Throwback Throwpillow Thursday!

Happy Thursday! And more specifically, Happy Throwback Throwpillow Thursday! I think that may be the first time I've ever done an actual Throwback. First time for everything right. Well, this is DEFINITELY not the first time I've procrastinated. This blog post was meant to happen, in oh...uh...October. Oops. Well better (really) late than never right?

Back in October, I decided to make some decor pillows for our couch and bed. This meant fabric and sewing.

PAUSE---NEWSFLASH--I will have another post TOMORROW about fabric...a GIVEAWAY of fabric so that you could do your own sewing of pillow or something entirely not-pillow. And if you're a procrastinator like me, getting this particular fabric now may be just the right timing to allow for procrastination and still be able to squeeze in a creative sewing project on time to use this fabric. Hmmm....curious? :) Come back tomorrow and Enter to WIN the FABRIC GIVEAWAY!

Now back to my fabric and sewing project. These were my first pillows to make and I plan on there being MANY more. I mean, come on, you gotta have a variety to change them out and multiple couches, chairs, beds, you get the picture. My husband thinks that decor pillows are absolutely pointless and ridiculous. We joked about them so much before we got married, I would tease him saying there was going to be 20 on our bed and he would tease me saying he was going to hide them, etc. This video clip from Along Came Polly is so us but I'm the guy (but just the guy before he follows along because I'm not converting to anti-decor pillows) and my husband is the girl. So when it came time to write my vows, it seemed fitting to include something about decor pillows. In one of my promises, I said, " I give my word to agree to disagree on the necessity of dessert and decor pillows." Yeah, the dessert topic is for a WHOLE different day. :)

And so we have decor pillows :)

To make these, first I had to choose the fabric. If you know my mom, this task is not easy because she knows about EVERY fabric and EVERY website that sells it and EVERY sale and so the possibilities are truly endless and I have to say "stop, stop, 23 tabs open in your browser is enough for me to make a decision." :)

For the couch pillows (I will write about the bedroom pillows another time...don't ask when, haha) I chose Riley Blake Ombre Dots. I bought them from an Etsy store called Selvage123. We have a green leather couch (on loan from my parents until we find our own) and while I really like the couch's comfiness and color, green is not high on my list so it took awhile to find something I would like to match the couch and not be too green. And you're saying, "the only color on that fabric is green." True, but because it is ombre there is not an overabundance of one shade of froggy or mossy green. Also I love ombre and this was my first ombre item to own. So there, it's green without being GREEN.

I bought pillow forms at JoAnn's (they were on sale! each pillow was about $6.50) This picture includes the pillows for our bed as well.

I made an envelope pillow cover. There are several tutorials that you find on Pinterest, I just typed it into Bing and found this YouTube video: How to Make an Envelope Pillow Cover as one of the top results. It's only 8minutes long, to-the-point, and very informative. If you want to make these, I would suggest watching this since my directions and pictures are not as thorough as a video.

First, measure the pillow. Mine were 17"x17". For the front of the pillow cover, you will need a square of fabric that is 1" bigger on all 4 sides, so in my case, 18"x18".

For the back of your pillow cover, you will want the same height (18") but then 4" wider than the front. This piece should be 18"x22". The four extra inches will provide the overlap envelope on the back of the cover. Once you have the back piece cut, then you will need to cut it in half so that you have two pieces that are 18"x11".

Next, you will need to hem just one of the longer (18") sides for both of those two back pieces. Fold 1/4" towards the wrong side of the fabric and press. Fold 1/4" again and press again.

Then you will need to sew the hems on both pieces of fabric.

I used a zig-zag stitch right down the center of the fold to keep it all hemmed nicely.

The next part I failed to take pictures of. If my directions confuse you, refer to the video for the visual.
Lay the front piece right side up on your table.
Lay one of your back pieces right side down on top of the front piece. You will want to lay it so that the left, top, and bottom edges meet up and the hemmed edge is in the middle.
Now lay the second back piece right side down as well. This time line up the right, top, and bottom edges with the front piece. The hemmed side should be overlapping your other hemmed side on the other back piece. Still with me?

Now you will want to pin all around the outside edges to keep the front and back pieces together.

Sew around all four edges. Remember, that overlap of the two back pieces is the opening to take your pillow in and out so that's why you sew all the way around the outside edge. As you'll see in the video, she keeps the right side of the foot along the outside edge of the fabric.

Once you are done sewing, you will want to trim the excess fabric in the corners so that when you turn it inside out, you have nice crisp corners. Be careful not to cut your seam.

Here it is finished and inside-out. You can see the hem where it overlaps and is the envelope opening.

Flip it right-side-out and poke the little corners out.

Stuff your pillow in.

Voila! You just made a pillow cover. Pretty easy huh? Hey, if I can do it, you can do it too!

Here they are on my couch.

See, not too GREEN, right?

 Hooray for easy sewing projects! (notice I cropped the picture really close so you can't see too much of my new house until the photo tour next week!)

Remember, be sure to come back tomorrow for a FABRIC GIVEAWAY!!!

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