One day while I was wasting my life on Pinterest (crack in web form), I came across an adorable pillow from Freshly Picked for $45.00 and thought, "I can make that!" I do this often, but rarely
find the time to actually follow through.
With this pillow project I was in luck. It was a slow weekend and I wanted nothing more than to just sit at home, eat ice cream all day, and craft. I discovered that I had all of the supplies I needed to complete my project, so I came up with a strategy and off I went!
The fabric I used was a thicker material, similar to canvas. It helped keep the bow in the position that I wanted and will keep the filling from clumping over time; although it was harder to sew as the entire project was hand sewn. I used a white hand-sewing thread, but if you're making it with a sewing machine, any matching thread will do, as long as the seams are backstitched.
I began by measuring out the size of pillow I wanted (keeping in mind the extra fabric for the seams).
Because the fabric is striped, it was easy to measure and cut exactly where I wanted.
For the bow, I measured the width to be even with the length of the pillow, and with the 'height' I kept both sides about 3 inches shorter than the pillow.
I cut a strip of fabric from the scraps that I had left for the bow tie. The width depends on how big you want the tie to be. I would recommend about 2 1/2" width and about 6" in length (any longer than 6" will leave a lot of extra fabric inside of the pillow)
I stacked all 3 pieces together to assure that the sizes were proportional. Once the sizes were right, I turned the pillow fabric inside-out and sewed the 2 sides together, leaving the bottom open for when I was ready to add the bow.
Before hemming the edges of the bow, I cut a small triangle off of each corner so that the folds would lay over each other cleanly.
Once I had hemmed both the bow and tie, I folded the center of the bow accordian style so that there was a tight center, and made sure that the bow was wrinkled in the way that I wanted before solidifying the hold.
I forced needle and thread through the fabric a few times to hold the center tight.
If you don't want to risk blistering your fingers and knocking your tooth out with pliers, I would recommend tying the center together with either strong thread or twine. The center will be covered with the tie, so appearance doesn't matter in this case. Lesson learned!
I arranged the bow directly in the center of the pillow, factoring in the 1/2 inch I would love from sewing the bottom of the pillow together. Again, the stripes made for easy measuring, and I marked with pins the spot where I wanted my bow.
I placed a piece of carboard beneath the single top layer of fabric (I'm convinced my cutting mat was stolen by gremlins). With a rotary cutter, I made a 1" incision on each of the stripes that I had pinned. The incisions should be about 1" apart.
I replaced the bow where I wanted it, and stitched a few times through the center of the bow and the pillow for an extra hold. I then pulled the each side of the tie through the incisions that I had made, covering the accordian center of the bow. I was very careful to cover the parts that I didn't want to be seen, and made sure that the tie was pulled tight enough to create the crinkle effect that I wanted in the bow.
Next, I turned the pillow inside-out and pulled the fabric around the tie towards the inside of the pillow, then sewed the tie and fabric together to close the incisions.
Before turning the pillow right-side out, I sewed half of the bottom together on one side, and about 3 inches on the other side, leaving about a 3 inch section open. I turned the pillow inside out, being very careful not to rip and seams or tear the bow off. This is quite the task...or so it seems at 2:00am!
I stuffed the pillow with Fairfield brand Soft Touch Poly-Fil. I prefer the Soft Touch over the Polyester
Poly-Fil because, even though the fabric is thick and the pillow is decorative, I like my pillows to be soft and squishy!
Once the pillow was stuffed, I turned in the remaining 3 inches of fabric, and hand stitched it together and...
VOILA!!!
The pillow is complete.
Fun Fact: Voila is very very similar to Viola, and when you've been typing all day, it's almost impossible to notice the difference.
Craft on, little birdies
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