DIY Throw Pillow Tutorial

Disclaimer:  This post is a BEAST!  There are a lot of pictures...most of them not great quality...I'm lazy and use the iPhone most of the time. :)  Please don't become overwhelmed by the amount of information...it is not as much work as it seems!  Just 4 basic steps...with a lot of detail in between.

Ok, let's get started!!  If you missed out on the supply list...it can be found here.

No. 1:  Cut front and back pieces.

Take measurements of your pillow.  (As a reminder, this tutorial is strictly for down pillows)  My pillow measures 34.5" x 19.5".

Subtract 1/2" from width and 1/2" from height to figure out measurement of both the front and back panel of fabric.  For example, my fabric will be cut 34" x 19".

For my pillow I will be using a gold velvet on the front and a patterned compliment on the back.

Using your large ruler and cutting mat, cut front and back panels.

Obviously the goal here is to have nice straight lines, but this is not a precision project.  If the ruler slips a tiny bit or your edge ends up a tad crooked, it will be ok.  You can compensate for most things when you put the seams together.

With the "right" sides together, I folded lengthwise.  Then, using my folded edge as a straight edge I lined up the fold with a line on the cutting board and cut both edges of the width first.

Next, I folded the two cut edges together and again using my fold as my straight edge I cut both sides of my height.

That all sounds way more difficult than it is.  Trust me.

No. 2:  Install cording.  If you missed my tutorial on how to make your own cording, you can find it here.

While looking at your fabric, decide which edge will be the bottom edge of your pillow.  If you have a fabric with a pattern, usually this is obvious.  If your fabric is a solid, just pick what you like best.  The cording will be sewn to the right side of the pillow...line up the raw edges of the cording and pillow front starting in the middle-ish of the bottom edge of the pillow.

Begin sewing with a longish stitch (3.5-4) leaving about 1.5 inches unsewn at the beginning.  No need to backstitch.   

Use a light tension against the cording with the zipper foot.  Sew until you near the first corner by about 2.5 inches.  Then, take scissors and clip in the seam allowance in intervals of approx 1/4" for about 3 inches...enough for the cording to bend around the corner.  I'll then line it up around the corner and begin to sew.  Take your time and go slowly around the corners...makes it easier.

Continue sewing on straight edge and repeat process until you near where you began.  Leave about 2-3 inches.

Trim cording with an overhang of about 1.5 inches.

Now, with the help of a seam ripper if needed, gently peel open about 2 inches of the cording sleeve.

Trim cording at the place where the cording would meet if it were one continuous piece...it's always best for it to be a hair longer than necessary here than short.  You can always trim more off if need be.

Fold over end of cording sleeve

Now, lining up with beginning end of cording... place the beginning edge in the sleeve.

Fold over and straighten.

Now stitch.  You can kind of straighten and tighten as you go here if you feel it is a little loose.  When you pass where you began stitching to begin with, backstitch a few stitches.  Clip threads and you're done with cording!

Here is where I'm going to show you just how crooked the edge can be sometimes.

I show this to encourage my fellow perfectionists out there that this is fine.  It will NOT be noticeable in the final product, so don't stress.

No. 3:  Next up, the zipper!

With the backside of the fabric in front of you, identify which edge is the bottom.  The zipper will be placed on the bottom edge of the fabric, approximately in the center, face down.  The zipper I used for this project was an upholstery zipper that was actually a little longer than I would normally use.  I recommend sticking to the polyester zipper listed on the supply list...much easier to use.

Pin in a few places.

Starting at the end of the zipper, begin stitching (length 2-3) so your needle is a 1/8th or so away from the zipper teeth.

As you approach the end with the zipper head, stop with your needle still puncturing through the zipper and fabric.  You may need to lift the foot, but slide the zipper head behind the foot to ease sewing to the top edge.

When this is finished, you will have something that looks like this:

Line up both bottoms of your pillow with right sides facing together.  Place a pin in the general middle where your zipper will be sewing to your cording.

Unzip zipper and pin every few inches.  These pins are just a guideline.  I guarantee you won't sew exactly where you pinned, but they help hold things in the general vacinity.

You want to sew as close to the teeth as possible without interfering with them.

As you near the end, close the zipper a short distance so it's easier to finish.  Backstitch at the end.

As you can see, it's a big tricky to get close to the teeth and my stitches are little jagged.

So, close the zipper and flip your project over.

Now, make stitch a pass over the nearest stitching line to your cording below.  You can kind of feel based on the bulk where you should be stitching.

When you are finished and you lay out your project, it should look something like this.

However, we want to hide the teeth of the zipper for our final product, so we are going to make a casing to hide them.  This is a little hard to explain, but with your project laid out as above, pull the back fabric down and pin to cover zipper.  It will create a fold that meets at the cording.

Then, starting at the edge with the cording to the left of the zipper, begin sewing (2-3 length) a straight line catching only the back fabric and the zipper below.  This will create the flap to hide the zipper.

As you sew down the row, pull pins as you go.  There may be a more technical way to do this, but I just eyeball my measurement...keeping the line running parallel to the cording.

When you get to the end, raise the zipper foot, keeping the needle in the fabric.

Turn the fabric 90 degrees, put zipper foot back down, and stitch across zipper to meet cording.  Backstitch this a couple times.

Then, go back to the other end and stitch across zipper from cording to flap stitching, making sure zipper head is underneath flap section.  Backstitch a couple times here as well.

Zipper done!! Check!

No. 4:  Sew around edges.  

Home stretch!! 

With zipper at the bottom and right sides together, begin pinning on the top, in the center.  Continue pinning top edge working from the center to sides.  Some fabrics are stretchier than others, so keep a light tension to keep fabric from puckering when you sew them together.

Depending on the fabrics used, when sewing cording to the front face fabric it may have "shrunk".  This is why it's a good idea to pin from the center working out.  You have a little more control easing the excess fabric out at the corners.  

View of my excess fabric

After top is pinned, continue onto sides.  Follow the same procedure pinning the center first and working to edges.  

At the corner by the zipper closure, make sure fabric will lay nicely next to cording.

With fabric laying as smooth as possible, wedge zipper foot back as close to zipper closure as possible and begin sewing front and back pieces together.  It is not necessary to get the zipper foot up super tight to cording.  And a basting stitch (4ish) may be used for this pass.

When you finish stitching the two layers together all the way around, flip project over and stitch on the other side.  This time, stitch as closely to the cording as you can...using your previous stitching lines as a guide.

When you finish going clear around the pillow, slip fingers in the zipper opening and open it all the way.  Flip pillow right side out!

I usually do a quick check of my cording all the way around, just to make sure than no stitching is showing and no sections got caught accidentally or something.  My seam-ripper is always handy! :)

If everything looks good, flip back inside out and trim seam allowances around corners.  This just allows corners to lay a little nicer.

Before:

After:

Flip back right side out!  Stuff with your pillow!

Front

Back

Congratulations!!! You did it! Time to marvel at your work!

xo,

Mess & Perseverance

Ever had one of those days that just wipe you out in every way??  I had one of those today.  It probably didn't help that I was running on borrowed energy when I woke up...or that I had misplaced my phone (aka "my life") by 7 am...or a number of other things... but I. am. spent.

Sometimes projects get a little messy.  You know, when things seem to get worse before they get better??  I seem to remember this happening pretty much every time my mom told me to clean my room as a kid, haha, sorry mom.  I suppose you could say that I've dealt with my fair share of mess over the last many years of renovating...but I'm still not a fan...and sometimes it still catches me off guard and takes me a minute to figure it all out.  You may just want to ditch the project altogether, but...if it's important to you....at some point you must deal with the mess.  Ugh.

On my way home from dropping my kiddos off at school this morning, I found myself admiring the morning sky.  It was kind of like a rainbow was blanketing the whole skyline to the west beginning with red on the horizon and all the other colors that follow until reaching the blue that faded into the sky above.  I would have taken a picture...but remember....lost phone.  ;-)  It was cool though and I couldn't help by revel in the masterfulness of the Big Guy upstairs.

Do you think He ever had to deal with a project veering off course?? Mess?  Honestly, I'd never really considered it in this context before but...YES! That little thing called sin...which can be found in each and every human being on this planet.  His imperfect children who He loves so much.  Pretty amazing if you think about it...we are the project!  Perfect perseverance.

Sometimes it seems perseverance is becoming somewhat of a lost art in our "disposable" society.  But, whether it be a trivial project in our homes or something more meaningful like the challenges we may have to face in our relationships or the hard choices we make as parents, how beautiful are the things that can be made when we persevere...

I still don't like "mess", but being reminded of what's on the other side helps the medicine go down a little smoother.  And if you happen to be walking through my day to day life with me, which is probably most of you reading this blog... ;), thank you for persevering with me.

There's my deep thought for today...from my very tired brain... :)

xo,

ps.  And speaking of mess...I'm going to bed with dishes in the sink tonight and a pile of laundry in the basket.   I'm telling my inner-perfectionist to hush because perseverance in those areas are just going to have to wait until this chick gets some rest.

DAY 8

If you ventured here today in search of my pillow tutorial...you have my deepest apologies.  Once again, I have to postpone till tomorrow.  Let me share with you one thing I have learned so far during this 'writing every day' commitment....NEVER ANNOUNCE SCHEDULED CONTENT!  Clearly, I am just not that organized yet!! HA!!  

Blogging on my "to-do" list today was kind of like one of those kernels of corn that bounced off the bar and floated away.... oops.  

xo,

 

ps. Can someone ask the "31 day challenge" police if a post still counts if it is written minutes before the clock strikes 12??  Better luck tomorrow...

DIY Cording for Throw Pillows

In an effort to simplify the pillow tutorial, let's first tackle how to make our own cording.  The same basic supplies are required.  Go here to find that list...

The pillow that we will be making in the upcoming tutorial will have cording like this...

Cording is a super easy detail to add to your pillows which gives extra punch to a regular throw pillow adding an even more customized and finished look.  Ready-made cording can be found at the store, but with just a little bit of effort and a lot less money, you can make your own and incorporate exactly the look you want.

The first thing you need to do is figure out the diameter of your pillow to get the total length of cording you will need.  I always round up my diameter a little so I have plenty.  No one wants to be 3" short...so frustrating!!

*Math review*  2x length + 2x height = diameter

Then, you'll need to purchase "x" amount of yards of the cotton cording filler.

There are usually a few thicknesses available, but for this project I am using a 12/32".  I believe a 6/32" was used in the picture shown above.  

Next, you'll need to cut your strips of fabric that will be sewn together to make your cord cover.  To do this you'll need to figure out how wide your strips need to be.  

My dressmaker's measuring tape comes in handy here...

First you have to decide how big of a seam allowance you will be using.  For this pillow I am using a 1/2" seam allowance.  In reality I will need to add 1" (2x my 1/2" seam allowance) to the circumference of my cotton cording filler.  But...this is actually how I figure it out....

I place the cording on the 1/2" marker line on my measuring tape...

Then I continue to fold the measuring tape around the cording until it meets on the other side. 

Then, I add my other 1/2".  For tomorrow's project 1 3/4" strips are needed.  

When cutting cording strips you need to determine whether or not it is necessary to cut on the bias.  A bias cut cording is what gives the cording pictured in the pillow above a diagonal stripe.  It allows heavier fabrics to bend and stretch more easily when going around curves.  For this project, my fabric is lightweight and solid in color so I've decided to take the easier way out and use the straight grain.  I'm sure there is a project on the horizon in which a bias cut will be in order...I will go into more detail at that time.  It's not really any more difficult, I just don't have the supplies to demonstrate it for this project!

My fabric is 54" wide but I always round down for this so let's call it 50".  My diameter measurement comes to 110"...so I'll need to cut 3 strips which will give me 150" (a little extra).

Side note:  Remember when you asked your mom when you would need math in the real world??  Ha!

Ok, so I'm going to use my cutting board and ruler to cut 3 strips @ 1 3/4" wide.

Next I need to sew those three strips into one long piece.  I find it helpful to mark the "right" side of the fabric with a pin if it isn't obvious which is the front or back.  The navy linen blend I'm using here is undistinguishable.  

Pins to mark the "right" side of the fabric

Then I'm going to pin the right sides together at the seams. 

Pinned "right" sides together

I don't bother to cut off the selvage edge of the fabric.  You don't want to include it in the finished project because it has a tighter weave, but it won't hurt anything within the seams.

When I'm sewing the seams here, I use a shorter stitch length, 2-3ish, so backstitching is not required.  And since I have pinned all my seams together beforehand, I can feed multiple strips through the machine without stopping to cut threads between each piece.  Also, you don't need to use the zipper foot for this part of the process, but it won't hurt anything either.  I find I use my zipper foot for quite a lot!

Beginning first strip with extra wide seam allowance

Continue feeding strips through machine without stopping to cut in between

I only had two pieces to sew for this single pillow, but when doing larger quantities of cording, this is a great time saver!  When finished, I just clip the threads between each strip and bingo I have one large strip!  

Next, trim the seam allowance to about 1/4".  No measuring required - just guesstimate.  

Unfold fabric and press open seams.  If the fabric you are using is lightweight enough you may be able to just press open with your fingers.  If it's a little heavier, you may need to bust out the iron.

Time to add the cording!!

Place the cording in the center of the wrong side of the fabric.

Fold the fabric together until the wrong sides meet and the cording is inside...like a taco. 

Let's sew!  Using a long stitch (4ish) together the cording sleeve.  It is not necessary to get up close to the cording at this point.  I find it is easier to make a first pass to just line up the edges of the fabric.  It gives you a nice clean edge will be helpful when adding the cording to the actual project (a pillow in this case).  As you can see from the picture below, no precision is necessary as far as straight stitching goes at this point.

For the second pass, you're going to place the zipper foot up next to the cording and stitch.

This is kind of tricky to explain, but I place my hand on the other side of the cording and allow it to guide the cording gently through.

The idea is that you stitch up closely to the cording without forcing it to be extremely tight.  It is okay and even preferred at this point if it isn't the tightest in can be.  That will be done later...when the cording is actually attached to the pillow.  When you're finished with the second pass, you'll have something similar to this...

notice:  perfect stitches NOT necessary

You may have noticed that the color of thread I am using does not match the fabric.  For this case, the thread is the same color thread I will be using for the actual pillow.  It's not really necessary that it match the color of the cording fabric...no one *should* ever see these stitches.

Congratulations!!! You can now make you're own cording!  And I promise...it took me longer to write this post than it has EVER taken me to make a few yards of cording.  :-)

Next up...pillow making!!

xo,

Oh Homegoods...

When any road trip takes me to a metropolitan area in which a Homegoods can be found....OF COURSE, I try to carve out a little time to stop and peruse the merchandise.  I have to admit, I wasn't really feelin' it today. (shocking I know!!)  It was kind of a rainy, yucky day and my traveling partner...

...really needed a nap!  But, as we founds ourselves nearing the Homegoods location... the clouds parted and the rains cleared.  It had to be a sign right?!? (wink, wink)  And they didn't disappoint...

They had me at bone inlay... :-)  I see a lot of Cynthia Rowley stuff at TJMaxx/Homegoods, so I'm not sure if this stuff is overstock or a specialty line for their chain, but regardless these trays were awesome!

Hope everyone had a super weekend!  And don't forget to stop by tomorrow for that promised pillow tutorial!!

xo,

New Baby Celebration

There are few things that are more fun to celebrate than new life.  This weekend Olivia and I ventured away from the farmhouse to go celebrate the newest coming addition to our extended family.  Here are a few pictures of us enjoying the event!

Amanda, guest of honor, and Olivia

Delicious cupcakes!!

Olivia LOVES cupcakes!!

Olivia and her collection of nail polish - adorable baby shower favors!!

I am so thankful for my family!  And... I truly believe that if you have found a few great friends in life that stick with you through thick and thin you have been blessed.  Bonus if you have someone in your family that you can also call a friend!  This special girl is both to me!  We are so thankful for her and we can't wait to meet baby E!!

xo,

The Little Farm Boy

No one is more excited about harvest than this guy!  I may have to slow down on my projects, but his have just begun!

The first thing he does when he gets home from school is ask to go to the farm...and as long as homework is done and behavior is good, that's where you'll find him.  One night he caught a ride home from the field in the semi.

I met him outside as he ran up the driveway is his cowboy boots...pure joy on his face.  

Every year I'm amazed by the guys working in the field.  Despite the frustration of equipment breaking, occasional unfavorable weather, and sometimes 17 hour days, they plod through with generally positive attitudes and are still willing to take the time for this little farm boy in training.  They wouldn't have to make time for a tag-a-long...I'm positive they have enough on their plate and it's just one more thing to keep track of!!  But, I am so thankful they do, because going to the field and spending time with these men gives him a chance to see hard work and diligence in action as well as exposure to so many wonderful role models.  What a lucky kid!

xo,