Pile of Pillows!

I think it would be hard to do home dec sewing and not make a least one giant pile of pillows.  These are for my oldest child, to go on her new hot pink bed, and when she saw them she said, “These make me think of Grammie, since she always has pillows all over the house.”  Which is true: my mother uses pillows as accents pretty much everywhere, and it feels very cottage and home-y.  We all feel more comfortable when we’ve got some squishy pretty softness nearby.

My husband and I don’t have a bunch of pillows on our bed–he has set the limit at three–but our daughter is 16 and when you’re 16, you can have ALL the pillows you want.  Lucky for her, we’re learning to make all these styles of pillow (and a few more) in the Sewing for Your Home e-course.

The really huge polka-dotted ones at the back are an envelope style pillow, with no closures.  They’re quick and simple to make, and once you know some tricks, you can make them flawlessly every time.  This is the style my mother prefers, because she doesn’t have to have any zippers or buttons on hand to get these done, so she can make them basically out of thin air.

The other polka-dotted one is a piped pillow with an on-seam invisible zipper.  When I teach students to make the zippered, piped pillow in Stitch by Stitch, I often get asked if it’s possible to put in a zipper AND piping, and of course, it IS.  The technique is a little more complicated, and the steps get done in a different order, but it’s all-so-do-able.  I like this style for oddly-shaped pillows, and for fabrics you really don’t want to cut up to insert a zipper.

The pink ruffly one is a surprise to me: I completely love it, and can’t believe it.  It’s pink!  I don’t usually love pink.  But this one is SO speaking to me–I’ve determined that it’s the super cute pleated ruffle that I love, which makes sense, because I always love a nice pleat.  We’re doing these with either pleats or gathers, so lots of ruffles to go around–and once you’ve learned to put in a ruffle, you can pretty much put in any trim on the market (we’ll talk about those, too).

The last is the bolster pillow, a special request from my constant reader.  I like the shape of the bolster, because I don’t think you really see it that often, and when you put it next to squares and rectangles and circles, it makes the whole bed more interesting.  This one has a little yo-yo detail on the end panel, with a contrast peekaboo fabric in the center, plus some chubby piping to make it really fun.  With an invisible zipper up the back, it’s classy and chic (but I like doing a metal zip sometimes, to give it a little biker pizzazz).

I’ve been waiting for two days for it to get less overcast to get sunny-day photos of these guys, but it never cleared up.  And then I realized: that’s just as well, because even with the bright, poppy colors, they beg to be snuggled into and tucked up against, and make me want to find a good book and a cup of tea.  I can’t remember the last time I had the indulgence of sitting in bed in the middle of the day, reading and sipping something warm, nowhere to be and nothing to do.  Remember college?  And all the “free” time we had?  What if we could get all THAT time back and have it NOW?  How much would that rock??

At least we can have the pillows, y’all.

There are still spots left in the Sewing for Your Home e-course that starts on Monday!  Check out all the details and come on over!