Folk Art Felt Pillow

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Inspired by Hawaiian quilts and folk art traditions, I created a flower pattern that can be appliquéd for a 20″x20″ pillow. I’m giving complete instructions for making the pillow, so if you’re not interested in trying the appliqué you can still use the tutorial to learn to make a pillow cover. I used a wool blend for the front of this pillow and a canvas fabric for the back. The felt is easy to work with and cut, but I would recommend using 100% wool or a high-quality blend for durability. I think this would be great in a variety of colors.

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Rather than attaching a .pdf file, I will just give the instructions here, as they are pretty quick. This project may take an hour or two. This is difficult for me to estimate because I was working on it with kids “helping”. I think a beginner can do this, but you might want to practice sewing around corners and edges.

Supplies:

  • felt: 1 yard of background color, 1/2 yard of contrasting felt
  • backing fabric: 1 yard of canvas, felt, or upholstery fabric
  • small, sharp scissors
  • fabric marker or regular pen
  • pins
  • 2 large buttons
  • thread to match contrasting felt color
  • 20″ x 20″pillow form

Step 1: Cut Fabric

  • Background felt: 22″x22″
  • Pillow Back (2 pieces): 22″x17″, 22″x14″

Step 2: Create Appliqué Shape

  • Print and cut out template below. Card stock might be helpful here.
  • Trace pattern directly onto felt with a fabric marker or regular pen, then rotate design 90 degrees and continue until you have the full flower effect (if using a regular pen, be sure to flip over before sewing design to hide markings).
  • Carefully cut out shape with small, sharp scissors.

folk-art-pillow-template.pdf

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Step 3: Sew Appliqué Shape

  • Fold pillow front background fabric in halves to mark center (or measure), then pin appliqué design to the center of the fabric, with at least one pin in each point of the flower. Felt sticks to itself pretty well, so you shouldn’t have too much trouble with slipping as you sew.
  • With matching thread, carefully sew shape onto pillow background with a straight stitch, moving slowly around the corners. Stitching should be almost to the edge. Take your time.

Step 4: Buttonholes

  • Take the two pieces of backing fabric and fold one edge of each piece down 3″ (on a 22″ side). If you can manage it, try to have the selvege ends folding down; otherwise, run a quick overcasting stitch along the edge to prevent fraying. Press the folds down.
  • On the larger piece, measure 7 1/2″ in from each edge and 1/2″ up from fold. Mark this as the bottom of your buttonhole. Sew buttonholes perpendicular to the fold in the fabric, as shown in photo below (this helps keep them from opening).

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Step 5: Sew Pillow Together

Make a “fabric sandwich” in the following order:

  1. felt pillow front piece (with appliqué side face up).
  2. backing fabric larger piece with buttonhole (wrong side facing up).
  3. backing fabric without buttonhole next (wrong side facing up). The fabric with the buttonholes should overlap the smaller piece by about 3″ to form pillow opening.
  • Pin and sew fabric together.
  • Trim excess and corners.
  • Cut buttonholes open with a seam ripper or sharp scissors (you can put a pin in the bottom so you don’t cut too far).
  • Turn right side out and sew buttons. It helps to lay pillow cover flat and draw a line through the buttonhole to mark the correct spot for the button.

All done! Hope this makes sense. Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

New Fabric

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It actually snowed here in Atlanta yesterday. Neither of my kids remembered what it looks like and they tried in vain to make a snowman from one inch of snow. After a few minutes of piling up snow mixed with dirt and leaves, my five-year-old asked if she could just eat the carrot we brought outside for the nose.

Meanwhile I’m thinking about spring. Here’s some new fabric I ordered from ReproDepot. The girls are really excited about the Wizard of Oz canvas. Not sure what we’ll make yet.

Patchwork and Quilted Pillows

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I made these pillows last week in my patchwork frenzy and just finished them last night. I embroidered the flowers and lines and sewed them in with the cotton prints. I used upholstery fabric for the border and backing so I’ll need to have them dry cleaned after the inevitable jelly hands get to them.

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After I made these, I found this totally amazing pillow from A Stitch in Dye which is giving my pillows an inferiority complex. You can see her beautiful work on her Flickr page here and more for sale in her Etsy shop. She also has a blog here. Wow, I’m a fan! I am really in love with the hand dyed look, inspired color choices and beautiful free form quilting. These must have taken hours to make and they are really inexpensive ($40 and $42 each).

Here are a couple of other nice quilted pillows:

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This one is from Raeburn Ink, $70.

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And this one by Neressa Bennett, $95.

All of these modern quilt designs make me think of the Quilts of Gee’s Bend. I felt inspired when I saw this exhibition and I urge you to take a look at the patterns, color and design for inspiration even if you are not a quilter.

Crowns

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We’re all about fairies, princesses and now, after our trip to Hawaii and a television program starring a large-headed Spanish-speaking character, mermaids too. Since I’ve started sewing, the kids are asking me to make things (often unrealistic, elaborate things, by the way).

My younger daughter wanted a fairy crown yesterday so her sweet sister made her the one pictured above and fitted it properly with no assistance from me; just the stapler. Are you tired of me showing my child’s drawings? If you’re my mother, you’re not. Today the little one once again requested a mermaid crown, so I obliged with this fabric, some leftover shells from our beach trip last year and a glue gun.

Yo-Yo Ornaments

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What? The holidays are over? We have a dead Christmas tree and I just now completed my ornaments for the Holiday Ornament Swap.

Now granted; I never did receive my list of swapmates, but finally got the list from someone who graciously sent me an ornament. Thank you! So here are my ornaments all made and ready to ship. Better late than never? The first photo shows all nine ornaments stacked up and makes me wish I’d made little yo-yo accordion ornaments, but the next photo is what the ornaments look like on their own. This is the first time I have made fabric yo-yos and I love them! Here are some very nice instructions. So many possibilities and you can make them while watching Project Runway.