Jen Russum

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Petal Pillow Tutorial

So in addition to sewing lots of pillows this summer, I also redeemed a pillow I already owned. A couple years ago, I bought this little, boring yellow pillow from IKEA. I don’t really know why. I think it was Ã¼ber inexpensive {like under $5} and I wanted a pop of color for my bed. However, after we got married, I decided I was sick of this pillow. Not only was it boring, it also didn’t quite go with our new duvet cover and the pillow form inside was too small for the case, so it always seemed a little too floppy. I tossed it in a closet for almost a year with plans to beautify it when summer va-cay arrived. {Sorry, I didn’t take a before picture because it was just too drab to look at!}

Well, summer arrived and when it was almost over, I finally pulled out this pillowcase and got to work. I LOVE the result. Here is what I did:

I used an empty granola bar box to cut out my petal stencil {and golden graham bars are really good by the way, in case you were wondering}. I just drew a petal by hand and then cut it out carefully.

I then lightly traced the petal with a pencil onto the back side of my chosen fabric. {This fabric matched another pillow I had already sewn for our bed – trying to make my pillows coordinate a little bit and downplay the yellow on this case.} After I had traced six petals, I went over the lines with fray check, so they won’t fray later on, and then I cut out each petal carefully. The fray check seems dark at first, but it dries completely and disappears.

I then used a heavier green fabric for the center of the flower. I wanted the green to go with our mostly green paisley duvet cover. I traced the circle with the top of a spice container that seemed to be the right size (hey it’s DIY, right!?), used fray check and then cut the circle. Look at the pic on the far right for an easy way to cut a clean circle! Make slits going toward the circle and then you just have to cut around the circle itself for a few centimeters until you hit each slit and the extra fabric falls off. You quickly get a perfectly round edge!

Iron your pillowcase to avoid sloppy application. It’s the right thing to do, I promise! {And I realllly hate ironing!}

Place your petals onto the fabric prior to gluing to make sure you get them spaced evenly. Then pick up one at a time, glue the back with Liquid Stitch (did you actually think I was going to sew this thing??? Ha!), and then place firmly onto the fabric. Smooth the petal carefully so there are no bumps and then move onto the next petal. For gluing, I found that it was best to apply the glue around the edge and then smooth it into the middle of the petal with my finger.

Let the pillow dry overnight!

And voila! I now have an upcycled pillow for my bed that adds a pop of color but also works as an anchor to coordinate all my other pillows! LOVE! {And to take care of the floppy problem, I put the pillow form back inside, but I also added leftover polyester stuffing from the last pillows I made. Now my pillow is perfectly puffy!}

Hope you will try it!!! I mean, you don’t even have to sew it!

* Linking up with It’s Overflowing… *

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