Today I'm going to share a tutorial with you for a simple pillow cover -- My Favorite Colors Stripey Toss Pillow. A project designed to showoff your favorite color combinations that's quick, easy, and turns out super cute! It's a great project for a beginner quilter, if you want a project to practice sewing those perfect straight lines with your machine, and also great if you need to get a little hand quilting practice in.
What you'll need : :
- 1 - Pillow Insert measuring 12" x 16"
- 8 - 2.5" x 12.5" strips of quilting weight cotton fabric in your favorite color combination
- 2 - 9" x 12.5" pieces of fabric for the back of the pillow
- 1 - piece of cotton batting measuring 14" x 18"
- 1 - piece of cotton muslin measuring 14" x 18"
- Threads and Pearl Cotton floss in coordinating colors
- Sharp scissors and an embroidery needle
- Embroidery Hoop or Quilting Hoop
- Note * Click on any of my images for a larger picture
Cutting and Piecing the Fabrics : :
1. Choose eight different fabrics with a color scheme of your choice (you can find my inspiration for the Purple, Yellow, and Grey color scheme of my pillow
here)
2. Cut the fabrics into eight 2.5" x 12.5" pieces (I recommend using a rotary cutter and mat set for cutting)
3. Leaving a 1/4" seam allowance, sew the fabric strips together. Sewn together, each color will measure 2", the entire piece 16.5"
4. On the reverse side, press all seams open. Once finished, give the front side a good press, as well
After these Cutting and Piecing steps, the pillow top should look like this : :
Layering and Quilting the Pillow Top : :
5. Cut Muslin and Batting to measure 14" x 18" -- Cutting these pieces larger will help when quilting. At a later point the excess will be trimmed away
6. Layer Muslin, Batting, and Pieced Pillow Top
7. Prepare for machine quilting. Pin layers together well, adding a few pins running down each of the eight different fabrics that makeup your pillow top
8. Stitch on either side of the seams as shown in the photo below (I used a pale purple and deep purple thread to match my color choices)
9. Once quilted, remove pins
After these Quilting steps, the pillow top should look like this : :
10. Using a large ruler or straight edge, trim away excess fabric, batting, and muslin. The pillow top should now measure 12.5" x 16.5"
Adding the Hand Quilted Detail : :
11. Carefully put the quilted pillow top inside the embroidery/quilting hoop, stretching it taught, but not too tight.
12. Cut a length of floss, thread strand onto embroidery needle, knotting one end
13. For a running Stitch : : Insert needle up through the bottom, pull the stitch through until the knot catches, insert down through the front and pull back through. Repeat leaving a little space between each stitch, like shown in the photo below. Try to keep those stitches even.
After these Hand Quilting steps, the pillow top should look like this : :
Sew pillow together : :
14. Prepare back pieces -- Using the 9" x 12.5" fabric pieces, fold over one of the sides measuring 12.5" just a 1/4", press, fold over again, press. Sew along inner folded edge and along the outer edge, staying close to the fold. This will create the double seam finish.
15. Place pillow top piece RIGHT side up on your work surface. Place both backing pieces RIGHT side down on top of the pillow top piece. Pin and sew along entire perimeter using a 1/4" seam allowance.
16. Zig zag stitch around the entire perimeter, as well
17. Trim all four corners
18. Turn pillow right side out (You can see here that I added my striped fabric running in different directions just for something different). Press well
19. Insert your pillow form and now you have your very own Favorite Colors Stripey Toss Pillow!!!
Wishing a wonderful weekend to all!!!
Be sure to let me know if you give it a go!
