Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Pillow Talk

My mom finally gave me her old sewing machine so I got right to work. I've had about 3-4 pillow forms laying around for years just waiting to be covered in some fun bright fabric. Plus, I decided to change out a few existing pillow cases. 

Check out this old beauty.

I love the old case it came in. However, me and my new machine (I call her Regina) were not instant friends. We should have been, but things didn't really work out that way. I spent a good hour trying to figure out why the tension wasn't working. The top stitch was too tight, the bottom too loose. I tried adjusting everything and it just wasn't working out. Finally, I called in the husband and we he ended up basically taking the thing apart to clean out the 20+ years of dust in there. After that, she worked like a charm.

I'm glad I started with some old ugly scrap fabric my mama gave me (thank, mom!) because it definitely took me a while to figure out. But once I did, we were moving. 

Cut the fabric (I made sure to line up the stripes).


Sew the fabric (sewing was just like riding a bike... it was a little hard to "ride" in a straight line at first though).

Leave an opening to stuff in the pillow.

Iron the edges and trim if needed so they will lay flat. Cut the corners off so they don't get bulky.


And then you have yourself some purty pillows...

...that you now must hand stitch shut. I'm digging the bold green stripes and the navy floral pattern (I even have another project coming up with the same navy pattern too!). 

I love that pillows are so easy to change (especially if you make true slip covers instead of actually sewn in covers like I did) and can really brighten up and bring color to a room. 

Have you sewn any pillow covers lately? How about any other sewing projects that are an easy fix to add a little character to a room?

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