Sewing project - accent pillows

Katie is remodeling her little girl bedroom decor to a more mature safari decor. For Christmas she received a black comforter and a couple of zebra accent pillows. Today we sewed three giraffe print accent pillows to add to her bed. Making pillows is one of the easiest sewing projects on the planet.

First, choose the pillow form you want to purchase. I elected to go with a preformed pillow rather than using the cheaper option of stuffing the pillow myself with batting. If you have never purchased fabric for a project before, it is probably easiest to ask the person at the counter to help you estimate how much you need. I figured up my own fabric purchase in the following way:

My pillow forms were 16x16. This meant to allow for seam allowances, I would need a piece of fabric at least 33x33. Therefore I estimated using approximately one yard per pillow.

I also purchased a large black rope trim for accenting the pillows. When figuring up how much trim to buy, you simply have to add up the measurements of the edges (perimeter). I always purchase a little extra of this, just in case I have miscalculated the size of my finished product.


Once home, I cut out two pieces of fabric measuring 16 1/2 x 16 1/2. I chose to only do 1/4 inch seams because my trim had 1/4 inch edge.


Next, I laid the trim on the right side of the pillow fabric, and sewed it on my machine. The trickiest part of putting on trim is turning corners. I used my seam guide to measure up a 1/4 inch from the edge to see when I needed to turn my corners.


After attaching the trim to one side of the pillow, I added the other piece of fabric - right sides together - and stitched the two pieces together on three sides.

Typically when using trim, you can go ahead and do these steps all at once, sewing through the front, trim, and back all at once. However, my trim was a little bulky to maneuver, so I separated the steps. Remember when sewing on trim to use your zipper foot to get as close as possible to the rounded edge of the trim.

If you have never applied trim, I would highly recommend beginning with a light weight piping that is sold in packages by the zippers. This adds a nice touch and is very easy to maneuver.




After my pillow case was sewn together on three sides, I inserted my pillow form. Last, I handstiched the case closed. This entire project, from start to finish took less than 2 hours.



Happy sewing!