Great pillow tutorial

I just love the way my pillows turned out so I decided to let you all in on the process.  The luckiest part to my pillows is winning the Spring Project gift card from Online Fabric Store.  I love the fabric I got and the way my project turned out.  Here is a glimpse my upcycled porch bench and its beautiful pillows.

The pillows I am going to talk about now are the three giant ones in the back.  The ones with the great floral print.

These pillows were made with 24 in square pillow forms.  This is a simple way to make a really sturdy pillow but it does use bit more fabric than others to complete.  Here is a supply list for one pillow this size but don't forget, there are different makes of pillow forms, some are puffy and some are flat so I recommend measuring your own form before cutting fabric.  After I took a good look and measured my forms I realized they were not really puffy so I decided to make the pillow a bit smaller so it would look puffier.

2 - 25 inch squares of floral fabric for pillow front
2 - 27 inch squares solid fabric for pillow back
1 - 24 inch pillow form
1 inch paint tape sewing machine
thread of choice

The rest is a snap.

1. Sew the two floral pieces together with a 1/2 inch seam allowance all the way around.
2. Trim seam at corners so you can get a good corner when you turn them right side out.
3. Carefully cut a slit in the middle of one of the sewn together squares and turn the square right side out thru the slit and press all seams and corners well
4. Now follow steps 1 - 3 with the back pieces of fabric
5. Tape around the edge of the front of the floral square with the painters tape.  This will mark a 1 inch seam for you.  This was a life saver.
6. Pin the floral square centered in the solid square and make sure the slits are on the inside.  I am not a perfectionist on this part so i just eyeballed it.  If you want you can do the math and measure.
7. Sew along the inside tape edge on three sides.  leave the fourth side for inserting your pillow.  You can see how this will give you two sharp loose edges all the way around the pillow.
8. Stuff your pillow form in and sew the cover closed on your machine.  You will need to really push the form up inside the cover and try to pin it back and then pin, pin, pin the two sides together before sewing along the inside edge of the painters tape.

Front of pillow

Back of pillow

I am so thrilled that Online Fabric Store chose me and my Spring Project.  My family is fighting over who gets to stretch out on the bench.

There will be a followup tutorial for the La Sonrisa stenciled pillow soon.

The afghan pattern is from FaveCrafts.  It was really fun to make.

Don't forget to visit  BluebonnetSmile and Bluebonnet Smile's ETSY shop for an eclectic collection of goods to make you heart sing.