Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Summer Road Trip Pillow Tutorial


I'm glad to hear there are others out there like me, who thrive on visuals! Here is a tutorial for the super-soft travel pillows from my previous post.


You will need:

12" x 16" pillow form (sold at JoAnn's and other craft stores)
1/4 yard "main print" fabric (or at least 8 1/2" x 44")
1/6 yard of a second print of fabric (or at least 5"x 44")
rotary cutter or shears
iron/ironing board, spray starch (optional)
straight pins (optional)
and your trusty sewing machine
*I recommend pre-washing your fabric for this project, since you'll be fitting a pillow form. If you're lazy like me and would rather wash afterward, you might want to add a 1/2" to each of the following measurements to allow for shrinkage...

Out of the main fabric (polka dots), cut:
-one piece 8 1/2" x 17 1/2"
-two pieces 8 1/2" x 11"
Out of the secondary fabric (yellow), cut:
-one piece 5"x 17 1/2"
-two pieces 5" x 11"
Put your pieces together, matching them up by size. Place them right sides together.

Sew a 1/4" seam across the top, so that when you unfold each set, it looks like this:



Do this for each of your three sets of pieces and press the seams open:

At this point, You should have three pieces:
-one 13 1/2" x 17 1/2"
-two 13 1/2" x 11"
Next, use your iron and some spray starch to press a 1/2" hem on one edge of both of your 13 1/2" x 11" pieces, making sure that the hems end up facing each other when the pieces are side-by-side:

I like to use a zig-zag stitch to sew the hem:


You are ready to line the two smaller pieces on top of the 13 1/2" x 17 1/2" piece, placing right sides together. The two hemmed edges will overlap, becoming your envelope flap to insert the pillow form.

Once you get your pieces "sandwiched" and lined up, it's a good idea to pin it all in place. (The two pieces on top tend to slide around.) Sew a 1/4" seam around all four sides, reinforcing your corners with some back stitches.

Remove the pins and turn your pillow cover right side out.

This is a great travel pillow for adults too :)

Enjoy!

7 comments:

Jackie said...

Great tutorial! This looks like a fun project for my daughter to try as well. The pillow is so cute!

Mary on Lake Pulaski said...

Great tutorial! And you are so right about being good for travel - no pillow popping out the end of a regular case.

Lynsey Grant said...

Super cute! These would be nice on the couch or bed as well....

cnydalynn said...

Thank you so much. You rock! Love the pictures!

Kristy said...

Love the yellow tadpoles! This is a great tutorial, thank you. I can't wait to try it out- my husband has a camo pillow that's just begging for a case. Definitely adding this to my favorites.

Julie @ Jaybird Quilts said...

so cute! i love mixing up pillows all the time so this is getting added to the mix!

TJ and Whitnee said...

This is such a fun pillow! I'm going to post a link to this tutorial on my blog, on December 27!

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