Skip to main content

Pillow Talk


Fabric Mart is having an incredible Home Dec sale right now, and I ordered two yards of fabric for recovering some throw pillows- 1 solid and 1 print.   The one thing that I have learned over the years in making pillow covers, is that the home dec fabric really is superior to using regular cotton fabric.  Pillows actually take quite a bit of stress, and regular cotton fabric will tear and wrinkle,  but home dec fabric doesn't.

I use down pillow forms that I got from IKEA in various shapes and sizes.  I like down-filled pillows because they seem to last longer than regular polyester filled pillows, and I can just change the covers on them. And you cannot beat IKEA's price on them!  They are the same price that you would pay for polyester filled pillows at a regular fabric store. Again, you really need home dec fabric to use down pillows, as it is dense and won't let the pointy feathers through.   Those feathers will manage to get through once in a while, but not often.

For the covers, I don't do anything fancy.  I just cut a square or rectangle the size of the form plus 1"  for seam allowances.   I serge the raw edges, and use the selvages for edges if I can because that will be the best edge finish.  I insert a zipper on one side- whatever zippers I have on hand.
Here I used some brass zippers that I got in an assortment from Sew True Sewing Supply.
I don't see the assortment there anymore, but they are still a pretty great price for a very heavy duty zipper. 

I was able to get 3 covers from each yard.  The geometric print was $5, and the solid was $3.50, so with the zippers included, I was able to get 6 covers for less than $15 total and less than 2 hours of work!  Not bad for a fresh look to the living room. Isn't that right, Fred (our cat)? 


Have you bought any home dec fabrics lately?  What do you like to make with them?

Happy Sewing!
 

Ann


 

Comments

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks, Jean Margaret. Yes, I don't think I could have gone shopping and bought pillows in less time than it takes to actually cut and sew them. They are remarkably quick.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Thanks for visiting my blog! I would love to hear your opinions! Please share your comments here.

Popular posts from this blog

What to Wear in Madagascar

To be honest, I have no idea what to wear in Madagascar, and this title may need to be changed to "what NOT to wear in Madagascar" in a few months.  We will have to wait and see.  My 22 year old daughter, Alyssa, left for the Peace Corps this week, and she will be stationed in Madagascar for the next 2 years and 3 months.  Yes, you read that right- TWO YEARS and three months!!! We are very proud of her for wanting to help make the world a better place, and for being fearless in doing so, but it will be a looooong time for Mama and Papa back home. Not knowing anything about Madagascar, the first step in figuring out what to pack was to figure out the weather and the cultural norms.  Madagascar is a very large island off the southeastern coast of Africa.  It's very, very unique in it's ecosystem, and has many species that are not found anywhere else in the world- most famously lemurs. Right now, it is experiencing it's rainy season, as you can see by the

Vogue 9305 Asymmetrical Tunics

It's April and we're expecting snow tonight.  Have we switched hemispheres?  Nevertheless, I am sewing with visions of warm sunny days.  And for those warm sunny days to come, I imagine sitting in the shade with a light breeze flowing through the air, enjoying a light beverage with friends.  Just close your eyes and you can imagine too.  What would you be wearing?  Well,  I love a dramatic asymmetrical tunic made of the softest linen.  As luck would have it, I found just the fabric in the "As Is" section in Fabric Mart's sales category.  With just some irregular dye marks on the selvage, it was marked down, but still completely usable.  It started out as a solid color, but I did an ombre dip dye process to get this look- more on that later! For my pattern, I chose Vogue 9305 , a tunic with a shaped hemline, and two styles of pants (I didn't make the pants).   This pattern must be the biggest bang for your time possible.  The tunic went tog

Grey Cashmere Coat Simplicity 3672

For the past few months, Fabric Mart has had the most gorgeous array of Michael Kors Wool Blend Coatings that I have ever seen!  During COVID stay at home time, I've been letting my gray grow out, and I thought that even though some of the delicious sounding shades like apricot and apple green would be beautiful, the heathered gray shade would be the most flattering to my gray hair and the most versatile for a winter coat.  And it was one of the coatings that listed Cashmere as one of the fiber components, so I was curious as to how that would feel.