A Bee-utiful Pillow You Can Make in an Hour

Tonight I'm going to make a small pillow. I'm not going to take out the sewing machine which would be easier but I want to prove a point that anyone can make a decorator pillow with rosettes in a very short time. All you'll need is a piece of fabric about 6" square, some scraps of same fabric or coordinating fabric, (maybe three strips about 8" long folded in half), needle, thread, needle threader (for those of us who can't see!) and about an hour of your time.

Final Product

I bought some remnants (remnants are scraps of fabric usually less than a yard that are sold off the bolt for a much cheaper price) out in Eastport. Long Island last summer at the store I wrote about in my very first post. In their store that's located in back of their main store, I found some great pieces of upholstery fabric for $1. each! Of course I couldn't resist. One of the pieces was a gold color (and the subject of tonight's posting) that was dotted with winged insects (bees I think) and I just fell in love with it.

The challenge (and the reason it was in a remnant bin) was an unfortunate tear running here and there along a crease line. It prevented me from making a larger pillow but since I actually like smaller accent pillows it really wasn't a problem.

I ironed the piece this morning and was able to get one 12" square pillow as well as two narrow rectangular pillows and 3 small 6" squares...and there was still enough left over for rosette making. Not too bad for my one dollar!

I'll be working on this tonight as I watch TV and will post the final product later. (uploaded now, see final pillow at top).

After sewing 3/4 way around (use backstitch sewn on the reverse side). I turned it inside out, stuffed the pillow and sewed the open end closed. I made three rosettes and sewed them to the pillow in the upper left corner. I had some gold-ish bronze ribbon in my ribbon collection and also found an unused Christmas package ornament. I added that to the bow under the rosettes. It took on a holiday persona but I have 5 other pillows to make and embellish other ways. Will keep you posted as I complete those projects.

I have lots more rosette projects coming up. I happened to catch a few minutes of Oprah today and she had some cascading rosettes on her shirt. I already have my t-shirt project ready and will probably get to it next week.

Give hand sewing a try, it's relaxing, portable and it keeps your hands out of the potato chip bowl!

Tomorrow: A Sliced Potato Recipe