Beautiful Pillows to Add “POP” to a Room

Over the years my decorating taste/style has definitely changed or evolved for the better. When we moved to to this house I really wanted to go more gray based. I love that clean look of gray and white. Unfortunately I have brownish leather furniture which I have no desire to get rid of because when I see how much dust gets on them it grosses me out how dirty upholstery can get. In addition this house is 11 years old and of course is a beige based house.

That’s ok.

I feel like I have a lot of black and white items in my house and I thought when I saw the Lavish Collection from Art Gallery Fabrics it was the perfect “pop” of color this room needed. I love this collection and it’s here in my store. Art Gallery Fabric seems to have the right look for home decor items, It has a beautiful finish to it as well, little sheeny, Nice to work with too!

So let’s get going on how to make these 4 pillows.

The simplest was the white circle. I made 2 circles, from this fabric, for my 16″ insert by weighing down the pillow insert and drawing a line around the perimeter with a chalk marker, against the outer edge and draw around the entire insert( you can see my green line in the picture). When I cut it out I added about 1/2 inch all around for the seam allowance. I made my piping out of the blossom swale fabric ( black with flowers all over). Here is a great tutorial by Swoon Patterns, I want to make her bag, Wait till you see it, Love at first site! Attach it to the right side of 1 white circle, raw edges of the piping out, they will be aligned with raw edge of the white pillow circle.

After attaching piping with my zipper foot, then right sides together I added the other white circle leaving about a 6″ opening for turning and stuffing the pillow form.Before turning, I clipped along the raw edge so that it would lay flatter.

I made my “R” in my Silhouette Cameo Software, using Briar Rose Font, I used my silhouette fabric blade set to 3 and then the preset settings and used their fusible webbing onto the fuschia fabric from Art Gallery. Then I fused it to my pillow front after I turned it right side out. Insert form and close up opening with a blindstitch. My embellishments are from this fabric, and they are just little yo-yo’s with tiny buttons hot glued in the center , then just glued to the lower part of the “R”.

Next pillow is the Gray Burlap Heart. I had to make my own insert for that. I designed a heart shape out of freezer paper, I wanted a flat bottom(you can see in the picture if you look close), I wanted it about 12″ tall, I folded my paper in half so my heart is a mirrored image, drew 2 lines to show me the 12″ height. I started the center of the heart 2 1/2 inch down drew a dot there on the fold then just gently curved around and down. I trimmed it up a little more until I liked the shape. I cut out 2 pieces for front and back. Then I cut out 2 strips 2 3/4 x full length of fabric , my burlap was 58″, sew the strips together to make 2 3/4 x 116, I serged the outer long edges of this big strip to prevent raveling problems.

I pinned right sides together 1 heart shape to the 2 3/4″ edge. I actually hand pleated it all the way around. I took tinier pleats at the dip of the heart and the corners of the bottom, I sewed the edge on and sewed 2 times around the heart to prevent raveling. Then I attached the other heart back piece to the other side of the edge, sewed it as well, leaving 6″ opening on the side, don’t leave opening on the bumps of the heart. Turn right side out.

For my insert I actually layered fluffy batting and made more heart shapes, piling them on top of each other. Then I inserted them as one unit. I added a couple more just to make it thicker. Before closing I actually put fray check on the burlap edges to prevent more unraveling, (took a walk while it dried).I closed the opening with thick upholstery thread.Also at this time I did a couple stitches on top of each other, in the center, to make a tufted look and help secure everything, my embellishment covers that up.

My embellishment: I took my sizzix and made 5 circles, ( use a glass to make your circles). Fold each circle in half, wrong sides together. Make a running stitch along the raw edge, make sure to knot your thread first, Then pull up the thread and watch it gather into a petal! Add the next 4 circles the same way never cutting the original thread. I then connect them by rethreading through the original 1st petal and go a couple times to secure them, knot on the back, I then hot glued a big button to the fabric flower then hot glued to tufted area of pillow and hot glued button to the back.

Stripe pillow:

I used a 20″ pillow form and 2 fabrics. I made a panel out of various width strips sewn together, The black fabric I cut several strips between 1 3/4- 21/2″.

The small print floral I cut anywhere between 1 1/4 to 13/4″.

I sewed with 1/4 inch seam

I kept track of the black fabric, I was hoping it would show the continuation of the pattern mixed but the seams ate up too much of the design for that to work. Also I sewed down a seam then sewed up the next one to prevent too much shifting. I kept sewing strips right sides together mixing up widths until my panel was 21″. I trimmed it up, I pressed it every few added strips, I used starch too.

I trimmed and squared up my panel 21″ all the way around.

 

I made my piping out of the fuschia and attach that, Then I added my back to my pillow flipped it and insert pillow form, I love this, Helps everything else pop.

The most time consuming is the small patchwork pillow.

 

Cut 30 squares 2 1/2 inch out of the small floral

cut 5 strip 1 1/4″ of the fuchsia fabric.

SEW the lower side of square to the fuchsia strips  , then cut and trim, press towards fuchsia ,

Rotate your square with the fuchsia to the left and sew a fuchsia strip to the bottom (refer to pictures). Again press open to fuchsia, trim

For 3 rows you need to stack 6 squares high with the fuchsia band on top, then the other 2 rows you need 5 squares plus at the bottom you need a gray square with the fuchsia band to the left side, refer to picture. You could line these rows up and be very traditional but I decided to alter them for different look. I lined up the first 2 rows with the fuchsia bands in the center of the next rows gray square, I trimmed the edge off so that the 2 rows are now even at top and bottom, This acts as a guide when you add remaining rows.

Once all the rows are attached I trimmed up. , Made my piping out of fuchsia, I attached some white rick rack to the piping by keeping the rick rack up on the curved part of piping so that when sewed to the pillow you can see a bit of it. If you look closely you can see the rick rack is above the original stitching I made when I sewed the piping together.

 

 

Then sew your piping to pillow like your other pillows, attach backing and turn right side out , insert pillow form.

 

I know a very long post but really pretty decorative pillows, Hope you enjoy!