Ruffle Pillow

I may have mentioned once or twice that I'm not that great at sewing.  I took Sewing 101 in high school, but it's been a LONG TIME since I learned all those skills.

I've been wanting to make/recover some throw pillows for my bed.  And I really wanted to try an envelope back, rather than inserting a zipper or stitching up the opening.  Pillows in the bedroom tend to get dirty, due to my three little "helpers" climbing all over the bed and putting their grubby little hands sweet little fingers on everything.  With an envelope back, I can wash it or easily replace it down the road.

I found a tutorial on A Pretty Cool Life for a 10 minute envelope back pillow (found here).  I bookmarked it, though inside I thought- "10 minutes?  Hah!  That's at least 30 for me!"

Well, let me tell you- this was easy as can be!  If you can stitch four straight lines, you can make this pillow cover.  I actually did make it into a 30 minute pillow, only because I wanted to add a little decoration.

First off, I found my pillow form at Goodwill.  It was only $3, and I got it on sale with their "colored dot of the day" discount.  They have TONS of pillows at thrift stores.  If the thought of using someone else's pillows creeps you out a little, most of the forms are washable- and compared to what you'll pay in a store for a new one, I can handle it.

I made the pillow cover following the tutorial exactly.   (Here's what it looked like from the back....)

After making sure my  pillow fit, I embellished the front like so:

1.  I cut a long strip of the leftover fabric.  I made mine 4 inches wide.  I used a simple white cotton fabric.  The ruffle will fray, since I didn't do anything to the edges, but I kind of like the unfinished, shabby look.  If you don't want yours to fray, use knit, or sew your fabric into a tube first before you ruffle it.

2.  I ruffled the strip by running a basting stitch down the middle of the fabric.  (Stitch length set to longest possible, top thread set to tightest tension).  This started the ruffle for me, but I still had to pull my bobbin thread to get the ruffles how I wanted.

3.  I pinned  the ruffle to the front of my pillow cover, pinning one end at each side seam.

4.  I carefully sewed the ruffle on, taking care to only sew it to the top part of the cover.

5.  I thought it needed just a little bling, so I made a twisted fabric rosette to match our blue wall, and added a "pearl" shank button to the middle.

I think it's a nice start to my bedroom throw pillows.  I don't want a ton of pillows (since I tend to the lazy bed-making as well as the lazy crafting), but I do want a few more.  I'm on the lookout for some good ideas.

 I might just link this up....check out the parties here!