I use my sewing machine for two things: curtains and pillows. I am not a seamstress, although I did make myself a wild tapestry-patterned suit in the 80's (with a mini skirt that was shorter than anything I'd use to wash dishes these days.) My little cushions and pillows have gotten to look pretty professional-looking (for as simple as they are). I thought I'd share my technique for making stuffed square or rectangle pillows out of needlework.

First off, this is a really inexpensive way to finish a project -- prop a pillow up on a book shelf, put a few in a basket, arrange some on your dresser, nestle them in your tree branches at Christmas. Use your imagination!

Make sure your piece is clean and pressed as flat as you can. It's hard to get wrinkles out of it once the pillow is assembled. Trim your fabric so you have an even border all the way around -- you can choose to make this border thin or really wide, depending on how big you want your piece. Make sure to allow about a half an inch seam allowance. Cut another piece of fabric (calico, muslin, linen, corduroy, taffeta, whatever) to the same size as your trimmed needlework piece. Also make sure this is ironed and clean.

This is the hardest part: drag your sewing machine out of storage (ugh), blow the cobwebs off, see if you can dig out some thread that will match your fabrics (the gals at the quilt store tell me light grey is the best "neutral" to disappear on most fabrics.)

Put the "right" side of the needlework to the "right" side of the fabric (your piece should be on the inside when you sew the pillow). Using a regular straight, medium sized stitch, sew all of the way around your pillow about a half an inch in, EXCEPT, leave an opening large enough at the bottom to flip your pillow right-side-out and stuff it. (A three inch opening usually suffices, unless you have really stiff fabric, or a lot of embellishments/buttons on your piece. Don't go much smaller than this -- remember, your fingers have to be able to get in there.)

Before you flip your piece right-side-out, trim the fabric a little closer to your seam (maybe within a quarter inch or so...if your fabric ravels easily, you can leave this allowance). And, at the corners, trim at an angle, within an eighth of an inch or so from the seam at the corner. This way, your corners won't have that bulky little gather on the inside. Make sure not to get too close, or your corner could ravel.

Now, carefully flip your piece right-side-out. The more careful you are, the less wrinkly your piece will get. You can iron this one more time, now, before you stuff it. After it's stuffed, ironing is, well, difficult. Be especially careful not to pull off or iron any embellishments/buttons.

I buy poly-fill at the craft store. It's inexpensive, retains a nice shape without getting bumpy, and critters don't want to eat it. Cotton filling may seem like a natural choice, but it gets lumpy, and little creatures might like it as a snack. Pull off golf-ball sized pieces, and start stuffing, making sure to stick the poly-fill as far into the corners as you can. You are going to stuff, and stuff, and stuff your pillow with lots of little pieces of poly-fill. If you use larger pieces, your pillow will look lumpy. The small pieces allow you to get the pillow very full, compact, and it will even be kind of heavy. Keep stuffing, making sure to get the pillow as full as you can, until you can just barely close that bottom hole you left open for flipping and stuffing.

Flip the raw edges around the opening to the inside of the pillow (following the seams as a guide). You can use a little clip to hold it closed for now, but you want to hand-sew this few inches shut with a matching thread (or whatever it was you dug up.) Use a sharp and fine needle, making the smallest stitches you can. I hide a knot inside the pillow where I start sewing, and finish off by making several passes through the same area, and running my needle and thread under.

Your pillow should look over-plump and have some weight to it. If you want your pillow to be even heavier, before you close it up, you can tuck in, at the bottom, some rice or un-popped popcorn in a small plastic bag. Of course you can decorate this to your taste, adding cording, tassels, buttons and extra embellishments. If you want a ribbon or fabric hanger, sew that into your seams when you're assembling the pillow.

Have fun making a pillow or cushion this month (all of the freebie patterns I hand out would make great little pillows). And sweet dreams...

© 2007 Theresa Venette. Articles on this site may be reproduced in needlework group newsletters or other handouts with permission of author and proper attribution. Send questions, comments and suggestions to: xspeddler@yahoo.com