Tapestry Pillow Tutorial

 

Sewing machines and I don’t get along.  It’s not that I’m holding a grudge, because, you see, there’s not just ONE thing that makes me dislike them.  We have a long history of conflict.  And so, I’ve been putting off this pillow project.

But I finally got it done tonight.  It was another project for What Woudl You do with It Wednesday at The Country Chic Cottage.  Angie’s been waiting patiently for my pictures and text. :)

But there were patches and snags all over it, and there wasn’t enough to make one big pillow.  Enter the stripes.

 

 

 

I love stripes.  Like totally, LOVE them.  My best friend has to keep encouraging me to look at other fabrics.  LOVE STRIPES.

And I love this fabric.  So I finally bought some at Hobby Lobby last weekend.  The colors were good with the tapestry, but the white was just TOO bright.  So decided to do an experiment (that smelled really good, by the way.)

It was hard for me to capture the difference in the camera, but the coffee took out the harshness of the white for me.  How do you dry coffee soaked fabric quickly so that you can sew it?  I had wet clothes in the dryer, so I tried my hair dryer without luck.  Then, I hung them outside on the porch in the gale force winds we have in Iowa today.  Took a break to put my son to bed, and voila!  They were dry!

 

I drew out this fancy pattern.  The left picture is the front of the pillow.  The 10 inch piece in the middle is the tapestry.  The right is the size I needed to cut the striped fabric.

I cut out my tapestry, taking care to make sure that the pattern was centered. (It’s not…oops!)

Wait a minute – doesn’t my pattern say 24 inches?  How did I end up with 22?   Hmmm…things like this always happen when I sew. 

Then it was time to get my old friend out of the china cabinet.  Yeah, that’s where she lives.  Under the wine glasses.

Then I sewed.  I hate sewing.  Started off, and it came unthreaded immediately.  Not my friend.

Got it rethreaded and then it wouldn’t go.  Just wouldn’t go.  Made noise, but no sewing.  Took me a few minutes and some swearing to realize that I had the little bobbin thingy pushed over.  If you sew, you know what I’m talking about, right?

 

I guess I forgot to take pictures of this part, but here’s what I did.

1. Side of tapestry to stripes, right sides together. 

2. Other side of tapestry to stripes, right sides together.

3. Tops, right sides together.

4.  Bottom?  I’d love to tell you how I finished it up, but I didn’t finish it.  Shhh, don’t tell….I send all my pillows “out” (to Grandma) to get finished.

  

 

Oh yeah, I also made this dorky tassel.  :)