This project was so simple, I hesitate to call it a project, but I'll take credit, anyway. I bought a panel of cotton quilting fabric at a shop near Jtown over the summer, and added just a little embroidery (there are some French knots in the white dots, and a running stitch edging on one of the inner circles), then machine-sewed it, stitched up the bottom, and presented it to my brother and sister-in-law at Christmas. I think they liked it! The style reminded me of their home.
I'm minorly obsessed with pillows -- I really enjoy sewing them. I think it's because all I have to do is make two squares and sew them together, which is helpful as I am not a Seamstress Extraordinaire. (Roo took a sewing class last year, and as he showed me all of his meticulously sewn projects, all I could think was that my sewing is so slapdash. Ah, well.) Anyway, with my pillows, I have a couple of tips: I always handsew the entire bottom of the pillow. Most instructions tell you to machine sew as much as you can and then shove the pillow in, but I don't think that works and you end up ripping your stitches or the fabric. The other thing I like to do is sew the case slightly small (say, by 1/8 of an inch all around, so the pillow form really fills out the pillow case and it's super-puffy. Finally, my last "tip" is that Jo-Ann's has a great selection of pillows (I have personally accompained friends on two separate missions to Jo-Ann's in which they found the pillow size of their dreams) and it's pretty easy to get a coupon for 20% off or more.
So, go forth, and make pillows! The world needs more cushy resting places!
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