Time: 2 hours
Cost: $15
Materials:
- 1 yard of Cotton Fabric
- 1/4 yard of Felt
- Pillow form (mine was 12" x 12")
- Thread
- Pins
- Scissors
- Paper
- Few cups and bowls for size
- Sewing Machine
How-To
1. With the paper, trace two different sized circles on a piece of paper. I made my bigger circle 3 inches and the smalled circle 2 inches. Cut out the circles and this will be your pattern for making the petals.
2. To make this step quicker, fold the felt to cut more circles at once. Pin the circle pattern down and cut around the pattern. You need about 20 big circles and 30 smaller circles. This number all depends on the size of your pillow form. For a bigger pillow you should cut more.
3. (This step is optional) When buying the fabric, I felt like the white felt was a little to bright against the other fabric, I decided to dye the fabric in tea to give it a more vintage tint. I let all the circles sit in 5 packets of tea overnight and then rinsed them out the next day. I then layed them out to dry on a towel.
4. Set aside one of the smaller circles which will be used as the center of the flower and cut the remaining circles in half.
5. Now you are going to cut the fabric for the pillow. There are going to be 3 pieces to cut. My three pieces were 14" x 14", 14" x 10", and 14" x 8". You should cut the fabric about 2 inches larger than the size of your pillow form.
6. I used an 8" bowl and traced a circle on the center of the square fabric with pencil. This will be the outline for where the flower petals will go.
7. Align the bigger petals around the outline and start to sew, overlapping the petals a little. Do this all the way around. After making about 4 or 5 rows with the bigger petals, you should switch to using the smaller petals using the same technique. As you get closer to the center, you can scrunch and bend the petals as you sew so they will stick up a little. This will give your flower volume.
8. When At the end on the flower, use your remaining circle and cut it smaller to place in the center to cover the inner seams and then stitch across. This completes the hardest part of the pillow.
9. With the remaining 2 pieces, you want to fold in the the long side about 1/2 inch on just one side. This is to make a nice edge for the pocket you will create to hold the pillow.
10. With the right sides facing in, and the raw side facing outwards, lay the shorter piece on top of the flower piece.
11. Then lay the longer piece on top. Then pin all the sides. If you have a patterned fabric like I used, make sure it is aligned and going in the same direction.
12. Sew a 5/8 seam around all the edges. You may iron open the seams and cut the corners for cleaner edges.
13. Finally, turn the fabric right side out and stuff the pillow form into the pocket you created on the back.
Now you have a fun, decorative pillow that will definitely impress and looks expensive!
