Pillow Patterns

When I started the Sewing Tip Series, I mentioned it was because of a chat I had with a friend while we were making some fun pillows for her new bedroom set. I had been wanting to post just how stinkin' cute they turned out but wanted to wait until she posted them on her blog first. Don't want to steal anybody's thunder, you know what I mean? But I love, love how it all turned out together. I begged her to let me post them on here too so you could all see how great they are!

She bought a white duvet cover at a Pottery Barn Outlet (oh, how I wish I lived close to one of those!!). It has these pink embroidered circles all on the edge of it. So cute! And a complete STEAL at $30 for a California King. Yeah, can't usually even get a twin size for that price!!She found this amazing hot pink linen fabric at a store that matched perfectly. That is where the bedroom set started. She decided to make pillow shams with that fabric. She is not really a fan of patterns so that is where I joined in the party. I helped her come up with a pattern for the shams. We used this Flanged Pillow Sham as a basis for our pattern. We added some interfacing to the edges of the shams since the linen tends to be a very floppy type of fabric. They turned out so cute and are the perfect accent to her duvet cover. Then as not to alienate her hubby in an all pink room, she wanted to add some other colors to "man it up" a bit.

She found this fabulous fabric at Hobby Lobby. I think it is fabulous too because I had actually used it to redo my ironing board cover. (Great minds must think alike!!) She had been wanting to have some orange in her room but with that accent fabric, it just didn't look like it was going to turn out the way she hoped. We took that fabric to a store in town and began the search for some other cute fabrics to be excited about. We found the black and white stripe right off the bat and we both loved it! We knew it would be perfect to make Amy Butler's free Hourglass Pillow Pattern. I just love how it turned out. So fun and flirty yet a bit mannish for the man in your life! Plus it matched her bedding which was totally perfect!She needed a few more pillows to add to her bed. She designed this one how she wanted it with the ribbon and buttons across it. I helped out with the actual construction. Here is how to make a pillowcase to fit over your pillow form. The kind we made overlaps in the back so you can easily remove it to be washed. First, check what the package says for your pillow form's width and length. Take the length and divide it in half and add 4 inches to determine how long you need to cut both back pieces. For example, if your pillow was 20 inches long, you should make each back piece 14 inches long to allow for overlapping plus 1/4" for seam allowances. Then cut your front piece the width and length of your pillow form plus 1/4" for seam allowances on all sides. Cut your fabric out. Take your two back pieces and put them right sides together with the front piece. Make sure your outside seams line up and put the "extra" in the center of the pillowcase for the overlap. Then just sew around all of the seams 1/4". Turn it all right sides out and you have a pillowcase that can easily be removed. It is SO easy and fast!
This is a picture my friend took of her bed. She is still working on a few pillowcases for the main pillows to help prop it all up more. We also made the rolled pillow that is on the bed. We basically just took fabric and cut it the length of the pillow form and then wrapped it around until we had enough overlap for a seam. We sewed it right sides together with an opening and flipped it back out so the seam was on the inside. Then we pinned and sewed the circles on each ends. Then we hand stitched the opening shut. Pretty easy and we didn't have a pattern to follow.

She bought the bedskirt but couldn't find one that matched exactly. So she just bought a white one and sewed a pink ribbon on the edge. Turned out fabulous!!

Just goes to show that you can create pillows for any room on a budget. It is so easy to make them and allows you to match any decor that you want!

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