Fast
Fleece
Pillow
By Vivian Peritts
Looking for a great project for a beginning sewer? This
whimsical pillow is fun and easy to make. And because it's made of fleece (a great way to
use your leftovers!), it requires no edge finishing. Simply cut the pieces with a
decorative rotary cutter blade, sew them together and embellish with some favorite
buttons.
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Materials
- 60"-wide outerwear fleece: 1/2 yard (45.5cm) each of blue and
yellow; 1/3 yard (10.5cm) each of green and blue plaid (or scraps of your choice)
- 6 yards (5.4m) of coordinating 4-ply yarn
- Assorted coordinating buttons
- Matching all-purpose thread
- Tapestry needle
- 14"-square (35.5cm) pillow form
- Pattern tracing cloth
- Rotary cutter with decorative blade
- Rotary cutting mat and transparent ruler
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Figure 1 |
CuttingEnlarge the flower
pattern in Figure 1 onto pattern tracing cloth and cut one flower from the yellow fleece.
From the blue fleece, cut one 9 3/4"x11 3/4"
(25cmx29.5cm) rectangle and one 20" (51"cm) square.
From the green fleece, cut one 9 3/4"x11 3/4"
(25cmx29.5cm) rectangle.
From the blue plaid fleece, cut one 7 1/4x18" (18.5cmx45.5cm)
rectangle on the bias.
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Stitch all seams right sides together using a 5/8" (1.5cm) seam allowance.
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- To create the
pillow front, right sides together, stitch the blue and green rectangles long edges
together. Stitch the blue plaid rectangle to the pieced blue and green rectangles in the
same manner to create a square. Press the seams open.
- Pin the yellow flower to the pillow center front right side.
Thread the yarn through the tapestry needle. Using a 3/8"-long (9.5mm) running
stitch, stitch the flower in place 1/2" (1cm) from the edges.
- Sew buttons to the flower center through all layers.
- Center the pillow front, right side up, on the blue square and pin
securely 2" (5cm) from all edges. Using a cutting mat, transparent ruler and rotary
cutter with a decorative blade, trim the pillow edges, making sure the corners are square
and the front and back edges are even.
- Leaving a long yarn tail at each end, use the tapestry needle,
yarn and a 3/8"-long (9.5mm) running stitch to stitch the pillow front to the back
2" (5cm) from the edges, leaving a 4" opening (10cm) in one edge center (Figure
2).
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Figure 2
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Figure 3
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- Insert the pillow form. To stitch
the opening closed, continue the running stitch from each opening end to meet in the
center, ending the stitching with the yarn ends between the two layers. Tie the ends
together and trim.
- To make the corner tassels:
- Cut four 3/4"x18" (2cmx45.5cm) strips each from the
blue, green and plaid fabrics, using the rotary cutter. Tie one strip of each color
together in an overhand knot at the strip centers (Figure 3).
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- For each pillow corner, cut two 1/2" (1cm) slits and insert
the tassel ends through the slits as shown in Figure 4.
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Figure 4 |
