With this as an accent fabric I can paint the walls dark and keep my light panels.  I just love it when a plan comes together.

Trim, Oh how I adore You!  So many great options and so fun.  This one is my favorite.  Unfortunately they do not have enough of it to use on my pillows.  Too bad, so sad!  I'll have to keep looking.

Here's what I did find.  Works for me! 

I am awful at remembering pictures, I get so excited and just jump into the work.  Oops!  The first thing I did was find the center of the pattern that I wanted on the front of my pillow.  That'd be the moose pictures.  My pillow forms are European Shams, 24" square.  I measured from the center of the moose to mark out a 24 1/2" square (the 1/2" is for seam allowances) and cut out two pillow fronts.  I used the fronts to cut out back pieces as well.  Next, I sewed the trim to the front fabric all the way around, right side facing upward.  (You could do this all in one step and save yourself some time but I find it too easy to screw it up.  I break it down into two steps.)

 You will also notice I inched in a little on the fabric.  If you want your pillow form nice and tight you really should match the fabric cut size to the size of the form.  I gave myself too large of an allowance so I made up for it a little bit with the placement of the trim.  Next time I'll cut it smaller.  Also, I finish the trim by simply butting it together.  It looks messy (it frays where it's cut) but when completed it'll look great.  Make sure you face your trim inward, not outward.  When you're done you'll be turning it "inside out".  Trust me, double check this.  Don't want to sew the trim on and then when you go to add the backing realize it's backwards and have to take it all off and re-do it.  Hard lesson!

 Next, place your backing fabric, face down on top of your front fabric with the trim attached.  They will be finished side facing inward at this point.  Pin it around the edges, making sure to leave an opening for the pillow insert.  I always make my joins of trim work and openings at the bottom, so if for some reason its noticeable it's the side hidden.  I also hate adding zippers.  Unless it's absolutely necessary I slip-stitch things closed instead.  These are for decoration and will not be used much.  If they need washed I'll pull out the stitching, wash on delicate and re-stitch.  You could easily add a zipper at this point if you wanted.

Here it is all sewn together and the opening pinned, ready to be slip stitched closed.  I have also started releasing the trim edge.  There's a string that you just pull and it takes out the stitching holding the trim work together.  Love me some fringe!

 Here they are completed.  Not in the bedroom yet, but they are ready and waiting.  Tomorrow, I'll give you a peek at the bedroom.  It won't be completed, but it'll give you a good idea of where I'm heading and how long it's gonna take me to get there.  Too long I'm sure.

 So, next time you see a funky fabric that you think, "wow, that's a little much" but you love it anyhow, gGrab a little bit, enough to make a throw pillow and add it into your décor in some way.  I love a little punch of the unexpected and hot pink and orange in our bedroom is just that!