Adventures in Sewing: Pillows

I recently got some new couches... did I mention that I LOVE them? I just didn't especially love the fabric selections the company offered for pillows. So I ordered plain ones that match the fabric of the couches and set myself to the task of making some of my own.

After hitting up Jo-Ann Fabrics (with a coupon of course!) I found home decor fabric (heavier than cotton) that coordinated nicely with the new rug that I purchased. I then measured the pillows that came with my couches, to see what the dimensions of my homemade pillows needed to be. Turns out they needed to be 20"x 20".

In order to get my finished pillows to come out to a whopping 20" x 20", I needed to add a quarter of an inch to each of the sides in order to account for a seam allowance. I traced this out on a piece of tissue paper, so that I could make a pattern. I then laid out the pattern and the fabric and cut out 8 pieces (this is so I could make a total of 4 pillows). To stiffen up my pillows, I also cut out 8 pieces of fleece interfacing.



I put the pillow fabric right sides together and then placed the fleece interfacing on the outside of that.



I then stitched around the edges using a 1/4" seam allowance, and leaving a 4" gap on one side so that I could turn it right side out for stuffing.



To make the seams lay more smoothly, I trimmed close to the seams and clipped the corners.




I then turned the pillows right side out and pushed the corners out to make them look more crisp. Then I repurposed fiber-fill from some old pillows that my mom no longer wanted. Once the pillows were stuffed, I hand stitched them shut, which resulted in this!