Poinsettia Pillow

As you know I have been working on my crafts for the upcoming craft fair in November.  I figure because it is in November I should have some nods to Christmas.

This weekend I made two Poinsettia Pillows.  My inspiration came from this pillow at Pottery Barn.

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I decided to use more festive colors (but that might change as I make more of them I have lots of ideas).

Using red and white I made two pillows.

I didn't have any bells for the center so I used some very sparkly beads.  I might use more, and I'm still experimenting with the leaf shapes but I like how they turned out.

The pillows are made in a simple envelope pillow case so that you can either recover pillows you have or buy new inserts.  That way I don't have to worry about the pillows themselves, they can be bought at JoAnn's. Making the pillow cease removable also makes them very easy to wash, which is always good.

There are a million tutorials online for how to make an envelope pillowcase, so I will just go through  it very simply.

To start measure your case fabric twice the length of the pillow plus seven inches (that leaves a one inch trim and a six inch overlap in the back) and the width of the pillow plus one inch (for the hem).  My pillow was sixteen inches square so I made the pillow case fabric 39 inches long and seventeen inches wide.  I then found the center sixteen inches (this will be the front of the pillow where you put the Poinsettia).

Do you see the two little blue lines demarcating the
center 16 inches?  No? well it is there. :P

You end up with one long piece of fabric with two little marks for the bottom and top of the center 16 inches.  does that make sense?  Basically you just want to know where to sew your flower.

Next I found the center of my sixteen inch (front) of the fabric.  This is where my tenth grade geometry comes in.  I just found the corners of the area and drew a line diagonally near the center.  Do this lightly with chalk so it rubs out.  I then did the same thing with the other side, and where the two lines intersect was the center (Amazing I remembered that right?  It is not like my husband is not a Math teacher or anything! hehe  I have been known to call him into the middle of my craft project to get some math help.  Shhh don't tell.)

It is hard to see but I have the sixteen inch center square marked off lightly.
Here I'm finding the center of the area where the flower will go.

Now you have to make the flower petals.  I cut mine out of paper first then traced them onto the felt.

I cut five petals of thee sizes (five big, five medium and five small).  For the second pillow I made my petals wider and the bottom (I think the white Poinsettia came out better, so you may want wider petals than shown here).

I cut out the petals and laid out my flower.

In order to sew the flowers onto the pillow case I had to sew them on one layer at a time.  I pinned the first layer of petals then sewed them with my sewing machine.

Don't worry about the centers of this layer not touching it will be covered up by subsequent petal layers.  TIP: I sewed all the petals from the center out to keep them flat, sometimes I had to pass a quite a bit of the pillowcase under the needle to get to the center but it turned out alright in the end.

I then repeated with the remaining layers of petals.  Take care to make sure your last layer of petals are close together in the center because they have to be covered by the beads.  (It is not like I learned this from experience or anything lol)

Here is my second layer of petals ready to sew.  

Now you can sew on your bells or beads or what ever you want to use.  I hand sewed them.

Now all you have to do is sew up the pillow and you are done.  Hem the short edges (with felt this is super easy as it does not fray, just be sure you turn the fabric to the inside away from the flower).  Next, turning the fabric so that the flower is inside and the two layers are overlapping by six inches (or a little more so the pillow is nice and snug).

Don't worry, it will not be gone for long.

Pin and sew up the edges leaving a half inch hem.  Turn your pillow right side out and you are done!

I can't wait to make one with white petals on a silk pillow case, that will be really nice.  Are you getting ready for Christmas yet, or am the only crazy woman with holiday cheer before Halloween? (Hey, in my defense, they had Christmas stuff up at Lowes today!)

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