Make It Monday

Yet another tutorial today with my home made home series
                      'Make It Monday'

Todays tutorial is on how to make a petal pillow

First you’ll need:

-a little over a 1/2 yard of fabric….19 inches to be exact. You can get away with a half yard if you already have it, just cut your pieces to 18" instead of 19".

- 1/4 yard felt. Buy the good stuff on the bolt and not the cheap sheets in the kids crafts section.
- a large and small cup (or other circles) for tracing, a large bowl for tracing, a pen, scissors, and cardstock to make your template.

Trace the rims of your cups onto your cardstock and cut out.

Pin the templates to your felt and cut out circles. you can cut 3-4 circles at a time by folding the felt.

Cut out roughly 30 large circles, and 20 small circles.

Now cut your circles in half.

Now your going to cut your fabric into three pieces.

1 large square 19 inches x 19 in. , 1 rectangle 19 in. x 15 in. , and 1 rectangle 19 in. x 12 in.

On the right side of the 19 in. by 19 in. square, trace a bowl or large plate marking a large circle in the middle. Leave 4-5 inches or so around the edges.

Line up the edge of a large petal along the line you just traced. As you sew the petals on, overlap the petals about a 1/4 inch. Continue sewing around the circle, adding petals.

When you get near where you started, put a petal in between the previous petals, so they overlap. Then you can start putting petals underneath the previous set.  line up the straight edges of the petals only 1/4 in. or so underneath the previous petals because to get them packed in. Again…the more the merrier and the closer they are the better it will look.

If you want extra volume in your petals, you can curve them and fold the edges as you sew to make the petals stand up a little bit. .

After you’ve done four or five rows of large petals and you’re getting close to the center, you can switch to your small petals. Again, as you get closer to the center you can curve and bunch the straight edge of the petals so they stand up a little and look like real petals. When you get to the center add a couple petals that are good and bunched at the bottom for extra volume.

Cut a small circle out of felt about 1 inch, or large enough to cover your edges. Sew down with a few stitches in the center of the flower.

Your done with the hard part…now lets make your pillow.

Finish the short edges (12 inch and 15 inch) of your two back rectangles by folding one side under 1/2" twice and sewing.

Place your pillow front and back pieces right sides together, lining up edges. Put the larger rectangle down first against the flower right sides together, then put your smaller rectangle on top if it, right sides together. Pin well.

Sew around the edges with a 1/2" inch inseam. Because home decor fabric frays easily, serge or do a quick zig zag stitch around the edges. Trim your corners and turn inside out.

Stuff with an 18 inch pillow form and your done! Yay!

Todays tutorial comes from http://www.cluckclucksew.com/