Tori from Apostrophy Designs is here today with an awesome pleated pillow! Tori’s blog is full of colorful projects. A few of my favorites are the perfect corner blanket tutorial and this string lantern. I also got a kick out of her recent post about reusing plastic bags for a fun summer activity.
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When Kate first asked me to be apart of Pleat Weeks, I was nervous because when I think of pleats I think of crisp and perfection. I know I am not always the perfect seamstress so I decided to use the imperfection to my advantage and I sewed up an Imperfect Pleated Pillow.
To start, you will need roughly 2 yards of fabric in contrasting colors.
Cut them into 3 inch strips (leaving enough fabric to line your pillow). I first cut a half a yard of each, but then had to cut 2 more 3″ strips. So if you cut 8 strips of each color you should be safe to cover a pillow that is roughly 17″x17″.
Sew the same color strips into one long strip and then sew the two colors together with right sides facing. (I used a 3/8″ seam allowance).
Press the hem open. Then fold the strips in half with right sides facing outward.
This step can take awhile but the pleats look better the more you are willing to iron the strips.
Start laying the strips across your pillow and pin the pleats as you go.
I love this part because like I mentioned above you do not need to worry about your pleats being even or being perfectly aligned. (see PINK PILLOW below for a variation on the pleats)
Once you have laid out all of your pleats you can then go ahead and sew the pleats on row by row, and overlap them to hide the exposed fabric and stitching.
And because I have a thing for pillows and switching them out often, I chose to make the pillow into a pillow slip cover using the lime fabric on the back.
I loved this pillow so much I made one for my daughters bed (I had a lot of fun mixing up the pleats on this one).
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Thanks Tori!
You can find more of Tori here:
Jenny
08/23 at 1:04 PMI actually saw a pillow almost identical to this at West Elm in June and took a picture of it to copy it. Never got around to it, but you have done it beautifully! I’d love to have you link this up with my creative linky, Creative Me Monday!
http://www.thesoutherninstitute.com/2011/08/creative-me-monday_21.html?utm_source=BP_recent
Cherished Bliss
08/23 at 2:33 PMI love it! Such a fun pillow!!
Rebecca
08/23 at 3:27 PMI love it! Thank you for the tutorial. =]
Deanna
08/23 at 4:14 PMAnd I will say it again… I LOVE pleats week!
Delia
08/24 at 3:10 AMTori this is beautiful! It really looks like a designer pillow. Nice job.
Nicole @ Sew Much Sunshine
09/16 at 1:43 PMFound this from the kojo linkup! Just lovely!