Wedding Blog

*deep breath* All right, since many of you asked for it, here are the instructions for the pillow.

Sorry for the delay; it took a bit of time to sketch out the steps. I must warn that this post will be a long one…

This project does require some sewing skills and will definitely go much faster if you have access to and know how to operate a sewing machine. Since I figure that most people attempting this will have some sewing experience anyway, I won’t go into sewing basics here, but feel free to email me if you have any questions. All right - time to get our craft on!

You will need:

2 10×10″ pieces satin fabric
1 12×6″ piece satin fabric
1 12×6″ piece sheer fabric (chiffon, organza, etc.)
2 24″ pieces thin satin ribbon
Assorted beads
Matching cotton thread
Clear beading thread (usually nylon or acylic)
Sewing needle
Beading needle (long, very thin to fit through bead holes)
Chopstick or pen
Poly stuffing
Iron and ironing board

When you lay out your cut fabric pieces, you should have four total, as follows:

First, take the two 12×6″ rectangles and place them on top of each other. (I use blue in the diagrams for the sheer piece.) The RIGHT sides should be facing inwards, towards each other, with the WRONG sides outside. Following the dotted lines in the diagram, stitch the two rectangles together, making sure the seam allowance (distance between stitches and edge of fabric) is not bigger than .5″.

Turn your stitched rectangles inside out, so the seams you just made are on the inside, and then iron it flat. This will eventually be the “bow” part of the pillow.

Now, take one of the 10×10″ satin squares place it RIGHT side up in front of you. Lay the ironed rectangle on top, centering it and matching up the edges as in the diagram (the center of the bow will “buckle” a little bit because it is larger than the square; this is a good thing). Both pieces should be RIGHT side up. Stitch the two together at the edges as shown.

Take the last 10×10″ square and place it RIGHT side up in front of you. Flip over the whole piece you just sewed and place it, bow side down, on top of the last square. Carefully stitch around the whole thing, leaving a gap on one side. Make sure this line of sewing is inside the stitches made in the last step, as in the diagram (follow pink stitching). Trim off the excess fabric at the corners (not too close!).

Turn the pillow inside out through the gap in the stitches. Use a chopstick or a (capped) pen to poke out the corners all the way; iron if you feel like it. Fill with stuffing; should be pretty firm and hold its shape. Slipstitch the opening closed by hand with cotton thread (see diagram). (click image to enlarge)

Now it’s time to make the bow part. Thread up a needle with cotton thread and, by hand, run a line of simple in-and-out stitches through the center of the bow fabric. Make sure the knot at the end of your thread is a secure and fairly large one; then pull up the string to gather the fabric until you think it looks pretty. Take a couple of stitches back into the folds of the newly created bow to secure; tie off and trim excess thread.

Thread up the needle with clear thread, and sew on some pretty beads to the bow part by hand. I didn’t have a plan as I did mine; just sort of randomly stitched them on. Make sure you do not stitch into the actual pillow or else you will not be able to put in the ribbons.

Take the ribbon and fold both pieces in half. Stick them underneath the bow so the folded part comes out at the top in small loops, and the rest of the ribbons stream out from the bottom. Thread up the needle one more time and sew the ribbons to the bow on its underside, at the base of the loops, and again where the “streamers” come out. You may also want to take a few stitches to secure the bow to the pillow itself.

You’re done! Let me know if I can do something to make it a bit more clear. Hope this helps! If you end up making this, email me a picture… I’d love to see how it turns out!