Brittany's Playful Posies Throw Pillows

Materials

• 1 yard yellow fabric (we bought ours from Harmony, a local fabric shop)
• Yellow thread
• Pillow stuffing
• Tracing or butcher paper
• Pencil
• Sewing machine
• Pins

Preparing Your Pattern

Step 1

Trace the pillow shape.

Using our yellow pillow as a reference, trace (with a pencil) the shape of the throw pillow onto the butcher paper. Make it a few inches larger than the finished pillow appears, to account for the fullness of the batting and seam allowances (Our pillow is roughly 3 ½ feet long).

Step 2

Cut out Pattern.

Once you’re happy with the shape you have, go ahead and cut it out.

Prepping Your Fabric

Step 1

Iron fabric.

Iron or steam out the wrinkles in your fabric.

Step 2

Fold and flatten fabric.

Lay your fabric out flat, folded in half lengthwise (aka hot dog style). Make sure to smooth out all bumps and wrinkles so the fabric lies nice and flat.

Step 3

Pin pattern to fabric.

When you’re done with that, you can take your freshly-prepared pattern and pin it onto your fabric, close to the edge if you want to conserve more fabric.

Step 4

Cut fabric.

Now, cut out your fabric along the edge of the pattern, using our Created with Fiskars Scissors.

Step 5

Remove pattern.

After the fabric is cut, you can remove the pattern.

Step 6

Pin fabric edges.

Now, with the wrong sides together, pin around the edges of your fabric to secure the two pieces in place.

Sewing Your Throw Pillow

Step 1

Sew pillow edges.

Prep your sewing machine, then sew around the perimeter of your fabric shape, leaving a 3 or 4 inch opening on one side. You’ll use this to turn the throw pillow right side out, so make sure you don’t get carried away and sew the opening closed! Backstitch at both ends.

Pro Tip:

It helps to have the opening on a straighter edge of the shape–this will make it easier to sew closed.

Step 2

Turn pillow right side out.

Now that your throw pillow is sewn, you can turn it right side out.

Step 3

Iron raw edges of opening.

Press the seam allowance of the opening under, so the raw edges will be hidden once it’s sewn.

Step 4

Stuff pillow.

The next step is to stuff your throw pillow with batting. You’ll see it start to take shape! Stuff it as full as you like, noting that if you stuff it very full, you’ll need to hand-sew it closed, rather than using a machine like in this tutorial.

Step 5

Sew opening closed.

Once your pillow is as full as you’d like it, you can go ahead and sew it closed.

Voilà! Your shaped throw pillow is done!