Quick Pillow Project

I got my sewing machine back from its tune up.  I got it form my mom, so it must be at least twenty years old, but it is doing well (just dirty).

My first project with my (now clean) sewing machine was to make a little pillow for my bed.  Our little bed needed some color.  I already had the pillow form, actually it is a pillow that my husband loves, so I kept it just as it is, just covered with a case (I'm sneaky like that).  Not to mention have you seen the price of stuffing?  I seriously considered pulling apart one of my bed pillows for stuffing instead.  I got some nice bright blue/green satin-like fabric (yes I'm not really sure what it is). 

My good friend Tammy over at Type A wrote about the ease of making an envelope pillow case so I looked up a tutorial.  The real fun of a pillow is the trimmings.  I made these little flowers for my pillow.

Here's how I did it.

Cut out the templates from some paper (I used some scrap paper from my thesis, I have a lot of it).

Then traced the circles on the fabric.  Again I used my husbands chalk I found in his pocket (I really need to get some sewing chalk).

The circles don't have to be perfect. 

My favorite part is singing the edges.  Jeff was smart, amd suggested I use a candle.  We only had matches and I kept lighting them.

The edges need to be singed very lightly.  My fabric was probably completely synthetic because it melted just perfectly.  Be careful I got a nasty blister from melted fabric.

I layered the different singed circles together and sewed a button for the center.  I love going through my buttons.  This was another great gift from my mom when she moved to Australia.  My big tin of buttons.

It is always fun for me to go through this button tin.  There are even some buttons from clothes my mom made me when I was a child.

I made the pillow case, attached the flowers and it was done.  I didn't include the tutorial on the pillow case because I really am no expert, there are a million tutorials that are much better.  Tammy was right, the envelope pillow case was so easy to make.  I did it in twenty minutes.

I love this pillow, there may be some more pillows in my future and curtains, clothes oh the list is endless now that my machine is in working order. 

What sewing projects are you planning this spring?